After getting “logged in” the other day, Mama Max got stumped today. Guildenstern is feeling better as you can see by his kingly pose, and Diné was looking at him like “Who do you think you are?” Rosencrantz was hacking up a hairball a few yards to the east of Diné when I did these shots. Rosencrantz is quite a hacker when it comes to producing projectile hairballs, but I figured I’d spare you the action.
Our roses are starting to bloom and the ladybug larvae are working on the aphids.
The iris that I had to dig up in October 2012 and then replanted in the early spring last year after our electrical upgrade was completed are blooming quite nicely.
Along with the Canon F-1, I ended up with three lenses: a Canon EF 35-105mm (digital), a Canon EF 35-80mm with macro (digital) and a Canon FD 135mm (film). The lenses were described as “For parts or not working…” I dinked around with each lens — cleaned up contacts, loosened up things that seemed to tight, tightened up parts that seem too loose, cleaned the elements the best I could, and then I tried them out. I tested the 35-105mm and 35-80mm on a Canon 5D and a Canon 1Ds (both full frame digital bodies), and the 135mm on the Canon F-1 (35mm film body). There are two photos produced with each lens in this series. I believe I got the broken lenses working pretty well — can you guess which lens was used to produce each photo? “If you can’t be handsome, at least be handy” and produce beautiful photos!
Color Guard in leather preparing to honor their fallen friend at San Ysidro Church in Corrales.
Rugged pink Sandias, paddlers at dusk, and a view of the sunset from the bosque.
I bid on this Canon F-1 on ebay, it was cheap, and I was expecting to be outbid because Canon F-1s are popular cameras on ebay. I forgot about it until I got an email that I won the bid seven days later. The camera looks rough with a lot of brassing, a few dents and a few dings, but it works great and the light meter is right on accurate. It has a motor drive, which is really cool — “chunka, chunka, chunka…” at five frames per second when I hold down the shutter release. Interestingly enough, the F-1 will not trip my studio flashes or modern flashes, but it has no trouble tripping my old Metz CT-60 flashes. I included four photos that are scans of negatives taken with the F-1.
I was downright domestic and quite handy all weekend. I made a double batch of pork roast with potatoes, carrots and celery to get some food stocked up in the freezer. I had a stark reminder about how busy we’ve been when I opened the door to discover I had more film than food in in the freezer — it was definitely time to do some cooking.
I also finished organizing the catio, and got the rest of the stuff out of the armory, and started preparing to build a darkroom. I ordered a walk-thru cylindrical revolving darkroom door, which should arrive in a couple of weeks, and started drawing lines on the carpet to mark out where the walls and cylindrical door will go.
The nature of remodeling projects is that I always have to deal with deferred maintenance as part of each remodeling project, so I repaired the roof on the armory, and then put re-purposed corrugated steel on the exterior, south-facing wall to cover up the deteriorating exterior wall board that’s been blasted by the sun for the past 24 years. I also covered up the window in the south wall, since I don’t need a window in the darkroom. The re-purposed corrugated steel gives the south wall of the armory a colorful, ghetto-like look between the white and silver pieces, and the rusty spots.
I took Guildenstern in for a checkup last week because he had become anxious, clingy, talkative and seemed to continuously move from one spot to another. It turns out he has hyperthyroid, so now I have to give him medicine twice a day. We just started the medicine on Friday, but he seems calmer already. When I give him his medicine, I open his mouth and quickly stick the tiny pill down his throat. It happens so fast, that he purrs and looks confused because he’s not sure about what happened. Guildenstern is only 13 years old, but that makes him an old man in kitty age. He was enjoying the afternoon sun from under the garden table, that made a nice grid pattern on him.
After a week of lectures on Medieval Mystics and Masters that kept us out late every night, I ended the week photographing the Urban Olympics put on by a downtown charter school. Various professional offices and other businesses put teams together to compete in silly events, such as mop javalin throwing, toilet plunger toss, a rely race that included a mad dash in high heels — tag the rider for the tricycle slalom — tag the backward skateboard racer — tag the office chair drag racer — and lastly, tag the tricyclist for the final speed run. There was waterboarding, a 100 yard dash, urban bowling with orange barrels and shopping carts, water fights, and other events. Cherry/See/Reames Architects, who shares office space with ARC, and one of our staff members participated in the event.
Off Center & Not Even 