[Leica] R8 woes

[Alastair Firkin <firkin@netconnect.com.au>]

" One woe doth tread upon another's heel.
So fast they follow" My R8 had only been home a month when yesterday I
decided to finish the first roll of film in it. I've not given my
photography or indeed the LUG the attention they deserve, so busy has been
my life with other less pleasant pastimes. So with the glorious autumn
weather and warm sun I had Helen shoot off a portrait [with dog] of me in
my new "slim" livery. I warned her not to keep the finger on the shutter
release after firing the camera, as the motor winder was on. She took the
photo, and then another fired off. Silly girl we both thought -- had her
finger lingered?

 She took another with me in the garden and took only the "solitary" image.
I then took the the camera and began to look for some autumn colour in the
garden. The steps into the house have now become overgrown with the
intricate plants H put there just on 2 years ago, and so I went to take a
detail of the bluestone and greenery. The R8 was obviously very impressed
with this visage and rattled on uninvited for another 3 "blurred" snaps. We
looked at each other, "more in sorrow than in anger".

Today I entrusted a roll of Kodachrome, the ANZAC parade and the glorys of
another autumn day to Rollei and the 3003. Using the 80 f1.4 Planar
[instead of the 100 2.8 macro] I found some wonderful images of the
ex-servicemen, their children and grandchildren, in the wonderful Ballarat
setting between the two Cathedrals on Sturt St, the trees all gently
coloured [we do not have the powerful colours of Japan or Northern America
in Ballarat] greens yellows and reds. I head off for New Orleans in 2
weeks, so the R8 will not be available for that journey, but perhaps New
Orleans is really better suited to the M6 and Noctilux anyway. Thank you
all for letting me air my story. Those longer time friends on the list will
know that this is pilgrimage number 3 to Solms for my camera and so I
wanted to "give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak whipers the
o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break."

Hope you are all well, I have felt great pain for all those affected by the
recent killings on both sides of the Atlantic, and feel quite proud of my
Australians attitude to our own disaster at Port Arthur where 35 died in
innocence, but not in vain.

Cheers

Alastair