Singapore, Surgery, Photography & New Gear!

My most recent gear purchase began back in December 2016, when my wife fell down the stairs, breaking her foot.  Fast forward 10 months and we had to take her to Singapore for some surgery.  Because I was taking care of our three kids, and my wife I decided to keep it simple and only took my Olympus OM-1 camera with one lens.

I took two rolls of film around the temporary apartment that we rented and in the hospital. I will try to develop them over the weekend and see how they came out. But aside from these moments of respite, most of my time was spent caring for the kids and my wife. 

I did spend a bit of time on YouTube learning a bit about the history of photography. Below is a snapshot of my work area which I used while my wife was deep in a drug induced sleep.  

During the quiet times, when the whole apartment was asleep, I spent a little time surfing Ebay. And yes, I did buy some more cameras.  This is something I had promised I would stop doing, but I have since decided that it is time to convert my cameras into a collection. This was sufficient reason to pick up two more cameras!

The first one I purchased was a Nikon FA. This is a camera I have read a great deal about and I know plenty of photographers who swear that this is the best film camera ever made.  Not too sure about that, but I decided it was time to pick one up.  The key was to find one that was recently serviced to avoid having to find someone who could do it in Jakarta. Yes I did overspend but it beats the heck out of finding a trustworthy repairman to give it an overhaul.  These cameras are old, and like all old things it need servicing. 

The second camera I bought is the unsinkable Nikon F.  This pure mechanical beauty is the camera that made the SLR a real photographic tool. Before the Nikon F, the Rangefinder ruled supreme while the SLR was only used for very long focal length lenses.  I used to think this camera was ugly, but as I moved from my Nikon F3 to the Nikon F2 my acceptance of the large viewfinder improved. Now I think it is a beauty!

Oh yeah, and the wife needed surgery...that may be an important part of the story. Long story short, she fell, broke her foot and it never healed properly. A 1.5 hour surgery, a few IKEA parts and she is in recovery.  It will be about three months but she should heal up completely. The drugs she is on, helped me to convince her that I needed a camera "collection".