Augustine rambling

In the past, I mostly used ISO 100 film, mainly because at ISO 400, I was afraid of sunny-day exposures faster than my poor human hands could manage, leading to overwhelmingly dense negatives. After choosing the faster films in workshops to allow interiors and gloomy-day exposures, I've become less concerned, and kind of seduced by the shorter exposures. My use of semi-stand development, which suppresses overexposed highlights, probably has something to do with it. I recently read a blog post that claimed you could measure with any ISO you wanted with semi-stand development and get a usable negative. 

I found a roll of Kentmere 100 in a bag, left over from those days of slower film, which wasn't getting any younger. It went into the Diversity 30, which had some adjustments made after its last outing that need checking. Summer sunshine was a reliable bet with the slow film.

The camera sat on the tripod under the kitchen table for a while. After our new dishwasher was installed, I turned it in that direction and made an exposure. Yes, I know if you hang a towel on the dishwasher handle, it will drag on the floor every time the door is opened.

Modern standards for city water include storing a large supply above the level of any flood possibility. Oshkosh's century-old "clear wells" are underground, right next to and lower than Lake Winnebago. A new project has begun to construct new ones safely above ground. Sure would rather have that than a triumphal arch or a ballroom,

When everyone else got their new sidewalk done, ours was temporarily paved with asphalt since the maybe-it-has-some-lead-in-it water line to the house, which still needed replacement, was too near it and would have to be torn up again. They didn't tear it up to do the pipe, but left a large divot in it. One year after they removed the street, we might be seeing an end to it.

Illustrated here are two reasons why I haven't done a blog post in a month. The recent translation of the Odyssey, which I've discovered I only knew from a young adult adaptation, and one of a new series of books by some guy on the internet who's in an IRL gallery show in a couple of months.

How about a little new architecture in Oshkosh? The Mill on Main, a "distinguished residential community gracefully positioned along the Fox River," includes this white arbor on a concrete pad with nowhere to plant anything to grow on it.

A corner of the renovated Miles Kimball building.

The entrance to the new downtown hospital with its height clearly marked in case someone drives a particularly tall vehicle onto the sidewalk,

After decades of looking like a ruin, the east side of the 600 block of North Main Street is now filled with The Corridor, an apartment complex whose website includes an FAQ page headlined "The key to understanding affordable housing." It includes a similar arbor as the posh development on the Fox, but at least there's somewhere to plant something to grow on it on one side.

After an excavator crew removed the asphalt, swinging the machine within inches of the magnolia and driving over its roots, one lone, very precise workman came and built the forms. After another near-miss with an excavator for the gravel layer, a large crew arrived and poured the walk, finally respecting our request to stay away from the tree.

Cherry tomatoes and purple basil from the garden.

The resulting caprese salad.

A few days later, they came and filled in and seeded the edges and the holes impressed into the lawn by the excavator and cement truck. Is this finally the end?

The Diversity 30 has two .23mm hand-drilled pinholes, on the axis and 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film is Kentmere 100 semistand developed in Rodinal at 1:100.