Confessions of a photography junkie

Okay, I’ll admit it – I still have a soft spot for old fashioned film based photography. I am saddened by the wholesale switch to digital and yet find our little Canon power shots are being used all the time while the extensive family of film based cameras sit unused in the closet, cupboards, shelves etc. Yet somehow, more of this stuff keeps wandering in.

In spite of not being in the market for a 4×5 camera (I already had, and still have, a perfectly functional Crown Graphic) about two years ago I got a call from a guy who was trying to give away a Linhof studio camera stand. I immediately got my hopes up that it might be a tall pedestal and went to look. It wasn’t, and ended up being a low studio stand with a kidney shaped tool tray. I really didn’t have any use for it but the guy said if I didn’t take it he was just gonna throw it out, and once I agreed I’d take it he produces the camera system that went on it – A complete Linhof monorail studio camera with both 4×5 and 5×7 bellows and rear standards so it could be used as either a 4×5 or 5×7 camera. It isn’t in the best of condition but somehow he convinced it was worth the $40 I gave him for it.

It didn’t have a lens and although I have a very nice 90mm Angulon on the Crown Graphic, it wasn’t what the new camera needed, and since then I’d been looking in a somewhat lethargic fashion for a lens in the 160 – 250 mm range. My search speeded up a while ago when I stumbled over an Omega D-5 XL Chromega colour enlarger and power supply with 3 lenses, 6 neg carriers, easels and a set of tanks and hangers for processing 4×5 film all of which needed rescuing.

This meant that the only missing link to getting the Linhof working was a lens so last week I broke down and bought a good lens, a 210mm f5.6 Symmar S that I had originally bought new in about 1983 when I had a photography studio. When the studio closed in 1986, the lens was one of the secured assets which was liquidated. I’ve known where it was ever since and that it had been kept clean and properly stored, so when it was offered back to me at a fair price I knew it was time to give the Linhof a chance, or at least the potential of a chance.

But the big problem is that this stuff keeps finding me. But that’s another story, or at least part of the story. So if you behave, perhaps I’ll tell you more about my adventures trying to tame the junk in the studio.

Crashing & Banging

The crashing and banging part is coming from the basement where the men are installing the new furnace. The old one is old and heavy and has been living in the same spot for almost 50 years so it’s reluctant to give up its space. It will soon be gone but right now there is a terrific racket going on.

That’s okay, it’s all part of the process. The install is supposed to take two days so I’ve tried to plan my schedule to be in the house during this period. The “mature” old cat, who was rather freaked last week when we had the ducts cleaned, is having a mini-vacation out in the studio where she won’t have to deal with all the noise and commotion. I think she got the better end of the deal, as the studio is already air-conditioned while the house is not (yet), and the forecast high here today is in the 30’s. (astute readers will have noted that it’s taken me an extra day to get this post finished. It’s not in the 30s today, but they are still crashing and banging in the basement)

I’ve no shortage of things to keep me busy, as I’ve been saving up some of those special tasks like reconciling the bank statement and doing the house books which are so hard to keep up with when it’s nice outside.

However, what I really wanted to share today is what a great time I had working at the Regina Folk Festival this past weekend. Keith, one of my golf buddies, has been involved with the business side of the festival for years, and “recruited” me to help set up and run the new beer ticket sales area. Previously it had been done adjacent to the bar which created huge bottlenecks, so this year they had a whole new setup. I originally said I’d help get it set up on Friday for a couple of hours, but somehow that turned into eight hours on each of the three three nights of the festival.

We had our own pavilion/tent on the south side of the festival area near the bar but not right in its space. Because it was a new setup, Keith had scheduled lots of volunteers, but we soon learned that between 4 and 6 people at the table was enough to sell the drink tickets and verify that people were of legal drinking age. Keith and/or I would stand out in front organizing the lines and dealing with anything else  that might come up.

Here’s one of our volunteers now

We had an almost good view of the stage (there was this one tree…) but were far enough back so as to be out of the traffic flow except for those who wanted tickets. We could hear fine and the sound wasn’t quite deafening.  The volunteers were fast enough that we rarely had line-ups, and the best part was that we all had fun. By Saturday there was some dancing in the tent and by Sunday evening all the volunteers in our area were up and dancing. We even had the customers dancing.

Take a look!

I can’t remember who’s who, so Thanks to all our great volunteers

Erin

Alicia

Michelle

Robyn

Kelsie

Gail

Stephanie

Katie

Cyndy

FAST MONKEYS (a story idea)

December 8, 2002

FAST MONKEYS

A novel.

