square – Page 3 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Ivy and Woodpile

With the esposo off to Disneyland with a few old co-workers of yore, I am home alone, unsupervised, and bored. With that said, what else is there to do except get out with the camera, no dogs, and go for a brisk walk in fine, cool, clear winter weather?

I stayed fairly close to home and thought it would be fun to look for things that are part of my daily life and try to see them a bit differently than I might if I was just out for a casual stroll. Looking and seeing, taking time on the small bits of my environment, always give me a lot of pleasure. And this is one of the things I “found” – a bit of our neighbor’s yard. The light was gorgeous – later afternoon, but not quite evening – and by cropping to a square and enhancing the image a bit, I really liked what happened.

Taking time to look and not having a leash or two pulling me along, much less pulling me off my feet, was fun. Suburbia is quite boring at times, but other times it produces a lot of great visual gifts. I got a few today, and that makes me rather happy.

Wine Country, Paso Robles

This is from a summer or two ago. We drove along Hwy 49 in the central coastal area of California. It is a lovely drive – quite unpopulated in many ways. The hills and valleys spread out on either side of the road, with trees dotting the grassy slopes. Grapes are grown here, and the Paso Robles area is known for its wines. If you take some of the side roads off the highway, which is a nicely paved two-lane roadway, you can find yourself under the canopy of old oak trees, deep in the gloom of shade on a bright summer’s day.

Zeiss Ikon Ikonta, Tri-X 400 by Kodak. Scanned and processed with Epson V600, VueScan, and Negative Lab Pro.

Cafe Bijou

Red Berries

Today is one of those wonderful days where winter is giving way to spring. Here in California where I live it means the air is cooler, sky is blue, the breeze is fresh. Buds are forming on trees that shed their leaves and had them blown away by the east winds. Bulbs are emerging, some already blooming. It’s just a delightful time to be oot-n-aboot – we were oot for a good 3 miles, dogs, and Josh, and the X100V!

Tomatoes in Suburbia

Nothing like a mistake that is rather a fun one – here, double exposure in my Certo Six folding camera. I forgot to advance the film and thought there was an issue, so released the exposure button again by choosing the “bypass” button. (If you have a Certo Six, you know what I am talking about.) It makes me think that it might be a fun exercise to deliberately, rather than accidentally, create double exposures. Maybe even triple. Or quadruple. Such is possible!!

This is with Portra 400, a film I always find way to delicate in color for my taste, but it could be I will change my mind after cataract surgery. This is pretty much SOOC with just some spot removal in post. I don’t like spotty film . . .