Argust Day is a tradition among collectors and users of Argus cameras (from the American company by that name). It occurs each August, on the day of the month corresponding to the last digit of the year: this year, AD 2006, it fell on August 6.
On this day, Argophiles from throughout the world are encouraged to go forth and produce images using some of their favorite Argus cameras. Afterwards, an image or two from each photographer will be submitted to a webpage for sharing.
Previous Argust days can be viewed at:
http://www.surprenantphoto.com/argust2.html
http://www.surprenantphoto.com/argust3.html
http://www.surprenantphoto.com/argust4.html
http://www.surprenantphoto.com/argust5.html
The webpage for this year will be forthcoming.

This year, my wife and daughter decided to join me on the Argust Day excursion.
I had two cameras loaded with film:
An early series Argus C-4 rangefinder, serial# 0243393,
and an Argus STL1000 SLR body, serial# 99159.
My wife was carrying an Argus HFM II with f:3.8/38mm lens,
and my daughter had a submini 35 Argus 520 with f:9/28mm lens, "transparent body" version.
Below are some of our results.
We have not decided yet which images to submit to the Group Page.

Here in East Central Missouri, the day dawned clear and promising to be hot.
Hot it did get, temperatures around the 100 mark Fahrenheit.
Three of us got into my Malibu at a reasonable hour, headed north.
First stop was Old Monroe, Missouri, on highway 79 (Great River Road) in the Mississippi River flood plain. I started with the C-4, my two companions had slightly more modern Argii,( but film-based, nonetheless).
Old Monroe had its points of interest, some old business buildings (including some incredible glass block work), and a pair of interesting bridges across the Cuivre River near where it enters the Mississippi: one for the old highway, one for the BNSF Railroad....
from there, we visited a chain of floodplain towns: Winfield, Foley, Elsberry, Annada, Clarksville.
Near Winfield, we visited Lock and Dam 25, busy with coal barges moving upriver. There is a nice park including a large slough and wetlands, and an observation deck near the river, popular during bald eagle visiting season.
It was in Annada that I had a mishap...
I stopped the car to shoot an old retail building... got out with the camera, went to the front of the car with the C-4...
and THUMP!!!!!!
The C-4 jumped out of the halfcase I was using as a strap platform and hit the pavement, landing square and hard on its BACK!
At first I thought it survived the fall....
then discovered that the rangefinder chassis had been knocked out of alignment internally, and the teeth of the wheel were a considerable distance from the teeth of the lens mount!
That mostly scrubbed that camera from much use the rest of the day.
Fortunately, I usually pack two, and so I switched to my other bag, and used the Argus STL1000 SLR, with GAF f:1.9/50 lens, for the rest of the excursion.

Each of our three galleries below has multiple images, click to open, then click to view each individual picture.
All images are ©2006.