travel – Page 3 – I dream of sumac and milkweed (and other wild things)

Home again from Lima, Peru

May 23, 2017 sumacandmilkweedLeave a comment

I’m still (mentally) processing the week in Lima with my daughter, which was mostly amazing. The bad parts:

Two very long days of travel, particularly the coming home day, which consisted of 24 hours and three flights.
I am sicker than sick. The first night home I spent running to the bathroom, followed by a day of fever and constant sleep. Two days later I feel a tiny bit better, but not much.
I only shot 8 rolls of film and I definitely screwed one of those up. There were places I didn’t feel comfortable shooting–not because I felt unsafe, but because I felt like it might not be polite. People don’t walk around with cameras there like they do here in the states.
My daughter got injured while sandboarding on the massive dunes of Huacachina, and I swear, watching that happen and not being able to do anything about it probably took a few years off my life. She is a trooper and it didn’t stop her from carrying on, and we both had a blast.
I missed my dog. My husband, too, but the dog…
I’m too damn sick to take my 8 rolls of film to get developed.

The good parts:

I just vacationed for the first time in a decade.
I just spent a week with my daughter, which I haven’t done since she moved off to college.
Lima is loud and fast and totally unlike other places I’ve been I’ve been in the U.S. And although I felt out of my comfort zone, I think it’s a good to do that periodically. It reminds you that there is so much more out there to experience.
It’s amazing how much you can communicate with others when not speaking the same language.
Lima is nowhere near as scary as what I’ve read online. I mean, I expected that. Read stuff online about Detroit and you’d think you can’t even step foot within city limits. I figured as much but still wanted to be prepared so I read anyway.
We ate some amazing food.
We saw some amazing things in and not too far out of Lima.
Pisco sours are the best.

I know there’s more, but I’m kind of having a hard time putting it all together since I feel only slightly better than death. I can’t wait to get my pictures developed, but unfortunately I will have to wait until I feel well enough to get film out to be developed.

Overall, I’m glad I chose to bring film cameras as I would have only taken pictures in the really touristy areas with my digital camera since it’s big and conspicuous. Hopefully I have some shots I like, but ultimately it was the experience.

And now I’m going back to sleep.

I don’t even care if I’ve made typos in this post. That’s how sick I am.

Camera decisions

May 4, 2017 sumacandmilkweed6 Comments

In just over one week I will be traveling to Lima, Peru. I’ll spend a week there with my daughter, and then I’ll leave her and she’ll go off to teach smart computer-coding things to some high school students. How brave is that? When she told me she was doing this through her university, she had the audacity to chide me for allowing her to study Latin as her college language choice. Ha! Like I’ve ever had any influence over this kid. Pffft.

(I remember distinctly suggesting Spanish to her. I wish I’d studied it but I did not have a language requirement in college. So, kid, I told you so.)

In any case, we will explore Lima together for one week and although in some ways this terrifies me, I’m far more terrified of the idea of her traipsing about Lima all on her own. Capable as she is, Lima feels so… out of my comfort zone and therefore a scary place to dump my firstborn. My own Spanish is limited to what I learned in second grade from my favorite teacher, who spoke Spanish as her native language and taught all her students how to count to 10, say good morning to her, and maybe a few other key phrases that are escaping me right now. So the kid and I will struggle with our Spanish together.

When my daughter asked me to join her and I agreed to do this, I immediately decided that I would not bring my DSLR but would bring one 35mm film camera and maybe a second “fun” camera. I read that you can only bring one camera into the country, but I can’t find really good information on this… the second one might incur a charge rather than getting confiscated or anything dramatic.

The Minolta SRT 102 is heavy, but it’s my favorite at the moment and even if I don’t use this feature, I can do easy double exposures. The Minolta X-700 is lighter. And, the self-timer on it works. And, it has a program feature in case I don’t want to think about anything other than focusing. I have two additional lenses (aside from 50mm lenses) for either Minolta, in case I have room for an additional lens. The Pentax K1000? Bombproof, easy; but no extra features and no doubles. Okay, the Pentax is out of the running.

