Feeling retro in Arizona

[Dennis Gallus]

Earlier this month, while visiting my bride in Arizona, I took two drives to Bisbee, the county seat of Cochise County, where we are building our home.  Bisbee is a retro place, an old mining town now populated by many hippies.  Bisbee reeks atmosphere.  Bisbee beckons you to walk the streets and look in the shops.  Bisbee craves film photography.

I took along my Nikon S2 (ca. 1954) with 5cm/1.4 Nikkor and 35mm/2.8 Jupiter-12 lenses.  Although I regard this camera as photo jewelry, it needed the exercise.  I was not disappointed in my choice.  If I said that I thought the Nikkor lens was sharp, I would have to add that the ca. 1984 Jupiter 12 is VERY sharp.

Here are a few images:


Main Street, Lowell, on the south end of Bisbee.  5cm/1.4


Pottery Shop, Lowell.  Lord knows how many millions of tons of copper have been mined here.  The earth is ravaged.  5cm/1.4


My bride at Dot’s Diner.  A hot dog topped with fried onions…A chocolate malted made with real ice cream…Wow.  Life is good.  J-12


Shady Dell Motel adjoining Dot's.  Why did I feel like it was 1950?  J-12


Trailer park adjoining Dot’s and Shady Dell.  See the Airstream trailer?  J-12


Hippie shop in Bisbee.  We bought a creamer and sugar set made in the shop.  J-12


We stopped at a bake sale to ask directions to Whitewater Draw Nature Center, where we saw hundreds of sand hill cranes.  J-12


My photo jewelry. 

For a few more, see:
http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=957654

All photos (except the last two digital images) on Fujicolor 100 film. 

Hope you enjoyed this retro view.

Dennis

[jamesmck]

Dennis -This is a fantastic series of photos and a great presentation.  I wanna go to Bisbee!  That J-12 shines, and the S2 is a beauty to behold.  Very well done.

James

[shadowfox]

Wow, Dennis, that's quite a town.  Good set of photos.

The S2 is in my radar for a long time.  Knowing that my J-12 may work on it is a big plus.

You didn't have to do anything to the J-12 to focus correctly on the S2, did you?

[Dennis Gallus]

Will,

The Kiev lenses have a slightly different back focus than the Nikkors.  I've tested three different J-12s by using a focusing screen taped across the film rails and comparing focus to the rangefinder.  Only one of the three J-12s focused exactly where the S2 rangefinder did.   The others were slightly off, but if stopped down I doubt that the difference in sharpness would be very noticeable.  For the price of a J-12 in Kiev mount, one can hardly go wrong.

Dennis

[miguel_tuna]

Dennis,

Beautiful place and photos. This is certainly a place to shoot color. Thanks for sharing.

[jake]

Hard to adjust to all that light out there, isn't it? You could use ISO50 film and still be fine. Amazing. Nice shots and great color here though. Since you are in the neighborhood, you'll have to go back for the Bisbee 1000 and Iceman race.

[rgeorge911]

Dennis,

The shot of the trailer park really captures my attention.  That looks like a shot that needs to be printed real big and hung in a gallery of some type - maybe a hippie gallery there in Bisbee.

I remember when I was a kid, I had a postcard from there, which included a little cloth bag of copper ore sewed to the card.  It was an aerial shot of the giant terraced hole they had put into the earth.

Yes, the S2 is about as lovely as they come.  I've always wanted a nice old Nikon RF.  But, I'll settle for my Nikkor lens on LTM.  You keep your cameras nicer than anyone I've ever known.  Including the near perfect Nikomat you've blessed me with.

Reed

[Brad Bireley]

I like them all Dennis with # 1 with the old truck my favorite. Great job.

[LarryD]

Oh Shit Bro I will be moving back to Arizona in the future... And if you love that area .. check out Miami North of Apache Junction on 65. Also an old Mining town but the Huge Strip mine is now a Lake and place that has the buildings that were left when the mine closed....

[jtzordon]

I love them. That looks like it will be an incredibly interesting place to live.

[Madrigal]

Beautiful. Thank you Dennis. My bones feel less achy just looking at all that lovely AZ sunshine. That first shot is so perfectly retro. Could almost be a movie set...

My brother lives in Peoria, so next time I'm out there I'll have to look you up.

[Julio1fer]

Thanks, Dennis. Bisbee must be a great subject area. And a Nikon S2 + Jupiter-12 is as close to Heavens as one can get.

[LarryD]

Thanks, Dennis. Bisbee must be a great subject area. And a Nikon S2 + Jupiter-12 is as close to Heavens as one can get.

 When you get settled in head down to Apache Junction to the old gold town.

[Graham Serretta]

How far is it to Bisbee..........

Sigh......

[LarryD]

How far is it to Bisbee..........

Sigh......

 From where?