Best Birthday Ever

Today was my birthday, and after a rough day at work, I come home to find this as my present. I have the best friends ever!

A 1934 Underwood Model 6 typewriter in (as near as I can tell) full working condition. I've always wanted a vintage manual typewriter, to go with my vintage camera gear. On top of the coolness factor of this, it's dirty, thus allowing me to indulge in my cleaning obsession, so it's like a double birthday present.

And to top it all off, I went out for pizza and tiramisu with my friends P-, S-, C-, R- and R- and a fantastic time was had by all, swapping pet stories, crazy neighbor antics, job nonsense and general laughter and merriment.

I intend to write a short story on the Underwood, and post it here for your enjoyment, typos, jumpy Rs, and all. So in short, Best.Birthday.Ever.

Thank you guys, you're the best!

Vintage

This image may not look like much, and I will fully admit it was taken during a drab winter day, but if you look at it carefully, you will see the details are pretty sharp, the focus is tight, and the exposure is correct.

Not bad for my Nikon right?

Not from my Nikon though.

Nor from my dSLR

Nor my beloved Yashicas

In point of fact, this image was taken with a 1935 Wirgin Auta. Given the pocket folding camera is nearly 75 years old it's rather impressive it still functions, and gives such sharp images. I look forward to putting colour medium format film through it when spring hits.

Funny thing about the film. It's 120 spec, and in my Yashicas I get 12 images, because the Yashicas have basically a square (6cm x 6cm) exposure frame. The Wirgin is more like 9cm x 6 cm and as such, I only get 8 images per roll of film, forcing me to think more carefully about what I want to capture.