Monthly Archives: June 2014

Fun With Coffee

Vintage British motorcycle

Vintage British “Panther” motorcycle

After my first adventure with Caffenol film developer I loaded one of my twin lens reflexes with a roll of film, that was best before 2007, trusting that it would still be good 7 years out of date. Here are some of the results, and I can report that it worked quite well indeed. I much prefer medium format when it comes to film. Of course I always did, but it was so expensive that I ceased doing it around the time I bought this film. I scanned this at 1200 dpi and the resolution is amazing. I once read that even if the lenses on medium format cameras never approached the resolving power of the best 35mm cameras, they still could outperform them due to the huge advantage of the large negatives.

These pics were shot recently, one at a British car rally, and one on a trip to Port Angeles. They seemed to go together. Ricohflex TLR camera, Fuji ACROS Neopan ASA 100, developed in Caffenol C-M for 12 minutes. Scanned on an Epson 2400 with a homemade 120 format cardboard mask.

Vintage American gas station

Vintage American gas station

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Canada Unveils Super Weapon

12 pounders ready for action

12 pounders ready for action

Sketching school came and went. Ontario was warm, and muggy, full of insects. Strange thing is, we went 3000 miles and we could still see the USA right there on the other side of the water. The United States is sort of like the moon, no matter where you go in Canada, it’s always right over there, following you. In Ontario they keep potential invaders at bay with these super weapons, which can fire red hot cannon balls, the size of grapefruits, clear across the St. Lawrence River. Incoming cannon balls would have a hard time getting through the roof of the blockhouse however, as it is made up of about 5 layers of criss-crossed logs.

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looking across the St Lawrence at the USA

The St. Lawrence River was the route by which most of the interior of North America was first explored. Even today there are not many bridges across, it is so wide.

Coast Guard vessel, far from the coast

Coast Guard vessel, far from the coast

The bridge can be seen above, in the background. It costs $2 to cross, and armed guards welcome you on either side. The bridge is called the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge, for lack of a better name I guess. Strangely enough the Canadian side is in Johnstown, not Prescott.

 

 

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The Smell of Oil

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Bond’s Bentley resurfaces

Father’s Day Car Show

 

it seeps into the brain

slowly, like an oil leak

where it lubes the memory

Sunday the British gathered

the shiny SU carburetors

filled with slippery pink oil

the XKE was too hot (3 carbs)

the mini, too cool (1 carb)

but the MGB was just right (twin carbs)

when they all started their engines

and the field was bare

not a trace was left

but a few stains on the grass

some tire marks

and a lingering smell of oil

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Morgans in all flavours

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Jaguar – six cylinders, three carbs

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An original mini – single carb

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MGB – twins

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