funbro

So my photographer friend* Sean Newton was bugging me about this old flash I had and how he wanted to experiment with it. I finally caved in and dug it out for him (it was right in my office, actually) and in the same bag is my Nikon FM2 film camera. Seems weird to say film camera but you kinda have to nowadays. I bought that camera in 1986 not long after landing the job at BMX Plus magazine. It's a great camera and I have a long history with it. Although today's photography equipment is infinitely more convenient and easy to use, this old battle axe works with absolutely no batteries even in it. Anyhow, Sean was checking out the flash and I was traveling down Nikon memory lane, when I opened the film compartment. Much to my surprise, there was still film in it! I know the last time I used it, to take photos of our newborn son Noah in 2005, right before I bought the Nikon SLR digital camera that I still use today. I had that roll of film in my van since I shot it until I bought my new (used) car a little over a month ago--good place to store it, right? I even stored that same roll of film in my new car after taking it out of my van. So here was this other, half-shot roll. I took a few photos of my Yamaha and it was complete. I took both rolls to the store, thinking they would take weeks to be processed, forgetting or not noticing that they were "color process" black and white rolls of film. They were done the next day and besides the photos I knew were on there (of our baby boy), there were quite a few other gems as well...

The above photos are of Chico. My then ten year old cat. He was a big, tough, he-cat. One time my wife found another cat's claw in his forehead. One of the few times I took him to the vet was for an infection in his front leg, also from a street brawl. He had the wallet that said "Bad Motherfucker" on it. Sadly, Chico died of a heart attack in the spring of 06. Finding these photos warms my heart. Kinda makes me feel old, too. I hope Phil Rase see this post. He always got stoked to see Chico.

*Sean is also my real-life friend, not just a great photographer