katiecregon

They hard pruned this crepe myrtle and it's sprouting new leaves.  The roses are still blooming. The sun is still shining. Gushing about the pretty weather and angering the rain gods is not a good thing. 

 These squash were piled on the concrete outside the grocery store.  I liked how the light looked and decided monochrome would convey it  better.  There are some white pumpkins, but everything else is a riot of orange, yellow and splashes of green.  Too much of a distraction from the textures and forms.  This year I haven't had much time for photography so I have to grab a shot when I can.

I was walking around the neighborhood with one of my film cameras. It was loaded with black and white film. I was ignoring the colors and concentrating on form and light. This particular facade looked particularly interesting. 

Last week I had to take an extended lunch to get a tire repaired on my car. Since there was no place to sit in the waiting room and I was hungry, I decided to take a walk and look for someplace to eat. I have brought my digital camera along in case I need some entertainment. These are some things I found on the eight block (round trip) stroll.

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This 35 year old beauty just came back from the shop. Ready for another 35 though I doubt I'll last that long.

I've been going to the July 4th bike races since 1985. This was one of the few times going alone. Back in the day it was quite the thing with good crowds. Now it's much quieter.

When I first started taking pictures seriously, I was a bit of a camera snob. One of the camera makers I was snobbish about was Minolta. It was my opinion that Minolta was a second string brand. It was a camera that I was sure most people used mostly in Program mode because they couldn't be arsed to learn about aperture and shutter speed and the reasons for various combinations. Minolta's were too common. Since then I've owned a lot of cameras far above Minolta grade and managed a few attitude adjustments. I bought this particular camera because it is small and light but still has a solid feel in your hands. Also, it was cheap. And it's fun and it's simple. Did I mention the batteries last, like, forever?

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Even though I know he had a tough life, I have always been attracted to this picture. Did he sleep well in this little bed? Did he do his own laundry? Did he ever have company? :-)  Was it as comfortable and pretty as this picture?

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I have two rolls of film currently in the lab for processing. Or so my text notifications and the web site say. It's only been two and a half months since I last sent film in, but it feels like forever. So much has happened since the end of March. Film has a lag time that is enormous campared to digital, but the anticipation is so much more fun.
Also, I am moving into a new room. My new bedroom furniture is in boxes on the floor. The mattress is coming tomorrow.  I will be sleeping solo for the first time in more than forty-five years.  I'm sure it will feel odd at first, but it can also be lovely to have a room of one's own. 

This is the Fuji XF 50mm f/2.  It's amazing. It's small, the AF is fast and the results so far have been lovely.
I discovered the merits of a moderate telephoto on a trip up the back side of the Sierra Nevada(Hwy 395). We were in this huge landscape that looked overwhelming with a wide angle or normal lens.  I had a Hasseblad with a 150mm lens, (mod tele for that format) It was wonderful. I also had a mod tele for my digital camera, a 56mm on an APS-C sensor.
The 56 mm looked a bit tight for smaller landscapes but this 50 seems to hit the sweet spot.