bikes

NFS

35 year old Raleigh bike. Still runs great.

Looks like I might start riding a bike again. Not necessarily on any main roads. Rode up to the Post Office a week ago, mailed a letter locally, went for a spin into "The Forest." Going down a grade, with vehicles approaching behind, and pedestrians on both sides of the road ahead, there was a moment of instability while swerving through a patch of loose gravel at the edge of the pavement. Not good. It's been a while since last riding a bike. Can we do this?

No crashes were experienced, although the predestrian in front of me did move aside, seeing my momentary loss of control. That would have been a painful crash, even if I had been wearing a helmet (which I wasn't.) Shorts and a T shirt on a paved road would have been bloody. And yet I lived to tell the tale. Huffing and puffing when I got home again, after about a massive two mile ride.

All this inspired by the professional racing I've been watching from Europe: Tour de France, Tour de Pologne, and the Golden Trail World Series running competition. The latter with amazing trail footage of the runners courtesy of bicyclists with Gopros and transmission rigs. They go almost everywhere on the trail. The steepest sections are however covered by runners holding a gimbaled camera as they lead or follow the runners. Crazy exertion.

The pic shows the well aged chrome rusting off the handlebar, and hand grips splitting apart. Time for a renewal, which has been ordered from my local bike shop. None of this going online and ordering from amazon. If we don't watch out, there will be NO local merchants. This may be something of an amendment of previous attitudes from 25 years ago, when online commerce was a fabulous development, and we didn't have to schlepp to a brick & mortar facility and deal face to face with actual humans. J. Bezos has managed to turn us back to our local sources. Surely a good thing. But of course there is no turning back the tide that has gotten us to this realization.

For nearly 20 years I've been walking for my exercise - which I never really liked - to accompany JDW, and avoid riding on narrow roads with no shoulders. I think I'm about to change that. Development roads will do fine for now. And I know of at least one off road trail I can ride that's only a little farther down the road from the P.O. < a mile away, only one busy road to cross. Probably prematurely, I took the bike apart, looking for other parts that could use replacement.

playing with blocks

Sinar F2 w/ 210mm f/45; 13.7 seconds; Delta 100

The last b&w 4x5 sheet film to be exposed and processed at a commercial lab in the US? Apparently Dodge-Chrome - who has developed my sheet film for years - has ceased doing chemical processing. What now, Brown Cow? We're on a septic system, and the internet says don't dispose of film effluent into one. I believe it. Let the liquid evaporate, dispose of solids at the appropriate waste authority?

optical

Looking down on an outside corner?

OR

Looking up at an inside corner?

I've been looking at these corners for 20+ years, and cannot quite decide which direction they project/recede. Once upon a time there was going to be a project to build a model corner and paint it with cast-off paint samples. That didn't happen, much as many photo projects don't. Which reminds me of one from this past March. Maybe we'll dive into that one next time?

turtle xing

She's on a mission to find water!

  

alien invasion

Spotted Lantern Flies (Lycorma delicatula) covering their favorite host, Ailanthus altissima. This particular tree had been killed by hacking around the trunk, with introduction of herbicide into the cuts and around the base of the tree. Both are invasive species in the U.S. Here is a good video about the control of Ailanthus. They both propagate quickly and in large numbers. Let's try to control these creepy aliens.

10 PLATITUDES

10 RULES to break.
Platitudes you can use to improve your filmmaking. No guarantees given.

The Water Appreciation Experience

A unique visual and sensory installation in Charlottesville, VA. by artist Martha Stafford.
Not many appointments left.

Rain in Paradise

It was inevitable we would lose several days to the weather, since our outdoor adventures were rain free. Poured rain for most of the day in Tahiti (January is the rainy season. At least temps are pretty consistent all year round ~ 80 F. or 26.6 C.), but the following day we were able to exit the compound for a walk to the local marina, and then a swim in the pool.

Old news, but there it is anyway.

Down Under

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Southern Hemisphere. 

trouble sleeping?

This could be just the thing to help you doze off. Intended as sleep inducing, or wall paper for that dynamite party you're having next weekend, this video is sure to calm frayed nerves.

Photographed on three coasts (and counting) of the continental United States.

Home Grown - at last

Where have I been!? The past year has seen some enjoyable employment in the public broadcasting sector, as a crew member of the Virginia Public Media production Virginia Home Grown. Here's the final episode of the 22nd!! season.

 https://www.pbs.org/video/bringing-the-garden-inside-7nsudc/

Gardening and environmental awareness. Happy to be a part of this great show! (And I did some Steadicam work for the segment at Sweet Briar College.)

Time Lost

Not that anyone is listening, but there's another video of mine wending it's way through the festival circuit. It's been categortized as "Experimental." Does that signify "unwatchable"? At this point, yes, since I can't show it yet, but here are a couple of stills.

It was shot with no cast, no crew, no budget during the year(s) of the shutdown. It was something to keep me engaged. As always, no apologies.

"A KNOWN OMISSION" NOW AVAILABLE

Wow. It's been a long time since I added something...anything here. The world has moved on, hasn't it?

In case the headline doesn't tell it all, let's elaborate. After a year + of writing, we went into production on the dramatic short known as "A Known Omission" - aka AKO, in September of 2019. Due to scheduling conflicts for participants, it wasn't until February 2020 that we were able to complete photography. The final shot of the movie was the final bit of filming, on February 28, 2020. The following week the world shut down. Nonetheless the movie was edited by July of 2020 and entered the festival circuit. By December of 2021 it had run its course and been shown publically in Charlottesville. Now you can see it online.

We'd love it if you went and watched it.

My Morning Conversationalists

The Canadian tourists have flown away with the melting of the pond ice. The Residents remain.

2017 in 3 minutes

Didn't leave the U.S. in the past year, but here are a few of the places we did see, cameras in tow.

24 hr short in 1 minute 50 seconds

Still annoyed at color differences from hdmi out to .mov to vimeo .mp4 to playback with "Standard" setting. It doesn't matter how much calibration is used. Every monitor looks different.

Meaning, this looks a bit less saturated than the way it was graded to look on the "calibrated" monitor. At least when played back in either the "Standard" or the "Movie" settings on an older Dell monitor.

Not that anybody cares...

a taste of blinker

From a recent trip to visit Mom, on the occasion of her 93rd.

rambling

a greeting

two views

or

I'm leaning towards the landscape view. Anybody?