tomspielman

You have a positive outlook that's for sure. I found in a lot of cases the light leak could be cropped out but in other cases it went right through someone's face. :) I sold mine on eBay and made no attempt to hide the issue, - even showed a sample photo with the leak. I think I got about $50 for it which surprised me. So maybe it is just a better Holga to some.

I had this exact problem on what sounds like the same model - Epic Zoom 80? Afraid it's a common problem and I never found a solution. If yours is the same model as mine it was designed as a weather proof camera. There's little rubber seals on each lens barrel section to keep the moisture out. What people have speculated is that the rubber dries out / loses flexibility over time so it doesn't alway seal anymore. I tried some rubber renewer on mine but it didn't work. It's too bad. Otherwise it's a very nice pocket camera.

A little JD Weld, a little sanding, and good as new. :)

I put a new bellows on my GS645 about a year ago. I bought it with some other GS645 parts and it was supposedly a new 3 party bellows. Not one of the original crappy ones that are so prone to leaks. It's been a while but I don't recall any of the bellows installation instructions I found recommending that a sealant be used, but I did end up with two tiny leaks. One between the camera body and the bellows (in a corner) and one in the bellows itself. I really didn't feel like returning the bellows and going through the installation process over again so I attempted to fix it. Liquid electrical tape fixed the problem areas. It's really helpful if you can track down the specific spots that are problematic. I went into a dark closet and used a small bright LED flashlight both stuck inside the bellows and shining at various angles through the front of the camera. They weren't easy to find and if I didn't know there was a leak somewhere I might have given up before I found them.

Lake Superior. The other side is out there somewhere.

Boats being put away for the season in the Apostle Islands

I'd be curious as to what portion of the sales are actually just for the downloadable files as opposed to prints. And how do the prices of the prints compare to getting similar prints made of your own photos. The downloadable files are not that useful. I mean they could be a background on your monitor or a screen saver. Or you could get your own prints made. I'm sure the idea is to get you to purchase prints from Etsey.

Interesting. I guess what I'd say is that I am trying to imagine what's like for THEM as best I can. But I'm not them and shouldn't pretend that I can imagine their circumstances as if I were. I can't fully remove my own history and experience from that process. I can only recognize that their life experience will be different and try to account for that. And also recognize that there is some commonality among all of us. My feelings as I imagine they might be in the same circumstances may give me insight into what theirs are. Fair enough. :)

And she may incorporate some of my suggested edits (if any), decide not to send the email at all, or decide to send the email as originally written. ;) The OP is in the best position to decide what is best, just like my wife.

Empathy draws on personal experience. If I'm "putting myself in others' shoes", I'm still me trying to imagine how I would react in someone else's circumstances. I believe that's what I'm doing. It may not result in a true understanding but it's all I can do. I believe it's important when trying to understand or empathize, to consider all of what someone said, not just portions. Again, - while recognizing that communication is imperfect and open to interpretation. I believe I'm being as empathetic as I can be while acknowledging that "I" would be mad. The OP may not be mad at all but they are "haunted". "Exorcising" seemed a fitting term for becoming "un-haunted". Anyway, if the intention is to be gracious, - to do something good, then "I" would want to make sure that "my" multi-dimensional motivations didn't prevent "me" from seeing a potential negative outcome. And that would be for me or for anyone involved. So a simple question: Do these couples have a personal relationship with the primary photographer? Are they friends? It's not at all unusual in my social circle to have a professional wedding photographer be someone that has a personal connection to the couple. I would not want my gift, which was intended to do good, end up causing a rift. Is that worth the recovery of a lost photo of little Timmy dancing with Great Aunt Jane or of another angle of the bridal party eating dinner. Maybe. I don't expect the OP to research the relationship between the primary photographer and the couples. But they might already know. FWIW my wife's take on it would be that if this ends up straining a happy relationship, that is not my fault. It would ultimately be because of the unethical behavior of the primary photographer. Which is true. But I would end up still being haunted by those photos when my goal was to be un-haunted. An alternative would be just to delete the photos, but I acknowledge that may not result in the desired un-haunting either. So a gift of the photos might be the best choice. But it should be an examined choice. As another aside, my wife often doesn't like it when I think this way. She sees it as "overthinking" too. :) At the same time, she will often have me read an email before she sends it, or talk to me before having a difficult conversation with someone precisely because I do think this way.

The OP described themselves as being haunted by the images. And as I tend to do, I try to put myself in their place to understand why. And it's not hard to understand. As a professional photographer they'd likely want: to have their work be appreciated get paid Neither of which happened with these images, - and it bugs them to this day ! And as a human being they might also want to: stick it to the photographer that screwed them over. And yes they'd like to do something that kills the negative feelings caused by these pictures. I chose to call it exorcising. You can call it something else if you like. I would be mad. And when emotions come into play it can cloud your judgement. That's why I'm asking them to think it through.

The problem is that this gift of images would require some explanation. If I were the couple I'd want to know why I hadn't seen these images before. Marnifinder can certainly provide an honest answer, - which could tarnish the image of the primary photographer. And that's perhaps well deserved. But it is a potential consequence Marnifinder should recognize going in and make sure that's not going to come back to bite her. Was the couple charged for 2nd photographer? Are they going to feel cheated? Do they have a personal relationship with the photographer? How many wedding photographers serve this community? Do they cross paths? Could this impact Marnifinder's opportunities to get work in the future if the primary photographer finds out and decides to retaliate? To me it does not hurt to think this through to see if perhaps it might have some unintended consequences. Again, I'm not saying that giving the photos away is the wrong choice. Marnifinder would not have posted the question if she didn't have some internal doubts about approaching these couples. And when you have some internal doubts I think it is worth asking the questions: What is my real goal here? Are my actions going to achieve that goal? Now, it is very likely that the couples will be appreciative, the primary photographer will be none the wiser and Marnifinder will feel good about their choice. But it's worth 5 minutes to think it through.

