my life, as far as i know.

i put another 360 miles on my car today.

i went for a long drive — another very theraputic drive. i started on 101 south. i decided to go a bit futher than last time. i caught a glimpse of a sign mentioning the san antonio mission, so i decided to turn west. what a great adventure it turned out ot be.

along jolon road i spotted three wine barrels next to a small shed situated in front of a large tree. i was having some bad luck trying to get the shot i wanted — in fact, my polaroid back jammed! i was fiddling with the back when a guy in a pickup truck pulled up from behind the fence. we struck up a conversation about the land and photos and wine. turns out he’s planning on building a house, where i was standing, for wine tasting. he told me about the barrels: how he leaves the old ones out and people pick them up, using them for planters, etc. he gave me a bottle of wine! a bottle of cabernet. the cork is from his neighbor’s vineyard — san bernabe. i gave him one of my polaroids of the barrels and tree, something for him to remember the day by.

later i passed a small historical site, the dutton hotel. it was built in 1849 and only a few pieces of it remain. it was along el camino real, one of the main routes to california’s gold country.

i made it onto hunter liggett military base. it’s an active training site, so you have to show your license, proof of insurance, and registration before you’re allowed on the property. once you’re in you can get to mission san antonio.

the mission is pretty interesting. it was built in 1771 as a place of rest and worshop between san diego and carmel. it was the first mission to use spanish tile roofs, and was also the first mission to hold a marriage ceremony. i wandered around, taking in deep california history. i later read, when mexico won its independence from spain, they sold the missions. this one became dilapidated and the indians who had remained couldn’t sustain themselves. abraham lincoln saved the missions by declaring them property of the catholic church.

i made my way out of hunter liggett and continued west towards the coast. i started seeing fog rolling over the mountains in the distance. i saw lots of wildlife — a young deer playing peek-a-boo with me from the side of the road, then darting across. i saw a huge spider.. its body was nearly the size of my palm! i’ve only ever seen spiders that large in zoos.

i made a stop in the woods to take in this beautiful waterfall. it framed in tall trees, some fallen, some moss covered.

shorly afte the waterfall, i saw something large in the road. i couldn’t tell what it was, so i slowed down. then it turned. it was an eagle! when it took off i saw it had a squirrel in its talons. it was awesome seeing an eagle and its catch so close up. the rest of the drive to the coast was fantastic.

i ended the day with dinner in monterrey. i walked around looking for a place and wandered into cibo. everything came one step at a time (which is really the right way to enjoy a meal). a glass of cabernet. a green salad. a ribeye steak with asparagus. a cappucino.

i took 68 back to salinas, then 101 north back up to home. i’m getting to know this long stretch of 101 between san jose and salinas.

today was so awesome. it was vacation. i had lots of fun driving, i listened to music all day, i got some some film, i had some interseting experiences, and i experienced more of nature’s diverse beauty.

you know i’ve seen a lot of what the world can do
and it’s breakin’ my heart in two
because i never wanna see you a sad girl
don’t be a bad girl
but if you wanna leave, take good care
i hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
but just remember there’s a lot of bad and beware..

this past weekend i listened to tea for the tillerman in light of cat stevens being banned from entering the united states. i remember listening to this album on vinyl a long time ago. i bought it on compact dics in college and i still listen to it.. but now it has a different meaning to me. listening to stevens sing about how the world is a scary place made me feel sad.

i’ve discovered the magic of scanning 4×5. i’m trading scanners with a friend of mine; his is capable of scanning sheet film. scans at 3200 dpi yield a 130+ million pixel image. after taking out dust, cloning out scratches, and unsharp masking, once you resize down to something manageable, the image turns out great.

i haven’t seen any plans or mock-ups of the future lobby at work. i think it’s going to follow our corporate logo colors. i think a LF image of it after completion would be a lot of fun.

today someone i work with passed away. one week, he was in our weekly staff meeting. he was in the hospital for a week and a half, and now he is gone. amid all our stresses and added processes due to financial audits, we have to take up more slack. not that we mind. this is the third person i’ve worked with that passed away. one to a congenital heart condition, and two quickly succumbed to cancer.

why oh why do people not pull up all the way when they stop on the road? they sit back so far from the white line they’d never trip the sensors. they leave two car-lengths ahead of them in traffic and inch up during the red light. it drives me nuts!!

