Home for my 365 photo challenge, where I attempt to take and post a photo every day for the year.
Click on Photos to see all the photos on one page, or scroll down and look at each post. You can find more pictures and some not-very-good blogging at Cliff538. You can see the Polaroid archive page here.
Curious about my journey back into film shooting, you can find all those posts here. There is also a dedicated page to the journey and resources that I have personally used and can recommend.
I hope these pictures bring a smile and inspire you to go take some pictures.
Allow me another film shot today. It wasn’t shot today, but it was developed and processed today (I need to add this to the house rules! LOL). If I keep developing and processing this much, I may get good at it.
I made a photo set of all my PNW Road Trip keepers. I wrote up tips & tricks for developing and processing the last three rolls.
O.K., now onto that 120 film… I’m not going to lie, I’m a little nervous about spooling that up in the dark bag.
Today was all about getting some film developed, scanned, and processed. I was excited to see what I captured and, to be honest, if nothing looked good, I was going to reevaluate my film shooting… It’s a lot of work, not to mention expensive, and if you don’t love it and get a few shots you really like, you won’t be doing much of it.
I got enough keepers to keep me chugging along and shooting some film - ** big sigh of relief ** - There is a big learning curve getting back into shooting film, mostly relearning the limitations that you don’t have to worry about when shooting digital.
I do love the look of film, and the memories that it brings back for me; those things alone will keep me shooting it.
Down in Stray Pixels, some of my favorites from 3 rolls of 35mm developed today. Hopefully soon, I can get to the 120 that needs developing. I will make a page over on Cliff538.com with the rest of my film shots from the Washington trip; you can now find that here. I also need to decide what I’m doing with my borders. I did not take the time to crop off all the film edges. Part of me likes that, and part of me thinks they need to be properly cropped. I’ll do some of both and see which one wins out.
I posted some tips and tricks I learned from this latest develop & scan. You can see all of my “keepers” from the trip here.
👾Click for Stray Pixels👾
All Nikon F3, shot on Kodak Portra 400, Ektacolor 400, and Ilford Vintage Tone 400.
Note: it’s my understanding that Portra and Ektacolor are the same film, just different Kodak branding
I was so busy today cleaning everything up and putting stuff away that I forgot about pictures. I took 3 pictures today of River getting his post-vacation bath, and this was the best one. I cropped in heavily to keep the focus on him.
One of those days where I wished I had a better picture.
Cleaning up after a big road trip is so much work that I need another vacation!
Vacation Numbers and Thoughts:
Photos Shot
Nikon Z8: 589
iPhone: 693
3 rolls of 35mm on the Nikon F3
2 rolls of 120 on the Pentax 67
Polaroid: 0
I did not do nearly as much film shooting as I thought I would. There just isn’t enough time in the day when photography isn’t the main focus.
I was happy with a lot of the shots, but I’m still thinking about those old road signs I had to pass by. Painful. Again, I gotta work on a photography road trip.
I brought my Polaroid SX-70 and did not take a single photo.
Books read: Five. Very happy about that. I had ample reading time this year and loved moving from one book right into the next. I truly love reading. Physical Books purchased: Eleven. Two magazines all about books and reading. Ten stickers. One Haida Collection stationery set by Clarence Mills and a 6-DVD set by The Great Courses on The Story of Human Language.
Somehow, I completely forgot to journal. Digital or analog. I’m not happy about this, and it shows my habit is not as ingrained as I thought. In fact, I don’t even remember thinking that I should journal. I didn’t bring my paper journal, which won’t happen again, but I could have journaled in Obsidian and never even opened it. Sad. It’s important to me to look back on things with pictures, but having a journal ties it all together when you can read what you did that day, where you went, what you ate, etc.
Long day driving, lots of wind, but a few great signs. I wish I had more time to capture them properly. I can really see a road trip where the whole mission is photographing old road signs.
May your hope be strong.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest — in the Gale — is heard —
And sore must be the storm —
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm —
I’ve heard it in the chillest land —
And on the strangest Sea —
Yet — never — in Extremity,
It asked a crumb — of me.
