The VCXPEX events were a great way to check out locations I usually would not see. Old industries in Ontario were few and far between and often had been restored with some adaptive reuse or so run down that it was unsafe to enter. Enter the former Hooven & Allison Rope Factory or Cordage company, depending on where you looked and who you asked. This massive 19th-century rope work factory in Xenia, Ohio, was a local attraction even though it had been burned three times. Tracking a complete and chronologically accurate history of the Hooven & Allison Cordage Company proved difficult. Mainly because the peopleRead More →

Much of my early years of photography were taken up with the Minolta system. From my initial gateway camera, the Hi-Matic 7s to my first SLR the SR-T 102. The next step in my journey would be some level of automation, and for that, in stepped the X-7a. A gift from a church member who was no longer using the camera gifted me the camera and a single lens. But having a set of Minolta SR lenses already, I had an excellent selection of optics. And the camera would be my first experience with a motor drive, go through some of my earliest explorations andRead More →