when i bought my car, they couldn’t find the remotes for it. the customer service manager assured me they’d order some and that they would take a week to get here from japan. a week later, i called into the service department. they weren’t in. there was apparently a delay in shipping of all items from japan. i called several times over the next few days to find out it would take another week to get items but that they were on the way. the guy in the parts department took down my number and said they would call when the parts came in. i never got a phone call. i waited patiently for another week and decided to drop in. i went to the parts department, and sure enough the remotes were in stock. the parts guy gave me one and printed up a receipt. i talked to someone in service and was told that i’d have to wait until wednesday (four days) because the programming equipment was locked up on weekends and wednesday was the next available appointment. i waited again until wednesday. i got up extra early to be at the dealer at 7:30 when they opened. i waited in line wednesday morning, got all signed in, only to learn that not only does the receipt i have show i owe the dealership money for the remote, but the remote may be the wrong one (and i may need two and not one) and that i should get in touch with the customer service manager.. who doesn’t get in until noon.

i had to scan two halves of the negative this time — 6×12 — and put the two together in photoshop. this is from my second negative through the kodak. this is the EI100-on-3200 roll. next time i’ll develop it a bit more. the 6×12 format is pretty neato. just eyeing the negs, it looks like the focus guide on the camera isn’t that far off. but shooting wide open at infinity works like a champ. doing a portrait with this one looks relatively easy.

i accidentally shot a roll of delta 3200 at ei100. for ei 400 i 1+25 rodinol, the time is 5.5 minutes. i decided to try.. 1+50 at 6 minutes. the negative came out ok but i wished i’d developed it longer.. maybe the dilution/time for 400? i think the timing on the shutter i used is way off anyways. so much for being thinky about this.

i shot the roll in a kodak 1-a.

i should have the shutter worked on one of these days. it seems i now have something that shoots 6×12 (with taped quarters keeping the film inside the camera!)

last night i had dinner at my new favourite place for steak — le petit robert in san francisco. the bistro steak is done perfectly, with herb butter on top and crispy fries that soak up the huge amount of juice from the steak. i’ve been there once before and came back just for the steak.

i wasn’t able to find any definitive answer to number of cranks for 120 film in a kodak 1-a pocket. so here’s what i came up with using a sacrificed roll of film:

1. tape up four quarters together, twice, making two thick shims. these should let 120 spools fit with some give.

2. load the film in the back of the camera — film spool first, then empty take-up roll on the crank side, then pull some film out (holding the spool back in) and feed into the tape-up spook. holding both spools in their respective sides, wind the film until you barely see the tape at the beginning of the film.

3. put the camera back together. probably good to tape up the amber window at this point.

4. turn the film four complete (360 degrees) turns to line up for the first shot.

5. take first exposure.

6. turn the film three-and-a-half turns to line up to the next spot.

7. take second exposure.

8. repeat above steps through the third and fourth exposure.

9. after the fourth exposure, wind the film until you feel it get loose and make sure it’s wound all the way onto the take-up spool.

tomorrow i’ll put this to the test. i loaded kodak 400tx. i’ll probably shoot wide open (6.3) and fastest mark on the shutter (1/50.. doubt it’s really this speed). i’ll have my trusty gossen scout 3 with me, so i’ll decide on the first exposure if i’m pushing the film or not.

the ever beautiful deardorff makes an appearance on the cover of this month’s esquire!

this week i received this old folding camera from my grandparents. it was my great grandfather’s kodak 1-a pocket. there’s nothing special about this camera.. it was mass-produced in the late 1920s and early ’30s. unfortunately, it’s not a model 1, which can use 120 film. this model takes a116, which will take some creativity.

the inside ends of front and back elements were incredibly clean, as is the outside of the bellows. all in all, the camera is in great shape. i hope to take it out for a test roll shot this weekend. i was reading that, with modified 120 film, this camera can expose 6×12!

the coolest thing about the a116 film and this camera.. is the film was wound with carbon paper and a thin red film. after you exposed an image, you opened a thin narrow door on the back of the camera body. you used the attached stylus to write a short description of your short. the pressure from the stylus transfers the cabon to the paper, thus exposing light through the carbon layer. daylight exposes your writing directly to the film! very clever.

these cameras aren’t worth much today.. the original sale price of $18! ($194 in today’s dollar) the value in this camera is that it was a part of our family. i hope to one day use this camera to take a family portrait.

