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The penchant of my cameras to take a break if they seem to feel that I am working them too hard had me rethink my plans for the trip to (C)harm City.

Since Balamer needs a new set of postcards – haven’t seen anything that portrays the new complexity of the area, its place as the murder capital of the world, the STD capital of the world – well except for the MARYLAND IS FOR CRABS t-shirts – that romantic blue glow of the police cameras along Pennsylvania Avenue - I would go about making them.

I also wanted to venture into the areas of the city that made up my past – riding the metro to the condo, I was passing under that history – my father's family, Upton Market –my mother's, Penn North – me, Mondawmin – all of them dodgy.

Leiquinhas mimic the aspect ratio of postcards. After the gallery chat, I knew that I could never catch up in the size game – even if I wanted to – so 6x4 inches seem fine. If you are not going to sell might as well not sell inexpensively. I was also hoping that the portability would mean more images being made.

The equipment malfunction had me second guessing and over compensating. Once warm the camera was working again, but I wasn’t sure. The evening before the flight I went through many packings and re-packings of my courier bag. Every camera option was tried at least twice in an attempt to cover all possible outcomes. In the end I over packed taking Ubaldo along with the leiquinhas turning the bag into a device for testing hernias.

But it is not as simple as that. I also wanted to photograph structures that seem to be disappearing – taverns, small churches, corner shops – those establishments that make up a Balamer neighbourhood. It isn’t simply something unique to Baltimore – I would have done the same in Boston or any city with identifiable neighbourhoods.

I have found that cameras do matter – not brands but type. While making the snaps of structures I didn’t want it to look like I was sneaking through these neighbourhoods. I didn’t want state the obvious photographically but instead wanted to treat them with some respect but still be portable – unless the camera can stop a stray bullet in a drive by I prefer ones that don’t slow me down. It’s that juste milieu that so often escapes one. A larger format seems to imply a stroll rather than a race, it seems also to imply consideration rather than a sketch – the reason it is used –until recently - with people on the Rock.

I used that as a justification for lugging Ubaldo along. While the images won’t be large, I still like the detail as was seen by recently scanned snaps made while in Rio – but that is another entry.

So once again I lack the strength to be decisive and carry more than I can possibly use knowing full well from those times when I had to limit myself, I was fine – better than fine - as I actually concentrated on the reason for the outings – making snaps.

All of this is moot – a nor’easter wipes out the week-end. Might as well be in, say, Richmond.