Here are a few pages from my Huntington Library Book. In a previous entry I posted that I spent the day "farting around" on the computer. Well, this is what I did in the morning. I still have to touch it up, but it is looking good. I should have it ready to send to the printer by Sunday.
Yesterday (June 4th), I went to the Huntington Library again. This is, I calculate, my fifth time in the past year of the pandemic. I was putting it off for a long time, since my last visit took place, as I recalled, in February. I try to space out my visits to each garden every two months, so I was overdue to return, but I just didn't want to do so. I knew that I was overdue to take more photos with the digital SLR so that I could complete a photo book I have been planning, but the thought of using the digital camera just saps the fun out of it. I love the mystery and expectation of film, not the speed and work of digital. I forced myself to do it because I said, this is a new season now (summer), and all the gardens are publishing updates to their social media accounts bragging about the flowers and roses, so this is when I would probably see a burst of color again, after the barren garden from last time.
I went yesterday and made an appointment for 11:30 a.m. I couldn't find an earlier one since, typically, I waited until the last minute (the night before) to purchase my ticket. The cost was, again, $25. I arrived earlier, though, betting they would let me in, and they did. I arrived at 10:45 a.m. and was ushered straight through. There were many visitors yesterday.
It was a great outing, although as indicated before, I took my Nikon D750 and was snapping away. I was there from 10:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., so that was a long visit. Even then, I only took 350 photos. That is a far, far cry from my dance photography days, when I would attend a two-hour event and have 3,000 photos. I am so glad I am not doing dance photography anymore.
It was well visited yesterday, but I felt comfortable. I spent most of my time in the Chinese Garden. The colors were no match for what I saw in December of last year, many of the trees had dull green leaves, but there is so much artifice in the location that it was magnificent. There are many grizzles stones, not smooth, grizzled, with holes and indentations, that are set upright throughout the location. They reminde me of Salvador Dali stones.
Today was a quiet day. I was exhausted from my trip to the Huntington Library and Gardens yesterday (Friday, June 4th), and even though I had wanted to go this morning to visit the Fullerton Train Station, which is only open on two Saturdays per month, I just couldn't go. I was tired, and I didn't want to drive. Plus, I checked online, and there was a major traffic slowdown on the 91 freeway. I will not submit myself to that, so I stayed home, fiddled on the computer and napped. Plus went shopping for some food.
It was getting hot again today. It felt warm, but I didn't turn on the AC. It was bearable, but go outside and the heat hits you. It isn't August heat yet, but it was hot. It was also very quiet. This is the weekend after Memorial Day, and so, maybe the rest of the community was exhausted too after their Memorial Day trips.
I went ahead at the last minute and decided to process some 120 rolls. I only do black and white, I have to send out color and slide film to the lab. It was fine, loading up the reels is now somewhat easy, and developing is repetitious and boring, but I can ameliorate that by watching grainydays videos. The satiric effect of that narration and the nonstop jokes, but a tidbit of valid photographic information and a story arc, are amusing. I am sure that Jason would love to hear that: "amusing". I am echoing his acerbic delivery, and mimicking the superior and dismissive tone that he adopts as well for his persona.
Here are a few images from my trip over a month ago to Shoreline Drive, the area next to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. As I recall, I went after a trip to the Korean Friendship Bell in San Pedro, and I was exhausted by then. I am not up to long, extended trips. I can handle maybe one outing, but when I try to combine it with more, even at a reasonably nearby location, I am exhausted and the fun wanes. I was using the 3D printed Kraken again.
These are screen grabs, so they are not full resolution. The edges are vignetted again. I will have to accept that, as Shawn said in a message, maybe the use of a filter cuts down the amount of light that reaches the film plane on the edges.
And finally, a few images taken with the Minolta Autocord TLR at Exposition Park in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, May 30th. Some of them are not my best images, but I will include them nonetheless.
These are images I developed today. They were taken on a roll of Ilford HP5+ black and white film, from the Arboretum in Arcadia, CA. I am, as always, amazed at the sharpness of the lens.
Here are a few cellphone photos from my visit to the UCR Botanic Garden today. I just snapped away, I didn't really compose carefully.
Now that we are officially done with spring semester 2021 (well, that happened last week, but I am savoring it and prolonging the feeling), and my niece has officially graduated from high school, and I am officially out of work and trying to decide whether I should apply for unemployment, I decided to return once again to the UCR Botanic Garden. I've been there at least a dozen times during the 15 months of the pandemic, and will likely return again and again, although it will be a much different experience once the university students return to on-campus, in-person classes during the week.
I waited until about 10 a.m., because I was taking care of the kids. This meant I would have less time at the garden, since it closes at noon. No matter, I needed the exercise and the pleasure of seeing the views once again. Also, I took my Minolta Autocord TLR because I wanted to shoot a few rolls. Walking and photographing are two modes of exercise for me.
It was a very pleasant day, and there was plenty of parking in the lot. This is not always the case. The cost is, as always, $4 to park, and free admission. I arrived and started up, because I had less than an hour and a half to enjoy the grounds. It felt very pleasant not to be wearing my back pack, since I was taking a small camera it was better to just carry it along in a small bag with two rolls of film. All of it was black and white, two rolls of HP5+ and one of Ilford XP-2.
There was an Anglo man staring at me as I walked up, and I didn't know if he was angry. It made me feel a little angry in return, but I decided not to look at him and just walked by him. I went ahead and proceeded to do what I was intending to do, which was take a few photos as I walked. Also, it was important to look for new vantage points. I have photographed the same views over and over, but I wanted to try for slightly different views.
It was a fun walk. This time I opted to just ascend and walk around the part with the open fields and the amazing view. The vegetation out here is really drying up, soon I imagine it will whither away in the heat. For now, we still have dry grasses, though, and the green trees, plus the hills which, as Julia Roberts sang in the famous movie, "...are alive, with the sound of ...." leaf shutters clicking on my Minolta Autocord TLR.
Here is a photo I took a few weeks ago with my 6x17 Kraken:
It was that type of day today as well, with the same type of clouds. The thing is, with my 6x17, I am using a red 25A filter, while with my Minolta Autocord, I was using a clear, light orange filter. The effect is not as strong, so my clouds were washed out with the Autocord, but what stands out, nonetheless, is that amazing lens. It is so sharp! Incredibly sharp, it is as special as the photographers on the online forums assert. Here are my photos:
