Photography by Naomi Drew
I have enjoyed our stays at this particular cottage when we have been to the Monterey Bay area. Being close to the beach, it gets damp and cold. Nothing like a fire to warm you up and dry out the air on a chilly evening.
Nikon FM2n, 50mm, Lomo Metropolis film.
Waiting for a meal? Wear a mask. Eating a meal? Don’t wear a mask.
Fences divide, keep in, keep out, protect, hide.
They provide a backdrop for flowers.
Protection for sensitive terrain.
Barriers and intimations.
Walking up and down the boardwalk / bike path of Monterey and Pacific Grove, it was really a delight to see these boats, old and fading as they are. I am not sure what awaits them, but personally I thought they were rather cute (for lack of a better word) and would love to see them chugging around in the sea! The Metropolis film shifts the colors, and while the boats were faded in color, they were still quite bright in the sunlight.
My old, creaky bones don’t give me the pleasure of playing on rocks any more, much less climbing over fences to get to them. I rather envied these kids! There is something so enticing about perching above a clear bit of ocean – here, the Monterey Bay – and peering into the water below. Fish, anemones, kelp, rocks. Tide pools have the same fascination. As this neck of the bay is protected, the waters are clear and pristine. Wildlife, above and below the water, is readily seen.
Lomo Metropois, Nikon FM2n, Series E 100mm.
Walking from Pacific Grove to Monterey, we encountered a plein air painter; this was the subject matter. Definitely worth a shot.
Lomo Metropolis, Nikon FM2n, Series E 100mm f2.8.
Toity poiple boids all poiched in a twee, toity poiple boids all choiping at me!
These guys were all lined up on the rocks, not trees, below the bike path in Pacific Grove. No idea what they are but they created lines and patterns, rather camouflaged, which took a bit to discern initially.
Lomo Metropolis, Nikon FM2n, 100mm Series E.
Anytime you are in Monterey, CA, you need to get to the aquarium. Going in and looking at the exhibits and sea life is the whole point, but the coronavirus has ended that pleasure. Instead, we got to see it from the outside, like little kids looking in a window, but the windows and doors are shuttered.
More Metropolis, FM2n, and 100mm.
The Monterey Peninsula is a wonderful place to visit. The ocean, landscape, towns, history all work a kind of magic. I would like to spend more time up here in various areas. We went to Monterey and stayed on the border between it and Pacific Grove. Walking was the mode of transportation for the most part, and we probably put in about 10 miles in 2 days. Here is a view as we walked back from Lover’s Point in PG to Monterey.
I took my trusty, rusty, beat up and brassed Nikon FM2n and a few lenses. One day I had the 50mm f1.4 AIS on the lens; this day I had the Series E 100mm f2.8. I also used Lomography Metropolis film, and I will say I really liked it. It’s sort of grungy looking, but not grunged up (if that makes sense) artificially. It is not a sharp film, either. Rated at 100-400 iso, I set the FM2n to 200 and metered accordingly. This is a crop from a larger, rather boring image.
This afternoon I finally got out for a walk – the weather was not in the high 90s by 10 a.m. It felt so good to be outdoors after nearly 6 weeks inside or in the shade, trying to keep from melting. In general, heat doesn’t bother me, but exercising and sweating in such temperatures gets to me, and it seems this year has been particularly intense. The only walks seem to occur at night, once the sun has gone down and the sidewalks quit sizzling. Our air conditioning ran non-stop a few days in a row, which is unusual for us, but that gives you a sense of the heat – but at least our humidity is relatively low, unlike the southeast.
I decided to play with my Instax Wide by FujiFilm. Normally I just take a picture here and there with my instant cameras but thought it would be fun to use it as the camera to record today’s wanderings. Thus, in no particular order, a few scenes from my afternoon’s perambulation. Click on an image to move through the gallery.
