I photographed all the animals Christmas Eve, trying to get them to have a “Merry Christmas” look about them. The birds and Spunk were more than willing participants, Diné was okay with it as long as she didn’t have to get off the heater vent under the bed, but Rosencrantz and Guldenstern took quite a bit of coaxing. Blue, the Boa, opted out because she is getting ready to shed — she has milky-blue eyes and she’s a bit cranky — it’s best to leave a 7 foot long boa constrictor alone when she doesn’t want to be photographed.
Beaker is still looking great after 22 years.
Guildenstern thinking about making a mad dash to get away from the pesky camera.
Søren was more than happy to get in some time in front of the camera.
Rosencrantz was like “You bothering me boy!”
Diné wouldn’t budge from the heater vent under the bed.
We had a thin cloud cover most of the day Friday that produced muted light that colored everything with a grayish tint. The cranes had already flown off by the time I got to the riverbank at sunrise, but they flew back to the river at sunset.
I had to stop by the bank on Saturday morning — the parking lot was empty. When I stepped out to the car, a crow was standing in the parking space next to me. I took on photo of him, and then got closer for a second shot. He just stood there, kind of like Foghorn Leghorn, cocked his head sideways and gave me a “Go, I say go away boy, you bother me” look.
I captured the Finch Connection after I noticed Spunk looking out the window, watching the finches that were flitting around the branches and pulling seeds out of the many pods hanging from the leafless trumpet vine.
Lots and lots of Sandhill Crane are flying over our house every day. Many of them are staying in the area and hanging around in the orchards and along the river.
Continuing my adventures in film, I purchased a 4X5 Speed Graphic, Press Camera with money I got for my birthday. I wanted a 4X5 that was more portable, but since field cameras are still pricey, I started looking at press cameras, and decided I liked having the choice of using either the leaf shutter in the lens or the focal plane shutter in the body, and having the option to hand hold the camera.
I ended up with this particular camera because the seller guaranteed that everything worked, and he accepted my offer for the amount of the money I received for my birthday. I got it Wednesday, checked the shutters, the movements, the rangefinders, and indeed everything worked. It was pretty dirty, including the lens, so I took the camera and lens apart, and cleaned everything inside and out. Spunk helped and then participated when I photographed the camera — he wanted to point out the camera’s features and how it works. I looked up the serial numbers on the lens and the camera and it’s a Wartime model produced in 1945.
Thursday morning I went out and took four photos, processed them, and then printed two of the negatives before we went to Thanksgiving dinner at Laurie’s parent’s house in the early afternoon. I used Kodak Tri-X 320, but had the light meter set at ISO 400 and processed the film at ISO 400. I used the leaf shutter in the lens set at 1/400 sec and hand held the camera for the shots. The lens, at 127mm, is fairly wide-angle for a 4X5, therefore, in each photo I was trying to get as close to a group of cranes, and then a group of ducks as possible. The cranes and ducks flew so I snapped the photos of them taking flight, producing my first 4×5, hand-held actions shots.
Yesterday Laurie and I with Susan and Lois took an excursion down south of Albuquerque to look for Sandhill Cranes for our birthdays. After photographing cranes we headed east behind the Manzanos where we visited two of the Salinas Pueblo Missions, Abó and Quarai, and then continued north, around the mountains, and back to Albuquerque. Along the way we photographed landscapes, saw several trains, and had an interesting, uniquely New Mexico, encounter with a local couple along the way.
One last cosmos was hanging on among the dried ends of cosmos stems and brown, hardened sunflower stalks. A green butterfly landed in the mulch to warm itself in the sun before flying off to forage for what little flowers remained. I was going to start pulling up the dead sunflowers, but the finches and sparrows were still feeding on them, so they will remain standing awhile longer.
Off Center & Not Even 