Little did we know or expect that this would be our last trip for awhile because of COVID19 Hunkering at Home. We took the Airstream out for a trip to Lake Havasu. This was to join the Arizona Unit and many others for Bluegrass on the Beach festival. From there we went to Boulder City, Nevada for a mini-Rally with some other Airstreamers.
Can’t have Lake Havasu without a little boat action. We rented a 20 foot boat and had Gene Blanchard pilot it as I know next to nothing about running a boat.
Next we headed up to Boulder City which is a cute historical town - was the base of operations for the construction of the Hoover Dam. Here we met out friends, Tom and Natalie Balchak and we brought Gene and Kathy Blanchard with. This was our mini-rally
See the previous post about this plastic point and shoot. I ran a real roll of film thru this time to see what it could or couldn’t do. It did pretty well. It was a zoom lens, flash, date back if you need that sort of thing. I purchased it from Safelight Berlin for the lowly sum of 69 Euros.
A little article on the NHK - Japanese TV feed come on while I was working out and it’s work a mention.
One of the last remaining fisherman from the Lucky Dragon 5 died at age 87:
A former crew member of a Japanese fishing boat exposed to the nuclear fallout from a 1954 US nuclear test in the Pacific has died.
Masaho Ikeda died of stomach cancer in a hospital in Fujieda City in Shizuoka Prefecture on Thursday. He was 87 years old. His relatives say he had also suffered esophagus and liver cancer.
Ikeda was an engine driver of the tuna fishing boat Daigo Fukuryu Maru, meaning “Number 5 Lucky Dragon.” The boat carrying a 23-member crew was operating when the US carried out the hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands on March 1, 1954.
Ikeda kept silent about his experience initially, but nearly 60 years later, he began sharing his story with younger generations.
He and other former crew members gave accounts of their experiences in a documentary by a US film director released last year.
Last February, Ikeda attended a funeral of another former crew member, Susumu Misaki, who died at the age of 92. Ikeda had said Misaki was like a brother to him.
More from Wikipedia:
The Daigo Fukuryū Maru ( translated is Lucky Dragon 5 ) encountered the fallout from the U.S. Castle Bravo nuclear test at Bikini
Atoll, near the Marshall Islands, on March 1, 1954. (This was a 15 Megaton bomb) When the test was held, the Daigo Fukuryū Maru was catching fish outside the danger zone that the U.S. government had declared in advance.
However, the test was more than twice as powerful as predicted, and changes in weather patterns
blew nuclear fallout, in the form of a fine ash, outside the danger zone. On that day, the sky in
the west lit up like a sunset. Seven minutes later, the sound of the explosion arrived, with fallout
reaching the ship two hours later. The fishermen attempted to escape from the area, but they
took time to retrieve fishing gear from the sea, exposing themselves to radioactive fallout for several hours.
The fallout – fine white flaky dust of calcinated Bikini Island coral, which absorbed highly radioactive fission products and
neutron activated isotopes – fell on the ship for three hours. The fishermen scooped the highly radioactive dust into bags
with their bare hands. One fisherman, Matashichi Oishi, reported that he “took a lick” of the dust that fell on his ship,
describing it as gritty but with no taste.[10] The dust stuck to surfaces, bodies and hair; after the radiation sickness
symptoms appeared, the fishermen called it shi no hai ( 死の灰, death ash).
This true story was the basis of the kaiju story Godzilla otherwise known as Gojia that was released November 1954
Pat Metheny’s new album is more like his old stuff I would opine. Maybe this is good it’s just different. Comes on the heels of the sad news of Lyle Mays death. Keyboardist and major inspiration for the Pat Metheny Group in it’s founding days. I think Lyle would have approved of this album I’m sure
G.A.S. is Gear Acquisition Syndrome - for many like me it ain’t a syndrome but a dang disease! I made the acquaintance of someone on Instagram who goes by the name “girlwithtoomanycameras” with 40. I happened to do camera inventory yesterday because it was cold and snowy out. To my surprise I had 31 last nite but then found two more. So I am now I am “guywithtoomanycamerasbutnotasmanyasdanielle”
Prairie Madness is now out for publication by Lulu.com
Without trying, I have slowly been doing a project about prairie photography. I am generally not a ‘project’ photographer being distracted all the time. But if you take enough subject based photos you end up with a project. I have been taking prairie photographs for awhile and it went into high gear when my job took me to Western Kansas. I would typically drive and weather permitting would take the back roads into Kansas. I loved being able to pull to the side of the road and snap photos. I had some wild adventures such as driving 106 mph to avoid a hail storm in my new car!
