Sunday, July 29, 2018

Lowrider Meetup

On Saturday morning, the street in front of the Albuquerque Museum was filled with Lowrider art.  I took along my Olumpus XA to record the event.






We followed up the car show with lunch at a Wells Park community event where I was able to finish off the 36-exposure roll of ColorPlus 200, and  Cate got her face painted.


My color film gets processed with the Unicolor C-41 kit from Freestyle and then it goes into my digital darkroom.


I had to replace the router yesterday after a close-by lightning strike.  Most of the rest of the hardware and software is close to fifteen years old.  The Dell 690 running Windows XP was purchased ten years ago, having been retired from a long career in government service.  The Epson 2450 flatbed scanner works with Silverfast SE and Photoshop cs2.

Monday, July 16, 2018

El Vado Motel

On Sunday we rode our bikes about a mile west to Zendo Coffee, part of the newly restored El Vado Motel.


Built in 1937, the motel was closed when we came to Albuquerque ten years ago.  A developer nearly bulldozed the place, but the City took over the property and then contributed 3 million to its restoration which was recently completed.


In addition to the motel rooms, the multi-use development also features a number of small restaurants, shop spaces, meeting rooms, a taproom and a large patio with a fountain.  The restoration apparently stuck pretty closely to the original Spanish Pueblo Revival style, though the white stucco and blue trim buildings combined with the intense summer sun makes the place resemble a transplanted bit of Santorini without the views.


The outdoor seating in the big patio has some potential, but the shade umbrellas are mostly ineffective in the morning and afternoon hours when the place is most likely to be used.  Unless some more substantial shade structures are installed the patio is likely to be more decorative than useful.


The motel is adjacent to the golf course and just across the street from the Botanic Garden.  There is a lot of development going on in the area which is rapidly transforming the character of the place in mostly welcome ways.


Central Avenue carries a lot of traffic past the motel because of the bridge across the Rio Grande just down the street.  Whether the currently stalled rapid transit project will contribute anything to ameliorating the rush-hour traffic jams is still an unknown.


Meanwhile, we are looking forward to more morning coffee opportunities, trying out the new eateries and the taproom, and hoping for the best.

Saturday, July 14, 2018

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Getting back on the bicycle

PT exercises, hardware and meds didn't seem to be doing much for my recovery.  However, a few days after starting to ride my bike, I finally seem to be making some progress.  That's good news for my photography as it is mostly a byproduct of walking around and recording what I come across.


Yesterday, I took a long, slow walk along the river and finished off a roll of Kentmere 100 in the Kodak Signet 35.  I saw a coyote slinking through the shadows and soon afterward a pair of noisy young Cooper's Hawks.  They seemed like good omens.




Wednesday, July 04, 2018

Close

My mobility has been at a low level for a couple months thanks to a leg injury.  I've made some progress and am hoping for more to get back to where I was.  In the meantime, it seems prudent to get in some practice with photography projects closer to home.







I processed the TMAX 100 with semi-stand development in HC-110 at 1:100 dilution.  The images were a little contrasty, so I think a bit higher dilution would be a good idea.

Monday, July 02, 2018

August Albuquerque Meet-Up

New Mexico Film Photographers are invited to attend a meet-up each month to talk about any aspect of film photography.
The next Meet-up:

When: Sunday, August 5th, 9:30 AM

Where: Michael Thomas Coffee Roasters, 202 Bryn Mawr Dr SE, Albuquerque

Who: Veteran film users and anyone looking to get started in film photography.
  • No dues.
  • No rules
(Meeting announcements are also posted in the discussion section of the New Mexico Film Photographers group at Flickr.)