Trying to withstand the heat

 Today is Saturday and it is blazing hot. We have some cloud cover but it provides no relief. If you step out, you encounter a wall of excited air particles that assault you and make you leap back in alarm. There is no question about going out somewhere outdoors, the heat precludes it. These are the blazing temperatures we associate with summer.

I spent an hour developing some 4x5 film yesterday. It keeps me busy, and it helped me to relax after the trying day at the DMV. I woke up this morning and got around to scanning the images. I only do partial scans since my scanner is not set up to scan 4x5 sheets of film, but I find a portion of the negative that is of most interest. Scans take me about 8-10 minutes each. 

Here are more examples with the expired Arista film I found in a box a few weeks ago. I love the look of this film, although now, I am running through it and have maybe ten to twelve sheets left. (It had 25 sheets to begin with.) I took my walk the other day, on a Wednesday, Aug. 13th, and I went and walked by the city center. I first took this exposure with regular Arista film, not the expired, the regular film. I am still having trouble holding the camera level, my viewfinder is not helping me.

Regular Arista 200 film is no slouch. I use a red filter and have been using apertures of f16 or f22, and yes, I guess I can say I am "zone focusing". The shutter speed is set to 1/30, and I use a cable release. I am please by the look of this photo.

Then, here come the expired Arista samples. They are of a field next to the freeway, before we get to the shopping center that is anchored by Cardenas market. 

As the character played by Herve Villechaise would say, "The grain, the grain!". (He would not say that, he uttered "The plane, the plane!" in a series with Ricardo Montalban from the late 1970s called Fantasy Island.) This field, I suspect, will not remain open and unused for long. It is next to Orange Grove continuation high school, and I am at a loss as to why it has not been occupied yet as land for that school to expand. I am sure the city must be considering it. They used to have a trailer park located here, but when construction began for the improvements to the freeway, it was eliminated. This is prime land, I think. I notice big imperfections in this negative, but I love the way they give the image a vintage look. I notice many "fireflies" (the white specks in the sky that are a part of the film base that are obtained with expired film). Once again, it ages the image. I wish I had photographed other areas of our fast-changing city.

This photo was taken from another area that was cleared when the freeway improvement work was being done. It is a large open space, and I seem to remember they had some sort of yard here, maybe with cars. There was also a whole line of shops, including a Chinese takeout place where I would make purchases of food that was not very good but was at least inexpensive. (Not a good tradeoff.) There are bushes, and the San Gabriel mountains are seen clearly in the background. I love the clouds, it was not as hot that day as it is today. Once again, another retro/vintage look. I suspect this land will be purchased and developed soon. Look at the fireflies in the sky! That old film is to blame.

There were more 4x5 negatives that I scanned. I will share the photos. Here are a few of Heritage Park in Santa Fe Springs. These were not taken with expired film, these were taken with fresh Arista 200 film. There is a small railroad display in that park but it was closed the day I visited, so I had to take photos from the other side of the metal fence. What a different look when you have fresh film!

I would have looked for a better angle but I was perched between bushes and looking through metal bars that formed the fence. I would have loved to find a vantage point from within the railroad yard and, yes, they had a posted sign that said that it was supposed to be open after noon, and it was after noon, but no deal, the railroad display was closed.

And here is another vantage point from the parking lot. Once again, fresh Arista 200 film.

Finally, here is an image of downtown San Diego, taken on Aug. 9th, 2020.

This was taken, once again, with fresh Arista film. I was at the waterfront taking photos of the Star of India, but I turned in the other direction and had to take this shot. Love the tones, love the serene look. Off to the side, there was a big MAGA protest taking place, in which protestors were expressing their discontent with Gov. Newsome. Yes, even in sedate San Diego, you have your right-wingers. 

That is it. I took a walk around the downtown area of "our fair city" (to echo the Magliozzi brothers on a network which I haven't listened to since the fiasco of the election coverage of 2016). I will probably develop in a few hours. I took three shots with the expired Kodak 4x5 Ektopan film I won in an Ebay auction. I want to see what it looks like. Note to self: avoid that walking route in the future. There were far too many people walking on the streets. Before Covid, there would be no one, now with Covid and an escalating mortality rate, suddenly there are way too many people for me.

'Ta bueno. More later, if I can develop the film. I've nothing else to do, I am not going out in this heat.