Photo Stuff

My gardenia has made it through the winter and has quite a few buds on it. This is the first one to open up. I bought the plant last year from Menards. It was close to four feet tall and actually quite cheap I thought - it would have to have been or I never would have bought it. Just a tick over $20.00 if I remember correctly. I brought it in for the winter and it started shedding leaves about December. I was never sure if I was watering it too much or  not enough. After I did a bit of research I think I had it too close to the heater fin tube even though I had a tray of water on it to provide humidity. Fortunately, I didn't kill it. I've been misting it and taking it outside on the warm days and it seems to be doing well enough that it'll be in fairly good health if nice weather ever gets here - high of about 43 yesterday and it was spitting a bit of snow in the afternoon.

Here's a scan of the last roll of film I shot. The roll I shot in the camera that called for 620 film was junk but the old Franka turned in another great performance. The film is Acros from Fuji. I bought a 5 pack of this stuff about a year ago and I really like it. I was going to buy some more but apparently they no longer make it. Fine grain, good exposure latitude, makes nice prints.

I used a yellow filter on this roll since they were all taken outside on a nice sunny day. I followed the "sunny 16 rule" for my exposures - film speed same as shutter speed, aperture set at f16. I gave it one extra stop to compensate for the filter and they all came out looking good. I usually do a pretty good job of guessing the proper exposures so I don't bother with an exposure meter. If it's a shot I really want I'll bracket the exposure, one over and one under. One of these quarantined days I want to start putting a scrapbook together with some of my work. I might have to reprint a few things but that's part of the fun.

Got a bit more done on the Rapido yesterday. Foot pegs and fender are blasted now. The sandblasting cabinet is not quite large enough for doing rear fenders, even on a small bike like this one, so I hand sanded the very ends. Every day a little something.