spent the day yesterday modifying a Sinar lensboard to accept a brass mounting flange and thereby mounting a Darlot petzval brass lens to the Sinar Norma 5x7. had time to drive to this favored site for some late day light, and practice the quick open and close lenscap shutter.....used paper negatives, developed in weakened Dektol.

On sunday the 18th of july, we drove to san francisco, an hour or so south of here. first stopped by the DeYoung for a lecture on malaysian weavings, then on over to sfMOMA, where it was free of entry fee day and thusly crowded, for the opening weekend of the New Topographics photography exhibit. entirely enjoyable photographic exhibit, despite the throng of visitors, i quickly made the commitment to visit this exhibit as frequently as possible over the next couple months. purchased the catalog, a nicely bound hardback book, very wordy indeed, and the group show of human altered landscape, well discussed, as I am finding.

same site, different day, different camera, different lens, but same section of landscape. the new Darlot brass lens with no shutter and no aperture adjustment is used on the kodak master camera with the 5x7 back. paper negative at approximate iso6 and guessed exposure time via lens cap. even though fogged in sky, the exposure is not short enough and the paper negative went nearly black, out of 8 sheets only 1 or 2 were repairable via contact print with 50 second exposures. overall, on this first effort with the Darlot, i am less than pleased.

July 8 took a short drive down the road to the county border where an old section of early concrete roadway still exists. Fog layer remained in place long enough to use the camera for 8 sheets of paper negative. I have taken a photograph of this roadway and tree multiple times in the past. I'm still intrigued.

the 3rd of july weekend is here. the neighbors make for a noisy environs. the cats look for a dark hole closet to crawl into. i'm experimenting with nodal moment, and not quite certain how many degrees i can pan.