A couple of Saturday’s ago I went to the annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade. But I almost missed it!  Two days before, I thought, um, maybe I should go on the web and see when it’s happening. I thought late summer. $#%^&*()**&^%  … damn! Thankfully I was able to clear the decks and I was on my way to the Hamilton, New Jersey train station bright and early that Saturday morning.

Everything worked out perfectly and I arrived at the staging area a little after 10am. More than enough time to hang out with the mermaids before the parade started at 1:00.  I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating … if you’re going to photograph events like this … parades, etc. … get there early before things start getting crazy.

As the morning went on more people showed up with their cameras. And as usual, they were very pushy and obnoxious. Nevertheless I think I got a number of keepers, but the later it got the more you had for fight to get them. On thing that was pretty amazing was how many Leicas I saw. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many other than at one of the fancy Leica stores that have been popping up in places like New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC. Most were the latest digital models, buy there were a lot film cameras  too … all M6s.  Not sure if they were originals or the new reissue. No older models like my M2 or M3, but who cares! I also saw a few Rollei TLRs, a Hasselblad, a Minolta and even a view camera!

But here is the really good news. The film users were not just geezers like me, but young people too!

Yes, film and is alive and doing just fine!

Stay well,

Michael