Home again, Home again

All good things come to an end, or some such.

Headed home about, oh, 2:00 Saturday afternoon, “rolling along past houses, farms and fields” — which aren’t terribly photogenic from ground level. I’ve been rolling up and down I35 for decades, and the traffic was light, so cruising from A. to B. wasn’t terribly fascinating. I wound up reading billboards, looking for story ideas, new things to see, or just something to do.

“Best Kolaches in West – Next Exit” seemed worth a try. Breakfast was a few hours ago, dinner still a couple hundred miles ahead, and the stomach seemed somewhere in between.

Thanks to some confusion with a trio of motorcyclists, who seemed a little confused that a civilian was giving them right-of-way, I wasn’t able to get to the kolache shop mentioned on the billboard without a bit of radical route changing, so I headed for another one — there’s no shortage of Kolache Shops in West, which bills itself as the Czech Point of Texas.

Note to self: when stopping for kolaches in West, try to get there early in the morning. Kolaches need to be fresh from the oven; otherwise they’re just ordinary. 3:30 in the afternoon is well into “ordinary” hours. They weren’t BAD, by any means… just not “write home” good.

After lunch I noticed that the light had turned the corner and become pleasant for photographs, so I cruised slowly around West, looking for something to do with it. And it found me.

This is the First United Church of West, 310 Pine. According to the historical marker, it was built more than a hundred years ago and has been home to a number of congregations since then. It’s currently home to a small UCC congregation, the First United Church of Christ of West.

Someday I’ll go back on a Sunday morning; I’d love to see the inside.

But the light was still calling, places to go and people to see, and assignments waiting in Houston, even if there was a very friendly tomcat trying to curl up in my lap as I sat on the curb….

Had decent if not extremely friendly light from then until just before sunset, when as expected things got very pretty. Happily for me, I was even then approaching one of my favorite places to stop and stretch legs along this stretch of road. Just south of Marlin on SH 6 is this recently constructed rest stop…

So I parked for a while there, walked around for a bit, wrote a bit in my journal and drank the last dregs of coffee from my thermos while I watched the sun drop out, and headed for home. On the whole it was a good trip. I have a few pix still waiting for scanning (yes, on film….) but they’re mostly record shots; they’ll keep.

Well, it works.

First rolls came out a trifle underexposed and maybe a tad underdeveloped, but definitely printable with a little help from a #4 1/2 filter, and definitely close enough that I can call it well for next time.

Darn that’s a wide angle camera. No, wider than that. Wider. Yeah. There you are. Like that. I am happy to report, however, that I did not photograph my feet or any other stray body parts.

I’ll make prints and scan them tomorrow if I can, along with a few reflections on the subject when I get them sorted out. It’s an interesting experience using one of these.

This is gonna be fun.

Timing. Timing is everything. Mine’s erratic.

Well, the new camera is here… and it’s absolutely gorgeous. 5 days from Hong Kong, including a weekend and a US holiday, is very very good.

And it’s RAINING for a week or so, according to the Weather Channel. Officially we’re at 40-60% chance, but with the weather patterns here that makes intermittent rain almost bankable.

I know, I know, it’s quite possible to shoot in the rain, but the pinhole is brand new and not even a little bit water resistant, so it’s staying safely indoors. I need to find a hard case; at the moment it’s being swallowed up by a far too big but temporarily disused F5 Domke, but that’s not a permanent solution. The Pelican 1400 would be a workable size for the camera and a two year supply of Acros, but it’s also a hundred bucks, which is more than I wanted to spend. I’m going to try EPO (a local shop for guys who like to build their own electron-shunting devices) which always has a decent selection of off-brand and odd cases for things.

What have I done NOW?

Aside from the obvious (I’ve totally lost my mind) I’ve ordered another camera, to the consternation of a couple of photographer friends and the unutterable (though she did try, and that was an …interesting sort of noise) delight of my artist sister, who knows she’s probably going to get to play with it. See, this one’s an oddity for me; I’m normally a stickler for lens quality and this is about as far from lens quality as you can get – it has no lens at all. It’s a ZeroImage 612B Multiformat Panoramic Pinhole. (I’d rather have the 612F but there’s not a budget line there just yet.)

Quite aside from its thoroughly interesting photographic qualities, this thing is very much a work of art on its own merit and I am very much looking forward to its arrival….

(I cheated and linked back to the manufacturer’s website for the pix since I obviously can’t shoot my own until the camera arrives.)

However if you’re at ALL interested in lensless photography I can’t urge you too strongly to check these cameras out. They LOOK gorgeous (lady here in town uses the 4×5 model), the design is quite ingenious and very nicely executed, and the craftsmanship appears to be first-rate.  The company website is http://www.zeroimage.com.

It should be here soon and I’ll probably make myself photograph it before I photograph WITH it. Or soon after, at any rate. I will probably head out with backpack, tripod, and a few dozen rolls of Acros or Efke 25 when spring arrives, especially if I can get out to the wild western world….

I feel strongly that I should look around and see if I can’t find a vintage teak or mahogany tripod for it; I’ve already got a pocket watch for exposure timing, handmade leather-bound books for exposure and field notes, and a leather-clad hip flask for the necessary … well, let’s just say that at f/158, focus isn’t as much of an issue as it might be….

Much fun and many interesting photos lie ahead on this little journey.

Until it arrives.. lock and load; let’s hit the streets.

Off to a good Stop. Start. Whatever.

Well, in an unexpected but oddly not unwelcome start to the new year, the brakes on the truck started to grumble a bit on new year’s day.  Jan 2 was crazy, getting work up and running again, but on the third I made an appointment and took her in to the brake shop.  I was figuring just new pads and shoes, get out for around a hundred bucks, no big deal.

Or not.

Say hello to Rain.  He’s busily engaged in rebuilding Andromeda the 4Runner’s front brakes (which process took substantial parts of the afternoon – turns out you can’t just stroll around the corner and pick up brake rotors for a truck that’s 15 years old no matter HOW cool it is…). following which he will quickly reline her back brakes, hand me my key and turn me over to the guy in the office, who will nick my wallet pretty good.  Nearly $600 later, we’re out of the shop and on the road, and not only are the brakes quiet but they stop much more quickly.

This is a good start for the year.  I spent $600 on the brakes, but I spent nothing on the grille, nothing on the front bumper, nothing on the radiator, nothing on rebuilding the engine, and most importantly nothing on rebuilding the owner after a catastrophic brake failure.  (Admittedly there are days when the photographer could probably USE a rebuild, but I don’t think I could afford it and I’d like to be able to plan for it a bit more precisely than “scree–crunch!” anyway.)  So on balance I’m not unhappy.

The timing could have been marginally better, but nothing that matters is significantly inconvenienced.  I had no real moneywork waiting on that Zeiss 25 I was wanting.  Later.  There are other more important things to buy…. like road miles. 

Sun’s gonna be up soon;  lock and load, there’s pictures to be made.