Wheel of Steel

The retrolution rolls on! Here is our first step on the road from lo-fi to hi (well, mid, anyway) -fi. It's a Technics SL-1200 direct drive turntable. Hoping to go cartridge shopping after the weekend. And then there's the preamp, amp, and speakers to go :)

Hand Lamp

Does anyone want a job as V.A.L. (voice-activated lightstand) in my studio?

Ghosty Toby

And just to show that the Ansco doesn't shoot only corn cribs, here's a fun double exposure I made...

More from the Ansco

Some corn cribs that we saw on our drive on Saturday. These were taken on the Ansco, on T-Max 100. I did a little Photoshopping on some of these images - straightening, dust spotting and cropping. 

This is Donna's lovely corn crib.

Corncrib

This is the first image from the 75-year old Ansco (Agfa) Shur-Shot box camera that we got at the Junk Jubilee on Friday. This is straight out of the camera - the "UFO" is a hole in the emulsion.

Shot on T-Max 100.

Des Moines Photowalk

Maggie and I took our film cameras for a walk around town the other day. Here are some of our results:

Java Joe's coffee shop

Maggie shooting something on 4th Street. I wonder how her picture came out?

The Old Spaghetti Works building on Court Ave.

Old Glory and a cubie taking a break :)

Maggie and the big umbrella.

Java Joe's coffee shop.

All taken with the M6/Summicron 50 on 1998 vintage Tri-X, and developed in D-76. The only post-processing (if any) would be straightening, dust removal, and very slight cropping.

Chicago

Here are some more photographs from our recent visit to Chicago.

The Chicago Theatre (and they even spell it properly!) is a really beautiful building with a fabulous marquee.

Maggie waiting for the bus.

Chicago skyline from the platform of Halstead station.

Wildflower Walk

We went for a walk in the woods yesterday, and saw the first of the spring wildflowers - trillium, hepatica, and anemone.

These are trilliums. If a trillium flower is picked, the plant is so damaged that it can take years to recover. In some states it is illegal to pick these flowers.

Trillium seeds are spread by ants.

Hepatica, or liverwort, is so called because of the shape of the leaf, which was thought to resemble a human liver.

We saw them in a range of colours, from white to purplish-blue. I think it's strange that the number of petals varies - in this picture there are flowers with six, seven and eight petals.

Big thanks to Don and Danielle, who guided us on this lovely walk.

Chinatown

Here are a few images from our trip to Chicago. These are of our visit to Chinatown - a truly fascinating place....

China Square

The main gate to Chinatown

Two cultures

Woks - many of the shopkeepers asked that we didn't photograph in their stores, but this is from the very wonderful "Woks 'n' Things" on South Wentworth - it's an oriental Williams Sonoma, but with very much better prices!

All these were taken with the Leica M6/50mm Summicron on twelve year old Tri-X 400.