Granny

My grandma passed away on Friday. It was for the best, but I sure will miss her. I love you, Granny! Rest in peace.

Ace!

I got to spend some quality time in the Ace Hotel photobooth last Sunday with Elizabeth. She's got the other strips posted on her blog. Warning: they're pretty geeky. Why is it so cool to take pictures of cameras?

I flew to Portland Sunday morning and had the flight almost to myself. It was so nice to have an entire row to myself. Beth picked me up and we headed to Hawthorne for some shopping. I picked up a used copy of the Sunset Western Garden book for $12, a sun print kit, and a cute little green wallet covered in owls, and a styrofoam cooler and some ice from the Fred Meyer. Huh? Yeah. We went to Kenny & Zukes for lunch, and since I was meeting my dad in Cannon Beach later that day, and since he was raised in Queens, NY on good Jewish deli food, I had to take him some pastrami, potato salad, onion bagels and scallion cream cheese. After lunch, we hit the photobooth, and the Whole Foods for desserts (which I'm praying our Whole Foods carries), and cruised out to Fort Stevens. We checked out the wreck of the Peter Iredale, and Battery Russell and got freaked out by birds and boys playing laser tag in the battery. Beth dropped me off in Cannon Beach so I could spend the week with my dad and nephew and his pal Josh. I was sad to see her go, but we get to spend some time together again tomorrow while she passes through Utah on her way down south. Yay!

I had a wonderful time with my dad and took about 50 more Polaroids and five rolls of film. I shot color and black & white in my new Banner (see post below), and a couple color rolls in my Duaflex, and I'll be dropping them off soon this morning. I haven't scanned anything other than this photobooth strip, but I'll work on everything Monday.

The Kenny & Zukes fare was a huge hit with my dad. He loved it all! Thanks for a great trip, Dad!

PS: Why does Southwest Airlines' orange juice always taste like bacon-infused OJ? Yuck.

Swoon

A very kind friend sent me a beautiful little Banner Diana clone and these are from my first roll. My husband will give me angry eyes for posting a photo of him, but he looks pretty cool playing disc golf, and I think he'd be impressed with the definition in his calf muscle. :) This Banner is amazing. I've never had a Diana blur this much, and I'm not sure I'll ever use my other Dianas again. I can't wait to run some color film through it this weekend. The rest of the roll will be posted on my Flickr photostream throughout the day.

The Office

Last Saturday morning we hit the road for the day so I could chalk up a few hours for my summer job. We drove almost 400 miles round trip to the mountains east of Fairview, Utah and back, and saw a lot of beautiful scenery that we didn't realize existed. These two images are digital (boo) and originally color, but I converted them in PS to something I like better. The color versions were nice, but I felt like some black and white this morning. The first one is off Miller Flat Road in the morning, the second one in Huntington Canyon after a really bad lunch of the dryest turkey sandwiches on earth.

We stopped in Huntington to grab lunch, thinking the grocery store deli would be our best bet, since the only other eating establishment was a Subway. We figured we'd grab some rolls, some fresh-sliced deli turkey, some provolone, and some dijon mustard, but we were amused to find that the only meats the deli had were pepperoni, roast beef, and pastrami. We asked for some free mustard packets and made our way to the refrigerator section, where we grabbed some relatively appetizing-looking prepackaged mesquite turkey, some string cheese instead of provolone because there was none to be had, a small loaf of fresh French bread, and some chips. I made the sandwiches from the passenger seat as we were driving up the canyon. They provided us with full bellies, but they were gross sandwiches. We made up for it at dinner with chile verde burritos at Porcupine Pub in Salt Lake.

#12

I shot a lot of pack film in Southern Utah and these four are my favorites. I think I am well on my way to crossing #12 off my list.

Dusk and Dawn

I think these two Polaroids might be my favorite two Polaroids I've made so far. I think I give that title to a lot of my Polaroids. The one on top is in Torrey, Utah, after dinner and before the massive rainbow (two posts below). The light was incredible this whole evening! The Polaroid on the bottom is in Fruita in Capitol Reef the next morning. A lovely apple orchard. At least I think that's what this one was. Fruita is filled with orchards of cherries, apples, apricots, and peaches, and in the fall, you can walk through and harvest what you want for a small fee. I would love to pick some fresh apples, walk back to my campsite, and make a dutch oven apple crisp over the fire. Yum!

I'm almost done posting my Southern Utah photos. It's been a long haul, but we're in the final stretch. Only a handful of SLR 680/600 Polaroids left, then two 690s from my 104, and 11 ID-UV images from the 104. I loved the ID-UV this trip!

Back outside to plant some red salvia in my front yard. I wish I had a personal gardener some days.

Goodbye Local Color!

I'm both happy and sad to announce that I'm retiring my Local Color series at the end of the month, but it's going out with a bang. Several years ago, determined to get outside and beat the winter blues, I loaded my Holga with Fuji NPH 400 and drove downtown and shot my very first image of what turned into a nice little series for me. I've had the opportunity to show it in four exhibits since 2007, and its last public appearance will be right across the street from where I shot that very first image and fell in love with the idea of shooting these types of facades in my hometown. I've been so happy with this project, and I had a great time shooting it over the years, and I'm happy that its last show will be at home in Ogden. The opening is tomorrow night at the Gallery at the Station at the Ogden Union Station on 25th and Wall Avenue from 6-8, and the show runs through June 30. Please feel free to stop by to say hello to me and goodbye to Local Color. (You can click on the postcard to make it bigger.)