Another Balloon Fiesta

The Fiftieth in fact.  A couple flew over my house, and that would have been enough for me having photographed about fifteen instances of the yearly event.

I turned out that some friends wanted to chase down some balloons the next day, so we hopped into the car and headed north toward the launch site.  To my surprise we encountered little traffic and ended up finding an ideal viewing location a mile south of the Balloon Museum.  I got a few pictures with both the Pentax ME Super using Kentmere 400 and the Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim loaded with outdated Kodak ColorPlus 200.

At noon on the same day I went down to the Plaza Vieja to catch my favorite part of the Balloon Fiesta, the performance of the Flamenco dancers from Albuquerque's International School of Flamenco.  At the balloon viewing site the Pentax ME Super had developed a problem with the film advance, and that only got worse when I tried to use it to shoot some pictures of the dancers.

It was only when I developed the film from the Pentax that I could see the main problem was that the shutter was often firing at the end of the advance stroke, producing a variety of unexpected results.  I made a few shots with the vuws of the dancers preparing to perform, but was disappointed I could not catch the dancers performing under the shade of the gazebo.

A Google search showed that film advance problems are not uncommon in the ME Super.  I'll open up the camera to see if it looks fixable, though I don't think I would trust it again for critical work.  Fortunately, I also have a Pentax ME which seems to be working fine, and I'm not exactly lacking in other options.

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As often happens, Margaret got the best shot of the day with her cellphone camera:

Kentmere 400

I loaded a roll of Kentmere 400 in my Pentax ME Super, shot it at 200 ASA and processed the film in PMK Pyro staining developer.  I was comfortable shooting this combination in a variety of lighting conditions and I was generally pleased with the results.

I'm thinking now that I may next try some HP5 at 200 ASA with processing in PMK to see how that compares to the results from the Kentmere.

Kodak Tri-X

I have to confess that one of the main reasons I like to attend the yearly Day of the Dead Marigold Parade in Albuquerque's South Valley is the excuse it gives me to shoot some Kodak Tri-X.  It seems a film ideally suited to this sort of event. I'm always surprised by the fine grain of this fast film which looks good even in big enlargements.  Tri-X responds well to HC110 development, with good contrast and wide latitude which captures detail in shadows and highlights.  It is also pretty economical; the 24-exposure cartridges are just $4.49, and for a dollar more you get 36 at B&H.  I shot two rolls of Tri-X this year in a Pentax ME Super with the SMC Pentax-A f:2.8/135mm.

XP2

I used to shoot a lot of Kodak's chromogenic black and white film.  I liked it for its fine grain and wide exposure latitude.  Kodak discontinued the film a couple years ago, much to my regret.  I decided to try a couple of rolls of Ilford XP2 400 Super to see how it compares to Kodak's film.  The XP2 turned out to be quite a different beast.

The first roll of XP2 I shot had very dull tonality, so I decided to shoot this one a stop slower than box speed, which is what most people seem to do.  That ended up giving me some nicer tonality, but it took quite a bit of adjustment in PhotoShop to get near to what I wanted.

I arrived at the enclosure housing this little bobcat at the same time as the keeper.  He sat down on a stump, tapped his knee and the cat jumped into his lap for pets and scratches.  The keeper explained that the bobcat had been raised as a pet before ending up at the zoo.

On the way out of the zoo I shot the last frame at the 400 box speed.  It seemed pretty good to me in regard to tonality and required little adjustment.  I'm going to withhold judgment about this film for now.  I'll try another round some time to see if I can sort out the variables a bit better.

Greyhounds

I am always thrilled to come across greyhounds anywhere.  On Sunday, I went to Hyder Park in Albuquerque to see a gathering of greyhounds sponsored by The New Mexico Chapter of the Greyhound Adoption League of Texas.  Most are former track dogs rescued by the organization.

When I encounter greyhounds in the city, there is always a touch of sadness to the occasion for me.  Most of the adoptive owners I come across treat their dogs like porcelain dolls; they seem afraid they will break their pets if they don't handle them just right.  So, the dogs never get off a leash when outside and they never have a chance to run full out.

Now, to be honest, the dogs never complain about such treatment.  Greyhounds always seem perfectly content to lounge around the house, and to walk sedately beside their owners in city parks.  They are almost never belligerent  toward other dogs or people when in public places.  My guess is that a lot of adoptive owners interpret this gentle and compliant behavior to a sense of gratitude for being rescued from desperate and sometimes cruel circumstances.

What gets overlooked in the well-intentioned rescue process is the real history of the breed, a tradition of selecting traits of stamina, agility, sharp vision and group compatibility that goes back thousands of years.  Over that vast span of time the greyhound was molded to the purpose of chasing down small to medium-sized game animals.  Since the dogs were hunted at least in pairs and often in large packs their aggression had to be finely tuned to focus on the prey and not on their fellow hunters.  So, the sociable character of the greyhound which makes them so appealing today as pets is really the result of rather ruthless culling to eliminate any behavior which would interfere with a perfect hunting strategy adapted to coursing across the deserts and steppes of Asia and the Middle East.

The physical, mental and character traits of greyhounds which made them perfect hunters also made them perfectly suited to competition racing, and the breeding and training techniques for the track are essentially identical to the ancient customs.  The racing industry has come to be held in low regard in recent times; it is seen as exploitative and callously cruel in many cases.  While there is no denying that dark side of dog racing, it is also seems important to acknowledge that it did keep the breed viable to the present day.