some travels north - and a return
Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 09:54AM 
TAKE 2:
We've traveled far and wide, and landed back in pretty much the same place we departed from. Fancy that...
The farthest we journeyed was Montreal, yet another big city. I think we've had about enough of them for a while. Not knowing it very well, it seemed we were destined to experience the tourist attractions and hordes. As in the Biodome, a location that we probably should have skipped, but managed to attend along with several thousand parents and their baby strollers.
Our hotel, the Auberge du Vieux Port, is in a great location in the old part of the city, and the people there are wonderful. But my heart sank when Frederick took us out the back door, along Rue St. Paul to Rue St. Gabriel, and I saw the tee shirt shoppes.
The more fabulous sight was the Atwater market, a large city block of permanent shops, primarily food, with the fruit and vegetable vendors on the perimeter of the building under movable tarps, and the butchers and cheese and bakeries on the inside under a solid roof. A beautiful location that is largely for the locals and remains undiscovered by the touristas.
One of our more remarkable visits was with Landscapist Mark Hobson in Au Sable Forks, N.Y. He was generous enough to lend us the use of his house (while he and his family were away in North Jersey for a wedding) and a car. Fortunately Mark was able to return in time for us to have a personal encounter, after nearly two years of comments and contributions to his blog. We spent an afternoon and an evening that concluded late, and part of the following day in conversation about family and photography. Such generosity, which included complimentary passes to Lake Placid events courtesy of Aaron Hobson, surely deserves special mention.
Somewhat reluctantly, I reacquainted myself with the Mamiya 7II kit that has sat on the shelf for most of the past year. CLW and I have worked with it recently to come up with our annual photo/birthday gift. But I was hesitant to travel again with this camera because I've become so accustomed to working with the two 4 x 5's that are my usual tools. Getting on and off the train multiple times in ten days was what convinced me that the 7II was ultimately the camera to take, and I'm happy that I did. It's interesting that the use of the large format has taught me how to work faster with a smaller camera. This trip, although I carried a tripod, it wasn't necessary much of the time, now that I've learned from the 4 x 5 how to maximize on DOF. I'm not quite certain why I was always shooting at f/22 when using the Mamiya. It's certainly not necessary. So all the work that I did while travelling through Manhattan was done sans tripod. As a rangefinder tool, it's the perfect medium format camera to use off the tripod. With the use of a new (to me) emulsion for some of the exposures - Portra 400 - I was always able to work in the f/8-11 range. Some of this material should appear here during the coming weeks as I work my way through the ten rolls of 120 film.
Reader Comments (1)
The pleasure of meeting you and your family was all mine. Looking forward to seeing some pictures.
BTW, I am in possession of a pearl earing. Where should I send it?