The Domke F2: Ok, now I get it!

Back in 2010 when I started buying old film cameras, I purchased a couple of Nikon bodies and some other photographic odds and ends from an estate sale near where I lived at the time. The seller’s husband had passed and she was clearing out his camera collection. I paid her and she began placing the items I had purchased into an old brown camera bag. I told her that I had plenty of camera bags, but she said that it would be easier to carry everything out to my car in the bag and she would throw it in for free.

The Domke F2 Shooter’s Bag

The bag she gave me that day was a Domke F2 shooter’s bag. This one is vintage 1977 or so based on the labels and the tattered original inserts inside. Since the day I brought this bag home, it has stayed in my closet. I pulled out the old protective inserts and have used it to store this camera or that. Any time I needed a camera bag, I have used one of my Think Tank or ONA bags. The Domke was alway left behind, forgotten and sad.

For the past few weeks, I have been shooting a Nikon F5 that I will review here. This past weekend, I wanted to take the F5 and make some photos of our Golden Retriever as he took his test to become a therapy dog. Not sure what made me grab it, but I pulled the old, faded Domke from the closet, put a hand towel in the bottom for extra protection, stashed my F5 inside it and headed out. Being a bit rushed, I did not put a strap on the F5, something I hardly ever neglect doing.

My F5 in the Domke

When I arrived at the dog training center, I grabbed the camera bag from the car and slung it over my right shoulder. The strap was adjusted so the bag sat right at my hip. The first thing I noticed was how very comfortable the bag was to wear, even with the big and heavy F5 inside. While walking across the parking lot, I saw an interesting shot of a water tower. The Domke bag was sitting at just the right position for me to lift the flap, grab the F5, get the shot and put it back into the bag quickly and easily. Hmmm.

I spent the next hour putting the F5 through its paces with a roll of Kodak Portra 400. I never took the camera bag off of my shoulder the entire time, it’s that comfortable to wear! When there was a lull in the action, I slipped the camera back into the bag easily while it was still on my hip. I have never left a camera bag on my shoulder for this long. Ever. The soft canvas sides of the Domke just meld with the contour of your body making it seem like a part of you. Hmmm.

Jim Domke was a staff photographer at the Philadelphia Inquirer back in the mid 1970s. In those days, most of the camera cases were big, heavy and made of metal. The cases had foam inside that you cut to fit the shape of a camera, lenses, etc. To shoot, you had to set it down, open it up and pull out your camera. Not very efficient for a fast-moving press photographer. Jim felt he could come up with a better bag for the Inquirer staff photogs and convinced the paper to pay for 20 if he designed them himself and could deliver them at a reasonable cost. He took his inspiration from heavy canvas tackle bags for fishing. Above all, he wanted a bag that would be comfortable for the photographer and give quick access to gear. Jim designed his bag and had prototypes made which he had tested by photographers in the press pool of the 1976 Republican National Convention. With their feedback, the original Domke F2 shooter’s bag was born. Within months, Jim had sold 800 bags. He expanded the line with different size bags and his company grew and grew. He sold the company to Saunders in 1990. Saunders was acquired by Tiffen (the lens filter people) in 1999.

I’ve known about Domke bags for years but have always opted for something newer, sleeker, sexier. I have a Domke Gripper camera strap that I love, especially on heavier cameras like the Nikon F4 or F5. For the life of me, I have no idea why I let my Domke bag sit in the corner of my closet for so many years. This is the best camera bag I have ever used!

I know my bag was one of the early ones because it had canvas insert dividers. I removed those long ago. On my shoot, I stuffed a hand towel in the bag for extra protection for the camera. When I got home, I noticed that Domke sells padded inserts with velcro dividers that fit the F2 for $40. Amazon delivered them the next day. The insert will provide the protection I need for whatever camera I am carrying and the dividers allow customization. The bag also features side pockets for film, light meters, etc. There are also two additional pockets on the front as well as safety straps with clips to secure the flap if necessary. The adjustable strap, which is very wide, is one reason I think this bag sits so comfortable on my shoulder.

My F2 with new Domke dividers

I totally get now why so many hard working photographers used this bag—it’s just that good. And considering mine is nearly 50 years old, it’s a testament to the quality of manufacturing. It’s safe to say that my Domke won’t be in the dark corner of my closet anymore.

Get your own Domke bag here.

Lunch on The Plaza in Santa Fe

Had lunch in a delightful little restaurant in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico last November called The Plaza Cafe. Had to wait for a table, but it was worth it. My burger was delicious. While I waiting for my lunch to arrive, two seats opened up at the nearby counter. I grabbed this shot with my iPhone.

I liked the tile floor, the chrome and the red vinyl seats. Those stools were not empty for long.

More to come

Life has been busy this fall and I haven’t had much time for photography or to tend to my blog. I am hoping things quiet down a bit in the months ahead leaving me more time to exercise my creativity. In the meantime, I am editing some photographs I made during a recent business trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico and writing a review about the camera I took along with me; the Nikon N90s. I owned one new in the 1990s and it was fun to use this camera again some 30 years later. I also have reviews in the queue for a couple of lenses; the 85mm f/1.8 AF-D Nikkor and the legendary Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 Ai.

Here’s a shot I made on the plaza in Santa Fe. More to come.

Santa Fe Shadows, Nikon N90s, Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 AF-D, Fuji Acros II

One Photograph: Inspiration at the Boho Cottage

In 2014, l lived for a very short while in a little cottage just off of the Bohemian Highway in Freestone, California. The owners called it the Boho Cottage and it sat on perhaps a half acre lot right along side Salmon Creek. There were redwoods, fruit trees, and all sorts of flowers and vines and such…endless photographic inspiration. I made this image with my Nikon in early April.

Nikon F2AS, 85mm Nikkor f/2 on Kodak Ektar 100

Unit 129

I read a statistic that said 1 in 5 Americans pays for a self storage unit. I am one of them. Or at least I was until this past weekend. I’ve moved a couple of times in the last 14 years and during one of those moves, I rented a small storage unit for some of my stuff. It was only supposed to be short term. I remember thinking at the time that my stuff would be in there for six months or maybe a year until I could sort through it and figure out what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to throw away. Each month, when I wrote the check for the rent on Unit 129, I said to myself that I need to get over there and sort through that stuff. But my storage unit was 60 miles away and it just seemed easier to write the check and put it off for another day.

This past weekend, I finally confronted my procrastination. I rented a truck from U-Haul and to save my back, hired a young friend to help me load. It had been some time since I had been to my storage unit…years actually…and when I opened the door, I was overwhelmed by stacks of deteriorating cardboard boxes, cobwebs, mouse poop and dust covered artifacts. Stuff. Stuff that at one point I purchased with real money. Stuff that had meaning enough for me to keep and store and pay rent on. There were some things that were of real value. I had a large chest of tools. Good tools, tools I could use. There were some old pictures. An old Lionel train set that might be worth something. An orange Home Depot bucket. An extension cord on a retractable reel. Everything else in there had no real value, no use any more. It was trash. All trash.

I walked around the heap of stuff, poking into dusty boxes, picking up this and that. I recognized everything around me and wanted to find some reason why I had saved this stuff, but I couldn’t. I was deeply disappointed in myself for neglecting this chore for so long and felt an intense and painful sadness as I looked over the relics of my life. I negotiated with my helper to load and haul everything to the landfill for me. Three full pickup truck loads. 80% of what I was paying to store went straight into the trash.

I called the rental office at the storage facility yesterday and told them that I had vacated Unit 129. The woman thanked me for my business “all these years.” Just out of curiosity, I asked her how long I had rented there? “Since 2013”, she said.

11 years…my God.