Nothing much changed in my life for a week after Ms James visit. Susan continued to work on getting me licensed as a courier company, and I continued to walk in the park. I also spent a lot of time on the computer learning about my new, to me, camera.

The camera arrived in the mail after four days. I didn't even try to use it until I understood it better. What really was a pisser, was the fact that I needed several different skills to pull off my plan and no one place on the net had all the information.

For instance the web site, of the vintage style poster shooter, informed me that he shot a Polaroid model 95 antique camera. The site even had a picture of him holding the monster camera. The camera was not 1850 vintage, but it was 1950 vintage. Since it had a bellows it could easily be mistaken for an earlier camera by people who didn't really know cameras. Most people had a hard time remembering film cameras at all, so I wasn't all that worried.

The 95, I learned from a different site, was probably chosen because it was the first of the Polaroids. It was made by the Wallensak company. All the later models were made by the Polaoid company in their own plants. Most likely the lens was a bit better on the Wallensak made Polaroid.

What the site did not explain was what kind of film to use, since that kind of Polaroid film hadn't been made in well over thirty years. For that I had to do a Google search which lasted most of the day. On another old fart's site I found instructions for using 4x5 film in the camera. Only a complete idiot would go to all that trouble, but that described me to a T. It really allowe me to do most of the things I wanted to do. Even the limitations were actually beneficial to me.

To make more than one exposure with the camera was going to be a real pain in the butt. That being the case, it would force me to be more thoughtful in my shot selection, and more careful in my execution of it. I wouldn't be in competition with digital tourist cameras, I would be in competition with myself to create the shot in one take. As any director will tell you that is the holy grail, one vision turned into a perfect image in a single try.

So the mechanics were difficult but doable, I would open the back of the camera, insert a single piece of 4x5 film, close the camera, then go make the shot come home and process the film. Oh yeah the camera had to loaded and unloaded in the dead dark, so every step had to be thought out carefully. It was not at all like a digital generation disposable image. The digital generation's motto was shoot a hundred to get one image.

So first problem was I didn't have a dark room in which to load the camera. It wasn't likely that I would buld a dark room, so the second choice would be a black bag job. The black or changing bag, was made like a tee shirt. You inserted the camera though the bottom of the tee shirt then zipped it up. Yeah it had a zipper on the bottom and elastic in the sleeves. Once you put your arms inside the sleeves the real work could begin.

I was determined to do everything myself. Partly to save the twenty bucks for the changing bag, and partly it was just to have an outfit like no other. I didn't need the net to figure out how to make my own changing bag. A thick black sweat shirt, a couple of large rubber bands for the sleeves, some spring clamps from the hardware store for the bottom, and a big needle and thread to sew up the neck of it, made a decent changing bag.

After I knew how to load the camera, and I made the changing bag, I ordered the film and chemicals on line. While I was waiting, I thought about how to develop the film. I had developed black and white 35mm film, so I knew that I needed a daylight tank. A daylight tank is just what it sounds like. I would load the film in the changing bag, then i could develop it in the kitchen sink. I went back to the net to find a way to make a tank. There just were not any 4x5 daylight tanks made anymore. Nobody used 4x5 film for the first time those days. Everyone should have had their tanks for years i guessed. Plus only real pros worked in that format. I was far from a pro, so it was a shot in the dark for me.

I did find plans for a DIY 35mm tank on line. It was made from a glass jar. The top was the only hard part. Any jar with a plastic lid would work. It was just a matter of blacking out the jar and making a light tight baffle on the top. The instructions explained that light will not turn the corner but it will light up the corner so a couple of turns were needed to make the baffle. The design was way simple.

I found that my almost empty peanut butter jar was the right depth. I emptied out the jar a bit prematurely. I drilled a hole in the top of the jar, only after a trip to the hardware store for a spade bit. While there I also bought the two fitting, a piece of 3/4 inch PVC pipe and the Jbweld epoxies to hold it all together. I also bought a six pack of black electrical tape, as well as the spring clamps for the black bag. It was not cheap, but then it was cheaper than buying the ready made stuff. And as my daddy said, "Son when you buy a tool to do a job, you can do that same job over and over without buying the took again. When you pay someone to do it, you have to pay them every time."

I had a project for the next couple of days, so I was happy. Since my retirement, I found that I could do a lot more things than I had ever imagined. All those years hanging out around my dad weren't wasted after all.