Examines the point of first contact from a human and extraterrestrial perspective. Starts close up looking only at point of initial contact, and then backs away to reveal more and more about both sides of the interaction.

Human side is usual fucked up world with competing agendas and power blocks. First contact occurs as manned missions move to asteroid belt in search of raw materials.

Non-human side is much more complex. Contact has been expected and has been planned for decades based on considerable experience. A slow monkey race of scholars and caretakers called C’reska, has been building a major research and point of contact facility in the asteroid belt for almost a hundred years. The discovery of humans as a race of technologically advanced “fast monkeys” has excited much of this section of civilized space.

Many fast monkey ruins have been found and a lucrative business has evolved by slow monkey races who move in and sort through the remains to mine technology, science and ideas. Fast monkeys have a tendency to self destruct but the few which have attained inter system travel capabilities have caused a general commotion in the neighborhood in the process of doing so.

What is even more interesting is the prospect of a Nova race of fast monkeys. There are only three of these known which have made it to extra-system space, but each of them changed history in the process. About a dozen others came close, only to self-destruct in truly epic fashion. These have provided technological bonanzas and the export of video also was big.

The C’reska are quite certain that humans are Nova class fast monkeys, and have pulled out all the stops to develop a major presence in the solar system. As well as the C’reska, there is a large diplomatic bureaucratic contingent, to make sure that the C’reska take no unfair advantage (of either the humans or of the other races and species in the sector) and that the humans do not escape the system prior to contact. There is also a f

Galactic Federation military presence to maintain order.

About 50 years after the C’reska started the project, a military garrison of Tornadors arrived. The Tornadors are a very old lizard race, led by a sub race of slow kings. The Tornadors claim that humans evolved from the activities of visiting Tornador emissaries, and that the humans are rightfully Tornador property.

This is a fairly common Tornador practice, and will end up tying up the region’s legal system for centuries. Meanwhile the Tornador will siphon off anything of value in the system they can get a hold of. However they are also capable of direct military take over if they feel they can get away with it. Conflict with the Tornador always results in the total elimination of the losing side in the system being contested, but the Tornador only win about 1 in 5 tries.

Over the ensuing years, the Tornadors have established three bases in the belt, one close at hand to the main C’reska facility, one on the outer edge of the belt across the system from the C’reska facility and one buried deep in the most dangerous part of the belt.

The Tornado legal position is based on interpreting human religious texts including genesis, which they claim, shows the snake (Tornador) giving the gift of intelligence to the human monkeys.

Sunday Chicken pix

What could be better than starting out a lovely Sunday morning with a new chicken pix

Saturday Chicken pix

Okay chicken fans, here’s the post you’ve all been looking for – it’s the Saturday Chicken pix!

On Indian Land

Standing on the prairie

south of Saskatoon

there I was on Indian land

howling at the moon

As I watched the moon come up

I heard a coyote’s song

I didn’t have to stop and think

I just sang along

Not a house for miles

I just opened up and bayed

And as my spirits let it flow

The less my body weighed

The evening breeze, the smell of sage

and a sky still darkly blue

the rustling of the prairie grass

a few mosquitoes too

“There – I’m glad that’s off my chest”

I loudly did exclaim

“It’s much too dark to find my ball

it’s time we end this game!”

We went back to the clubhouse

Through the advancing gloom

A great adventure, and the best damn part

…was howling at the moon

New beginnings require endings

This whole cleaning the studio business is becoming something much more than just movomg out some old junk. I didn’t realise how hard it work be to actually go in and “kill” the art piece, TELEGENSIA which I’d been working on for over a decade. It slowly grew till it had taken over the whole north end of my studio and, like a jealous lover, stopped me from doing other art projects. I have known for the past year or so that it was over, but I kept putting off dealing with it until now.

Over the years it had evolved a layered defense so that just getting to the point where I could start to take it apart took a couple of days, but then FINALLY, I was able to get to it. My son Tom brought his truck and a friend, John, and they lugged all the TVs out and off to recycling. Now the studio is like just after having a tooth pulled – there’s a big hole where something used to be, but now it can start its new beginning.

A different music video

Perhaps in the future at this point you might find fine mandolin music and videos, but not now. I would instead provide the following example of all that is pure and uplifting in the world today.

Image Gallery

Saskatchewan calls itself “the Land of the Living Sky”, and I can understand why. I’m lucky in that I live by a park with a very nice view of the southern sky. I often go down to watch storms roll in and make photos. Heres a couple

I don’t think this was the same storm, but that’s okay, we get lots of them.