Hello again Flickr. A month later and it is good to be home. Three weeks of world travel sounds great on paper and in reality it is great, but it is also exhausting. It is safe to say that my travel bug is scratched for at least a few months. That is a good thing as I have more than 70 rolls of exposed film between the trips to Maui and France to work through. It is going to take several months to plow my way through all that work. But that is a task I am looking forward to. I am looking forward to the delayed gratification that makes film so thoroughly enjoyable to use. I am looking forward to sharing those images with family and friends for the first time and I am looking forward to curating, writing and sharing it all with you through Flickr.

I am in my element when I am out in the world (exotic or not) with a camera in hand. And while this past month of whipping around the globe has left me worn out - almost in need of a vacation from my vacation - it has also been an incredibly fulfilling month. Give me a windswept Hawaiian beach with a wooden pinhole camera and a single roll of film and I am a satisfied individual... on several different levels.

I have given more than a little thought too on my on-going use of Flickr and on-line presentation in general. But those are thoughts I will share with you on a subsequent post. I am not completely out of vacation mode just yet and mentally it is still difficult to spend too much time in front of the computer. I'm sure you understand. But I had to get a new image up at some point and figured this was as good a place to begin again as any.

Secret Beach on Maui by the way. Not a terribly well kept secret mind you, but a beautiful one to be sure.

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Beaches like this are the reason why. We had all come here the day before to go snorkeling and even though the next morning saw us at the same beach, it was nonetheless a completely different world. It's an easy world - that of beaches and sunrises and slowly building colors. Not that I am complaining. Not one bit in fact. I'll just sit there quietly with my toes dug into the sand and let it all wash around me.

Tags:   Maui Hawaii Pentax 6x7 film Poolenalena Park sunrise island beach ocean horizon well defined lines empty daybreak travel Kodak Ektar 100 6x7 Medium Format Blue Moon Camera

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Gentle collisions like this occur when sunrise, the ocean and a photographer all run into each other at the same time.

Tags:   Fuji G617 pano panoramic film analog 6x17 sunrise Maui Hawaii landscape horizon Pacific Ocean Ho'okipa

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I am almost done scanning and processing the film from Maui. It's been fun, but it has also been a bit of a chore. I just have too many other projects going on right now that are more exciting than sitting in front of a computer editing images. Know what I mean?

The Chieu Hoi project continues to move along. You haven't heard much from me on that front lately but that doesn't mean nothing has been happening. We have been poring over BLADs (book layout and design) to submit to publishers and working on editing audio captions for an iPad book and that should all be producing some exciting results soon. Last night I listened to audio recordings that Charlie had made while in Vietnam and they gave me chills. It was like opening a window 45 years into the past and feeling a chill breeze blow through it. Keep an eye peeled for for the upcoming issue of the Portland Tribune which will be featuring several of the photos and an interview.

And then Blue Mitchell just handed off the Lezless submissions for jurying..... 933 of them. Oh boy. I did a first pass through them all last night just to get acquainted and it is really an amazing collection of work. I feel particularly lucky to be presented with such an impressive group of photography to sift through. Judging it down may be tough, but for all the best reasons. A big "well done" to everyone out there who submitted. You guys and gals do some truly amazing work.

And then thanks to Donna I have been inspired to do some nighttime pinhole photography. It has been obvious to me for several years that there is a glaring hole in the territory I explore with pinhole cameras and that hole exists right between twilight and dawn. I have just never been motivated to really get out after it. Or rather, I have been more motivated to go exploring other places. But now I have a WPC loaded with Delta 3200 that is two exposures in. And they really weren't all that bad either, in terms of exposure length I mean. I rate my Delta 3200 down to about 1000-2000 ISO (it loses speed if not processed in certain Ilford developers and isn't as truly a 3200 ISO as it may seem). And even with the lower speed I was calculating 8-16 minute exposures in the downtown park blocks at night. That's totally doable. I consider anything under 30 minutes a fairly easy wait and certainly anything under an hour is feasible... even if its raining. ;-)

As if all that isn't enough I heard it started snowing up on the mountain... Doesn't sound like I will be spending much time staring at Maui photos this friday either.

But they'll get done, eventually. One of the reasons I use film - and pinhole cameras for that matter - is I like not having to feel rushed. Some things benefit from taking more time. And if film has taught me anything over the years it is an appreciation for delayed gratification. But to tide you over, here's a pinhole image from a pretty little beach on Maui and the first sunset I ever saw from a Hawaiian island.

Tags:   Maui Hawaii Makena Cove Secret Beach sunset Pinhole Innova 6x9 lo-fi tropical island Pacific Ocean beach landscape film analog 6x9 Kodak Ektar 100

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The best piece of advice I can give you for visiting the bamboo forest inside Haleakala National Park is don't forget your bugspray. That blur of motion along the path in this photo? No, it isn't fellow hikers and photographers cheerfully passing me by. It's a never-ending stream of ravenous mosquitoes smelling breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. It didn't help that the light was so dim that pretty much every exposure required tripod use and standing still for long periods of time. Well my tripod had to stand still at least, I danced around non-stop slapping my legs, arms, neck, legs again, arms again, side of my face, legs again, while counting off the exposure and trying not to skip numbers. I had bites upon bites by the time I packed up and hiked back. But would I do it all again even if it meant no bugspray? You bet. Beautiful and amazing. But I would really try to remember the spray the next time.

Tags:   Maui Haleakala National Park bamboo forest Pentax 6x7 film analog 6x7 120 Hawaii long exposure people blur hiking landscape b&w

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