Long day working and then seriously fun touring led to this market. So much beautiful food, so many new tastes to try. There’s not much in this life more fun….

smoke

Rebet XT
ISO 1600
55mm

converted to B&W from raw (.cr2) in CS3

The light caught my eye – I can remember making everybody stop for a few seconds while I took a picture. We were completely lost in the back streets of Rome… I couldn’t find this building again if my life depended on it, but I bet I could find the little family restaurant where we ate that night. wow.

Interesting here is how much color faded from the scanned TIFF file to the compressed JPEG for posting online. The slide is vibrant, rich with light, and this posted JPEG looks flat to my eye. I may go back to the TIFF file and play with it a bit, then try compressing again…

roman alley

Pentax K-1000
50mm at ISO 50
Fujichrome Velvia slide film

Nikon Super Coolscan 4000ED
14-bit dual-pass scan

I can’t believe this was almost three years ago. K and I have known each other for nearly our whole lives, yet we rarely catch up. Every now and then though, a great canoe or backpacking trip brings back the friendship.

This trip we were backpacking along Lake Superior, in February. As much as I dislike the cold where I now live, as much as I despise snow and ice and the deep bone-chilling days of winter here in Michigan, I have learned to appreciate the beauty of the north. Lake Superior though… there’s a cold in that place that’s more than just a lack of warmth. Excepting for the lights, the nights are ink.

Sunset across Lake Superior. And yes, for my Southern family, that is the lake.

superior sun

Tried to shoot the lights that night too – they were stunning. But at the time? No tripod and an old Sony camera.

This photo kept talking to me while I was in town. I kept shooting but never liked the results – until I walked down there at night with a tripod and some patience.

moons’l

A couple of emails later – y’all can use the comments link too – and I feel I should define “moonsail.” I didn’t make the word up, it’s just old. Wiki moonsail, often pronounced moons’l. 

I remember really wanting a cup of tea. My first morning back in town, and on such a chilly morning I hoped a cuppa would keep my other hand warm while we walked along. The day, through the dampness and cold, turned out to be full of wonder and shared beauty.

Don’t know what kind of plant this is, but up close and with a little of the day’s rain I liked it.

gloss

Rebel XT
ISO 400 at… dunno, was early and I wanted tea…

Near Camp’s Bay, just outside of Cape Town, South Africa, I took this shot while leaning out over a top-floor balcony railing of this cake/drinks place right down on the water. We’d gone to celebrate the end of a training workshop and the beginning of video archiving work for what became the Community Video Education Trust website.

The moon was rising over the Twelve Apostles (the twelve peaks stretching out behind Table Mountain) and I caught sight of Luna just as she was coming out of the thick fog – before too long, the same fog was drifting across the mountains, over us, and down to the water.

I don’t remember camera settings – are you kiddin’ me? Like three years ago – over a few glasses of wine. Camera settings…

lunar prophecies

Trying to remember settings from the camera on this one… I was a little distracted by a red scarf. I just don’t write this stuff down when I’m on the road. A good guess: ISO 400 with about a 5 second exposure.

glasslight

Snapped not far from the Alamo, I’d love to know the story of this gentleman. He was sitting just outside a church, dressed nicely. Church was still in. I’ll make up a story one day to go along with the picture.

crockett

Pentax k-1000
Kodak BW400CN C-41 process film
50mm