this morning i went out to shoot some film (after i went back home to pick up my jacket to use as a dark cloth). i was parked in a lot along side the dumbarton bridge. i had the obligatory police officer encounter, then went about my business.

i was on a salty edge of a waterway creeping closer and closer to the water, framing my shot. i saw a darker spot on the ground and thought it would be a bit firmer. i was sadly mistaken and my foot went right through the ground. i pulled my foot back up but in wasn’t moving. i pulled harder and my entire shoe was covered with a smelly, black sludge. yuck!!

i stomped around trying to lose the weight of the whatever and went ahead to frame up and expose the film. i went back to my car, thinking of what i was going to do. i decided to clean off the shoe as best i could. i used a rock to scrap off the stuff from the sides and bottom. i set it and the sock on the floor in the back seat. i put my other sock on my foot.

when i got home i decided i didn’t want to wear the shoes ever again. i cut my losses and threw them away.

now i’m wearing my old shoes — the pair that caused my mom to force me to buy new shoes! she gave me a hard time about them when i saw her, as predicted. at least i had a good story this time.

the upgrade was quick and easy. it’s made me think if i should redo the look/feel of my blog or leave it as-is.

this is the first shot i took on my long drive last week. my monitor at home is horribly uncalibrated.. this did look much better when i hit save. :-/

tonight’s incredible aural journey is with porcupine tree’s in abstentia. this too is mastered well. with music like this, you do yourself a favour and sit right in the middle of it. close your eyes and you are totally gone…..

tonight i am savoring a tasty dessert for my ears:

esteban’s enter the heart in master quality, 24bit 5.1 dts audio.

on my system at home, i feel so spoiled. listening to regular stereo recordings just gets me by until i can come home and listen to music like this, in a format like this. it’s so crystal clear you can’t help but turn it up a little more. and when esteban bursts into a loud solo it sends chills down your spine.

nothing tops it. nothing.

last night i saw napoleon dynamite for the second time. i can’t remember when i laughed so hard at a movie. it’s creative and funny. it’s so great to see big hollywood movies outdone by small shops and small names.

last night i went on what i call a therapeutic drive. i packed up a camera, plenty of music, and headed in an arbitrary direction with no particular destination in mind. the drive turned into a five hour, 245 mile endeavor.

i started on 101 south, nearly 100 miles to soledad, california. by this point i wasn’t sure if i should head back or not. it was already around ten o’clock. i decided to head west and try to hit the coast and follow back up to santa cruz where i could pick up highway 17 to get home.

this far south, there are few ways to get to the coast. you’re on the easy side of los padres national forrest. i knew getting anywhere would be slow and windy. good thing i have a car that handles well and is a true joy to drive. :)

off the freeway, i took arroyo seco road (g17). it took me a while to know if i was headed in the right direction or not. i actually got out of the car and looked for the north star for a general heading! once i was reasonably assured i was going the right way (it didn’t take too long to get myself in the middle of nowhere) i noticed how striking the sky was. out here, the sky is so dark you can see the milky way galaxy band accross the sky. i was driving slow for a while after that, sneaking in peaks up through my car’s windshield, staring at the sky.

i got myself to carmel valley road (g16) and headed north. carmel valley follows the eastern border of los padres national forrest. this is where things got incredible. along this long, windy drive i saw lots of animals: a pair of small grey foxes, a possum, a skunk, and eventually 3 more foxes. i even saw a large frog hop accross the road. i stopped a few times to again stare off into the sky. i can’t remember the last time i’ve seen a sky so dark. just seeing the sky like that is enough to send me off to another world. i think it’s one of the most beautiful natural wonders of the world.

i reached the height of mount carmel and passed over to laureles grade road (g20). on this path i ran into another amazing view — a birds eye view of the monterey bay area. you could see the curvature of the area’s coastline. knowing i was close to the coast, i started heading home. i took laureles grade to monterey road (68) around the city of seaside back to salines, where i made my final stop for fuel.

in the gas station in salinas, there was a motorcycle rider talking to the clerk about nearly falling asleep on the road. “i almost lost it doing 150 — no, 157 actually — time for an energy drink.” i picked up some crackers and bottled water and cut through salinas back to 101, where i made a quick and safe return home.

it was 1:30 am when i got back, and it seemed like i had just come home from a vacation.