More old film

The theme for the Fox Valley Photography Group this month is Composition in your home, another one I suggested. That gave me an excuse to try out another roll of professional Fuji NP160, expired in 2001.  Lately, I've been using mostly the extreme 90-degree wide-angle commonly associated with pinhole. For a change, I pulled out 53-degree Paterson the Pinhole Camera, still somewhat wide angle by traditional standards, but a few standard deviations above the mean in the pinhole community.

The view from my normal seat on the couch. Another pillow on the tufted loveseat in the diffuse light of the sheer curtains in the sunroom. The bunny seems to be trying to figure out what the camera is.

With that assignment taken care of, I got on my bike to document the holiday weekend when I encountered two giant cherry pickers with crews disconnecting electricity up and down the street. This spring, all the trees near the street on the block were cut down, except our magnolia. We are scheduled to have the street converted into a large ditch for a few weeks soon. The power company is taking advantage of having the street closed to traffic.

There were well-attended games between high school-aged baseball teams at all the diamonds in the park. The lowest seat on the bleachers behind the dugout was available for me and my tripod. The entire team stood up while their side was at bat. 

As I was winding the film, Number 16 turned around and asked, "What's that?" 

"A pinhole camera. Do you know what that is?"

"No."

At that moment, there was the crack of bat on ball and a brief cheer until it was caught, signalling the end of the inning and their return to the field.

A new elementary school nearby with lots of shades of grey, planes and angles, which consolidated three now-gone elementary schools on the east side. It often looks to me like modern architects cut and fold flat pieces of patterned cardstock into boxes to design these buildings. Maybe it's just me.

The Parks & Recreation Department offers free sailing lessons a few times a week. On this very hot, humid day, the students were more interested in capsizing so they could get dumped into the lake, causing repeated megaphone instructions to get back in the boat.

I saw them working on the cross bar of the T-dock, but the stem was the only part that got new wood.

This year, the fireworks were launched from Ames Point, a little further from people and easier to transport gear to than the former site on Monkey Island. Is it more acceptable to stake out your viewing spot with a collapsed canopy than leaving it fully erected? There were several other sites well-supplied with blankets, chairs and coolers with a single occupant playing video games on their phone, at least 6 hours before the display.

On summer weekends, with picnics spread along the shore, I'm often reminded of Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. Part of my reason for choosing this narrower camera was this photo - in order to be farther from the nearest group, yet not have the expansion of depth a wider angle would portray, separating the groups. If Seurat had been composing with a lens, it would have been a bit telephoto.

 

Another view near the beach.

What's become of that line of tomato blossoms.

In early June, the rose vines on the arbor seemed moribund, so I cut them to the ground. We planted morning glories and a clematis. The roses took up the challenge, and we now have a diverse ecosystem wound around the arbor.

Paterson has hand-drilled .31mm pinholes, on the axis and 15mm above it, 6cm from a 6x6cm frame. The expired film was the thirteenth roll developed in a Cinestill Powder Liter C41 kit, mixed April 6th, which makes it quite expired as well.