Vahe's Streets : Veterans' Day 2023, Prescott, AZ

In the past years, I have posted photos from the annual Veterans’ Day parade in Prescott, AZ^1,2. Any celebration where large numbers of people gather is an opportunity for street photography, and I enjoy walking the streets looking for an unusual angle to capture.

And, in the past I have taken photos of the parade, although my old (antique?) mechanical cameras are no match to the quick firing digital wonders, especially when marching groups parade in the streets. But I enjoy the challenge.

This year, I decided to leave the parade photos to the digital cameras and find a few moments that not reflect the celebration of Veterans’ Day but somehow perhaps put the honoring of those who have served within a larger context, given the wars that are active around the globe.

To make the challenge of using a mechanical camera even more pronounced, I decided to use a 1970s Yashica TLR camera. In addition to the difficulty of using a TLR when all around you is moving, it is a waist finder “black box” with a “normal lens” i.e. the equivalent of 50mm lens on a 35mm camera.

I have numerous TLR classic cameras, starting with a 1948 Rolliflex. In the past 40 years I have used them mostly for portraiture and street photography of subjects who told a story by being in a certain setting. And, as with all my cameras, the “personality” of the camera almost means more than the quality of the photos it can take, since I have never pursuit technical quality of the “printed moments” but the story a photograph could tell. And that brings me back to the Yashica TLR I took with me last Saturday.

I have 6 Yashica TLR cameras, the oldest being a Yashica Mat that had Yashinon lenses said to be made in Germany. But my favorite is a 1970s Yashica Mat 124 that looks and feels like a Rolleiflex, with the added benefit of having a direct read light meter. I have never used the light meter as I am a “Sunny 16 Rule”³ photographer who does the dodging and burning while printing in the darkroom and do not expect to have had the aperture and speed combination I set for each photo I took to be perfect.

But this time I decided to do a photographic organ transplant and replace the 1970s Yashica’s viewer and hood with that of a 1980s Yashica Mat 124 G which is the most coveted and last model with a somewhat reliable light meter. The reason I switched hoods was that the arm attached to the hood was inoperable on the old 124 and the hood of the 124 G is exactly the same as the older 124 so I could, after 3 decades of using the 124, test if the light meter works!

And it did, although erratically.

I do not like the 124 G (the “G” stands for gold as the ends of the light meter wires are covered in actual gold to assure constant and reliable electric flow…). It makes a grinding noise when advancing the film, and compared to the chrome and leather of its predecessor it feels plasticy. Again, that identity thing…

Here they are next to each other, with the 124 G missing the hood now worn by the older 124.

So, I took a few photos using the light meter for the first time. Needless to say I prefer the results using the Sunny 16 Rule, and do not like that extra seconds I have to spend reading the meter and then setting the aperture of the speed. I guess after more than 55 years of mechanical cameras use, I am an old dog who cannot learn new tricks…

The photo at the outset was what I was looking for – a man was dressed in Santa attire displaying two small flags planted in his belt. I had a short second to set the frame before he disappeared in the crowd.

The other photo I chose is more typical of such parades. Yet, it depicts a way of life for veterans living a civilian life.