Two weeks of medical leave

Way back in January 2023 I unintentionally pulverized my right tibia less than 30 minutes into my first time skiing with my friend Chris. 

This is actually my villain origin story of getting into photography and becoming hikingpilled, but that's not super relevant right now. What is relevant is that my surgery involved getting a large titanium plate inserted into my leg with a dozen screws in order to align the bone fragments.

I could have left this plate in my body for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, it was annoying. I was always aware that it was there, especially when it was cold. If I took a weird step while hiking and compressed that side of my leg too fast, I would have intense bone pain for a few minutes, and if that happened a couple times in a single hike, I'd have to stop. I also couldn't wear ski boots. 

So in mid November 2024 I had it removed. As I was laying on the operating table about to be anasethetized, I asked if I could keep the plate. 

I snuck my Konica AA-35 (aka the Konica Recorder, but with a different name for the european market) and took some half frame snaps on Reflx Lab 400D over my two nights at the hospital.

I then had two weeks off work. The first week I spent mostly on the couch with a little walking each day. I also shot a lot of film, mostly just walking around Zurich near my apartment.

Some wolfen nc500

We also had our first proper winter storm and got a lot of snow. My point and shoots were feeling neglected so I took each of them out and shot some black and white, I think mainly hp5 plus.

Olympus XA my beloved

A little trip to Bern to visit Alec

I had gotten a great deal on a Contax G1 and a bunch of lenses at some point but never had really played with them, and finally got the chance. Here are some shots walking around Kreis 1 on gold.

I love the G1! The autofocus is janky, the viewfinder is tiny, but there is somethign about the camera itself that makes me want to pick it up and take pictures. It's so beautiful.

I loved it so much that I bought a few other Contax camers to try out. I hate to admit it, but I finally bought a Contax T3. It's overpriced but it honestly is so good. 

I also picked up a Contax Aria, as I decided to be bougie and unify all my system cameras to either be M-mount or Contax. I got rid of all of my M42 stuff and am in the process of getting rid of all of my Canon gear as well. 

The Aria is tiny and extremely fun to shoot for an SLR. Here's some shots from my test roll walking down the Limmat on a sunny day on Reflx Lab 400.

I tried pushing 800T (Reflx lab, not cinestill, please) a stop. It didn't really work.

Unfortunately the weather was quite shit and also my leg was still pretty weak, so most of my shots are indoors and/or black and white.

Michi had his birthday at a restaurant near our apartment, and everyone came back to ours after and Dani made brownies. 

At the very end of medical leave, Matt and I went to Locarno and had lunch with Chris. I took the T3 and finished off my Reflx Lab 400D (then ordered some more).

I'm writing this a month later but overall it was a solid two weeks off! I shot and developed a lot of film, took mostly garbage but it was a fun time to experiment with new cameras and honing my color development at home.

Again I spent too much money on cameras, but I think I'm getting near the end of spending money on more gear. My 2025 resolution is 'no more cameras' and I have a calendar event until July reminding me not to buy any more.

I did buy one more stupid thing in December but I'm waiting to fully evaluate it once I fix my scanning setup (yes it's a medium format camera).