sunshine, a river, and a bridge

It was kind of sunny(ish) yesterday, so I wandered out for a walk. It was either that or work, so it wasn't a tough choice. I ended up out near the Riverscape condos, on the Willamette just north of the Fremont Bridge. The whole area has a weird and rather desolate feel to it. I can't put my finger on why that is, exactly, but I'm sure the total absence of other people isn't helping. With a choice location right on the river and great views of the bridge, the place ought to be one of those vibrant urban centers like you always see in architects' drawings, but it isn't. Perhaps the feng shui is all wrong or something.

To see what I mean, check out this earlier photo of mine from October 2006, right around the time the first phase went live. Now there's more of the same further north, and down at the far end a lonely condo tower squats in a muddy field. All in all, the place is, um, one of our lesser gems of urban planning, I'm afraid.



But really, the point of this post is not to carp on about the place again. The developers didn't demand a taxpayer-built aerial tram or monorail or anything, so I guess the place is reasonably low-impact as far as these things go. The real point is that it was sunny outside for once, and I went out and took some photos, and here they are. It's not much of a point, I admit. But on the bright side, reading this post didn't cost you a cent.



Anyway, I happened to have my infrared & ultraviolet filters with me, so a few of the photos were taken with those. My original goal was to look for dandelions and take some UV "what a bee sees" photos. I did find a few, believe it or not, but it wasn't quite sunny enough to get useful results. Oh, well. It'll probably be sunny again someday, and when that happens, dandelions are sure to follow.



Just a couple of years ago I lived out in the 'burbs and hadn't yet taken up this photo thing in earnest. The idea of going out and eagerly looking for dandelions would have seemed like the height of absurdity. And really, it still is kind of absurd. Not that that ever stops me, mind you.

more wintry holga joy

testing... 1... 2... 3...

So this is another batch of test photos, taken at Tanner Springs with yet another old film camera and a variety of lenses. This time the camera is a Mamiya/Sekor 500 DTL, which I picked up at Goodwill for $10.



The top two photos were taken with an Auto Sears (= Ricoh / Tomioka?) 28mm f2.8. This is my first lens that wide, and I think I rather like it, so far. You might've noticed the overexposed stripe down the second photo -- it turns out that's the fault of the camera, not the lens, as the same thing showed up with other lenses.

Here's the culprit, which I only noticed after getting this roll developed:



Yep, there's a little hole in the shutter curtain. You can see a square area where a previous repair was attempted, probably with a square of gaffer's tape or something similar. It probably just got old and fell off, so I may try it again, or I may try some black fabric paint, which seems to be the preferred approach out on the interwebs. Yes, I realize the camera only cost $10, but the light meter works, which is really quite unusual for a camera of that age.

So here are the other test shots, and let's all agree to ignore the weird shutter artifacts, ok?

The next 3 are with something called a Kitstar 135mm f2.8. I gather "Kitstar" was/is the store-brand private label for the Kit's Cameras chain. So who actually made it is anyone's guess. I'm kind of curious, though. Part of the fun of this antique camera stuff is trying to figure out where stuff came from, and when.

I don't know that Kitstar-branded lenses are overly well-thought-of by those in the know, but these pics turned out decent enough. Maybe I'm just not good enough at this, and it would be clearer whether this is a good lens or not if someone else had been behind the camera. It wouldn't exactly surprise me.









Ok, so the next two are with an Oreston 50mm f1.8, from Meyer Optik of Görlitz, East Germany. This wasn't the top of the line 50mm lens out of East Germany, although it was the top of the Meyer product lineup, and I gather some people out there consider it a "sleeper". Again, its' hard to say one way or the other based on the current evidence.

One thing I can say about it, though, is that it certainly looks cool. I've got the early chrome & black "zebra" version. It's a fairly big chunk of metal for what it is, but it still comes off looking rather sleek and sophisticated. As far as lenses go, I mean. I'm not entirely sure how important it is to look fashionable, if the only other people who'll notice are fellow camera nerds.

Incidentally, the lens's "home town" of Görlitz sounds like an interesting place. Unlike most German cities, it wasn't bombed during WWII. After the war the eastern half of the city, on the east bank of the Neisse river, ended up in Poland, and is now known as Zgorzelec. These days the two halves get along fine, at least if Wikipedia is to be believed.






And a couple with the Auto Sekor 50mm f2 that came on the 500 DTL. I've already got a 1000 DTL with the slightly faster 55/1.8 Auto Sekor, so I suppose it wasn't absolutely necessary to get this camera & lens. But I figured they might be subtly different somehow, or something, plus you can't go wrong for $10. Plus... well, it's a sickness. I think at one point I promised I'd only buy one lens per focal length, and that I'd stick with just one M42 body, and various other rules and regulations trying to maintain some modicum of self-control. A lot of that's fallen by the wayside over time. I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing, but hey. I kept thinking I needed a hobby, and now I've got one, for good or ill.

b+w: bendy & beer

Top photo: My rubbery made-in-China alter ego, somewhat less colorful than usual. This and the next photo were taken with yet another old camera, this time a Mamiya/Sekor 500 DTL, which I picked up at Goodwill for $10. Unfortunately it seems to have some kind of shutter or mirror issue, and about 2/3 of the photos came out with a strange flare effect. I got the same effect with several different lenses, so I know it's not that, at least. It's kind of a shame really; this is the only old camera I've got where the light meter actually works.

