One photo from the California Botanic Garden

Well, today was the day to pick up some film from the Irvine photo lab that I use. I dropped by after my short trip to Seal Beach. The film has been ready for the past three weeks, but I was always waiting for them to tell me my slides were ready. They won't be until the end of this week, they are having problems with their slide processing machine (dip and dunk for 4x5), so I went with the intention of picking everything up and taking my slides (mail order) to another Orange County lab, but they promised this week, so I will give them one more chance.

Today I picked up 8 rolls of black and white JCH Streetpan 400 and also two rolls of color. All of these rolls are 6x9 photos. I was especially waiting to see the infrared JCH photos. I looked, and the negatives are thin, but they are usable. Of course, I can process black and white 120 rolls at home, but I had those episodes with rolls from my visit to Glendale that came out disastrously. (It turned out it was weak fixer.) So, I doubted myself and took them to the lab. It was expensive, $53.88 for these rolls, but as they say, use film and stay poor. The satisfaction will come in other ways.

The photos are of a recent visit to the California Botanic Garden. They are dusty as hell, and I did correct some of the dust and light noodles, but they are still dusty. But I like the images. These are four images from a roll of eight. I love the eerie look, as if they were night scenes. Trust me, it was the middle of some very bright days. I love the look of infrared because it transports me to another dimension. It is, indeed, another wavelength.

Trip to Seal Beach

 Today was Monday. As I write this, it is 10:54 p.m., and I'll be going to bed shortly, so I am speaking in the past tense. I am listening to a Patreon stream by Nico's Photography Show on my tablet also. I just finished developing one 8x10 pinhole image (of a building in downtown Riverside, CA) and six sheets of 4x5. I also prepared a few Powerpoints for my classes today. I think I was very busy.

Here are a few cellphone photos of my trip to Seal Beach, CA. I went today because, well, because I had to do something. No trip to the big gardens like I was initially planning, and this despite the fact that Descanso and the Huntington Library are publishing photos of the changing colors on the trees at their gardens. The thing is, it is too much work for me right now. So, I went to a beach where I used to go with my family when I was a child. It has been a long, long time since I went there. Probably since Vince Ferragamo was quarterback for the LA Rams. Look it up, that reference probably dates to the late 70s.

It was basically deserted. The pier is deserted, just a few fishermen and a few people walking up and down. The pier is bare, there is no restaurant at the end. Also, very few benches beyond the midway point. It is bare, and I don't know if they did that on purpose, so people wouldn't be tempted to walk out to that end and congregate in times of a pandemic.

It was a sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. This despite the big cloud I saw this morning when I woke up, which had me hoping I would have some variety in the skies. But no, nothing. The good thing is that it was warm, too. I wore a sweater, and felt comfortable, but I saw a few men shirtless here and there. The sun felt friendly, not like an unforgiving overseer. 

So, tomorrow I return to teaching. Plus, we have the inspector from SoGal Gas to see why we can't turn on the heater. Plus, I just want to rest and relax, so I tell myself, whatever the inspector says, if it turns out the heater doesn't work, do not panic. We went by several months this past winter without it working, so we can make it again.

Nothing to do now but load this camera and go out and shoot, as Azriel Knight says. :) 

Homage to the Scorpions

 As the old Scorpions song (the heavy hitters of "Kraut" rock), "Here I am....rock me like a hurricane!". Yes, I was taking photos of the city hall with my old, defunct, 8x10 Norwegian 3D printed camera that busted, and I had framed this exposure, and what happened next? Well, I was using my shutter cable, and I had not disengaged from the push-down pressure, so when I set the shutter lever on the lens, it automatically triggered the camera, capturing me. I laughed about it when I heard the click and immediately knew what had happened. A day later, when my camera fell off the tripod and busted into pieces at the university, I was not laughing.

Disaster at the steps

This past Saturday, Nov. 28th, I went down to San Diego to take a few photos. It was my mini-road trip. I was itching to go because I wanted to also try my 8x10 wood pinhole with other photos.

Well, as long as I was driving down on the 5 freeway, I knew I had to stop by San Luis Rey, so I did. I took two photos, one of the church front (which I have not developed yet) and one with the steps. Well, as I was trying to insert the slide back in the holder after the stair shot, I found to my considerable consternation that it would not go in. I did not want to scrunch the film negative I had in there, I did that before with another negative that had stuck in my 4x5 camera, so I didn't want to ruin that exposure. I tried would I could, and at some point, I laid it on the ground next to some bushes and tried to gently but firmly slide it back in. I think the mask I used to seal up the pinhole fell off, so that would explain why the photo came out the way it did, with an overlay of what seems to be bushes. I "messed up", in coloquial language.

So, the exposure was ruined. What did I do to salvage the negative? Well, since I couldn't insert the slide once again, I drove off (I should have just thrown out this negative and taken another exposure!) and went to a 99 cent store, and bought two envelopes, then inserted the whole camera into my changing back and extracted the negative, put it into the envelopes and stored it rolled over in my back seat. I was hoping against hope to save some kind of image, but it was not to be. I will have to go back and take this shot again. 

Exposure was about 40 seconds. As I have found with my Mission San Diego exposure, I think I can get away with 20 seconds. That wood 8x10 camera is very fast.

A Saturday at the Mission

Here are two shots taken with my wood 8x10 pinhole camera that I purchased a few weeks ago. I have to say, it is one of my best purchases. I went to San Diego to visit a few spots this past Saturday, Nov. 28th, and while I didn't get to all of them, I did manage to capture a few sights. The Mission San Diego, by the way, is closed, but you can loll around on the outside and take a few photos.

