Another Saturday Night...

I'm quite keen on this one.

Sea Wall, etc.

 8  years in this city and I've never ridden a bike around the sea wall. It's also rare to have a Friday night without an obligation.

 "Things to do in Vancouver..." Nearly every list will include the sea wall or Stanley Park. A big part of My Daily Image is about taking photographs of where I live that aren't specifically about where I live. It's not about the icons; mountains, forests, and oceans; but they sneak in from time to time.

 This trip around the sea wall was about the journey, and not about the sea wall. Nearly 30kms round trip but through some very familiar territory, it's getting harder and harder to find things I'm inspired to take photographs of.

 And the sea wall is the last thing I would seek out to take photographs of, and I mostly didn't take photographs of it tonight.

Mostly.

Went for a walk today.

 Somewhere around 12kms from my house to the Vancouver Art Gallery and back. I wore some relatively new boots, they are guaranteed for life but they hurt my feet so now I have boots that are guaranteed to hurt my feet for life.

 And Audible. Digital books read to you live, sometimes by celebrities, sometimes by Wil Wheaton. I put a good two hours into Ready Player One. It's good.

 Not spectacular, not yet, but good. But it's marketed directly at me, being someone who grew up in the 80s. It talks about changing technologies. And the ultimate virtual reality video game that consumes everyone.

 Plus, Wil Wheaton.

 The love/hate relationship with my new camera continues. I had to invest in new memory cards at the same time. I needed something that could handle the write speeds of the new camera, and SD format, and larger format images twice the size of what I'm used to. I bought two 64GB cards, the camera has two slots, each card will hold over 1000 photographs, I can't remember the last time I took more than 150 in gone go.

 New boots, made to last for life, which is what I wanted, but as they hurt my feet today reminded me of the old adage, "be careful what you wish for." And a new camera, that will last a few years, giving more than I need, but less than I want. 2200 pictures? Is it a camera for monkeys? I can't get through the 36 frames in a film camera for months. But that film is in a 45 year old camera that still works.

Sometimes all I want is a good Caribbean roti.

 I walked to the Vancouver Art Gallery today. Harry Callahan was featured on the second floor. The photos of his wife and child are lovely. Picasso was on the ground floor, Callahan on the second. I never did get Picasso, but Callahan was brilliantly good. It felt wrong that the Picasso floor was crowded, the Callahan floor nearly deserted.

But what do I know?

I'm going to soak my feet. Contemplate shooting more black and white film. Watch Raiders of the Lost Ark. Drink a beer, or three. Then go to bed.

It's been a lovely day.

Breakfast with Sophie

This kid and I have breakfast most mornings. It's an amazing way to start most any day.

Fond of Tigers.

Head shots. Fond of Tigers.

Spotmatic camera

There's a magic to film. I got my Spotmatics repaired and have been shooting film lately. And will take more. I have a Leica film rangefinder, the Spotmatic is better.

I'm ordering a developing tank that will handle 120 film. I have one that takes 35mm film. C-41 chemical process too. Maybe a better negative scanner.

My digital camera gets quirkier and quirkier every day. The auto-focus is acting up now. The rear control wheel has been acting up for a year. It might be cheaper to invest in film considering a replacement digital body is more than I want to spend these days. And Nikon hasn't made a digital body I think is any better than the one I have. It's hard to invest in something you don't really like.

Maybe my Nikon F100 will come back out into regular rotation. Maybe I'll just keep shooting the Pentax Spotmatics. I'm alright with either. Or both.

Astoria.

Astoria is a lovely little town west of Portland at the mouth of the Columbia River. It's claim to fame is that Goonies was filmed there. I like it for the dive bar in town that plays new wave music and serves micro brews and a damn fine Reuben sandwich.

And photographs on film. Medium format. I figure if you get 2 photos out of 15 you like you're doing pretty good.

I like these.

The first time I drove into Astoria it was on the day of the Superbowl when Seattle lost to New England. Seattle is as close to a local team as you can get in Astoria. I came in from the north and there wasn't a car on the road until the game ended and then slowly cars appeared. Not many, but a few. I found myself driving along the coast which turned inland at the Columbia and then hung a right onto the causeway and that bridge. It was dark and foggy and as I drove across the causeway I could seen the red tail lights in the fog ahead of me and then they just floated up into the dark, foggy sky and disappeared. I didn't know the bridge was there. I didn't know they were rising up the incline and then disappearing over the hump. It looked like aliens were sucking cars up into the sky and they were disappearing.

I'm going to Astoria again in a couple of weeks. There will be Reuben sandwiches, pinball, a cheap hotel on the river, and some medium format photographs, if dreams come true.