Goodness, why did we ever abandon film? Oh right, the convenience. From two rolls taken in Spain, half a dozen frames were way underexposed from within the dark cathedrals and mosques. In retrospect, the digital snapshots take there pulled through. But, I must give two cheers for film. It just gives me that warm fuzzy organic feeling — just light, a precise mechanical box, shaped glass, a strip of plastic and a pile silver salts.
Outside the dark buildings was a different story, a much better one. I tightened down my aperture on the Yashica for these streetside oranges. Sadly, most of the summer weather and flora didn’t fly back with me to Syracuse. However, I have been seeing my fair share of orange around town with march-madness.
I’m also growing partial to the B&W film, despite its extra $5 hand processing fee. Getting one frame like this one out of the batch makes the suspense and experimentation all worth it. They’re raw and naked without enhancement, crops, or edits — something I won’t guarantee with any of my other photos.
I’m beginning to realize that architecture is raw-humanity in a way similar to how I’ve come to appreciate music. If you step back, the stone engravings live and breathe. The height of colors tell of tradition, innovation, and aesthetic preference. It’s a timeless reminder and inspiration for today.
At one point, the Moorish rule stretched from the banks of the Senegalese river to the rolling olive groves and mountains of the Iberian Peninsula; a vast and varied landscape of religions and government over thousands of years. To this day you can witness the eras through handcrafted stone, wood, metal, and paint.
Beautiful Islamic architecture still stands today in Mezquita of Cordoba. It’s the second largest mosque in the world, although it has been both a church and mosque as a result of conquest and reconquest. It’s a tall and wide labyrinth of pillars, laying out different corners built by their respective rulers and religions.
The Cordoba Mezquita once had a connecting walkway to the Caliph’s palace during a century of rule noted for its religious tolerance between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. As a result, Prosperity and peace permeated the western Mediterranean. Unfortunately, the eastern reaches of the same sea aren’t as fortunate as protests penetrate communities this week. However, we don’t have to let our choices be stone solid and cold. Instead, let’s look to the past successes of humanity for inspiration and keep on breathing.
A flair of Granada is its graffiti canvasing the many walls around lots, schools, and churches. Mostly, graphics tend to reference their artist’s talent and name instead of using obnoxious vulgarity to be noticed. Occasionally a portion will be sensored for political or racial reasons but it’s in more or less a major minority of the street content.
On the topic of graffiti process but unrealted to Granada, dais.dk is a superb online gallery of one man’s work. check it.
My cousin Jon showed me his old Yashica D TLR last fall when visiting my parents’ farm. I was intrigued by the classic camera’s spaghetti western style and looked into them with his advice. Turns out that they’re an affordable start into non-digital amateur photography.
Nothing is automatic; not even the luxury of a light meter to grace the camera body. In the mix of adjusting shutter speed and aperture I forgot what should be the most intuitive knob of them all and forgot to advance the film, double-exposing my first picture. [shown above] Admittedly, there was a little anxiety with each shutter release. It took instantly at that moment with no computing delay but lacked the instant viewfinder and delete option that we’re accustomed to with digital.
A photoshop-free endeavor, I’ve finally filled developed the first roll. The initial mishaps and quickly forgetting what settings I had used led me to write down the numbers and take a short series to see the effects of different f-stops.
Next up, color film in Spain.
I lost a hat today — certainly not a first. Actually, I’ve never been kin to covering my head unless it’s winter. I still have some of them, while most are scattered in unknown locations.
- McDonald’s- it all started with this oddity. for a while we had two of them floating around the farmhouse for my brother and I to wear. It later disappeared into the box of winter things in the pantry.
- Ride- with swim season in the winter, you were prone to pneumonia without one. our coach demanded we wear hats and I bought my first toque of many to come although its current location is unknown and forgotten.
- McDonald’s revisited- one of the toques resurfaced and made it through most of the H.S. as vintage became the sought style. I’m not sure why I brought it along that summer but it’s lost somewhere in Colorado.
- Team USA- a thrift-store find from ’84 Olympics. It had 2 or 3 years of amateur competition before retiring somewhere in Goshen.
- VW- an impulse buy on eBay; it’s not worn much but is still with me.
- Smurf Hat- It’s Kaleem’s — and was worn once and only once.
- Mountain Hardwear- A strange but warm lycra hat that worked well for winter and fitting beneath bike helmets before being misplaced in Goshen.
- Steep and Cheap- The once cap I own, bought as a health-code requirement for an impromptu summer job at The Pie Pizzeria in SLC.
- Peruvian- a gift from Mitch’s travels. It’s itchy but warm.
- UPS- rugged and colored classic brown. It was the only part of the work uniform that they let us keep.
- Fighter Pilot Helmet- duct-tape, cardboard, and spray paint.
- EMS- the hat, bought to replace the Mtn Hardware toque, fell out of my pocket while biking in Syracuse — prompting the writing of this post.
