I still don’t know what happened. One of the last things I packed to move was my scanner and I made sure — absolutely sure — that I had everything for it because my scanner is necessary for how I create. But, after a marathon film developing session and I had eight rolls hanging to dry, I realized my thirty-five millimeter negative holder had gone missing. Missing!

And, I did not panic. And, I did not fly off the handle. And, I did not freak out. No, I grimly set about the most methodical search I have ever undertaken for any misplaced possession in my misplaced history. I was rockjawed and steely eyed as I examined every container and resting place within the domicile. I took apart the seats of my car. I looked everywhere. Five times! No luck. It was gone.

So I put out a cry on social media for help. Would anyone sell me theirs? No, they would not. I searched the Internet. It is not a common item to locate. Someone was selling negative holders for forty bucks on eBay. A dusty forum post from five years ago suggested that they could be ordered direct from Canon USA’s parts division, that you had to order the top and bottom separately and that each piece was ten-to-fifteen dollars. Forty bucks in today’s dollars was starting to sound about right. So, I bit the bullet called Canon. A supremely sunny saled rep was extremely helpful, and seemed to know exactly what I needed. But, it was just one part number. And, it was eight bucks. Eight and change, shipped! Skeptically, I plunked down my credit card. And, I waited.

Four short days later, UPS dropped off this rather large and tattered box. From Canon. I assumed the worst. I mean, look at the thing. It probably cost more than eight bucks to ship. But, after biting my lip and opening it, it was exactly what I needed.

So, this is where the big DSLR dollars get spent — helping poor schmoes like me get back to scanning expired Kodak gold negatives. Thank you Canon USA! You do rock.

Over at RangefinderForum, user marcr1230 started a discussion with this:

“What do we think about a company started 551 days ago , just acquired by facebook for $1 billion
What does it portend for the future of photography?”

The discussion had its fair share of over-the-top Facebook bashing and upturned noses at cameraphone photography. But, there was some heartening openmindedness and insightfulness, too.

I’ve been giving it some thought and here’s what I came up with to add to the discussion, edited from my RFF post:

Flickr dropped this social ball on mobile photo-sharing so hard and booted it so completely as to be heartbreaking. FLickr had all the tech, the brand cred, the users — maps, Yahoo! location data, engineers. But they sat on their hands, built the worst phone app they could, and focused on… what exactly? The Flickr head of that time dropped out — thankfully — and we’ll see how the new guy Markus (with a mobile background) does playing catchup. I don’t have high hopes, but…

In answer to the question of what the rise of Instagram means to photography, there’s some possible optimism:

1) It injects much-needed competition in the sphere of photo management on the web and the mobile world. More money in the game means more smart people are out there thinking of new ways to share photographs. This is good. Even if you think Instagram is silly, the frictionless ways it has enabled photo-sharing will become required for other platforms. Even Flickr and 500px will have to improve. These changes will (probably) be good for other sites. The rising tide lifts all boats!

2) The generally fun nature of Instagram may make candid street photography slightly more socially acceptable again over time. A photog snapping a scene with a rangefinder may align more closely in people’s minds with someone snapping a warm fuzzy Instagram, instead of the idea of a paparazzi with an SLR hell-bent on putting ugly photos of you on TMZ. Or, so I can hope. Smile for the cellphone!

3) Resurrection of the square format. I’m hoping the rise of Instagram will bring (cheap) square-format clip frames back at some point. Can’t find those anywhere in the States!

Addendum: Instagram will also help FB’s geo-tracking. Instagram really did a great job integrating with Foursquare for geo-tracking. I assume FB will eventually funnel that data directly into FB and shut out Foursquare. Hugely valuable for FB is the info of where you are. This will be another way to figure that out.

So, what do you think?

We stopped into the Community of Flags Store & Gift Shop in Brooklyn, Iowa on a day when the wind was ushering in springtime perhaps a little too urgently. A little old lady was keeping score, volunteering at the store to keep busy after thirty years as town clerk. She told me she also volunteered making phone calls for the Iowa Republican Party. I’m sure they appreciated the help. The place was also a bit of a thrift consignment, and while Sarah perused for local jams and whatnot, I took a turn in back. I found a world map from the nineties that celebrated with pins all the far-flung visitors that had been in to visit little Brooklyn. I can only imagine what the travelers from Tehran, Iran must have thought whenever they made the pilgrimage (sic). I also noted that the map was no longer being regularly updated. I found a tacky camera bag with some brutal Minolta inside, but also four rolls of Kodak film. The tag said two dollars so that’s what I paid. We ended up tossing the camera and keeping the film and the 80s vintage bag. Who knows how old it really was, and for sure it had not known refrigeration. And, when I went out for my first sunny bikeride in the city of bridges, Portland, Oregon, I used that old twice-baked Kodak film from a shop in Brooklyn, Iowa in the ol’ Sprocket Rocket.

We bake our own pies.

Rolleiflex Automat K4A
Fuji Reala 100

(Updated post with new version of the panorama) I haven’t been posting because I’ve been moving. Here’s the first shot of my new neighborhood in Portland, OR. It’s also my first time using Hugin to stitch a panorama. I didn’t spent too much time tweaking it, but it seems to be a very powerful program. The pic above was my second try. The first try is below for comparison purposes, and the dimensions for this are set to match the Facebook cover size.

This is The InstaPete Project

A transportional mesh of two geospatial realities cross-processed through disparate photographic media.

A Redfishingboat production, featuring the work of D7n.

See sources here, here, here, and here.

In pockets, in the soul
Quarters are not of this time, they belong to this past
Quarters used to mean something much different to me than what they mean today
Quarters are not of this time, they belong to this past
But, I don’t forget.

Now, we’re talking! Good ol’ International Harvester bulldozer in the woods.

This is a bonus shot that I saw on the way back from something else. The something else is coming soon

Issue: I moved off Flickr and to my own site as a way to encourage myself to do grander projects, things with some scale and scope. But I still have a photostream mentality: One photo here and and one photo there. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s not taking me anywhere.

Except into the forest. To find old Fords.

I have patience. Seeds take time to grow. And, that essay really is coming soon.