katiecregon

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.

To show joy is to celebrate happiness and achievement in others, even when we are facing tragedy ourselves.

https://youtu.be/nvOLdxfpU3A

A bunch of kids, having a lovely evening singing along with a favorite entertainer. 

I have been shooting mostly with a moderate wide-angle  and feeling less than satisfied lately. So today I went back to my 'normal' meaning 35mm on an APS-C sensor. I got real close at f/2 for the softness and out-of-focus areas.  My twenty-something year old pelargonium blooms in yet another May.

This is a little shrine someone put together, probably for a loved one who died in an accident on this bit of the road. With the advent of seat belt requirements, air bags, and a crackdown on drunk drivers, we are seeing many fewer auto related fatalies in this country than when I was young.  The year I first got my full driver's license, there were 26 fatalities per 100,000 popuation. In 2017, the rate was 11.4.  Still, there seem to be quite a lot of these showing up from time to time.  Maybe people around here are a more reckless or hapless segment of the population?

I know that in a drought afflicted place like California, one shouldn't be saying this, but I'm getting sick to death of the rain. We have had years when there has been more rain, but I can't remember the last time when it was this depressing. Maybe if I get some wellies it will stop?

This is not a double exposure.  These ventilation pipes were standing inside a shop being redone. The trees were behind me, causing the window reflection.  A lot of people who shoot black and white like to use film while using digital for color work.  I like using film for color and digital for black and white. This was shot with a Fuji XE2 and Fuji XF 23 mm f/2. 

Maybe it's because of the drought years, but I think we've forgotten what it's like to have a normal rain year. It doesn't seem normal. It seems like too much.  You look out the window and think, Oh, it's still raining.  Three hours later, you're doing the same thing. And when it's not raining, it's damned cold. Yeah, we're sick of winter.  And since I'm already having a good whinge, these damned windmills are a blight on the countryside. I wonder if they have even generated enough electricity to recover their construction costs?