Rerun # 4, or so

It was either this, or nothing today folks.

This is a rerun of a photography related post on my other blog last November, in its entirety. The only change was that I moved the photos to the top in case y'all didn't want to read the text.

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A Good Accident







Years ago, and I'm talkin', like, 1984, I had a good accident with my Canon AE-1 camera.

Lovely Wife and I were on the beach in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. It's up in the Florida panhandle (aka the Red Neck Riviera).

We got married in August of 1984, and I worked for Johnny's Pizza House. When I went into restaurant management with them, their unit in Ft. Walton Beach was my first gig as an assistant manager.

We were there until December of 1984, when they closed the restaurant for the winter. That's common out on "the island" as business dropped because of the lack of winter tourism there. As it turned out, the company didn't reopen the store, and sold it. It was too far from the rest of the chain of stores and didn't make enough money, that area wasn't an instant success for the company like opening another store in Louisiana would have been; there was no instant recognition of the company down in Florida.

Anyhoo, when we got packed up to move back to Louisiana, we went to the beach despite the cold weather. Our few months there were like a three and a half month honeymoon. How many people are fortunate enough to live in such a beautiful place when they first get married?

One of those last days, we had gone to the beach and I took a couple of pictures of Lovely Wife. It turned out that these last two photos where the last ones on that particular roll of Kodachrome slide film.

Also, I had apparently neglected to take up the slack in the film when I had first loaded it into the camera, and these last two photos should have only been one photo.

I took the one photo, wound the film, and took one more of her. The film didn't really advance to another section of film, my winding just took up all the slack in the roll in the exposed area, but it also released the camera to take another photo.

What I ended up with was an accidental double exposure.

And I LOVED it.

I've always wanted to take it somewhere to have a lab crop the photo and make a print for me. But, like many things in life, I put this off all these years.

I just came across this slide again this past weekend in my seemingly endless endeavor of scanning and archiving my 35mm slides.

But with the wonders of the digital age, I was able to color correct it just a bit, and make two different crops. So although I haven't printed either one, it's still great to have this accidental winner of a photo in a form I can look at and enjoy.

I submit, for your perusal, the original scan, and the two crops I made. (moved to the top of post)

Wow! He Posted Somthing!

Both shots taken in Gulf Shores, Alabama in 1983. Taken with my old pal, my Canon AE-1 on Kodachrom 64.

No, I do not have two different sized feet. One is my foot and the other is Lovely Wife's (then Lovely Fiance).

I love her dearly despite the fact that her feet are way bigger'n mine. (wink wink nudge nudge)

I thought that fake lighthouse as part of that hotel across the street was SO cool. You'll have to forgive me, I was 20, and hadn't been out of Louisiana much at the time. I know the image is a bit blurry, but I think I did a respectable job of hand-holding that shot at ASA 64 (before they went to ISO). Anyway, the pic brings back lots of good memories for me and that's what counts. I'd never print it big and frame it, but just looking at it reminds me of how moist, warm, and windy that morning was as we headed to the beach to watch the sunrise.

Even a blurry picture is a good one if it brings up good memories and a smile.

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I know I suck lately.

Lots going on, and little of it is good in nature. So the first things to fall by the wayside are things like blogging.

I once prided myself in not missing a day on my other, first blog, in over a year.

My, how the great have fallen.

Now I just feel good to get some swill written for the other blog and to dredge up a couple of pics to post on here. And that's not even taking into account the spotty visiting an commenting of late.

Bear with me folks, while I try to get life straightened out a bit, OK?

Blast from the Past

I spent the night last night at a sleep center hooked up to electrodes. Therefore I'm replaying a couple of old favorite 35mm slides that I had posted on my other blog last year.

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This photo is a pre-sunrise photo I took in Gulf Shores, Alabama in summer 1983. I've put a number of sunSET photos on the blog, but here is one from early morning; a rarity for me.


And another photo from the same trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama in 1983. The sand was so perfect and untouched that early in the morning, but needed a bit of something, so I put down a couple of shells I had in my pocket. I don't really know why I like this photo so much, it is contrived. But that's the way it is I guess. You like it or you don't. I do.

Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas

Way back in the mists of time when Lovely Wife was Lovely Fiance, I went with her and her family on a weekend trip to Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas.

Both photos were taken with my beloved Canon AE-1, the top one using a Vivitar 135mm f2.8 lens that I wish I hadn't sold, and the bottom one with my trusty 50mm f1.8 lens.

That top photo has a neat perspective, almost like the tilt/shift lens effect folks do in Photoshop these days. In this case, they were just a long way off.

You have to understand that for a Louisiana boy, a hill bigger than ten feet tall was a mountain. Heck, the highest point in all of Louisiana is Mount Driskill, at a whopping 535 feet.

These were a couple of the Kodachrome 64 slides that I have scanned into digital form from that trip. We hiked and hiked. What fun that was. These were two of my favorite shots from that trip.

Also, if you're interested, go to the Petit Jean State Park website and read the story of Jean herself. It's an amazing and true love story.

Red Sky, Meridian, Mississippi

In late November, 1982, I was on the way back to Louisiana from a trip to Tennessee. We stopped at a rest area on Interstate 20 near Meridian, Mississippi.

I had never seen such a red sky after the sun had set. I've seen some amazing ones in the years since, but none as red.

I love that one star in the upper photo.

Canon AE-1; 50mm lens; Kodachrome 64.

Ouachita River

Today's photo was taken in 1982. It was taken on the banks of the Ouachita River, from West Monroe, Louisiana, looking at downtown Monroe, Louisiana on the other side. (Ouachita is pronounced WASH-i-taw)

I've had bouts of insomnia most of my life, but once I had my camera, I'd just head out and take night photos. I'd never done it and all of the experimentation paid off.

This is one of my all-time favorite photographs that I have taken. Not spectacular, I know, but it's my home town, and that makes it special to me. Canon AE-1, 50mm lens, Kodachrome 64.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I saved and bought a Canon AE-1 in the summer of 1979. I've taken thousands of slides with that camera. I still have it, and a few years ago I sent it off to be serviced and had new mirror foam and foam seals installed. The mirror has never squeaked on it like some Canons have, this camera has been a champ and has been perfectly dependable.

I knew a guy the first time I went to college in the early eighties at what was then Northeast Louisiana University (now University of Louisiana - Monroe) who was a Nikon guy. He was completely insufferable and a total camera snob. He snickered at my AE-1 while holding his Nikon FM, but I think that since my AE-1 still works perfectly after 28 years and working in rain and banging it against things, I think I made a wise purchase.