Solstice Domestica

I quite enjoyed using the little EyePA 30mm. Since the cloudy day that I exposed that last roll of film, the weather has been not just overcast but extraordinarily gloomy as well as a little windy and cold. I reloaded the camera with reciprocity-failure-generous FP4+ on the likelyhood I was going to have to use it for long exposures in less than pleasant conditions or interiors. I had to go downtown one day and took the bike and the camera but couldn't concentrate on looking for compositions. There was lots of Yule preparation to deal with as well.

Eventually, the always interesting light in the bathroom illuminated some hand-washable pillow cases.

It snowed on the 19th. The next morning, the sun flirted with coming through the clouds while I was shoveling. This is about 11:00 the day before the solstice so about the lowest the midday sun gets above the horizon.

Had to take advantage of the low angle of light modeling shapes and casting shadows. The house in it's festive outfit.

The new garage doors. Nice to be able to put the car inside this winter.

An hommage to Harry Callahan, vegetation in the midwestern snow.

Then the weather changed a bit as though the solstice were reminding us of the reason for the season. The clouds darkened again and kept up a drizzle of snow for a day and a half. The temperatures dropped to highs low b'zero (F) with a sustained wind over 20 miles per hour. It kept up for four days keeping that snow blowing around, right in your face if you had to be out in it.

The sun did pop out occasionally. More fine work by the bathroom window.

On The Lensless Podcast, while discussing one of Dave Eichinger's photographs, Andrew Bartram noted that he was happy with any photograph that included an empty chair. This chair and the books are normally in the living room and the table in the sun room, but during Yule make this interesting little still life at the top of the stairs.

Took advantage of the nook by the window to read the latest paper copy of Scientific American.

Yule duties include a little baking. My mother was never much for ethnic desserts, but Sarah's mother, of Norwegian descent, made these Polish Tea Cakes and I've made them ever since.

I did have to go out and had the sense to use a car but had to clear the driveway first. In this channel between the houses, the wind is at least twice the reported velocity.

The wind and I collaborated in making this miniature Himalayan peak next to the driveway.

The EyePA 30 has .23mm hand-drilled pinholes, on the axis and 11mm above the axis, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The FP4+ was semistand developed in Caffenol.