And then I fell in love with 120mm film after using it for several months in my son’s Mamiya 645 1000s. But, no way can I add that behomoth to my bag and, well, it’s not mine. I picked up a Holga, or really a knockoff Holga, and have had a ton of fun with that so far. If that fell off a bridge or got stolen I’d shed a tear but not be put out other than sad that I had 120 film and nothing to shoot it with. It’s smallish, cheap and plastic and I won’t worry about it one bit. The knockoff Holga is going. I have big plans for it.

So I think I’ve narrowed things down to one of the Minolta’s and the Holga. I have some Ektar 100 and some Portra 400 in 120mm color film and some Tri-X 400 and Fuji Acros 100 in 120mm black and white. For 35mm film I have some Ektar 100 and some other odds and ends, but I may have to pick up some more 35mm film. And how many rolls? Ah, another conundrum. I read I can only bring 10–but I can pack some in my daughter’s carry-on or I can simply declare more (I don’t know what that means. An additional charge?)

But then I start to second guess myself.

Should the DSLR come with me? Pros: No film to carry. Big memory card. I can take a million photos and I can see them immediately. Cons: Increases the technology I would want to bring (laptop to upload, or thingy needed to transfer images from SD card to my iPad). I’d spend more time uploading and editing every night and less time seeing/doing things. It’s big and conspicuous. If I broke it, dropped it, or it got stolen I’d be pretty devastated. If I bring it, I don’t really have room for a film camera.

Does anyone else obsess over these things? I’m arguing with myself about all of this. I am firm one day, up in the air the next.

I like the idea of relegating this trip to only film. If I miss a shot, I miss a shot. I know with digital I’m trigger happy–but who needs a million shots with only a few being images I really love? With film I’m much more deliberate. I might make some really bad shots but even those will have meaning (to me, anyway). I’m not saying one is better than the other–it’s all about where my head is, my process and exploration with both mediums. Right now it’s film. Tomorrow might be different.

So, what would you do? You know, just for the sake of discussion. And to help me quit obsessing over this decision. Even though I know what I’m going to do.

Sort of.

San Francisco

April 29, 2017April 29, 2017 sumacandmilkweedLeave a comment

I’m so lucky. I traveled this past week for work, and I’m so lucky because I got to squeeze in an extra day of non-work, which I spent with a coworker doing the thing I like best (taking pictures) and catching up with her and you know, I don’t think we even talked about work at all. Suzanne, you rock.

I want you to know how hard it was for me to write the headline to this post. I’m bad at headlines. Usually literary phrases or lyrics or song titles come first to mind, and okay, sometimes I use those, but I feel like I’m cheating. I mean, who doesn’t leave their heart in San Francisco? And, yeah, now I know the way to San Jose. But those aren’t my words. So, just plain old San Francisco will have to do for this post, because that’s pretty much where I was. Or, the bay area. Or, is it Bay Area? (I’m still recovering from the whirlwind trip so I’m refusing to consult my sources to check which is correct.) I was in and around San Francisco and Sonoma for work, and it was all of these things: fun, exhausting, exhilarating, enlightening, and fantastic to be face-to-face with my coworkers.

But, pictures.

Golden Gate Bridge

I’ve given no love to my digital camera in months, and because I was tasked with photos for a work outing while I was there, I took the digital camera. Which is, like me, showing its age. A rubber grippy part of it fell off last summer and I intended to glue it back on but never got around to it and now I don’t know where that part is. A plate on a button on top of the camera, the one that shows what mode you’re shooting in, fell off while on this trip. I haven’t lost that and I’ll probably glue that back on, but I don’t need to. I’ll admit I kind of like the camera better a bit worn and ratty looking. After using old film cameras that are metal, sturdy and more substantial feeling than a modern plastic DSLR, the plastic camera feels a bit, well, cheap. Ratty and imperfect are more my style anyway. And settling on one camera and one lens is a little hard for me, but I do like a challenge. So the clunky, somewhat ratty, DSLR with 17-55mm lens came with me, jammed into my backpack not carefully at all, and they did just fine.

drive by, Golden Gate Bridge

sun flare, Golden Gate Bridge

Also after working with black and white film for the last four months I’ll admit the ease of upload and edits was (at least a little) fun. Maybe I even missed it a bit. But I still couldn’t help but make some of the fort images black and white, a little crusty and contrasty. Maybe a little like film. Whatever. Editing is such a personal thing, dependent on mood when you sit down to do it. At least for me.

