Mary, Mary Quite Contrary (Extremely Contrary!)

"...watching her garden grow" in the words of the nursery rhyme. Contrary she was! And the older she got the more contrary she became. A WW-II Womens Army Air Corps veteran and college graduate she was a bit unusual for her generation. She prided herself in staying unusual.

I introduced her to James Mitchell on one of his trips to the Miami area and we'd always stop by for a visit and a cup of coffee when he was in town. This photo was about two years ago [(c) 2006 James Mitchell] on one of those warm sunny winter days that just beckon you to sit out on the front stoop, enjoying a cup of freshly brewed coffee as Mary and I did our best to pollute the air with our cigarette smoke.

James shot this with a little Minolta made Leica CL from the early 1970's, fitted with an early 1950's vintage 85mm f/2 Nikkor lens. That was one of the Japanese lenses "discovered" by American photographers like David Douglas Duncan during the Korean Conflict. I had one years ago and in a fit of stupidity I sold it. A dozen or so years later I succeeded in reversing half of my mistake. I'm still hoping to replace my long gone 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor also. Everybody who's tryed the 85 ended up buying one! A nearly sixty year old lens, it can hold its own against anything but the very latest optical designs, those featuring aspheric elements and multi-coating. The 50 is just as good.

Our lenses live on, but now we have to content ourselves with just photos and memories of Mary.