© 2026 Jon Marmor, Nice Light Leak; Seattle, WA, USA; Kodak Baby Brownie Special, Kodak Gold 200
Every Thursday night, I ride the light rail train down to
South Seattle to meet my oldest daughter for dinner. Specifically, slices of
pizza at our favorite place, Stevie's Famous. In Seattle's old and diverse
Beacon Hill neighborhood is a real-live dive bar named the Clock-Out. It is
famous for the (very) loud live music performances it hosts. At the end of
the bar is the Stevie's Famous counter, where we get our slices, cans of root
beer and take a seat before the show begins.
Lately, I have brought my old Kodak Baby Brownie Special
camera with me. It's the small, boxy black plastic camera that fits in the
palm of your hand and has the world's smallest viewfinder. I loaded
it with a roll of Kodak Gold 200 film and started shooting the storefronts of
one city block -- the dive bar, a Vietnamese hair salon, a Vietnamese fish
store. As usual, I sent my film off to the lab, but seven of the eight
frames were really infected with light leaks. Ordinarily, I welcome light leaks
but this was a bit out of the ordinary. However, one frame of the
turquoise-painted Vietnamese fish shop contained a vertical slice of the
storefront splitting two large vertical swaths of bright, light leak panels.
Not what I had planned but what the heck? Part of what we are after is the
surprises we find on our film (and scans), for they often make me say, Oh no,
hey, wait a second, that's pretty darn neat.
