I was out walking the other day, heading for the mailbox, and crossing the street I noticed a shiny coin near the gutter on the other side.
It was a nickel. Heads-up, so fair game. It’s bad luck to pick up coins that’re tails-up, don’t you know. 8^)
I scraped away some of the schmutz from the face of the coin and saw that it was a 1970 S, minted in San Francisco. Cool.
’70 was a significant year in my life.
I replaced the light seals in this old guy today. Total time involved was just a little over an hour.
And, of course, I spent more time scraping off the old gunky seals, removing residue, and general cleaning than I did cutting and installing the new pieces of felt and foam.
Luckily, I had everything I needed to take care of the seals without having to spend another penny.
I’m waiting for batteries and a UV filter to arrive and then it’ll be ready to see the light of day.
I’m thinkin’ a roll of 36 exposure Kodak Plus X Pan, expired 03/1992. Stoked to get out and shoot with this relic…
The above tangle of trunks is what’s known in these parts as a Cedar tree. Texas Cedar, I’ve heard it called. Also known as Ashe Juniper, Mountain Cedar, Rock Cedar, Post Cedar, Mexican Juniper, and Break Cedar, to name a few.
This particular specimen is located on an empty lot in our neighborhood – a cave lot, as the developers are fond of saying – not more that 20 feet from the sidewalk Annie Bell and I make use of on our near-daily walks.
These trees are everywhere and they have a long Texas history. They’re drought tolerant, help with erosion, provide shelter for wildlife and livestock, and many a fence post has been made from their trunks.
There are portions of the nightly weather report dedicated to talking about this tree. And during the Winter there is much consternation over the amount of pollen these trees generate.
Now, me being relatively new to Central Texas, these trees being referred to as Cedar by everyone set me up for a certain amount of confusion.
Everyone I’ve met here seems to think these are actually Cedar trees.
Honestly. People have fallen for the ruse. Everyone I’ve met here seems to think these are actually Cedar trees. Even my doctor, who thinks my ages-old morning congestion is due in great part to the Texas Cedars to which I’ve only just recently become exposed.
Nah.
To me, these are Junipers. Or, at least, part of the same family as the Junipers I know from my life in California. Juniperus ashei, to be exact. So whenever I hear someone speak of these trees, I always conjure up the image of a real cedar tree in my mind, not this poor, scraggly excuse for a Juniper.
A couple days back I finally heard the weather person on our local TV station admit that they’re Junipers.
Whew! Finally. Now I can get on with the rest of my life.
iPhone 8, Blackie app.
I’ve been using the Wanderlust Pinwide since 2010 and love that little thing, but it has its flaws. The main problem being it’s made from plastic.
The first one I purchased lasted almost a year with careful handling, but then I took the GF1/Pinwide combo with me on a 2-week trip to Italy – along with three other camera/lens combos – and by the time the trip was over the small tabs that hold the cap to the camera had broken off.
I was fortunate that Pinwides were still available for purchase and picked up a couple more. I’m still using one of them, careful to remove it from the GF1 body when not in use. The other still has the cellophane wrapper around the little tin container, unopened. Plus I still have the Slit.
When I saw the Thingyfy Pinhole Pro S11 advertised on a few photography sites I was curious, certainly. Aluminum. Clean design. Reasonably priced. Really cool. Why not?
I ordered it online at their site. Got an immediate email order confirmation saying I’d get an email notification when it shipped. In about 15 days, the email said. Waited for that shipping notice. Never came. Yes, I checked spam. I pinged them via email, Twitter, Facebook. No response whatsoever. Finally got a shipping notice via email and waited another week until it arrived.
Aside from the unimpressive customer service, the S11 is a pretty nifty little gizmo.
The unboxing was Apple-like. Great package design, inside and out. Really nicely done.
They offered a threaded aluminum lens cap for an additional $10, but the S11 came with a plastic clip-style lens cap, which was good enough for me.
I did order the 58mm UV filter, though.
I shot a few hand-held pictures the same day it arrived in the mail, using the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1.
The GF1 was next, a few weeks later.
While the 11mm focal length is the same for both the Pinwide and the S11, the hole/aperture in the S11 is slightly larger, 0.14mm to 0.11mm for the Pinwide.
Another cool little gizmo.
Looking forward to this year’s Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day on Sunday April 28, 2019.
A little shameless self promotion…
I put together a short essay titled ‘Cars on Film’ about shooting cars using film cameras and the good folks at Film Shooters Collective were kind enough to publish it on their website.
Please > Give it a look, give it a read.
And while you’re there, check out the FSC Journal for a ton of great film photography.
Levitation
I received Keith Carter: Fifty Years today.
I’m slowly flipping the pages, soaking in the beauty of each photograph.
There are so few photographers whose work can put me in a trance. Carter is one of them.
Magic.
