Determination

Determination

Its a word I like and a situation I have always admired.

Like this plant, refusing to give up any ground even though the ground is quickly moving away and will eventually cause the plant to topple and go skidding down the hill.

Hang on as long as you can!  Be plucky!  Just like a weed in the wind.
And bloom!


Holga pinhole with some old color Ektar.

Sandstone Bluffs

Back to pinhole...
This was made out near Grants, New Mexico.
There's a really nice, picturesque area where you can pretty much see forever.
It's sometimes windy, but the view is amazing.

This was made with a 4 x 5 pinhole and some Fuji instant film. Looks like I had a bit of light trespass at the lower right corner, but no worries.....gives me an excuse to go back out there and try again right?

I want to go back and re photograph the area under snow, I think it will be very cold, but worth the adventure!

More from the road and a project to be....

Besides pinhole, I REALLY love disposable cameras.

I know they are cheesy and unlikely to produce consistent results, but they are portable, affordable, and who cares cheap enough to carry several on trips where you don't want to take your good camera because it might get stolen or be abused by weather or environment.

I have had good luck with disposables, but I've used a lot of them and reloaded quite a few of them as well.

My favorites have been cheapie ones from a Family Dollar store (super easy to reload), and a cute little one called an "assignment" camera by Rollei. Yeah, a Rollei!

I think all disposables are made in China, including my favorite Rollei one, however the Rollei came loaded with genuine Rollei retro black and white 400 film and it is a dream.

Oh, the other reason I love disposables is there is no control, other than turning on a flash via a simple button.
No control means you have more time to compose and just watch a scene evolve and then click.
No shutter delay, no warming up, no focusing to fiddle with-just getting down to business fun!

And they are small enough to carry in a pocket. Less is MORE you know.

This is an old ranch site near Lake Lucero, New Mexico and was made with the little Rollei I'm so smitten with.
The site is near the missile range at White Sands and you have to take a tour to get to it since you have to drive through restricted property to get here. It's well worth going if you are visiting White Sands.

As you can see, the focus is a bit soft, but not quite as soft as the photo I posted from the Family Dollar disposable a few days ago.

If you want a disposable Rollei, Freestyle has a few left on clearance here:
Rollei disposable

More from the road well travelled

I'm still off the rails here and not posting pinhole.
I promise I'll get busy and shoot some pinhole soon, but it's been cold and uber windy and I don't like standing still when it's cold making photos.
Call me a wimp if you like, but for now you'll just have to suffer through some of my other work.

Today's offering is an on the road shot made with an old Nikon N90s.  It's a tank of a camera and has auto everything.  I like it.  It feels like a camera should and makes nice camera sounds when you press the shutter.

Even better, it focuses and sees better than I do...even while riding down the highway, going 75mph.

Anyway, this stretch of highway is south of Clines Corner, New Mexico. It's pretty desolate out that way as you can see. Most people might think it's boring, but I find solace in it.  Just tumbleweeds, windmills and antelope in the fields along either side.

 Made with some expired Kodak Gold 200. A highly under-rated film in my opinion.

a New Year a New photo

This is not a pinhole photo, but it's a shot I like quite a bit.

It's from a Family Dollar disposable camera I picked up in Holbrook, Arizona early last year while on a route 66 road trip with my good friend Erin. I think I paid 4 dollars for it.
It's been reloaded a couple of times since it has a unique hinged back door and is super easy to get into.

Most disposable cameras require a little bit of tug of war tactics to get into and then some intrepid persuasion to re-close.

This photo is from an end of year holiday trip down to White Sands and was shot with Kodak Portra 160.   I like having a camera that doesn't matter when stuff like sand and grit are involved and might otherwise cause problems with a "better" camera.

Disposables are handy to have around for times like this.

This one has really soft focus... I think it's nice.