Last Saturday several of the list members had an opportunity to gather for a
little film burning, breaking of bread, elbow bending and gabbing. I had a
wonderful time, got some good images and enjoyed the chance to meet a few of
the folks from the list. I would encourage others to create these
opportunities in the future.
My quest for mail order film shipped to another country using my credit card
resulted in a 500 batting average. Mailshots.com was my supplier and the
package they sent to my friend's home in England arrived without a problem,
however the parcel sent to the Great Southern Hotel at Shannon Airport, never
got there. I was able to track film down in Limmrick and have yet to sort out
what happened to the film ordered from Mailshots. They either didn't ship or
someone in Ireland lifted it.
I had to carry film through three airports. In Dublin, Ireland and Newark, NJ
the screeners did a hand check, however at Gatwick, I wasn't as fortunate
although the 4 rolls that got zapped appear to be OK.
This was the maiden voyage for a new (to me) Tamrac 757 backpack. In the past
a Tamrac shoulder bag has carried my gear and many times all sorts of back and
shoulder aches and pains went along with it. This is not a complaint about
Tamrac shoulder bags, which I really do like, but rather praise for the concept
of backpacks. Christmas 2003 will be my 60th one and when one has been hanging
around for that period of time some of the parts don't work quite as well as
they did in the past. After two and a half weeks of traveling around Ireland
and England with a back pack full of gear, I'm sold on the concept of
backpacks. No backaches, shoulder pains or other problems related to the way I
carried my gear. There are two larger bags with more sophisticated pack
arrangements, however if I owned one of these, I'd probably try to fill it up
for a trip and that might cancel out the benefit of the backpack for this user.
Bill Barber
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