LDC_20170423_IMG_5272 — Fort Point in the Presidio and Golden Gate Bridge

LDC_20170423_IMG_5287 — Fort Point inner courtyard

So, the Golden Gate Bridge and Fort Point in the Presidio. I’m not delving into any history here because you can go find that yourself. I’ll just say I love a space with brick, shadows, girders and trusses, some height, an underbelly. Some grit, some history, something that takes up a sizeable amount of space. This place hit all my buttons.

light on circular stairwell in Fort Point

LDC_20170423_IMG_5288 — stairs and shadows

arched doorway

inner quarters

Driving through cities in the bay, the outer roads, hilly and winding roads in wine country, stuff that makes your heart jump a little with the beauty and the occasional fear of dropping off a cliff. There’s something almost a little too bright about California, too shiny, perfect and beautiful.

But I can’t get enough of it.

turbine

turbines and field

I did some stuff in New Orleans

May 1, 2016 sumacandmilkweed6 Comments

How do you sum up a very short trip to New Orleans? I’m still processing all of it. New Orleans is not like anywhere I’ve ever been. Ever.

deshantzcook_20160428_IMG_5260 — Good morning, New Orleans! Bag piper on the Mississippi River

And I mean that in the best way. Not in the way where you ask someone what they think of something and they say, “oh yeah, that’s… [different, interesting, not like anything I know, etc.].” Nuh-uh. New Orleans IS all of that, and in the best, most delicious and weird and wonderful ways possible.

deshantzcook_20160428_IMG_5269 — St. Louis Cathedral

My friend Maggie found a cheap flight back in December, sent me an email and said “let’s go take pictures in New Orleans!” My thought process went like this: no, I can’t spend the money, I can’t take vacation, I shouldn’t do this, wait, I want to do this, why can’t I do this?, I’m gonna do this! We asked our friend Jane to join us, and voila, flights booked, hotel found. All we had to do was wait until April.

I’d never been to New Orleans. I know what anyone knows about it: Bourbon Street, jazz, above-ground cemeteries, the storm. I know that like many places (and people), there’s a lot more to the story of New Orleans. A blogger I like moved there from California and I love her photos and depictions of the place. I know about the balconies. I know about the beignets (and how to pronounce them, and that if you breathe in whilst eating one the powdered sugar will send you into a choking fit). What I didn’t know: it’s tropically hot, people go there to PARTY (in all caps, I’m serious), it’s beyond friendly, courtyards and shutters abound, and you really have to watch your footing in the French Quarter because the sidewalks are crazy uneven. And get the hell outta the way of the streetcars, for pete’s sake!

deshantzcook_20160429_IMG_5429

Anyway. Did I mention how hot it is? It is hot. And the locals don’t even think it’s hot, at least not in late April. They’ll tell you summer is hot, but April and May is NOT summer. Summer, and hot, is July and August. Apparently the locals just up and leave then. I don’t know who runs the show there in the summer, but I wonder if they’re as friendly as all the people that I met? Who can be friendly with sweat dripping into your socks? I don’t know. I digress. It was hot, but I like hot. Mostly, anyway.

It’s hard to see much when you arrive late in the day and only have two full days after that before you leave the next morning. But we managed to pack a lot in, including seeing a private hush-hush house concert of some very talented jazz musicians, one of whom I am proud to say I know. I shot a roll of film. I took some digital photos. We ate some good food and sampled the local booze. We saw (and heard, and smelled) Bourbon Street. We got torrential-rained on.

deshantzcook_20160428_IMG_5353 — Robin the tour guide. She did say we were going to get wet…

I like that New Orleans feels like an old friend that you know so well, it doesn’t trouble itself to neaten the joint up when you come over because you’re just that comfortable around each other. It doesn’t even bother to ask you to accept it like it is–it just knows that you will. It embraces your faults just as easily, maybe more so.

