The late afternoon moon
The other afternoon I was out in the yard and noticed that the moon was up and bright. Since I’ve been getting to know the 50-200mm zoom lens I recently bought, I went ahead and took a couple of quick shots.
Olympus E-M1/200mm@f8. 1/250 sec and ISO 200
Karen in a spot of sunlight
While at Hart Prairie a couple weeks ago we spent some time shooting in and around some of the old homestead buildings. One was in a state of some disrepair and was being used as a storage area for some painting tools. The building itself may have been in the process of being restored, I’m not sure. Looking in through one of the doorways (no doors or glazing were installed) I saw a pretty spectacular patch of sunlight from an eastern facing window and had the Missus move into it just so I could play with the hard light a little. I took a few shots knowing that these would be blown out and definitely candidates for black and white conversion, but didn’t really expect much from them. The idea was to experiment and learn something from the process, and I already had the photos I had been looking for that day. Something about this shot keeps grabbing by attention, though. To my mind it has almost a ’50’s photo-journalistic look to it.
Flagstaff Meadow
The Missus and I recently spent a weekend in the Flagstaff area shooting some landscapes during the “Mountains and Meadows of Northern Arizona” workshop put on by Arizona Highways Photography Workshops. This particular workshop was run by Shane McDermott, a Flagstaff landscape photographer.
Stunned Dragonfly
So today we’re out enjoying the pond at the White Tanks, taking a few photos and listening to the wildlife, when we hear a loud “clang!” and the Missus jumps. It seems a dragonfly was preoccupied with chasing a female dragonfly (I’m assuming here, I’m really not too clear how to identify the difference on the fly) and wasn’t watching where he was going. The “clang!” was the sound of him flying into the railing made out of steel pipe meant to keep people out of the habitat. I learned today that an insect can indeed knock itself unconscious. This guy lay there twitching for a couple of minutes – literally – his hind wings would twitch. Finally he came back to life and resumed his pursuit of the female who was no doubt thinking “Idiot…”
Sometimes a photo finds you instead of the other way around. We don’t have an overly lush back yard, but it’s protected from most predators and large enough that it’s become something of a bird sanctuary. There’s a canal for water just on the other side of the fence, and enough brush for them to feel comfortable. The fact that the Missus is apparently on a mission to feed the local quail into full blown obesity is no doubt also a factor.
We noticed a couple of nests being build in the tree the hummingbirds hang out at, and this one just above eye level is currently occupied by mama, one chick and an unhatched egg. There is a balancing act in getting close enough for a decent picture while not stressing her out. Fortunately she’s somewhat accustomed to us so with a long lens it’s just possible to catch a good angle.
P1/P65+, 300mm@ f5.6, 1/640 sec and ISO 200
A pretty little Karmen Ghia we saw at the park.
I first developed a roll of black in white film around 1971 during a graphic arts class while in high school. The school had a pretty nice darkroom with easy access, and it was there that I really got hooked on photography. Over the years I processed film myself except when shooting color. Before digital took over the most cost effective way to deal with color was to shoot slides and have prints made of the ones you liked. There were color processing kits out there, but everyone knew that color required temperature control (Kodak specified the temperature to the tenth of a degree) and the chemicals were a bit on the nasty side.
Fast forward to today and film photography has been completely buried by digital. Film is still sold, although the variety is not what it used to be, and the day of one hour processing (Remember Fotomat?) is history. Sure, in the big cities you can still get a roll of film done, but anymore most people either send it to one of a few processing houses or do it themselves.
Today I processed my first roll of Portra 400 using a Unicolor C-41 processing kit I purchased from Freestyle Photographic Supplies for under $20. This is what is known as a “Press Kit” originally intended for use by photojournalists who needed to get their film processed and sent off immediately and consists of four packets of dry chemicals, a developer, a two part mix for “blix,” a combined bleach and fixer, and a packet of stabilizer. The kit I purchased makes 1 liter of each, which is exactly enough to due two rolls of 120 film. Unlike black and white processing you reuse the color chemicals, so how many rolls you can do per liter depends on a couple of factors.
Once the color chemicals are mixed they start degrading. They’re sensitive to light and oxygen so they need to be stored in darkened bottles, preferably full. Also, with each use they loose some potency. The instructions with the kit are pretty vague on the capacity. While it states that one liter will do four rolls of 120, it also says that you can expect to get more depending on how you handle and store the chemicals. A little research on the internet shows some people getting 15-16 rolls of film per liter, with a storage life as long as 6 months. I’ll be doing some experimenting on my own to see how it works for me, but four rolls is the break even point for me here in Phoenix, so looks promising.
Dust and haze over west Phoenix
We have a pollution advisory till Thursday night. Phoenix is in something of a valley, and during the summer heat we’re prone to inversion layers. On top of that the west valley area is still largely agricultural, so when the farmers disk their fields the amount of dust in the air is truly impressive. We live far enough west that we generally have clean air (dairy farms aside!) but you can see the dust and pollution clearly to the east.
I do a lot of shopping on line, or in big box stores, but for some things it’s really nice to deal with a specialty shop. There was recently a recall on my mountain bike for an issue with the quick release for the front wheel. We bought the bike at Landis Cyclery in Phoenix a few years ago, so after receiving the recall notice from the manufacturer I took it in for the fix. It only took a few minutes, and I saw that they had printed out the names of the purchasers of the affected bicycles and were calling them to arrange the fix. Not something you would get from a big box store. While we were there one of the technicians was prepping a cute little girls bike. Same tools, same procedures and same knowledge that goes into a competitive road or mountain bike. Definitely worth the drive into town.
Out and about today we came across a little horse ranch that sells trail rides. Ranches around here all seem to have a large open gate – historically there’s probably a reason for it but as near as I can tell they’re decorative any more. This one had a nice little framed stucco arch topped with lights and a cross. It looks like it’s seen better days, but somehow it’s right for the desert in July.
Hasselblad 500/80mm@f11 and 1/250 sec, Fujifilm Acros 100 ISO
Full moon rising over west Phoenix
Phoenix doesn’t have the kind of sky line one normally sees in travel photos. While there are a few high rises down town, most of the city is spread out, something like LA. From the west side those high rises are visible if you know where to look, but disappear at night. The effect is something like an oasis.
Phil Ryan Photography 