Sometimes my own motivations turn out to be something other than what I thought after some self examination. Definitely might not be the case here. Besides, you left something out: The important thing is that whatever they decide to do, they can do without regret. I'm not necessarily saying they'd regret giving away the pictures, but it's worth asking themselves why they really wanted to do this. In the original post, there was the hope that they could get a little money. It wasn't just to reunite the couples with these lost photos.

Last comment on this (probably). To the OP: Often times when you find yourself asking the question if something is ethical, it's because there is something inside you telling you it's not. I've offered some opinions but in the end I really don't know what the right thing to do is. Imagine yourself 5 or 10 years from now looking back at this decision. What do you think an older and wiser version of yourself would have wanted you to do?

I think being genuine is the key. I agree. What is the real motivation behind this? To get these photos into the hands of the couples for their enjoyment, or to somehow, even in a small way, get back at the other photographer? If it's the latter, then I don't think approaching the couples is the way to go. Getting paid was the motivation for taking the photos in the first place. Nothing wrong with that. But why give them away now? Are they going to give free photos to other couples that aren't any less deserving? If they had gotten paid for their time would they still be upset that the photos were never shown to the customers and feel the need to contact them now?

Just thinking about this some more, I'm probably too many years removed from my own wedding to give much feedback but I tried to think of something equivalent that would give me some insight as to the reaction of the couple. My concern is that your motivation for doing this is to exorcise some demons. You were cheated and are rightfully unhappy about that. Perhaps your professional reputation was harmed if you were falsely blamed for ruined photos? I can understand wanting to set the record straight. But if the couples got perfectly decent shots from the primary photographer and you're just unhappy that they didn't get an opportunity to even see yours, then I'd be inclined to just let it go and destroy the photos. Exorcise them from your mind that way. It might seem wrong in a way to throw out perfectly good pictures that someone may want but hear me out. Perfectly good photos get discarded all the time and life goes on. For many years my daughter was a gymnast. And at every meet, professional photographers were hired to sell photographs when the meet was over. You could have an image of your cute little daughter perfectly executing a dismount put a T-shirt for Grandma, - or any number of other expensive ways to sell photographs. Pictures were quickly cataloged so you could pick from the 25 pictures of your daughter right after the meet and for a limited time, you could buy the photos online. This could run into a lot of money really fast. There were multiple gymnastic meets every month. So we set a limit of one or two pictures from each meet and that was it. Some perfectly good pictures got discarded. My daughter and maybe even we parents may have wanted some of the other ones, but we let them go and are fine with it. And that's my point. Our lives aren't any less rich for not having those photos. If someone were to offer us a bunch for free now, I guess we'd take them but if they were delivered on a USB drive with 100s of photos? Maybe we'd look at them. Maybe not. She's not a gymnast anymore. And those weddings are long since over. They may have a kid or two that's the focus of their lives now. Hopefully they had fun at the wedding and so did their guests. Hopefully their marriage is a happy one. But sometimes I think we put too much emphasis on capturing these moments and not enough on living them.

So the couples in question got no pictures at all or just a few? I'm not sure I'd contact them unless you're sure they were unhappy with what they got. It would seem strange to me as a customer of a wedding photographer to suddenly get offered pictures of my wedding from one of their past associates three years later. I'd be suspicious and I'd assume it was a ploy to extract more money. Be very careful how you approach them and how you explain your reasons for doing so. Wedding photographers don't typically give away photos. I'm not sure how these arrangements typically work. Do the customers sign over rights to these photos? Would they be surprised and maybe bothered that you're still hanging on to them 3 years later? On the other hand, if the primary photographer really failed the couple as well as you, then your contacting them might be very welcome. I'm just not sure how you'd communicate your reasons for doing so. Your business dealings with the primary photographer aren't their problem and you shouldn't drag them into it.

My boat on Lake Nokomis tonight. Wished I'd had something besides my iPhone with me.

This is sensible advice but for whatever reason my camera, a Fujica folder, cannot be folded unless the shutter is cocked. It also doesn't have a Bulb option. Just "T" I'm thinking there's a reason that it has to be cocked. I just don't know what it is. My guess is that for the linkage to operate correctly, the shutter has to be in some known position before folding and the linkage is disconnected. I just wonder why they chose cocked instead of fired.

I think that became true once cheap P&S digital cameras started having decent low light performance. Fast lenses and cheap P&S cameras were not a common combination. High end phones now often have multiple cameras with different focal lengths, - not just multiple lenses, multiple cameras. Or maybe more accurately, multiple sensors. That was one area where a P&S might have been better in the past, - an optical zoom. But in the end I don't think young people are snapping up these old film P&S cameras for their picture quality or because they think it makes them real photographers. I think they like the fact that the pictures often aren't perfect and sometimes don't turn out at all. And I remember that too. I distinctly remember my brother getting back some pictures he'd taken while snorkeling in Hawaii. He didn't realize how close he had to get to something (like a fish) for it to show up in an underwater photo. He had print after print of almost solid blue. :) I still tease him about it thirty some years later. Not sure I agree about an LCD screen. It has its pluses put there's plenty of times I prefer a viewfinder. And I find a phone to be much worse ergonomically.

Olympus Stylus Infinity Epic Zoom 80 (or something like that) in panorama mode - with date stamp ! ;)