In the wake of 9/11 over 20 years ago, I started a blog called Three Good Things in which each post was — you guessed it — a list of three good things. With the world as hard as it is in 2024, relaunching the project feels like a good idea. Read on for this week’s entry.
1. This Camera
A couple of weeks ago I saw a vintage Canon F-1 35mm camera on sale for a bargain price online — and I took a deep breath and grabbed it immediately. I’m doing my best not to buy any more cameras or lenses — I have all I need! I need to actually get rid of some! But the Canon F-1 has been on my wish list for a long time and I couldn’t resist such a great price.
To my delight, the camera itself seems fully functional, with an accurate shutter and light meter and no corrosion in the battery compartment! But after shooting a test roll and seeing overexposed images, I discovered that the lens has some oil on the blades, which slows down the aperture and lets too much light hit the film. But this lens is pretty easy to clean, so that’ll be a nice project at some point down the line.
I grew up shooting with a Canon FTb and a Canon New F-1 that my mom got me in high school. This original Canon F-1 was released between those two models, and when I picked it up, it felt incredibly familiar and excitingly new at the same time. It’s a heavy, solid, almost entirely mechanical camera with fully manual focus and exposure for maximum creative control, and I love it.
I also love the whole process of cleaning, testing, and fixing old cameras and lenses like this. Even when I saw those overexposed negatives, I realized I wasn’t discouraged; I was intrigued and challenged. Here was an interesting problem to solve! That whole process of figuring things out, diagnosing problems, and getting mechanical things running again is enormously satisfying and comforting in a world as chaotic as this. So, a very good thing.
2. Asking Scary Questions
I posted this as a reminder to myself on Bluesky earlier this month:
Reminder to self: when anxious about something, getting an actual answer is usually better than worrying about every possible answer under the sun.
And remarkably enough, when I put it into practice, it usually works!
3. Celery
I recently gave myself the challenge of retraining my palate to crave plain old raw celery, because it’s really healthy and despite its reputation as one of the blandest vegetables around, it’s an aromatic with a subtle tang that’s really nice if you let yourself focus on it.
And remarkably, the other day I found myself with a specific craving for… yes… celery.
I may be one hundred (100) years old. But this is good.