~ Emily Dickinson
Today was a day of favorites: coffee shop, hike, stores, and fish & chips. Prepping for an early departure tomorrow. Filled up with diesel, which has become painful at $7.00+/gal.
Pictures from the road tomorrow.
I hope you are reading a good book. If not, start one today!
Hikes, Bookstores, Farmers' Markets, Coffee shops. I’m in my happy place.
The farmers' market was amazing. Over 100 booths and a little bit of everything. We found a proper used bookstore that was bursting with books, on two levels, with stacks all over the floor- how it should be, in my opinion.
One of my favorite writers is Karl Ove Knausgaard, and I found a hardcover first-edition set of My Struggle. Sadly, it was missing volume 1, but that will give me something to search for.
All the extra little bits down in Stray Pixels
Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. I hope you found some peace today in this hectic, out-of-control world we live in.
Another day of bookstores and walking around. Found an incredible deli that made me the best vegetarian sandwich I think I’ve ever had, along with a mushroom soup that I’m still thinking about.
Lots of signs today. Got pretty creative with the processing, pushing boundaries, and probably embarrassing my future self…
Live large, make pictures, and use lots of vignetting! LOL
15 more signs down in Stray Pixels
I hope you had a good day; hug someone and tell them you love them.
All film shooting today, so just a few iPhone shots to get the pic of the day.
Found our best halibut fish & chips place yet, just about perfect. Spent a few hours in the local bookstore, which was a delight. Will be back again to spend a few more hours. Purchased two books and two magazines that are dedicated to readers and books.
Explored the village of Fairhaven for a while and went to a local park for a hike. I could really get into this nice, simple lifestyle, LOL. Going to be hard to go back to work.
👾Click for Stray Pixels👾
All iPhone shot and processed
Nothing good down here, just mostly posted for the sake of memories.
A rare selfie just to document the first year my beard is totally white.
Good night’s sleep last night and a slower day today gave me time to catch up.
Great coffee and a six-mile hike today; caught up on some shopping and chores.
Down in Stray Pixels are the rest of the photos from yesterday. A couple of versions of “Keeping Watch”; the two people sitting out in front were just perfect. I really like the shot.
Easy day today. Coffee and breakfast at Locus, excellent coffee, and I can recommend the Quinoa breakfast bowl. 7-mile walk in the cool morning mist, then checked out the Community Food Co-op.
I shot mostly film today, so just a few iPhone pics.
I love trying all the local coffee shops, and one here stands head and shoulders above the rest. Camber Coffee has my heart for their coffee, attention to detail, food quality, and atmosphere.
Outstanding coffee this morning from a local shop. You know it’s good when the line is 30 minutes long. Great hike up to a lake today and halibut tacos. It’s a simple life.
Nice 6-mile hike along the waterfront today. Yet again, fish & chips for dinner and Lopez Island ice cream for dessert. Not a bad way to spend the day.
Down in Stray Pixels, you will see three stickers I found today. What a great way to spread positivity and love.
I need some.
Outstanding day: 7.5M / 12KM hiking, surrounded by Mother Nature and all her creations, Amazing fish & chips in Bellingham, great conversations with some of the locals. It was overcast most of the day, but we ended up with blue skies at the end, all in a wonderful temperature of 68°F/20°C.
More “making pictures” and hiking tomorrow.
Do something creative tomorrow, something that makes your heart smile and thank you very much for stopping by.
Good day, hiking and shooting. Not ideal because it’s getting the shot right now in this light; we have to keep moving. No waiting for good light or for this cloud to roll by. There is always a price to pay for being on the move, photography-wise.
Finally got the film cameras out and got a few shots on them as well.
I’m at least on this trip, starting to post pictures below that I normally wouldn’t. This blog is almost becoming an online journal of sorts. I want some pictures for my memories, not necessarily because they are good pictures. We will see how this evolves. It’s interesting how this blog has changed since its beginnings. I’m sure it will change some more.
Since writing more on this blog, I’ve started to ignore my personal journal. I sometimes just post a link to the day’s post in my journal. That was never my intent, but it’s what I’m seeing happen. Just more changes I see happening.
Keep the dirty side down, never stop learning, and take more pictures! Thanks for stopping by.
