We’ve been spared the blazing fires so far this summer. Up north, further east, flames are rocketing through dried out forests and neighborhoods. I think two fires were caused by arsonists. Still, our temperatures have been nearly impossible – many days over 100F – and the air conditioner is the only thing that keeps heat exhaustion from become deadlier than it already is.
This is from the first roll of film out of a new-to-me Cosina CX-2.
I am heading out this morning at 8 a.m. to a watercolor workshop down toward L.A. With so many things in boxes, waiting to be placed somewhere in the studio, I’m lucky to have anything to take with me. It’s amazing how simple the flood was (we had a pipe break, FYI), how long it took to repair all the damage and do the upgrades (why not since the whole house was torn up), and how much longer it seems it will take to put our lives back together. Like finding a specific brush or some paper or whatever. I did some unpacking yesterday, and today, no . . . watercolor instead. We were joking that it will probably take longer to unpack than any other part of this home repair adventure!
It’s been a nutty week. Crazy end-of-the-school-year stuff. Testing. Stressed out kids. I can hardly wait to be done with it all, and even more so, done with working and having a life during retirement. To make life productive on a personal level, I’ve tried to draw or paint every morning before heading out to work. Simple sketches, no lines, using watercolors as the way to do things. Nothing really exciting is being produced, but what is good is the daily practice. It does make things work better and it adds to a store of knowledge that comes only with practice. Here are some of the things I did this week.
As well as putting my art supplies and books back together, my photography stuff is slowly getting straightened out. I picked up some film I had processed. I took both my Nikon Df and my Oly OM4-T with me to the botanical gardens down the road. Film always has a quality to it which digital lacks. I was excited to see how the auto exposure feature worked on the Oly as I only recently acquired the camera and had a test batch of Kodak Ultramax 400 in it. I used a 35-70mm zoom, and was really pleased with a number of the photos. Everything was in bloom – or ready to bloom – so I tried to catch as many colors as possible, from deep reds to pink to yellow and white. I am really glad to have space now to keep my Pakon 135 set up, and the laptop I use exclusively with it, in its own space, plugged in and ready to roll.
Now, look at my check list and get on with the day! While I am gone, J is gonna be brewing. What happy little campers we will be at the end of the day!
I finally had time to scan my film I shot last weekend up at the botanical garden. I have just recently picked up an Olympus OM-4T. To see if it worked, I used it completely on auto mode, essentially aperture priority. It worked really well! The film is an old standby, Ultramax 400, which is a pretty nice, inexpensive color negative film. I pushed a bit here and there in post, but the beauty of the film always comes through.
A morning view in the studio . . .
About 3 weeks ago I dropped off some slide film I finally finished up. The problem was I couldn’t advance my film or rewind it halfway through the roll. Off to the neighborhood repair shop, and voilà! Just a this and a that, and the film worked. I advanced a few and finished up the roll.
This is a view of my neighbor’s garden – he has one of the finest “southwestern” gardens I have seen because it is well kept and not full of weeds. At sunset, with soft light, a row of blooms – quite lovely.
I was hoping to get a lot of photography done this week since I am off from work, but instead I decided to break my wrist and finger on Easter Sunday, just to do something different.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 