It’s for any and all Idiots - 24 hours of Lemons

A gathering of Ottoson’s took place in Hillsboro, Kansas this last week.  These are a few snaps from that experience

Also paid a visit to the Marion Records which is the county newspaper that was illegally raided about two years ago.  A real tragedy - the owner was a 90 year old that died the day after the raid from the stress.  A reveal of small town abuse of power, bullying.

From the reunion we headed north to the Flint Hills - more on that later

Just a few pics from my last trip to the plains.  

Today is my 70th birthday - really having a hard time wrapping my head around this.  My body is well aware of my age with recent knee pain, gout, PT for back pain.  Saturday there will be bunches of people here to help me celebrate so I have that going for me.  Prefer to think of me as a 5 year old

Garden Gnome of a different type

Here’s a shot I took today at the Wheat Ridge Carnation Festival Parade on 28th Street.   Give me a story combining all the elements - street sweeper, little girl and a  Nun

In the vibrant tapestry of Los Angeles’s music scene, LA LOM stands out for its ability to seamlessly weave together the diverse genres and cultures of the city into its music. Short for The Los Angeles League of Musicians, LA LOM is composed of LA natives Zac Sokolow (Guitar), Jake Faulkner (Bass), and Nicholas Baker (Drums/Percussion).

The roots of LA LOM reach back to 2019, when the band was assembled to play five nights a week in the lobby of the historic Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard. Initially tasked with providing background music for hotel patrons, tourists, and passersby off the street, LA LOM soon began experimenting with a genre-transcending repertoire that reflects the diverse musical diaspora of Angelenos.

LA LOM started out reimagining instrumental renditions of the soulful ballads from the 1950s and ’60s that they grew up listening to on LA’s oldies station, K-EARTH 101, evoking the laid-back aesthetic that defines the region, and drawing inspiration from luminaries like Smokey Robinson, Aaron Neville, and Brenda and the Tabulations.

Their sonic palette expanded to encompass the romantic allure of classic Mexican Boleros and the Cumbia Sonidera woven into the very fabric of the city’s soundscape, resonating through the streets from car stereos, backyard parties, and lively dance halls. LA LOM carved out a sound that blends all of these elements with the guitar-driven twang of Peruvian Chicha and Bakersfield Country.

Zac Sokolow’s musical lineage spans generations. He began his creative journey performing alongside his father, a respected figure in LA’s bluegrass community, whose family relocated from Buenos Aires to LA in the 1930s. Jake Faulkner comes from a family of Venice artists and met Zac at age 16. Zac and Jake honed their craft through years of collaboration in various bands within Southern California’s vibrant Rockabilly scene before eventually joining to form LA LOM. Nicholas Baker was steeped in Latin music from childhood by his grandmother, who hailed from a musical family in Durango, Mexico, and gained fame as a DJ on a Spanish-language radio station in Tucson, Arizona. He studied Latin percussion with renowned Nuyorican bassist and percussionist Roberto Miranda.

LA LOM have quickly ascended to playing to thousands of people and have captured the attention of Beck, Vampire Weekend and Zane Lowe.  

Am thinking of taking the Bronica ETRS ( 645 ) on the trip to Hillsboro, Kansas.  I hadn’t used it in awhile so I decided to shoot a roll of Tri X.  Glad I did as the focus on many the shots were off.  In looking at things I realized that the aftermarket focusing screen was not sitting correctly in its holder.  I put back the OEM screen and everything was sorted out.  Here are a few of the backyard scenes.

One of my favorite albums.  Suggest you look at the other albums that Charlie Haden has done .  These two are both from Missouri but from different types of Missouri.

Having no real good place to talk about film experimentation I thought I would throw it up here.  My Substack audience is a general audience and would have no interest in this level of geekery.  This blog has NO audience so perfect.

What I bring you is expired Ilford FP4 type 517 Cine film.  Respolled from larger cine rolls.  The description made it sound like the 2nd coming of the film Jesus and at only 3 English Pounds why not.  

My first time out was not so gracious.  I shot this on my trusty point and shoot Contax T2, at ISO 100.  Developed in HC110 B for 14.5 minutes.  Negs were darker than normal - ? over exposed or over developed?  Hard for me to know.

I have 9 rolls left so I can continue to experiment - may try shooting it at ISO 200 with same time in the HC110B

Last week we went to Buffalo, WY for the annual Longmire Days =- celebrating the books and Netflix series about sheriff Walt Longmire.  The Town in the book is Durant, WY in Absaroka County.  Craig Johnson is the author of over 20 books.

Sorry no images of actors or author as I didn’t go to any of the break out sessions - too busy shooting landscapes and other things

There’s always something new and interesting and C and C.  