Anyway... Bottom photo: A bottle of Red Thistle Ale from Golden Valley Brewing in McMinnville. I made a run all the way down there just to pick up a case of this, only to discover a few days later that Belmont Station has it too, right here in Portland. This was actually the same trip where I bought the camera. Also, note that the bottle is not full, and I seem to recall the bottle pictured wasn't the first of the evening. That fact may help explain why I took these two photos.

waterfront rainstorm

So here are a few pics from Waterfront Park, taken right in the middle of Tuesday's horrendous, drenching rain. Unless you read this blog regularly, you might be wondering why I'd do a stupid thing like that. Actually I had several reasons. None of them are especially good reasons, but hey.

• I happened to have my (non-)trusty Holga along that day, and it even had black & white film in it. So it seemed like ideal subject matter.
• Hey, it's a Holga, it's not like it would rust if it got a little wet, or the precision optics would get messed up somehow.
• I've never actually had a proper case of pneumonia, and therefore haven't yet learned not to do this.
• I had another roll of 120 plus a roll of 35mm I wanted to get developed that day, so I figured I'd use up the rest of the current roll and do all 3 at once, to be thrifty or frugal or something.
• I wasn't sure any part of the roll would turn out, anyway. I'd forgotten to tape up the Holga this time, and a couple of days earlier I had the back pop right off. Which I understand happens to everyone sooner or later, so it's sort of a Holga rite of passage. I wasn't sure if any part of the roll was still good, so I figured this wasn't a roll to keep around for special occasions and precious moments and whatnot. Might as well use it up and see what's salvageable. In the end I think I only lost about whole two photos, plus half of the next one. If you look closely, you can see part of the word "KODAK" that somehow ended up on the film.
• I've been a bit short on blog material lately, and I figured if I got some really grim, wintry photos, I'd get a post out of it, at least. That, or pneumonia.
• I've spent a lot of time lately whining about the lack of proper photo subject matter. So I got to thinking, if it's going to be all wet and wintry and bleak for months anyway, regardless of how I feel about it, I might as well give in and just wallow in it for a while. Not literally, of course. That just leads to hypothermia, not creative fulfillment. Unlike pneumonia, I have had hypothermia before, and I'm not wild about a repeat.
• I was also feeling kind of surly and unmotivated and undervalued that day, and only partly because of the hangover. That's one thing I've had before and haven't yet learned to avoid 100% of the time. That, and trying peculiar food after a few drinks. This time it was sushi filled with sea urchin innards. The previous time there were deep-fried pickles, if I recall correctly.
• I honestly didn't have a better idea. I seriously couldn't think of anything else to do just then. Photo-wise, I mean.

The aforementioned half-a-photo.

watching the west hills (mostly)

I. morning moon:

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II. snow:

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III. ultraviolet at dusk, featuring a very shiny construction crane:







The above photo shows the fun half-open window trick yet again. I've never seen anyone else use the half-open window trick to create funky UV photos. Surely I didn't invent the thing, did I?

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IV. morning mist:

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V. other (not the west hills at all):



Powell Grove pioneer cemetery, around NE 122nd & Sandy




Winter sunset in the Hollywood District, fwiw.






More morning sky, from (I think) Milwaukie.

a brief january sunbreak

It's no secret that the weather's been getting me down lately. Read the last few posts here, and you'll notice I've blabbed on and on about it for some time now -- unless you get bored first and depart to a more fascinating corner of the interwebs, which I suppose would be understandable.

So the sun came out today, and it was great. I left the office and wandered around outside for a few hours, enjoying a world with actual colors other than gray for once. It's gone now, of course, but it was fun while it lasted. I think I even saw my shadow. Although here in Portland seeing your shadow in January means another six months of winter. And not seeing your shadow in January means precisely the same thing.

I realize I ought to say a few words about the Iowa caucuses or something, and I realize most people would rather read that than read about my wintry angst, but I can't bring myself to do it. Oregon's primary isn't until May, and the nomination's bound to be decided by then. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping Edwards pulls it out, but I realize the odds are against that. We'll probably nominate another middle-of-the-road, voted-for-it-before-I-voted-against-it, didn't-inhale, Hollywood-friendly no-hoper instead, like we usually do. So I'm also crossing my fingers and hoping the R's nominate Huckabee or one of the other Bible-thumping nutjobs, because the D nominee is going to need all the help s/he can get.

In any case, I took a couple of photos of today's sunbreak, just to prove it really happened, and here they are. I didn't colorize them in GIMP or anything, the sky really was blue, just briefly.

I think I need a long vacation. Somewhere very, very warm. With fruity tropical drinks with parasols and whatnot, and no email, or at least no corporate email. And parrots. And broadband.