Carry on, New Orleans. I only had a few days to take you in, but I’ll be back for more.

Oh, Ohio

March 18, 2016May 2, 2016 sumacandmilkweed6 Comments

You’ve got some windy plains, Ohio, and some weird insistence on ditches on the sides of your minor roads which makes pulling over to explore something interesting near impossible. You’re a lot like your neighboring states of Michigan and Pennsylvania–flat in places, hilly in others, part pastoral loveliness and gritty, forgotten industry. When I think of you I think of traffic tickets and Chrissie Hynde, but this is neither here nor there.

My friend Jane and I took off late Wednesday afternoon and drove to Mansfield, Ohio, which is just past halfway between Detroit and Pittsburgh, stopping on our way because the light was kind of awesome to shoot things that struck our fancy. Oh, but that wind! It made standing still to shoot a little tough.

deshantzcook_20160316_IMG_3504 — so windy!

deshantzcook_20160316_IMG_3525 — (not where we stayed)

deshantzcook_20160317_IMG_3557 — one of Sarah’s chickens (or hens, or ? I don’t claim to know much about fowl)

We stayed Wednesday night in an upstairs room and alcove in a farmhouse in another small town about 10 miles from Mansfield with a very nice couple named Ron and Sarah. We ate black bean burgers at a nearby restaurant and actually went to bed around 9:30. Which is just crazy.

In the morning Ron fed us breakfast of homemade bread and jam with eggs fresh from their chickens and regaled us with stories about the house and the area. I can’t get enough of that stuff, and I hope I didn’t annoy him with all my questions. I could have spent the day bugging Ron, but we had to get on our way.

deshantzcook_20160317_IMG_3612 — Ohio is wet. I mean really, really wet.

We were there mainly to go on a photography tour with about 40-some other people of a prison that was built in 1904. It’s been closed since the 1990’s and has been the site of a few movies (it’s fairly famous for one in particular, The Shawshank Redemption), has a reputation for being haunted, yada yada. But before we got to the prison, we took a little spin through downtown Mansfield, which is a bit hilly and charming and weird and frankly, a place I’d like to get to know a bit better. We didn’t have a lot of time, though.

deshantzcook_20160317_IMG_3632 — look at that sexy back end

deshantzcook_20160317_IMG_3643 — crumbled steps leading to an abandoned house (or church?)

But on to the prison. We went on this exact tour last year and were in it not for the movie thing or the haunting business, but for the crusty, peely, yummy textures, lovely lines and light. Plus, even with 5 whole hours there last year, there were rooms we missed and we were on a mission to get to those spots.

deshantzcook_20160317_IMG_3681 — movie room

deshantzcook_20160317_IMG_3795 — cell block, shadows

The place is now run as a historical site by a bunch of really nice, knowledgeable volunteers, who were so terrific they jumped out of our shots, helped us find our way, and answered tons of questions. These people really love this building and are serious about its preservation.

deshantzcook_20160317_IMG_3707 — shower room

deshantzcook_20160317_IMG_3805 — *Facts on File*, 1974 (the top book) and red chair

deshantzcook_20160317_IMG_3843 — magazine stand and peeling paint

The library was apparently the prison hospital at one time.

deshantzcook_20160317_IMG_3719 — chair, light and shadows in solitary confinement

deshantzcook_20160317_IMG_3721 — THE red gurney

deshantzcook_20160317_IMG_3747 — (very former) phones

deshantzcook_20160317_IMG_3750 — might have been the room where guards oversaw the phone conversations–the phones are just on the other side of that low wall

And after about 4.5 hours of lugging tripods and camera bags around, we had our fill and headed out. With stops, of course. Missed a turn and came upon this abandoned factory, and with the puffy clouds and blue sky and the wild wind whipping through the buildings making the most foreboding clanging sounds, well, who could resist?

And a final stop at a cemetery, view towards a farm.

Rural Ohio has a thing for putting cemeteries on hills. I imagine there is some purposeful reason for this, but I appreciate it for the vistas. Again, the sky–gorgeous!

And that was it–just under 24 hours in Ohio.