Odd Salon eccentric: what can I say? I didn’t get photos of half the show, somehow; I feel like I was there but for some reason, I only got half the speakers on film. Maybe I changed rolls halfway and there’s a black and white roll waiting to be developed.
There’s another Odd Salon on Tuesday; if getting pelted by flowers or random interesting bits of history seem interesting, you should come by.
So, imagine this: you and 1000 almost-complete-strangers, plus the friends that you trust to look after your cat and a few people you’ve seen at parties, descend on a town in the lower parts of the eastern sierra with PA gear and floaties… that’s priceless. Not to say it was un-organized; the people running the show were quite efficient, actually. It’s a lot of people crammed into a camp made for maybe 2/3rds that number.
Everyone is really friendly and there’s good music and the primary activity of the whole trip is being lazy and listening to music. During the day, you can take your floatie to the river, jump in, and float next to the only daytime stage. Get out to re-apply sunscreen, get another beer, and get back in. Repeat until you get hungry, then go to either the mess tent (actually a rather good caterer) or to the town’s only restaurant, which is fine, just diner food. Then, the excitement of the evening begins. You can: dance your face off, then go lay on some cushions in a relaxtion tent, then go to the acoustic stage and sway a little. A lot of walking back and forth, but no worse than any other festival I’ve been to.
So: I went this year, with Sophia, and took just a few photos. I only had like 5 rolls of film; I think I shot 2. I got these back and then went to boston, but decided not to take my laptop, because distractions. So here they are now, as I’m getting back into the groove of things.
So I didn’t actually end up with a ton of free time between jobs; there was a lot of stuff I needed to get done in that week and a half. But I did have one day where all I did was just walk around and take photos. This was the first part of that day. I’m not sure why the month-old roll took so long to get processed, but it did.
The second and third church photos are actually mosaics of two pictures. Color film is still very hard to get the color right.
I have some idea of what I need to do to complete the San Pablo project; what it’s about, at least to me. I did a big edit of the photos and I got a feel for what was working. I’m not sure if I want to proceed with the project on film or keep it in digital. There’s something to be said for consistency, and that’s one thing this project never has. It is mostly shot on a digital of some description. Maybe I’ll continue in that vein.
I know this is a little disconnected and rambly. I’m all over the place right now, keeping all the plates spinning. Winter is the time to recharge; right now, we go full steam. Onward!
Again, taking the same photo over and over. again, looking at the street. feels like I’m getting really in tune with the film camera after these last couple weeks. its wants and needs and places it likes to go. The night shots in particular were a bit of a surprise. I took them at whatever slow shutter speed I figured I needed, and expected them to be blurry. but here we are, and they’re pretty OK.
Not a lot to say tonight, been working out and cleaning all evening. Excuses, I know. Getting ready to go to Boston and points north; there’s a wedding. Also getting my shop area ready for when my parents are here; I’m hoping I can spend some time getting more practical instruction from my dad, which means the workshop has to be in a usable state.
One small technical note: the picture with red’s java house in the background. it looks like I have sprocket hole agitation marks, but none of the other pictures seem to exhibit them. I’m too tired to take them out, anyway. I’ll be more careful next time, developing.
I’m not going to lie, this is a lot of pictures. I could do a tighter edit, but I really like all of these, and there was almost no work on my part. I shot them, I ran the film here, and then I took them and had them scanned at Photoworks SF, and that’s pretty much it. I didn’t even do the fancy deluxe scans, I did the 5x7 scans. They’re perfect for throwing the pictures up here on the interwebs. No, they’re not paying me.
Anyway, real grilled cheeses, really grilled. This was the same day as this post except I’m way slower to get black and white done (I was waiting for a month to get some specific chemistry in, anyway). I can do runs of 1, 2, 4 or 8 rolls at a time, but I don’t like doing the 1 or 2 reel cans really. It’s way more fun when there are more pictures.
Copyright © 2008-Forever, Matt Mills.
