Rainy this morning. Thought of riding but was more drawn to make a photograph or two in the glimmering murk I love so much.
View Camera Photography
After a long hiatus from shooting film I’ve put my Zone VI 4×5 view camera back into service for a new project. It’s too early to describe what I’m working on other that to say trees may be involved. Just not sure of much other than I’ll be focusing on view camera photography.
View camera photography is a departure from the process involved in making digital photographs for Scooter in the Sticks. The pictures I make while riding generally are completed in less than a minute. Often in seconds. The small digital camera can be put into action quickly due to it’s size, weight and how it functions.
The view camera is a different story. It’s slow to use, cumbersome to carry, and resists speed and haste. Those characteristics are exactly why I chose to use it. Often, in discussions of the relative merits of digital versus film photography, I hear people express that there’s no need to go through the trouble of film when digital can make the exact same print. While I agree with that statement that a similar print can be made, my feeling is that without that slow deliberate process, I never would have arrived at the image using digital equipment.
The process of production affects what I feel and see, and ultimate affects the image I create.
For the near future, I’ll be working with the view camera.
Continue ReadingDeceived by Sunlight
Early in this season of cooler weather it’s easy to be tricked by the sun into believing it’s warm and pleasant outside. Just as it’s been for the past few months. It took a few hundred yards for me to realize I was cold and should have zipped the quilted liner into my Hi-Vis, lime green riding jacket. And long underwear would have brought personal comfort in line with the sun’s deception. Such is the challenge of cool weather riding.
Even though 52F isn’t really cold, dressing as if it’s summer creates a discomfort that whispers to subsequent rides. Like admonitions by doctors to treat pain early and not tough things out and allow the brain to build a pain cycle, the same holds true for riding in the cold. Stay war — early and often.
That’s my motto.
And I ignored it.
Continue ReadingJoys and Losses
Reminders of Days Long Past
The sad news of the death of Marty Balin, a founder of Jefferson Airplane, transported me to being a teenager in college, connecting to a new world of ideas and people to a soundtrack of Today by the Airplane. That song is haunting to me and conjures emotions and experiences both pleasant and painful.
It plays in my head and stirs memories of a few years of a carefree existence with little responsibility. Perhaps it will have a similar effect now and work some magic as I wander the backside of life.
Continue ReadingAutumn Melancholy
Passage of Time
I noticed 100 years had passed since Mr. Dickey died in the Argonne Forest in World War One. The museum displays memorials to individuals, companies and divisions from the Civil War through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Walking here now, as the leaves begin to change and the world slowly decays, the familiar sense of autumn melancholy that visits me every year, was suddenly apparent.
All of it is just sad. The feelings haven’t stopped. Neither have the wars.
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