It was my birthday last week and my fiancee asked me what would I like to do.  I didn’t really have anything that I could really think of other than photography time.  So, she agreed to accompany me on a photography walk downtown in LA and as she was looking for a few things we started in the ‘fashion district’.

My fiancee is someone who likes to have a plan and ideally an itinerary, by the very least a goal to aim for.  By contrast I am happy to wander aimlessly just looking about and seeing what I see.

So at one point her frustration got the better of her and she had to ask where we were heading and whether I had a destination in mind.  My vague response I am sure didn’t settle her completely but we did stop in the Grand Central Market for a beer and feet rest.

I like the Mamiya though the 65mm lens for me is a little wide and shows some distortion on the building verticals; I’m going to look for some alternative focal lengths.

Another thing became a noticeable trend for the day was that in almost every shop or street corner someone would look at me and say “Nice camera!”  The Mamiya is hardly a subtle camera to have hanging around your neck but I wasn’t expecting quite so many compliments and as my head grew larger with this attention, my fiancee was trying to bring my feet back firmly to the ground and was also slightly disappointed that these people (men mostly) were not saying something about the girl I had on my arm rather than the camera around my neck.

As our walk came to a close one final mention came from a distance of 100 yards “hey! Mamiya!?…. C330?”  My fiancee rolled her eyes as mine lit up and I gave the distant admirer a big thumbs up; there was no living with me for the rest of the day 😀