Catch Up

Here are a few of the images from the past few months.  I have been struggling with the Mamiya and film developing.  My results are extremely random.  One good composition out of a roll and that picture has streaks, flare or scratches.  I bought some new film and will shoot that for the next month or so.  Click on thumbnail for larger size picture.

Digital to start.

 I heard this bird hit the window.  It was Summer so he was really dirty.

 In the garden among the basil.

 This roll of film was in a Kodak 616 camera purchased at a garage sale.  Total of eight pictures of this family's camping trip.

Film from here to the bottom of the post.

 Film at the American River toward Lake Tahoe.

 Vineyard on Pleasant Valley Road in El Dorado County.

 Tahoe.

 Virginia City, Nevada

 Chester moves just when you have his eyes in focus.

 Folsom, CA dam shot from under the new over crossing by the prison.

Happy 4th

El Dorado Hills shot off their fireworks tonight.  I hiked up one of the El Dorado hills and shot these pics over the multiplex/town center.  Some other community was setting off fireworks over the next hill  to the east--those are the little explosions in the background!

Medium Format Film

A shrewd garage sale expert scored a gently-used Mamiya 645 medium format camera for me.  I shot the film that was loaded in the camera but didn't know what that film was until I removed the roll.  Turns out it was black and white 100 speed film.  I purchased developing chemicals, a tank and drying clips and read the instructions on the 'net.  I had trouble feeding the roll onto the reel in the dark.  Once that was resolved, I expected the pictures to be destroyed since I handled the negative so much.

Here are a couple of the first shots:

Gracie on the driveway.  Uploaded 3mb jpeg but blogger reduces to 179kb jpeg.

Pond reflection regular 1500 pixel long side jpeg.

Herb garden.  The dog shot was metered in my head; the other two metered through my digital camera's internal meter or a spot meter that came with the camera. 

More shots to follow in the coming weeks.

Yosemite National Park #8

jp1ckle and I headed out to Yosemite (eighth National Park for me in the last three weeks) to see if we could find Rita.  It was Saturday and the park was a madhouse.  We parked on a side street in the valley and hiked to the lower falls, around to the Ahwahnee Hotel, back to the meadow and then returned to the car to drive up to Glacier Point.  Cell phones were only good for emergency calls, so we couldn't get ahold of the rest of our party.  Enjoy the pics.

jp1ckle by the lower falls.  She shot pictures all day long and snapped a few keepers.

The few clouds we saw that day.

jp1ckle assignment from me.  She has a knack for photography!

Ranger on duty at the Point.

A little more water this time compared to my visit last August.

Oh, and we saw a bear, of course!

He posed for a long time before the tourists got too close.

Crater Lake

I broke away from the caravan and stopped by Crater Lake on my way home.  Luckily the north entrance was open as the park service cleared the previous night's snow from the road.

Fresh snow piled up and clear skies.

Stellar Jay watching the tourists.

The one time I stopped from Crater Lake to CA.

My new art--movement and reflection.  Why stop or even slow down!

Oregon Coast

Here are some shots taken while stopping along the coast.  Click for larger image.

Covered Bridge near Lincoln City, OR.

Under the bridge.

Three taken while waiting for other photographers to finish shooting.

Halibut Fish Tacos.

 Swimming toward the open sea.

My National Parks pass got me into this park as well.  Add $7 to the total.

When a new one landed several others were pushed off the sides.