These two cameras were both made by Pentax, and both are Single Lens Reflex designs, but that is where the similarity ends. One (the ME Super) is a beautifully compact and nimble 35mm model, the other shoots large 6×7 cm negatives on 120 size roll film. I had both cameras with me yesterday on a photo shoot for my “Women and Cameras Series.” The Me Super is a little motor scooter of a camera, and the 6×7 is a truck. 🙂

After the shoot as my subject and I were walking down Queen Street East, a guy at an outdoor cafe spotted the ME Super my exclaimed “is that a Pentax ME? I used to have one!” He had a huge smile on his face, and it was great to see a film camera bring back happy memories to a total stranger.

The other item of note from yesterday is not so positive: I had arranged to meet my model at a park on Queen Street. I get there, and the park (containing a playground and wading pool) had a good number of children and their caregivers present. I realized that as a middle-aged man, unaccompanied, with a camera over my shoulder I would be the subject of suspicion at the very least, and perhaps hostility (especially if I had my camera anywhere near my eye), so I felt it prudent to sit on a bench by the sidewalk, as far from the children as possible. It was one of those guilty until proven innocent situations that are sadly so common today.