It would be silly for me to order some of my material online. B&H is just three subway stops away from here and it is supposedly the biggest place to get the things I did not even know I want. It is a large store and it is famous. The sales people might be very busy but they are understanding. When I recently went there to buy a spot meter, the advice I got saved me several hundred dollars. We looked at various models, the sales guy and I, and then we settled for the best model for the best price, a good thing. There used to be a large area in the store devoted to large format photography. Now this long counter space and the most of the personell seem to be working with digital cameras and printers and all the things related. Not only were all the Epson papers there, they seemed to be a bit cheaper than anywhere else. Same with the print cartridges, though they were out of the pale pink. (Pale pink is all the rage.) ; )
I came in to get some high speed Polaroid material. I was supposed to shoot for IN-take, the magazine, and the conditions in the store where I have to shoot are pretty bad. (The idea is to shoot with available though.) The sales man told me about his life in Argentina and how he went from being a creative director in New York to being a professional photographer, to being all about Cocaine. It was the 80's when he went down this path and according to his description, many of his friends made similar decisions. Now he was back in New York, behind the counter, back in good shape, selling camera equipment he was so familiar with. We looked at some things, he told me about a real bargain he made with a camera for himself. I ended up buying a super-wide-angle camera from him (The one all the way to the left. It was $53 in the store, it is $67+10 for shipping on their site. I shot some tests with the wooden box. I will need to shoot some more before I post them. The exposure times are not too bad with Polaroid 57 film, which is an ISO3000 product. Shooting with a film like Polaroid 55 makes the "soft" things (like people and their moving toys) disappear off the streets and makes for quite some interesting quiet effect. It is nice to shoot with a little wooden box that represents the knowledge available probably as early as 500 BC. : )