June 14th was the first day that scheduled trains ran on the new Green Line between St. Paul and Minneapolis. I really wanted to take pictures of the event because the Green Line is close to our house and I've been photographing the street it runs on (University Avenue) for quite a while. So I was disappointed that it was a rainy, blustery day. A good time, I thought, to use a bad weather camera-- the Pentax 105WR that I had bought for pennies (unused as far as I can tell) at a thrift store that was getting rid of its P&S cameras. Well, I had it loaded with 200 speed film and when I could deal with the wind and the rain, the Pentax would say it needed flash; all I could do was turn off the flash and shoot blind (as to shutter speed). So another disappointment and discouragement led to a kind of defeatist attitude till the 12 exp. load was finished and we headed for home. I mumbled something about a bad weather camera that you couldn't really use in bad weather (which often includes low light). Well, I got the processed film back recently and I have to say that the Pentax endured and overcame its operator's carelessness-- the photos were pretty good, good enough for the Green Line album after I brightened them up some in PSE. Probably a more capable SLR would have done better, or at least I would have known what it was doing while it was getting wet and worrying me; but, the P&S just plugged along and proved itself. I'll post a few photos from the day. dated to mark the occasion.
Bill Delehanty