The Three Amigos

by | Sep 2, 2026 | photo gear

Cactus, Dorothy Jean and Marian

It has been a little quiet around photoscapes lately. I would like to tell you that is because I have been diligently working on the final article about my Hasselblad FlexBody, carefully developing the film, making comparisons and organizing my thoughts into something worth reading.

I would like to tell you that.

The truth is, the FlexBody article is still living quite comfortably inside my head while everything around me seems to be moving.

Literally.

For the past several weeks I have been reorganizing and renovating my art room, which means much of what normally lives there has migrated into my studio. At times the studio has looked less like the workspace of a photographer and more like a storage unit belonging to someone with a serious problem involving cameras, art supplies and an inability to throw away anything that might someday prove useful.

I simply call them props.

I have made progress. Quite a bit, actually.

Just apparently not on the FlexBody article.

Photography, however, has certainly not stopped.

While moving things from one room to another, sorting through decades of photographic odds and ends, and occasionally wondering why on earth I still own some of this stuff, three cameras have managed to become part of the story.

Meet the three amigos.

Cactus, Dorothy Jean and Marian.

Cactus* is my Cambo Actus DB2, the newest working member of the studio and quite possibly the camera responsible for changing the ending of that still unfinished FlexBody article. I bought the Actus primarily for tabletop and macro work with my digital backs, but after adding a ground glass and spending some time under the influence of my larger than life loupe, I realized there may be more to this camera than the job description I originally gave it.

More about Cactus later.

In the middle is Dorothy Jean, my Linhof Master Technika 3000. Dorothy has been with me for almost a decade, but this summer she took a little trip to New York for a much needed spa treatment. She returned with a new bed, freshly massaged controls and a set of ruby red bloomers that make subtlety rather difficult.

Dorothy and I already have history. Her story is not about discovering a new camera. It is about making good on a promise to an old friend.

And then there is Marian.

I have considerably less justification for Marian.

Marian is a Hasselblad SWC, and she arrived because apparently owning several Hasselblads, an ALPA or two, a Linhof, a few Cambos, and enough photographic equipment to open a small camera shop does not prevent a photographer from looking at one more camera and thinking, Well, that would be interesting.

In my defense, it is a Superwide.

I have already put a roll of film through Marian to make sure everything is behaving as it should. That roll is now waiting to be developed along with two others intended for, yes, you guessed it, the FlexBody article.

So technically, I am making progress.

I think.

What I’ve Been Up To

The gear room is being transformed, in part, back into an art studio. We installed shelving along two walls, running nearly the length of each and standing taller than I do. I have finally been able to organize a lot of gear I have not used in far too long, much of which will eventually be passed along.

A large worktable now runs down the center of the room where I can paint watercolors, work on framing, sort things out, or whatever else I manage to get myself into.

I am always working on something.

One especially welcome change has been getting my art room back. As I get older, I feel myself being pulled toward my roots, and those roots are drawing and watercolor. I just hope it stops there and does not stretch all the way back to my days of coloring with crayons on the walls.

My dear mama loved telling those horror stories, always while laughing and poking fun at me. She said she always knew where I was heading, and bless her heart for never trying to talk me out of it.

Spending the summer going through years of accumulated photographic equipment has also gotten me thinking about what I actually want to use now. That gives the three amigos a reason for appearing together beyond a cute name and a group portrait.

There is, of course, a slight flaw in my master plan.

I am simplifying my photographic life while simultaneously acquiring Cactus and Marian.

Am I good at reducing gear or what?

I have chosen not to investigate that contradiction too closely.

The truth is, each of the amigos serves a specific purpose, while simplifying everything around them was long overdue. Up ahead, I will spend some time with each camera, explain what it is doing here, and perhaps even how it got its name.

That is, of course, after the FlexBody article.

And cameras and crayons have not been the only distractions around here.

Another happy adventure this summer came from hearing from an engineer’s wife all the way up in Louisville. Her husband has quite a history with a certain incredible bridge I photographed, and wouldn’t you know it, they want a print from my portfolio as a “family heirloom.”

It is a heartwarming story I will enjoy sharing, especially for every photographer who occasionally thinks no one admires their work except their mama.

Pretty soon the dust will settle around here and the FlexBody article will finally be up.

Just keep me away from the crayons until then.

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*Cactus got his name through no great act of creativity. Somewhere between Cambo and Actus, my brain found Cactus, and once it did, I couldn’t unhear it.

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