The Fisherman (Agfa Isolette Test)

Due to the great weather we've been having lately, Steph and I headed out this weekend to take some photos of what we could find.  We ran down to rocky river and shot the bridges and persons that we could find. I have recently received a gift of several awesome old cameras from a friend of mine, so I took one of the brutes down to the river with me, an Agfa Isolette, loaded with expired Agfa APX 100 film in 120.  

The camera is nice, the bellows are in good shape and the aperture/shutter is pretty snappy.  On many of the shots, I was much too close to the subject, resulting in blurred nothing, but I did get two nice photos. One, of a fisherman that we'll call "Jim". I later got a chance to take a photo of him with his personal camera holding a 30" Trout that he'd just pulled out of the river.

Strangely, this is the only shot with any apparent light leak on the whole roll...I'm wondering if maybe it's just a flare on the glass...

Sunshine in a Bottle

Here, I'll tell you a secret,

There is no sunshine in a bottle, 

but 

the dim rooms of winter can often allow you 

to bend the rules a bit. 

Those dawns are hard to forget, too,

the sun streaking in, 

last nights cigarette still clinging to your throat and lungs,

starting the day with a cough that ends in a retch.

I wish I had a better tale for Christmas, 

but here it is. 

Look elsewhere.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Cuyahoga Valley National park is one of the only reasons that I stay in Ohio. Aside from the metro parks there is not much nature to see, other than driving through endless farmland, which, on the interstate, is more boring than suicide. So, there's some great parks to get into in Ohio, if you're willing to close in on the cities to get it done. 

The black and white in this set represents kodak plus-x in wd2d for 6 min, and then we have some expired velvia 50 for fun. 

Sand Run Metro Park

Sand Run was a good experience. Located near Akron, Ohio, it is located around a large reservoir, and filled with stately trees and streams. Here is a sample of what I found, shot on some 10 year old velvia 50. I really like this film. It scans well, and the expiration adds some interesting character to the shots, I think.  

Erosion

The water spills and I cannot erode in its time.

Merely flesh, merely mind

The unsorted conundrum of self, heart, sanity, health

lie in quiet, white sheets on the floor,

barely giving a nod to the reckless nature that created them;

barely noticing.

Today I watch the water wear away the stone,

sensing a time beyond this

listening to the speech of erosion.

Dirty Cleveland

The Dirty Cleveland:

 is synonymous with the upper-decker where the perpetrator defecates in the upper portion of the toilet thus leaving the bathroom owner perplexed for weeks as he searches for the increasingly horrible smell.

The Butcher

The Butcher:

Steph and I were taking a sunday photo-drive, out to see the brownstones of Cleveland. We ran across this crazed butcher, ostensibly the owner and head butcher at Stockyard Meats. He chewed our ears about such topics as the downturn in the economy, the way the neighborhood used to be and back when the Cleveland Browns could whip anyone on the earth. He was extremely vibrant and animated...a real character.  If I still ate meat, I would purchase it from this man.