This is the exterior of the church. It is a very beautiful church, on a par with San Luis Rey in Oceanside. I set up with the tripod, using Arista 200 film in my holders, and also, having attached an orange filter to the front. I gave it 40 seconds in each case, and I still feel I overexposed. I am getting a feel for this combination, and the f stop for this camera must be fast. I think, next time, I will give an exposure like this one only 20 seconds. I went ahead and developed afterwards with my new 20th Century Camera reel and my new Patterson 4 roller tanks. I have to say, I am having no problems with this combination. Yes, it does use a lot of chemicals, but I can always pour the developer back into my bottles and reuse one more time.

And this is another spot where we can find a statue of one of the founding friars. The thing is, I put the camera almost right in front of the stature, and it is so wide angle that it still saw much more than I thought. It is amazing but so. Once again, it also captured the shadow thrown by the tripod.

I will have to import these negatives into my laptop where I have a copy of Photoshop to get much better inversions.

Trip to Fontana

Yesterday was a warm day. It was warmer than expected, even though if one walks around during the early morning, there is a chill in the air. Well, yesterday being Sunday, Nov. 29th, I wanted to go out at least for an hour or two and do something outside. When it is bright and warm outside, it seems like a missed opportunity if we decide to stay in and just sit in front of a computer screen.

I was looking at my collection of cover photos for my Facebook account and found one of the Mary Vagle Nature Center in Fontana. I don't remember why I went there all those years ago, it certainly couldn't have been for an event because I can't imagine what they could have hosted there. It must have been just exploration on my part.

I went, after seeing that there was supposedly a trail around the hills surrounding the center. Also, I wanted to go because of the lake and the trees surrounding it. I thought that the trees might have changed color by now and I could get a good composition. It also seemed to me that it would be a place that was not heavily attended. It turned out to be "medium-attended", and almost all the parking spaces were taken. Now I will know. 

Walking around gave me much pleasure, even if I was making a ton of mistakes with my camera. I guess I was just eager to take photos. I was using my 4x5 Travelwide and right away, the first shot I take, I checked afterwards and saw that I had not focused correctly. I set the focus gauge for much closer, when I wanted a landscape shot. That is one photo that almost certainly will be blurred. Next, I took a photo of the building amidst the landscape, and wouldn't you know it, I couldn't slide the film holder slide in after taking my shot. I must have loaded that frame incorrectly, and you can't just jam a film slider in if the space is occupied by a sheet of film. So, it was fortunate that I had my changing bag in my back pack, and I sat down and took a long time (longer than it should have taken me) to place my Travelwide into the bag, take out the holder inside the bag, remove the film, put it into my envelope with negatives, then load the film holder again with fresh film. I used that same holder again, and this time, there were no problems with the slides.

Here are a few cellphone photos. I was also using my Holga 120 Pan.

The bad thing about this, other than the fact that is is just a dirt field, is that off-road vehicles were riding up and down this trail. Each time they passed they generated tons of dust.

Not my best composition, but I wanted to capture the changing colors. Orange is turning to yellow here.

The road I took to try to see if I could climb the nearest peak. Turns out, it leads to a dirt field. I was impressed, though, at how well it was maintained, and also, no graphiti on the walls! Wow, that is an amazing plus, if this were in my hometown, so much blank space on walls would have been an irresistible lure for taggers.

What I confirm over and over, backlight photos do work if you can find a way to obscure or hide the light source.

I should have just cut across this field to climb up to the hills. I know it doesn't look steep here, but these were not the highest hills next to the center. I saw that if I cut through the brush, I would end up having to climb very steep slopes, and while I might be able to go up, coming down would be the hard part because, without a trekking pole, that is where I might lose my footing.

All the suburban tract homes, even in what I thought was relentlessly working-class Fontana. I have heard others call this city "Fontucky" (Fontana + Kentucky). 

One area of the lake had open trails around it, the other had trails that were blocked.

This was a nice shot. If I had been quicker, I might have adjusted my composition by scrolling up and catching the giant passenger plane preparing to land at Ontario Airport. (When, oh when, will I be able to take another airline trip?)

Love the colors.

And love the San Gabriel mountains.

The Mary Vagle center, which was closed, as well as the bathrooms. I was taking this photo with my Travelwide and that was when my slide would not go back into the holder anymore.

Another lake shot. There was a much better vantage point but a Hispanic man and his family (two kids) were firmly camped there in that spot and they had no intention of leaving, so I didn't get that shot. 

The brown, brown hills of Fontana. No trees, just a "teenage wasteland", as the Who sang back in the sixties. 

Beautiful tree

Another 8x10 from the Santa Fe Sculpture Garden

Developed on Thanksgiving night, for what was a very quite celebration, this is another 8x10 pinhole negative from the four negative total that I exposed on Monday, Nov. 23rd, at Santa Fe Springs. This is the second sheet from the new Fidelity Elite holder that came with the 8x10 camera. I gave it, as I recall, 30 seconds, and it seems overexposed to me. I think I could probably have obtained what I needed with 15 second, using this film, which is Arista 200 film. It just goes to show, once again, that my first 8x10 camera (the aluminum model from Greece) was a complete dud. Not only were exposures extraordinarily long with that camera, but they were unacceptably fuzzy. This wood 8x10 camera is much better, even if it doesn't cover the full frame. If only, if only....

Scanned in office mode at 1200 dpi with my Epson V600, and inverted (crudely) with my Mac software.