While gardening, I’ve walked into my share of spider webs. I have to knock them off the deck regularly because some enterprising spider has decided to build a web across the deck door. One lived on a windowsill for months that I eventually named Bob. Near the flowersContinue Reading
I grew up in a traditional home with a stay-at-home mom who shopped for everyone’s clothes. This worked fine until my teens, when I noticed too many of my clothes were blue—my mom’s favorite color. I’ve always favored black clothing, so at one point I demanded a sayContinue Reading
For most of the past year, I have been shooting Kentmere and UFX when B&W film was needed. Both work well; the images they produce have acceptable tone and contrast. Since none of my images are intended for use beyond this blog and my wall, acceptable is fine.Continue Reading
The smokestacks are from the 19th century, and the utility poles and wires are from the twentieth. Progress— written against the sky and into the environment.Continue Reading
In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, I discovered I could draw (a little) using an art kit I bought from the clearance table at Barnes & Noble in 2009 and never used. Once I had done a few recognizable sketches, it seemed reasonable to invest in a realContinue Reading
Classic zoom lenses tend to be heavy—at least by my standards of what a typical 50mm or 35mm lens weighs. The MD Rokkor-X 75-20mm f/4.5 is no different. It is hefty, solid, and well-made. The question is whether it is any good. Classic medium-range zooms like the Minolta MD ZoomContinue Reading
Here in Atlanta, daytime temps are still lingering in the 90s. Thankfully, the humidity is somewhat lower. At this point, I’d be grateful for highs in the 80s. Trees still retain their summer green, and flowers bloom without much concern. Waiting for autumn’s cooler temps and daysContinue Reading
Like Derev Pan 400 and FP 200, I bought Berlin Kino at the height of the pandemic. Lomography has mastered romanticizing film. Reading a description of any of their offerings makes one want to grab a beret or fedora and set out in search of a decisive moment. Continue Reading
This summer has been hotter and drier than those of the last three years. Those three years made me lazy. Even though I put in new irrigation tubing, I used it only a few times in early May. A few times in July, it poured, so I assumedContinue Reading
Curved negatives are getting to be really irritating. The Minolta AF-C is my go-to camera for walking around—it takes sharp images and exposes accurately—but once again, on trying to scan seemingly flat negatives, the images came out soft. In the past, I’ve had little trouble scanning negativesContinue Reading
