Sarah and I went on a fantastic five-mile hike around Multnomah Falls yesterday. I’m sure feeling it today in the thighs! I was in the mood to try some mad scientist stuff, so I taped a green filter over the Sprocket Rocket. This should have brought a little extra definition to the green vegetation on a grey rainy day when using black and white film — Arista Premium four-hundred, as it happens. One does not change settings on the Rocket, so the way to compensate for the loss of two-plus stops of light through a filter is to push the developing. I decided to go with stand development with Rodinal at a lean one-to-one-hundred dilution. Stand developing means I don’t really care about how far I’m pushing. Sixteen-hundred, thirty-two hundred. It’s all the same to stand. See? Like I said, some mad scientist shit.

Just for fun, I thought I’d try using Hugin to try making a panorama from two scanned negatives. This is the morning sun creeping over Golden, Colorado, made of two fifteen-millimeter frames of that mysterious expired Kodak Gold I picked up in Iowa. It’s like having an Xpan, even though I can’t afford an Xpan. It does look a little bit aged, don’t you think?

And, here are some more views from Golden, CO. Some on expired Gold, and some on some cheap Fuji Superia. There’s a pic of me in front of some triceratops tracks fossils. Can you spot them? heh heh.

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.

Stewart’s Shops are an upstate New York institution. C-store and ice creamery with a very local flavor, the first Stewarts popped up after the war in Ballston Spa, NY. Wikipedia notes some of the innovations dreamt up by this popular chain:

In 1948 the company introduced the folding paper ice cream carton so customers could bring home fresh ice cream more cheaply. The more notable innovation of the year, however, came from the younger Charles Dake’s wife Phyllis, who suggested allowing people to make their own sundaes from a choice of toppings, a practice which continues today and has been widely imitated. The company’s Philly Vanilla ice cream was named in her honor.

The upstate region is rife with blight and misery, but Stewart’s is a bright spot and a local treasure. The high key-ish photo above is the Stewarts on Main Street on Johnstown, shot on Arista Premium film. With their fierce local spirit, long may Stewart’s Shops prosper. Curious about the eggs at Stewart’s? Luckily for you, Stewart’s is down with the Youtubes!

Here’s the first look at my new old Canon A-1. I’m delighted with the fifty millimeter macro lens. I wasn’t sure if I could knock out some handheld abstracts, but it handles like a champ. I picked up the twenty-five millimeter extendo tube for some extra intimacy.

Fuji Reala 100 for the dreamy colors.

Foreshadowing more pickup trucks to come!

“It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.”
-Bertrand Russell

Just got this film off eBay. I’m eager to investigate it.

Still fascinated by this random building in Gloversville, NY. I think of it as Gloversville’s ‘Flatiron’ but that’s not really a comparison. Who knows how many layers of painted signage are revealed here? I’ve gotten this superstar a couple times before, as well:

Four Gloversville Structures
Walkin’ Around Gloversville

It’s so inexplicable. Nothing is permanent.

Oddly, this house is next door to a castle-like armory in Gloversville, New York. The troops don’t seem to scare the ghouls. Shit, maybe the wraiths are arming themselves!

I kicked some mud off my boots as I got back in the truck. Last run of the day and this batch had been a bitch. Sunset was the worst because you never knew when one of the stiffs was gonna wake up early. But, this was good. Jonesy had scoped out a real winner for the Doc, military, kay-eye-ay in double-ya double-ya two, so that meant we’d get paid double. I dunno what the Doc is cooking up there at the college, but they don’t call it “zombie university” for nothin’ I guess.

Damn, my neck is itchin’ somethin’ fierce.

Back in oh nine, after Ferrania called it quits and I found out late, I was scrambling to pick up what I could. Someone told me that Arista’s 100 speed color was rebranded Ferrania. Sure enough I called Freestyle they said that their color was discontinued, too. But, I went to the main store in Hollywood and asked. There was a dude that worked there who looked kinda like me. He thought they were out, but he’d check. Thank god, he came back with the last one-hundred foot can. I’ve been living off that sparingly ever since. I know it ain’t the last Ferrania in the world, but it’s gettin’ expensive on eBay.

I got into this film game way too late.