JayKnight Life: Running, Reviews, Photos

     The goal is to get something that works without paying too much or getting robbed.  There are no fail safe guides for buying on the internet -- especially when it's not from a brick and mortar store.         EBay, Amazon -- they're prime examples of scary internet stores. It's like going to Las Vegas -- you can either go for the attractions or you can go to gamble. If you gamble, you can waste all you money. But the lure of finding a great camera for a great price is just too much for this photographer.        That's why I've come up with a process for weeding out the good and bad sellers on EBay.        You'll need to begin your EBay search in your local camera shop. It's good to get a good idea of how much the camera you want is going for. That way, you can set limits for yourself. Even if you have all the money in the world. You want to set a realistic budget.  There's nothing worse than getting into a bidding war on EBay and paying t

     So, somehow I got myself into another camera. But it's a film camera -- not a DSLR. It's a Yashica Electra G35. It's actually my second Yashica electra. The first was my dads... and it really was kind of beat up. Eventually, I may be able to get it opened up and fixed... but for now it's where a lot of old film cameras are. It's sitting on a bookshelf collecting dust.       The Yashica  Electro 35 first hit the stores in 1966 as the "working man's" Leica.  It was sold all the way up until the 80s. The Electro is a rangefinder camera. Which means you aren't actually looking through the lens when you are framing and taking your picture.  That feature creates a unique experience for the photographer. The shutter is extremely quite. The image in the rangefinder is always bright and crisp.    You focus by looking at the bright yellow diamond in the middle of the rangefinder and turning your focus nob until the two images in the diamond mat

So I finally got my film developed from the Moral March from last week. you'll have to refer to my previous post for the digital prints and the reason behind the march.   But, I absolutely love this first picture. The guy with the  American flag, american flag jacket... waving it in front of all the people gathered on Fayetteville street in Raleigh and all the people peering out over from the building across the street- which is actually just a parking garage disguised as a building. I took some of these pictures from up in that parking garage. All of these pictures were simply scanned into the computer and posted. no editing at all. However, I'm going to see if there is a good way to edit these.

     I got to get this off my chest or it'll be with me all day.  It took me four hours to get to work yesterday. Roughly a 10 mile drive. At time I was moving less than a tenth of a mile in a half an hour. Here's my strategy. I live right between two very busy and highly traveled roads. I saw an email from work that One of my normal routes was so bad that people were abandoning their vehicles. Well.. Atlantic Ave is a very curvy and hilly road. I wouldn't want to drive that road yesterday anyway .. So, i figured,.. take the main road. It'll be plowed right? Wrong. Capital boulevard has about four lanes on each side of the roadway. So an eight lane road.... not plowed yesterday.      As I was sitting in traffic, I could understand that the plows couldn't get through. The timing of the storm couldn't be worse. While school was out, the mid day storm hit while it seemed everyone was trying to get their bread, eggs and milk.      While I was sitting in that tr