I can’t even pronounce the name of the company but this film is called GP3 and it comes in 220 format.  You can’t find 220 film anymore save this outlet.  220 is nothing more than 120 film ( medium format) that has twice the number of exposures.  I shoot a 645 format so instead of 15 exposures I get 30.  This is very handy.  I can shoot 220 in both of my 645 cameras.  Developing this Chinese film was a little tricky and at least 10 exposures were ruined by a light leak as I tried to figure out how to get it on the Patterson reels.

On a recent post I spoke about these women who do prairie murals  Some Gals and a Mural and I reached out to them to find out if they did this one in Flagler, Colorado - Yep they did - I’ve admired this work every time I go into Flagler or pass it on I 70 and wanted to highlight it.  Job well done.

An amazing photo book by Tim Richmond, a British Photographer who can’t get enough of the real American West

Tim Richmond’s American West is a desolate place filled with cowboys (or men who look like cowboys), and the few women are also at least a little rough around the edges. There are mostly empty roads and what look like desolate towns, with whatever humans being present feeling like tumbleweeds being blown about. It is a place filled with characters and locations that manage to be specific and completely generic at the same time, with a rough, somewhat hurt, tenderness underneath.  -= Amazon Review

Through an online news feed I found Two ladies doing Rural Murals and wanted to give them some attention here on my blog.

Quite talented and it adds much needed color to the prairie.  Pay a visit to their web site .

Roadside Memorial

These shots were all on film - specifically Kodak ECN-2 which is 35 mm Movie Film still being produced for studios.  Once the Remjet is removed it can be processed in either ECN-2 chemicals or C41.  My scanning YouTube reviews seems to show not much of a difference between the results although using Cinestill 2bath kit makes using C41 very appealing.  These were not processed by me but rather Tree House Labs who has been very good to work with

The  Colorado airstream club hosted a very unique rally down in northern New Mexico at the Ghost Ranch conference center. Ghost Ranch has its own history apart from Georgia O’Keefe the painter. To be sure Georgia O’Keefe is a large part of that history. The conference center has ties to the Presbyterian Church but is welcome to anyone.  Many people come and stay for several days at a time but it is also meant for day use.

No other airstream club that I know of his ever had a rally at Ghost Ranch so this made it quite a unique experience. Because of this it was decided early on to make it a circle the wagons arrangement with all of the club activities in the center of the circle which worked out very well for socializing.

Book Club

Audience

As part of our tradition in the Colorado airstream club there is usually a book club. This time we read a magnificent biography of Georgia O’Keefe which markedly enhanced our understanding of the painter, her inspirations and her life

Through the Georgia O’Keefe welcome center in Abiquiu, NM which is just down the road from ghost Ranch we were able to take a tour of one of her homes. It was an amazing tour befitting an unusual artist. The last picture is that of her Mercedes which she used to drive fearlessly on the two-lane highways around her home.

I would strongly recommend reading the biography and then making  the effort to go down and actually visit Ghost Ranch

I picked up a used Contax T2 yesterday.  I thought I knew how to use it pretty much without reading the manual.  Half way thru the roll I thought that the exposures were all messed up.  Finished the roll and to my absolute amazement the developed film came out pretty good.  Turns out that reading the manual can give you insight!!  Here is one of the shots from the back yard that I really love

This was a pleasant surprise

After the disaster of trying to home develop ECN-2 I thought I would see if I could develop C41 film at home - have in the past but my faith in my abilities were shaken.  I went to Cars and Coffee in Lafayette, CO shooting Santa 100 film from Ukraine by way of Finland.

Just a Rabbit

A little Kelvin correction and the pictures came out fine.  Faith restored!

I’m amazed at how many new places have sprung up willing to develop your film.  This is by no means exhaustive but just the ones I see on Instagram or that I have personally used.

https://www.jfdigitalphoto.net/

https://www.treehousefilmlab.com.    I have used

https://thefindlab.ecwid.com

https://www.indiefilmlab.com

https://oldschoolphotolab.com

https://northcoastphoto.com/film-processing/

https://www.bestfilmdeveloping.com/index.php

https://www.photocitylabs.com/price-list/

https://gelatinlabs.com

https://photo60studio.com//film-processing/

https://atxfilmlab.com

https://bluemooncamera.com/photo-lab/send-us-your-film

https://www.theslideprinter.com/services/c-41-and-black-and-white-film-processing/

https://www.voidfilmlabs.com

https://thedarkroom.com. I have used 

The Darkroom is my go to place - they have it down to a science.  Prepaid mailers, images back thru the web.  They have been around a very long time.  I trust them.

Treehouse Lab I just started using for developing ECN-2 film because most labs won’t deal with remjet removal.  I thought they did a good job and very attentive to the end product.  Just sent in my 2nd roll of film.

I continue to add to my portfolio of the Prairie.