I lost my mother to Covid-19 on January 29th, 2021, just two days after her seventy-third birthday. Apart from the obvious complications of holding a funeral in the middle of a raging global pandemic, there was also the matter of traveling nearly 400 miles from our home in North Carolina to my hometown in Pennsylvania for the service.
Not only did I find this GB Kershaw 630 camera at a car boot sale, I found it on the floor. I arrived with the hope of finding someone getting rid of 35mm cameras, not expecting to find a medium format camera that looks suspiciously like an Agfa Isolette. No one else seemed to notice what was innocently resting on the ground, and I lost any hopes of playing it cool by gasping aloud when I saw the GB Kershaw 630. I ended up buying 4 cameras and a yellow filter for £25.
In crazy times like now, where Covid 19 has spread all over the world and you do not know what will happen next week, I enjoy every minute outside. Banalities like walking around, eating in a restaurant, meeting friends, traveling have now become very precious moments. At least in many European countries, the mask found its way into our daily life. Also in pedestrian zones, the masks are everywhere.
I have a personal interest in the Yashica-Mat. Having set off in 1972 to West Bromwich Photographic College with only a Zenith B and realising something better was required, I part-exed the Zenith at a camera shop in Wilmslow for a used Yashica-Mat. They were still in production in 1972. I think the shop was called Laughtons and I believe I was assisted in the purchase by my family. This camera did sterling work at college, then later when working at a hospital, for doctors and nurses weddings.
The only filters I’ve ever used are UV or clear ones to protect my front elements on digital cameras (I know, I know). I was looking at ND filters one day to allow shooting with larger apertures in sunlight and stumbled across an article about circular polarisers. I liked how they remove reflections and add depth to cloudy skies, so I ordered a couple of cheapish Tiffens from Amazon that claim to block a stop and a half of light.
