I've been so upset this past week but I have decided, I am not going to continue to worry. Trump is rushing through the nomination process for his Supreme Court Justice, and I understand that his nominee was announced today. I do not want to think about it. I will worry about what is within my power to address. We can resist, we can protest, we can march, we can sign petitions, we can call our senators, we can do many things, but this process will probably be pushed through by the Republicans. I need to get on with life.
Today was Friday, a rest day for me. I wanted to go and do something, and I did. I got up early and, instead of exercising as I should have done, I instead prepared my cameras and drove to Sherman Library and Botanical Garden in south Orange County. They are supposed to have a magnificent, if small, garden there, and I was eager to explore it. I arrived and was not disappointed.
I will write more about that trip when I have photos to post. I ended up taking many cellphone photos, four sheets of color slides and six sheets of Rollei Infrared negatives in 4x5. I also took almost an entire roll of 120 with my Fuji GW690ii. I needed one more shot to finish off the roll, but I also didn't want to waste it, and by then, at 12:30 p.m., the garden was getting crowded. I would have to work to find a composition without people.
At home this evening, I unloaded my sheets of film and got them ready for any future trip (I am planning on going to the Botanical Garden in San Diego in the next few days). I then loaded the developing reel and processed my Rollei IR sheets. They are currently drying.
In the meantime, these are the Rollei shots that I took with a 120 roll at the South Coast Botanical garden last week. I had dropped off the film at the lab in Irvine and picked it up today. I scanned them and obtained a few pleasing shots. I would say, out of 8 shots, I think three are very good. Once again, these are scans with my Epson V600.
I had been wandering around the garden for quite some time, and I wondered if these trees would light up in infrared. They didn't. Now I know, as they say, there is leafy vegetation that really works well in IR, and there is that which doesn't.
There were plenty of rest areas in the garden, and this was actually a space where I think I loaded the Rollei film. I then got up and moved away and framed this shot. I like this composition, I think it actually worked well.
There was a beautiful rose garden. I thought these trees would reflect the IR wavelength and light up, but they didn't. I was not shooting into the sun, look at where the shadows point, they point away from me. It was an unsuccessful composition.
I love this composition. This is why I love this film so much and had to buy more boxes of sheet film today after I picked up this developed roll. I love the potential, I just have to be more careful with composition and try to frame them with objects that reflect and don't reflect IR light.
A gazebo that worked somewhat well. The sky, by the way, was very noisy when I magnified it. It is filled with artifacts.
I don't know why I was obtaining this flare. The film door might have been slightly loose at this point. I am noticing that about my Fuji GW690ii camera.This was taken at the desert portion of the botanical garden. I love to frame these cacti.
This is in an open area by the side of the exit gate. The colors for the trees were very beautiful, I hope my slides will show them off when I get them back. Once again, there is a problem with flare. I loved the IR look, flare or no flare.
This is a children's garden display near the entranceway. It was whimsical, and so I had to try it. I am glad I did. I loved this shot as well.
That was it, I had this roll of Rollei Infrared 120 film developed at the lab. I have loved my sheet film too, and have sheets from today's visit to the Sherman botanical garden, but they are drying in the bathroom. Tomorrow they should be dry and I should be able to scan them. As I mentioned above, I love this Rollei film, and I had to go to Freestyle to buy two more boxes of 4x5 film. I have three complete boxes now, because I have already gone through almost all the 25 sheets in my first box. That means I have about 80 exposures left, if I count what I have loaded in my film holders. I look forward to using them at other locations, and hope to make a trip to northern California later in October.
Like Bobby McFerrin sang three decades ago, "Don't worry, be happy". Don't worry about what is happening in Washington. It is bad, but we will live through it. Don't torture yourself about it. Be kind to yourself.
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