Jesse and I have been trying to meetup for months to go on a photowalk. Finally the stars aligned, and so did good weather on a Saturday. A few more people in his photo group showed up and we took off around the neighborhood to make some photos. It’s always nice to get out and shoot, and meeting new people while doing it is a huge bonus. And I can’t forget Otis, the most goodest boy, a golden retriever.

It was a lot of fun and I hope to do it again sometime. They also have, I believe, monthly challenges to create a specific photo which sounds exciting.

I mostly shot the Olympus XA2 the whole time and was surprised I went through a roll so quick. I also thought I had loaded Portra 400 but instead it was Gold 200 so I had to make sure I pushed a stop during development. I think the results were pretty good.

I wouldn’t say the XA2 is an underrated camera. It’s actually quite popular. A great, very compact point n’ shoot. The lens is very sharp for such a tiny 35mm f/2.8. Ken Rockwell has a great write-up on the XA and XA2 that you can check out.

The last day of 2020, here at least, was covered in a dense fog for most of the day. I kept eyeing it out the window thinking McAlpine Creek Park would be really fun to make photographs at right now. It didn’t look like it was going away so I packed my gear and headed out the door. I could of rode my bike but the drive is a little faster.

I get there and it starts to rain. Dark Sky is usually pretty accurate on these things and said it wasn’t to start raining for another hour. Hoping the drizzle would let up (it did) I set off to find a spot near one of the bodies of water in the park. The more spooky, swampy one was perfect in this fog. I get the 500c set up, loaded up some Ektar 100, framed a shot and metered. It wouldn’t fire. Oops, forgot to remove the dark slide. It’s a common thing to forget. Alright, dark slide is out. Here we go. Camera doesn’t fire. Try to detach the lens to get a look. Lens is stuck. Oh no.

Long story short; looks like I’m sending the Hasselblad in for that CLA earlier than I thought.

So a little bummed I can’t get any shots with the hasselblad. I snap some photos with the M6 and packed the Hassy up. As I started to walk back to towards the other body of water I noticed the crane in a tree. I say the crane because he’s always around. I quickly got my 90mm Tele-Elmarit out, it’s the longest lens I have on me. Snapped a couple of frames and then he flew down to the edge of the water. I thought, this is incredible I can probably get fairly close with this lens.

A jogger comes up from behind me and runs right past the crane. Just a few feet from it and the crane couldn’t have been less bothered. Now I’m thinking I can get really close. I get a few frames of him on the edge of the water as I walk by. A woman walking her dog behind me was nice enough to stop moving every time I stopped to take a photo. After the crane flew off I thanked her and continued down one of the paths.

In the middle of the swampy looking water there’s a tall, skinny cross. If I’m not mistaken it usually has bird houses made from gourds hanging from it. But now it’s bare. And standing reflected in this murky body of water, surrounded by dense fog made for a pretty cool image. How on earth do they get out there to hang more bird houses on it?

On Christmas day after having dinner at my aunt’s house and watching the kids open their gifts, I ventured around my hometown a little bit to take photos. One location I definitely wanted to photograph is the old Adams School House. It’s right up the road from the house I grew up in. I actually meant to photograph it early in the morning so that the sun would be in front rather than behind, but overall I like how this turned out. Now I kind of want to reshoot it again with the sun behind, but from a better angle to try and get the light coming through all 3 windows. Gotta learn to slow down.

Here's a website I found with a bit more information on the school house. The photograph at the bottom of the linked page is how I remember it most. It was moved at some point, I’m guessing after it took damage from hurricanes Fran and/or Hugo.

It’s safe to say that 2020 has been a shit year for most, if not everyone. The timeline a seemingly never-ending rollercoaster of ups and downs, and downs…and downs. So not really a rollercoaster at all. More like one of those rides that just drop you.

The photo above was taken during a CLT Shooters photo walk in mid-town. These are fun, laid back photo walks with local photographers. Models come along as well for people to practice portraits. Great opportunity to meet other photographers and get some practice in. I was mostly testing out the 150mm lens for the Hasselblad 500c that day.

Still no good way of scanning 120 until after the holidays, so I did a quick and dirty of this by taping the negative to the light. It kinda worked.

Why did I not come here during peak fall colors? Next year, I guess.

This is one of two parks by our house and during the pandemic have been a wonderful little getaway from being stuck inside. Never too crowded, but still people doing mostly the same as us. Just out for a stroll to get fresh air.