The Rollei f/2.8 was the Cadillac of all the TLRs. Beautifully designed and executed as were all Rolleis,but had the extra pizzazz of that bigger front lens element Glad you came out of your experience unscathed and without disappointing your dad.

My first medium format SLR was a Kowa. I think a "66 Super." It performed very well for me and the only complaint I ever had about it was the huge and cumbersome film backs which had mechanical dark slides built into them. As for sharpness, there are several 20x30 portraits hanging over local fireplaces and sofas that attest to that. My first wedding camera. It did eventually fail me and the difficulty of getting it repaired forced me financially to pick up a used Mamiya 645, lenses and film holders. A workhorse of a system. When I finally bit the bullet and opened my studio I bought RBs for use in studio because of the luck I'd had with the 645 system.

In 1986, I was on the roof of a downtown hotel (this is a relatively small city, the hotel had only six floors) to make pictures of the Thunderbirds, the Air Force's demonstration team. Due to vertigo, I assume, I fell on a skylight which immediately disintegrated and I found myself falling the entire distance through the hotel's atrium lobby to the flagstone floor below. My Nikon FE with 70-210 f/2.8 lens fell with me. After weeks of intensive care and a couple of months in a rehab hospital, I was able to walk again.

I took the camera and lens to our local camera store (now defunct, alas) and their staff repairman removed the bodies of 3 screws in the lens mount which had sheared off, replaced them, and the rig worked as well as ever.

Afraid a mirrorless is a bucket list item for me.

As do I. A habit formed back in the day, when battery life was not so consistent nor as long lasting as today.

Very much worth the practice. Even if it doesn't help the subject, it keeps me loose.

Excellent, my friend.

Kidding you, my friend. She's lovely all over.

She has eyes? I'd better look again.

Ding, ding, ding! Toot, toot.

Ask here: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-116-1.html The people who moderate this UHH section are all very accomplished editors and should be able to make suggestions of a program to fit your needs.

Whatever you say, chief. I thought the "pro gear" I listed would fall under your assessment of trash. I'm encouraged by your acceptance of them as suitable for professional use. Have a good rest of the weekend.

WTF is soooo typically UHH? You don't know me. You're just unhappy because I called out something silly that you said. I don't have a daughter but if I did, I'd have hired one of my colleagues to photograph her wedding. My theory is that if something goes wrong with someone's wedding, a client will sue you. PPA has insurance for that. Friends or family will just quietly hate you.

I have photographed more weddings than I can remember in my 20 plus years of studio operation. 30 or 35 a year, anyway. I retired before digital was mainstream. My studio cameras were RB-67s, most location work was done with Mamiya 645's with Metz 60CT series flashes. I guess those would be considered trashy by the elite Hasselblad and Leica crowd, but they served me well for many years and made me several dollars. Mamiya lenses are as good as you want them to be and the cameras are sturdy and reliable.

Casual work was done with an EOS 10s and a couple of Minolta X-700s with motor drives because the earlier autofocus cameras were somewhat easily fooled by rapid changes of direction and didn't work well under the 'not so bright' lighting of high school football stadiums. More trashy stuff, I know.

I have used a lot of photographic fundamentals over the years, but never mastered the use of a spade. Spade photography would seem to be a pretty arcane craft. If you are well versed in it, perhaps you could make some bucks selling 'how to' videos.

By the way, you should consider using apostrophes when using contractions.

Very nicely done! Both pose and setting. The model is quite lovely and looks quite comfortable in the scene.

Fantastic work!