15-6-29

15-6-28

15-6-27

 Hiking. We made our way up to Cypress Falls. There are two sets of waterfalls. Many popular trails around here are pretty much accessible by wheelchair. I mean, there's lots of hard core, difficult trails where you'd be dumb to not carry a small survival kit in case you got lost, but there's plenty of easy access stuff as well. Today's trail was slightly more challenging than that. No signs. No stairs up the steep climbs. The steep, life claiming drops trail side were abundant.

And then into Horseshoe Bay for swing set rides and fish and chips. Such a great way to spend a day.

15-6-26

In a random moment when I thought my kid and I would be making dinner and hanging out, she decided to have dinner with her grandparents and I had a warm, summer's night and a single speed bike and an iPod and I went for a slow, wandering ride and took some pictures. With the big camera. Save for the film photographs, nearly every photo I've taken lately has been with a Fuji APS-C sensor camera, which is a pretty big sensor for a little camera, and they are good. These are better.

15-6-25

Last day of school. This kid is no longer in Grade 3 after today.

15-6-24

Third longest day of the year, and I'm still riding home from work in the dark. Vacation in a week though. It can't come soon enough.

15-6-23

Home is where the heart is. Or where ever you lay your hat. I don't wear hats.

15-6-22

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The font is surprisingly appealing.

15-6-20

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15-6-16

Missed a day. Legitimately. No biggie.

15-6-15

You've been told.

15-6-14

They almost nailed the colour match...

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15-6-8

 Digital.

 Film.

It was a short lived experiment. I'll do it again. Probably.

15-6-7

 Digital

Film

15-6-6

 Digital

Film

It probably doesn't help that the film camera is a little point and shoot Yashica. But the pictures are still magical.

15-6-5

Film vs. Digital. The first two are digital. The last one is film. In every case the digital photo is "better" but the film image has an impossible to replicate feeling to it. So now what?

Updates...

Film. It's at the shop. I get to pick it up Wednesday. Well, maybe Tuesday, but I'm counting on Thursday. So strange not being in control of these things. But, well, update coming soon? Yes, that's what I mean to say. There's an update coming soon.

15-6-4

The Yashica worked. So comparisons. Digital vs.

Film. 

15-6-3

Failed experiment part 1.

I bought a Pentax camera when I was in my teens, my first real camera that wasn't my father's, and it got stolen when I moved to Vancouver. It still had the film in it from the last half of my cross Canada road trip. "Welcome to Vancouver, we will steal your shit." That camera was a Pentax SF10. This camera is the one I replaced that one with. It's a Pentax SF-1. I traded this camera to my father for his old Spotmatic that I learned on. And later he gave it back to me when they got a wee Canon point and shoot that, for all practical purposes, was a better camera. It was a great little camera, relatively high end at the time.

It's one of the cameras I was going to drive one more time before selling/passing on.

I took two pictures with it today and it said, "Yeah, I'm done." No more pictures. Wouldn't advance. Wouldn't rewind. It made it easy to toss it in the garbage. The lenses go on eBay next week with $1 starting bids. The hardest one for me to sell is a Tokina 17mm that was the most expensive thing I ever bought once. Relatively speaking. It was $300 or so and a magical thing. I had never looked through a lens so wide. It took some great photos.

The film experiment continues tomorrow. Tomorrow's camera is a Yashica T3 with a Zeiss lens. It's not that different than what Fred Herzog shot with. It might even be better. It's probably better. Fred is a pretty amazing photographer without considering what he shot with, but when you realize he shot with a kid's toy camera it gets even more amazing.

The Yashica is an amazing little camera. I've already promised it to a good friend. She has reluctantly accepted it, though I haven't made good on the threat to give it to her yet. She understands Herzog and quirky things but that doesn't help in this case because it's hard to get over how crappy this little camera looks. But, Zeiss.

Or maybe tomorrow it won't wind film and I'll be chucking it in the trash too. Don't know.

15-6-2

I'm cleaning house. Slowly. I donated some shoes, and some clothes. I've sold a whole mess of stuff on eBay. I've sold a couple of bikes.

I have too much stuff.

Some of it is trophies. Some of it is just garbage. And some of it I keep around because I'm nostalgic.

I'm about to sell a car. I have two cars and a motorcycle. I drive the three of them collectively less than 8000kms a year. For a person who doesn't drive I sure do have a lot of vehicles.

There's a lamp that I never installed. At least two more bikes. Cameras. I have a lot of cameras. Most get used, there are three that don't. They will be gone soon.

One man's garbage...

This blanket was rescued from a dumpster in Calgary. It was still wrapped in plastic. The house was to be demolished, sold by the kids of deceased parents. They hired someone to gut the place. There was a picture of the owner shaking hands with Brian Mulroney. 78rpm records. A brand new, in the box, metal Coleman cooler that you'd see sell on eBay for about $100 or more. There was a lot of stuff with reasonable value, but I saw this blanket, an authentic, made in England, point blanket. This one is 3 1/2 points. It sells for $350 today, and I found it in a dumpster.

It's a prized possession, and a lovely piece.

Some of the stuff I'm getting rid of is junk. But the car, the bikes, the cameras, they have potential. They might make someone as happy as this blanket makes me, though there won't be a car in the dumpster behind my house. The cameras will be free, or close to it, They are all film, if anyone is interested.... Some are pretty neat. All are decent. I will put one more roll through each before they go to make sure they still work. It's a good time to do this since my trusted Nikon will be going in to be repaired this week.

...

The Nikon goes in to be repaired this week. Yes, I have two other digital cameras, but I think I'm going to shoot film for a bit. So... a pause. When taking inventory a pause is a good idea. Though I'm keeping four film cameras, and "last driving" three. There will be no rest in the pause, camera wise anyway.

...

It's a great blanket.

15-6-1

In William Gibson's 1993 novel Virtual Light the Bay Bridge becomes a place where parasitic structures are built to house squatters. The bridge into Astoria is reminiscent of that. It's merely under renovation, but I can imagine funds running out, a company folding, and people inhabiting the remnants of a temporary structure, Working in Vancouver's DTES has shown time and time again how the temporary can become (semi)permanent.

15-5-31

Seattle. Gas Works Park in the morning.

Astoria in the evening.

The car goes up for sale this week. It was a good way to use it one last time.

15-5-30

Seattle. At night.

15-5-29

 Main Sheet Metal opened on Main Street in 1922. They closed their doors today. This is their last day on site. I've dealt with them for the last 5 years. Many say it's a sad thing to see this metal fabrication shop shut down just shy of 100 years in business. But they shut down of their own accord. They were retiring. They were a going concern making decent money right up until the end. It makes me happy that people can still make a living doing this kind of thing. They had just gotten to a point where they wanted to retire, they'd had enough. They weren't forced out, there wasn't an economic hardship that forced them to make the hard decision to close the doors. No, they decided they'd had enough. They'd worked enough. And it was time to shut it down.

The floors were wooden. There were no sprinklers. A shop like this may not exist anywhere else in the North America. It will never exist again. That makes me sad. But I'm happy for the owners.