Justfolk's photos

In more southern climes, the magnolia in bloom is a pretty face but very common at the beginning of the spring season. And it is even dissed a little for its messy petals on the sidewalks. Not so here, where it's a rare and glorious thing, almost incredible in its fleshy display of flowers. There are a few magnolias scattered through this city. I used to think there were only two or three, but my friends and I have been counting them and there are probably a couple of dozen. I noticed this one a couple of weeks ago in a park just ten minutes' walk from my house. It's not actually pink -- it is very white. But the combination of light from nearby street lights gave it this pink colour. It is mid-June now and many are still blooming. Someone told me this morning that hers still has not opened, though its buds are fat.

I've been using this week a camera that is on an around-the-world trip, thanks to its owner who arranged it through another web site. It is a Zeiss Ikon Contessa, about 50 years old but completely revitalised by its owner. This picture was from my first roll through the Contessa, a roll of Kodak Portra 160. On the roll I had about six shots I thought were successful -- that isn't a bad ratio, I think. When I am finished with it, I'll be sending to the next person on the list; there are about thirty people on it so it'll take at least a couple of years before it ends its travels.

The guests were getting rather sluggish, but the Olympus XA's shutter speed was rather more sluggish than I expected when I took the picture. I think, from looking at it, that the shutter was open a second or more, and I was clearly moving the camera. But I like it. Konica Minolta VX200 Super, expired in 2007. Scanned on Epson V700 and a border given in PSP.

The sign says, or said, "Mary Power, died April 1959, age 91 years." Konica 200 VX Super (expired in 2007) in Olympus XA.

These two didn't know each other very well the other day when they both fell into conversation with me. I've known B, on the right, since we were teenagers, 45 years ago. We tried to work out just when we met and all we could come up with was the year, 1970. Then C came along and, although she knew him (she knows his partner well), they hadn't been introduced and I don't think he knew her. So I did the honours. I've known C for about 25 years. Forty-five years, twenty-five years: this was an old-friends moment for me. And I took their picture together. 2007-expired Minolta Konica VX200 Super film in the Olympus XA. Rather more contrasty than I'd like in that bright sunshine. But nice vignetting by the XA; unlike most pictures I process these days, I did no digital vignetting. :)

Spring coming up for air. Konica VX200 Super in Olympus XA.

I took these pictures through a gap in the netting & chain-link fence that normally blocks the view of the Dry Dock from the road next to it. I liked the sight, barely visible here, of the two workers in their white space-suity clothes. 2007-expired Konica VX200 Super in the Olympus XA.

These two pictures were adjacent on the film but, being full 35 mm format, they were joined on the short end, not the long end; I moved them in PSP. It makes 'em sorta look like half-frame pictures. This was 2007-expired Konica VX200 Super film in the Olympus XA.

A few days ago, this bald eagle perched on that tree and then, without waiting much, took off again. I didn't have much time to take his picture.

These three people are students in the department I teach in. Ginny's PhD thesis is being examined right now; Mu was awarded his PhD just a few days ago; and Annemarie's master's thesis is almost completely written. This was this afternoon at an awards celebration for graduate students organised by the university's School of Graduate Studies.

This is across the Arm and it's usually called The Garden. We see moose and the occasional bear over on it. But there are several places along that side of the Arm and they are each "Gardens." The Bakers used to live on this one, so sometimes people call it Baker's Garden. This is a pretty small crop from the original picture.

Vince had a party for his 90th birthday and it was great fun. When he passed his 91st, there was less ado. He hasn't reached 92 yet. A few nights ago my wife and I were walking back from supper and saw Vince, who is my wife's uncle, and others of his family going into another downtown restaurant, so we followed them in and joined the festivities for a while. They were celebrating Vince's grandson's girlfriend's graduation. While there I took a pair of selfies with Vince. I laid the Olympus XA on the table in front of us and used the self-timer. At the time I thought it worked, and I looked forward to the picture. But it didn't work, at least not the way I wanted it to work. I may have pushed the aperture lever too far, all the way to Flash, and the flash was not attached. Anyway, when I got the film developed there was just a blank space where the two pictures should have been. In scanning it, though, I could see something there. So I did a red-filter b&w conversion and got this. Quite nice, actually.

Shane was a mentor to L during her BA. When she later started an MA, I took on part of that role (supervising her thesis), though she and Shane have remained good friends. Yesterday she officially got her MA and we were both there.

I taught Bob five or six years ago when, as a "mature student" (a person who starts university when they are past their teens), he started a BA. He finished that degree with ease and started an MA; yesterday he received that degree. I did not get a chance to talk with him so I don't know if he plans a PhD. I did get this picture of him from my perch on the stage with a couple of dozen other faculty members. Bob is totally blind, or so close that it doesn't matter. He usually gets around well enough relying on his own perceptions and white cane, but he was brought across the Convocation stage, a tricky path with steps and tight corners, by a guide whose ear and glasses you can see. He is being congratulated by the University Chancellor.

I try every year to attend the Convocation at the university I work in, to be on stage when students from my department receive their degrees. Yesterday, I spent the day there for the two sessions that included students from the Arts faculty. I was in the small crowd of berobed faculty on the stage and I was sneaking shots of students I knew. I took several dozen pictures but wasn't careful about white balance, or even ISO rating (which of course means dynamic range) and the pictures I got suffered pretty badly as colour shots. But, in that harsh light, often one or another colour channel is more pleasant, so I converted them to b&w. K was a student in my department and, although I never taught her, I was an official examiner of her thesis, which was excellent. Here, she is receiving the hood of her MA degree from the Dean of Graduate Studies while the Chancellor waits to congratulate her a few seconds later.

Out for a walk, May 21st, when spring greenery was starting to appear. In the few days since then, more greenery has come out. 2007-expired Konica VX200 Super, in the Olympus XA.

I don't trust the pigeons. They seem too smart. And deceptive.

What the scanner saw. A sky. A flag. A bottle. An iris. This was a blank bit of film at the end of a roll of Konica VX200 Super. I had set the scanner, Epson V700, to do "thumbnails" which means it auto-finds 35mm frames and scans them. Usually, doing that, it ignores blank spaces but this blue flag was duly scanned and presented to me along with the pictures I had taken. Nice. My favourite glass is this colour, a kind of cobalt blue, and one of my favourite flowers is the blue flag iris, with a similar colour. The white spots and smears here are dust or other surface stuff on the negative, and the black bits are scratches. I didn't bother to take any out; I just added the border.