My goal for this new book is to get more people to look and buy it. In it’s current form its a bit on the expensive side but this is the nature of self-publishing in one and two quantities. I decided that I would in the very near future reach out to several prairie preservation organizations to see if they can ‘boost my signal’ as it were for promise of monetary support coming from the sale of the book. Here are a few more pictures from the book
The promise of cheap film equipment has been illusory at best. I think it was true maybe 5-10 years ago when people were dumping their film equipment on the market. Then as the used film market started to mature things have sky-rocketed. Certain models more so than others based on what the hipsters are doing. Case in point is the Leica M6. Several years ago I purchased a pristine example for $1500. I chided myself for spending this amount when there were other ones for $1200. Like a fool I sold it some time later. Now if I wanted that same camera I’d have to pay $2500. An increase in $1000 in just 4 or 5 years!! A similar M7 goes for about the same and it’s a better camera in my opinion.
Well I finally purchased the Nirvana camera pictured above. Canon EOS55QD for $48 from Used Photo Pro. They have a bunch just sitting there to be purchased. Yes they’re made of hardened plastic but they have about every bell and whistle there is. I bought one along with a 40/2.8 pancake lens all for about $110. So instead of pining for a used M6 that you can’t afford, go for something that’s a real bargain.
CPACis the Colorado Photographic Arts Center located in downtown Denver. It’s a gallery space, wet and digital darkroom all in one location. They offer classes and once a month they host PhotoVox which is talks, discussion and display members works. Last nite was a very nice, informal show your work nite for 6 fearless photographers.
or is it Old new stock? What it means is that the product has never been opened but it’s from a previous era. The Konica Centuria 80e is not available anymore. Are there ANY film point and shoots of any ability still for sale? Not really. But Safelight Berlin advertised them for less than 100euros so I was in. I shot the film that was included which was out of date 2006. Color film does not age well like wine so there were color shifts that had to be dealt with.
You know how some photographers are immediately identified with a city or region. Like W. Euegene Smith is with Pittsburgh well I seemed to have stumbled upon the Central NY equivalent in Ralph Bull. Having lived in this area for many years the images all ring true. The photo above shows a sunny day but in the winter this is a rarity so I had to use it. While we’re at it here are some other examples:
Decided to get the Fuji Instax Square 10 out and shoot some home pictures. The first one is a proof print of the Hiroshima A Bomb Dome shot on Pixel 3 last October. The next one is our power panel that we decided we would decorate like they do downtown….with stickers.
To give Rush Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom continues to demonstrate how mis-guided Trump is. Good for Romney to step up to the plate. The only thing Limbaugh deserves is:
A very interesting and scary look into how nuclear arms post WWII were handled by the armed forces and the government. Battling between the armed services ended up giving control of all nucs to SAC ( Strategic Air Command) based in Omaha and run by General Curtis LeMay. His idea that there is no ‘little’ war and that we should be all in with EVERY nuc we have at the same time. Well the problem was that there were little wars such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Berlin Crisis neither of which really required armed confrontation thanks to the strong wits of JFK.
What the hell were we thinking. Glorifying the atomic bomb!
I have no idea what these half naked women are doing. The second one, Duck and Cover was the best that the US government could come up with to protect it’s citizens in case of a nuclear attack. “Kiss your Ass Goodbye” would be a more appropriate title. The rest are just stupid.
