My wife and I were house sitting for a family member up in San Francisco this pa st weekend. Off to a great start, I photographed the Golden Gate bridge from dif ferent viewpoints, capturing some great images on 4x5 Tri-X film.

Until I woke up.

We got into our car this morning, which was parked on the street behind the gara ge, only to find that it had been borken into. The thief obviosly didn't know wh at to think of a collapsed Canham 4x5 camera. Strange looking, he must have thou ght. Hmmm, now this Domke black satchel would look great, though. Gitzo? What is that? He left that, too.

I am sure he will never appreciate the differences between a 210mm Sironar-S and a Sironar-N, or my modified Pentax Zone VI spot meter. Absolutely not. And my a ssortment of filters, film holders, Leica 5X loupe and many others.

Anyway, not to make a sob story worse, it will take me a long time to accumulate these tools again. My wife and I were planning a month-ling trip in southern Ut ah / Arizona / New Mexico in May. I just don't have the energy to feel excited a bout photographing those places in 35mm. I anticipate that I will again get thes e items again. Not for a while, though.

I called the insurance company after filing a report with the police. All seemed to be going well, until the agent depressingly told me that they would only rei mburse me up to $250, since the crime happened at another location other than ou r home. Ba humbug.

Thank you all for all of the wonderful information you have given me over the la st 12 months since I purchased my first LF camera. I have learned a great deal. Hopefully I can return the favors when I get back into LF again.

Keep shooting.

-Andy Biggs