Strategies for Savannah

First of all, I hope you enjoyed our little April Fools Day joke. The Uncle Jonesy's Cameras Podcast is alive and well.

Now for the real reason for this post:  I love Savannah, Georgia. Pure and simple, Savannah is my favorite city that I have actually ever visited. I've been visiting Savannah for at least thirty-five years, and I never tire being there. So, when my wife, Debbie, and I plan a trip to Savannah, it's a big deal. And yet, we actually do very little planning. A typical trip to Savannah goes like this:  We arrive at our place of lodging, which is always in the historic district; we park the car and check in; and we don't drive the car again until it's time to leave for home. All of the time in between is spend on foot, because Savannah is best experienced on foot.

Savannah was founded in 1733 by Gen. James Olgethorpe as the first city of the new colony of Georgia. The original design of the city was laid out by Olgethorpe himself based on the 18th century English towns that he knew. The most noticeable feature of Olgethorpe's design were the twenty-four squares that were laid out in the original city plan, twenty-two of which remain today. Strolling through the streets and squares of Savannah becomes a trip through architectural time, which structures dating from the mid 1700's to the early 1900's. All year long, but especially in the spring with the azaleas and the dogwoods are blooming, Savannah certainly is one of the most beautiful cities on earth and a perfect place for photography.

The last time Debbie and I were in Savannah was for a few days right after Christmas, and of course, I brought cameras and film. In fact, this was going to be my first extended Savannah visit since my return to film photography in the spring of 2017. However, my approach for this trip leaned heavily toward the experimental side, as I decided to use two recently-acquired rangefinders, a Canon Canonet 28 and a Zorki 1c, and some new-to-me film, Kosmo Foto Mono. What happened next was a reminder of how unwise it is to take such chances with camera and film choices when one an important trip. I had not tested the Zorki before, and every shot showed evidence of pinholes in the shutter curtain. The Canonet had been tested before, the the roll of Kosmo Foot Mono in it was defective with lots of spotting on the emulsion (This is no knock against Kosmo Foot Mono, as subsequent rolls have produced great results. I will be shooting lots of this film in the future.) The bottom line was that I ended up with only a few useable photos from this trip.

One of the few "keepers."

This time it will be different. I am shooting my reliable Nikon FE and Nikon FM2n most of the time. The FM2n will have my first rolls of Kodak Ektachrome E100 in it, as color slide film will be the perfect choice for the colors of spring in Savannah. This will be the first time I have used this recently re-introduced film, but because of my many years of shooting Kodachrome, it seems like meeting up with an old friend. The FE will be loaded with Kodak's TMax P3200 for nighttime shooting in Savannah's city streets and music venues. And there will be a third camera to call upon when/if needed:  my Minolta 7s rangefinder (recently CLA'd), which will have some hand-rolled Ultrafine Extreme 100 loaded.

Once I have everything processed, I will publish some of my results here in a future post. Until then, it's on to Savannah!