Another image from the Weltini with Fuji Superia 200. Can you say manipulated? Yeah. The original scan was dreadful. Mayhap I made it dreadfuller. I had fun, regardless.
For the past year I had a roll of Fuji Superia 200 loaded into my vintage Welta Weltini camera from the 1930s. It works really well, but the fact is I really don’t like the camera all that much. It’s a 35mm camera, a small folder, and an excruciatingly small viewfinder. It does have a built-in focusing “spot” for lack of a better word, but the reality is that the tiny, tiny viewfinder makes it an extremely awkward camera to use, and it is not a pleasant experience. I think I may decide to sell off some of my collection. I doubt I could make a profit on this, but anyway . . .
Here, a cucumber on my patio this summer. Even though its leaves are not the most healthy looking, it has produced, and continues to produce, very tasty cucumbers. I thought I had planted lemon cucumbers, but these are what came up. Awhile back, I just planted every seed I had left, and there you are. I also planted some vining beans in the same pot. Out of all the seeds I stuck in there, planning to thin them after I could discern what plant was which, only two came up! Both were non-lemon cucumbers. I just water it every day, sometimes twice when it is nearing the 100s or high 90s, and the result is we have been enjoying our small patio crop.
The tiny viewfinder caught my knee in the original scan, so I cropped this to make it a square and did some post processing along the way.
No idea where I took this, but those big bunches of pink flowers just took my heart! Summer at its finest!!
At the end of the Ventura pier, the platform widens out and in the center is an opening. You can look down into the waters below, and see the supports reaching up.
Years ago – maybe 25 – when I lived just a short way from the pier, in the middle of a fierce storm, a friend and I walked out to the end of the pier. The wind was wild, waves were high, we got soaked, we were stupid, we nearly flew off in the wind. The next day it turns out the pier had been severely damaged where we stood. Closed for weeks and weeks, the supports beneath were reinforced and rebuilt.
And now you see them.
In the lands of Covid-19, public libraries are closed, but the grounds are open for wanderers and snoops like me. This is a statue that I enjoy – the pleasures of reading, as passed down through the generations. Reading is so magical as your mind does the work, and imagination creates images and sounds and such that nothing else can equal.
Southward view from pier. No one almost, and that is the way I like it. Covid-19 and a weekday make for perfect beach conditions when combined with a fair wind and moderate temperatures.
I wonder if there is a life guard out there . . . on a plague beach.
Out on the pier, a nice looking man in red, masked and carrying my camera bag!
Everyone has something to do.
While walking out on the Ventura Pier, I was rather surprised about how empty the beaches were in the middle of summer – until I remembered it was a weekday. Here, the beaches seldom get swamped like you see in some pictures, with people stumbling over each other, but usually there are more people at play. The coronavirus has reached the shores of the Pacific!
Here, looking up the coast as it curves around and heads toward the Rincon and Santa Barbara. There is a boardwalk and bike path that lead to the outlet of the Ventura River. Surfers usually gather at the point where the buildings end, but the tide was out and the sea quiet.
It was a bright day out on the Ventura Pier, soon after the heavy stay-at-home ban had been lifted. Lots of people out and about, enjoying the sun and a sense of freedom. These guys were really fascinated by my camera – a Yashica Mat D TLR – and were willing to pose when asked. Not a bad catch, so to speak!
Yashica Mat D, Kodak Portra 400.
