At the end of 2024 had to sell off almost all of my photography gear. It broke my heart. I was nearly in tears when the owner of a local camera store and his wife were leaving my house with a truckload of my life’s gear acquisitions. I did not have much of a choice. I was out of work. I had major health problems, and I thought I would never shoot again. I held out one digital body and a couple of prime lenses on the off chance that I would need to take a few family photos. It all went. All of my film and digital gear. From my 8x10 down to all my 35mm cameras and all of my support gear.
The good news is that after almost a year of pain, I was able to recover enough to get back to work. The recovery was unexpected. I thought I was doomed. It had gotten worse every day for many months. I had trouble walking without pain. I had to use a cane. Then it slowly started to get better. I worked very hard at just getting out of chairs for several months. I was able to recover enough to get back to work. Thank you Jesus.
As of this blog post I am spending a lot of time searching the net for the gear I need. I don’t really need to replace everything that I sold. I did sell quite a bit of gear that I wasn’t using. For now, I am just looking for the gear I need to get out shooting again. If there is a good side to this, it is that I am making better decisions on what to buy. I am doing my best to avoid the buying mistakes I made in the past. In some cases, I am replacing what I had with gear that I really wanted and should have held out for the first time. I continue to exercise every day to help me gain enough strength just to pick up my camera bags. I plan to get out shooting soon. I also have plans to restart my YouTube channel. God willing.
The lens you see here is the lens I used in high school. Not the exact lens, but the same model. I owned a new one back in 1984, and this lens is near perfect. It was a good find.
