Summer's Coming

I walked around Nob Hill this morning with one of my old cameras. When I got home, I looked at the pictures and could see that the Southwest Summer is nearly upon us.

I was reminded of some fine words about the subject by Geoffrey Chaucer:

When the month of May was almost past, and I had roamed all the summer's day over the green meadow of which I have told you to gaze upon the fresh daisy, and when the sun out of the south drew towards the west, and the flower was closed and gone to sleep, for darkness of the night which she feared, I sped me full swiftly home to mine house; and in a little shady bower that I have, newly embanked with fresh-cut turves, I bade folk lay my couch, and flowers to be strewn thereon, for joy of the new summer. When I had laid me down and closed my eyes, I fell asleep within an hour.


The rest of the photo set is posted in a thread at the nelsonfoto forum where there are some details of using 35mm in the medium format Dolly.

If you just want to view the photos, they can be displayed as a slide show at Photobucket.

Unexplained Phenomenon

I hadn't been out of the house all day, so I decided to take a walk around the block. As I neared the corner of 11th and Mountain, I was passed by this yellow truck traveling north. I turned around to get a better look as it pulled to the curb. The driver exited and walked toward the Mexican bakery on the corner. She had long, graying hair pulled back, and she looked like someone who had traveled a lot of miles.

I snapped a few pictures of the truck and its precariously perched passengers from different angles. As I got around to the driver's side, she returned clutching a bottle of Pepsi.

"That's quite a truck", I said.

"Yes, it is", she said in a not particularly friendly tone.

As she got into the driver's seat and started to close the door, her large set of keys fell to the ground. "Hey", she said, "would you get those keys for me?"

"Sure thing", I replied bending over to retrieve them. A glimmer of a thought passed briefly through my mind about my vulnerability to getting my head whacked by a truck door.

But, no, she just thanked me and drove off.

The Roof Cat Clan

24th Annual Albuquerque Museum/New Mexico Council of Car Clubs Automobile Show

One of the nice things about the place we live now is how close it is to interesting places and events on a regular basis. This morning, I walked over to the Art Museum to photograph the car show.

Some more of the photos can be found in a thread at nelsonfoto.com.

Canon A650 IS

11th & Mountain

The neigborhood around the Golden Crown Bakery, like all of downtown Albuquerque, is undergoing rapid change.

Morning at the Zoo



Pentax Spotmatic Super-Takumar f2.8/135mm + 3X extender

The Botanical Gardens in Albuquerque's Biopark is just a short distance away. We got there this morning a half hour before the 9:00 AM opening, so spent some time visiting the pond behind the aquarium. Always new things to see in the Conservatory. The Percherons had a busy morning.

Kodak Reflex II

Mesa Prieta

On a recent Friday morning
I walked about a mile along the escarpment at the southern end of the Petroglyph National Monument which is known as Mesa Prieta. In addition to the many fine petroglyphs, I saw a covey of scaled quail.

Friday in Old Town






Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim

A visit to UNM's Maxwell Museum provided an opportunity to use my Kodak Duo Six-20, and to add a page on it to the vintage cameras section of my web site.
    I have had the camera for a while, but put off shooting it because I have been averse to re-rolling 120 film onto the old metal 620 spools - something that is a must for the Duo Six-20. It turns out to be easier than I imagined, partly I think because I used a couple of the 620 spools, and rolling onto one and then back to another with the same core diameter avoids any buckling problem.

I never pass up a chance to photograph these old planes. They really seem to fly out of history into the present time.
    The aircraft should really be photographed in their natural environment, high above the earth. Lacking the opportunity to do that, I try to portray them in compositions with a dynamic quality which suggests their grace in action.
    I also often include people in the scenes, sometimes as current-day observers like me, but often they are there to give some perspective on the relationship of the men and machines of the era. In a few cases, as with the B-17 pilot in this series, the people are links or stand-ins for those who flew in these aircraft a long time ago.

Pentax Spotmatic ,
Super-Takumar f3.5/24mm

A big day for Santa Fe 2926
The Governor showed up at the site along with other notables to lend support to the establishment of a rolling museum to be pulled around the state by the restored locomotive. I don't always enjoy these kind of events, but this one was fun because it was politics-light, and because of the fine organization and enthusiasm of the 2926 restoration crew.

Pentax Spotmatic , Mamiya/Sekor f2.8/135mm

Spring

The last of  my Clack photos for a while. It's a great old box camera.

I added another page of pictures to my site which are from the Agfa Clack box camera. The photos show the current state of a restoration of one of the last great steam locomotives, the Santa Fe 2926.

A fellow loaned me an Agfa Clack camera a couple years ago. I've been looking for one for myself ever since. I finally stumbled on one at the Albuquerque Fair Grounds flea market last weekend. It's one of the great box cameras.

I spent a couple of days shooting my new little plastic Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim around Albuquerque. The results were a mixed bag, but fun.

We went to a fine lecture on flight in bats and birds at the Albuquerque Natural History Museum. I took along my little Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim camera loaded with some ultra-speed Kodak film that was five years past the expiration date. Not a very fair test for the plastic point-and-shoot, but interesting results nevertheless from wandering around the museum prior to the presentation.

ULTRA Wide & Slim
I gave away all my little plastic point-and-shoot cameras some time ago. But, then I saw a Vivitar ULTRA Wide & Slim on ebay with a reasonable shipping charge, so I had to get it. The results from the first roll are posted at nelsonfoto. I've also put my whole collection of previous P&S work onto a page at the web site.