Seven Years

 

The movers arrived 2 days later - during a downpour, no less. The yard has changed a lot since then!

Yesterday marked the 7th anniversary of our move from Ann Arbor, MI to Weaverville, NC.    It was quite a change combining two households, in addition to moving far from Michigan.   Beverley, Adrienne, and I have no regrets about the move, and the last 7 years have really flown by.  I like where we are situated, and while not at the top of a mountain, we are at 2200 ft. above sea level, and the Blue Ridge Parkway is a lovely 8 mile drive from us. Main Street Weaverville is 2 miles away, and Asheville is 7 miles from us. So, we have all we need pretty close by.    

Main Street, Weaverville, June, 2022. Pentax Spotmatic, Svema FN-64

One of the reasons for our location is that Adrienne and I wanted to be near the mountains, as both of grew up in hilly areas of New York. While we really did enjoy Michigan and the Great Lakes region, a move to better overall weather and a more relaxed way of life was a factor.  I love the extended spring and fall here, and there’s no hindrance going out in the winter.    The few times we have had more than a dusting of snow were beautiful and short-lived.    In short, the weather here is usually quite nice.

Vance Birthplace, NC Historic Site, July, 2020. Nikon F2S, FPP IR200.

Moving here was a boost to my photography, especially regarding nature.  While the September 2024 hurricane devastated many of my favorite spots, it has caused me to visit other places, as well as being able to document nature’s recovery in the affected areas. I still have much to discover, and the eastern part of NC is pretty much untraveled for me. Unlike the grid system in Michigan and Ohio where the roads run NSEW, the roads here meander, and in the mountains you cannot be in a hurry. I’ve gotten comfortable driving our curvy roads, but I do wish the roads had decent shoulders. The lack of them really makes it difficult to stop and photograph things that I see along the roadsides. 

       

Along the Old Marshall Hwy, March, 2023.  Yashica Electro 35 GTN, Kentmere 400.

Yesterday, I drove up to Barnard, an unincorporated community along the French Broad River near Walnut.    There’s a nice little park (Barnard Park) along the river where river rafts put in. A bridge takes you over the river to Big Pine Rd. Until last week, I hadn’t been up there since the hurricane, and it was nice to see that things looked pretty much the same.

The Barnard General Store, July, 2026. Intrepid 4x5,
101mm Kodak Anastigmat Special, Cat Labs 80 film

 Last week, I drove up to Barnard to photograph the Barnard general store that had just opened, and I’m impressed with the work the owners had put into rehabilitating the brick building that was built in 1913. I had planned to make some exposures of the bridge with my Intrepid 4x5, but the rain put an end to those plans. So, yesterday’s trip was to take those photos, and whatever else I thought worthy of 4x5.    After that, I drove back up to US-25 towards Hot Springs, and took NC 208 N to Guntertown Road and then to Big Laurel Rd.    

Bridge over the French Broad at Barnard 07/21/26. Panasonic GF-1

Roadside attraction, Barnard Rd. 07/21/26, Panasonic GF-1

I’d wanted to take that route for some time, so it was a good day to do so.    A very winding and scenic route, it follows Laurel Creek. This was a recon mission, and there are a lot of nice old barns and moldering buildings along the route. Again, there are few places to park off the side of the road, but I managed to get some shots with my Leica M2 and my Panasonic GF-1. About 2/3 of the way it started to downpour, and that was the end of the day for photography.  I still observed what was along the road, and plan on a return trip for a cemetery that looked to be quite interesting.   Big Laurel Rd. connects to US-23A, which I took south and then onto 1-26 and home.    Not a bad way to spend an afternoon!

 

Abandoned, near Spill Corn Creek, off Big Laurel Rd. 07/21/26, Panasonic GF-1

  

So, it’s been a good 7 years here, and I look forward to many more.

Early Riser For A Change

 I've been in a bit of a creative funk lately.  Partly due to working on writing for some projects, I haven't been doing any thing photographically that's notable.  Some of the places that I really enjoyed taking a camera to have lost their attraction because of the damage from last fall's hurricane Helene.  I used to be an early riser back when I was working, as I was usually up by 6 am.  These days, it's a rare day that I am out of bed before 8.  Well, this morning was different - I was awake early, and looked out the window and saw that we had some thick fog outside. I got dressed, grabbed a camera bag and was out the door by 6:30.   

Because we are in the mountains, it's not unusual to have low-level fog in the mornings, and usually it's gone before 9 am, or at least so attenuated that it's not worthwhile going out in search of some good foggy scenes. I could see that this morning was different, so I grabbed my bag with the Nikon Zfc to get some instant gratification if I saw anything that was interesting.  This morning was just what I needed to get back in the groove.  I was full of energy as the fog cloaked familiar scenes into mysterious tableaus.  

My Nikon Zfc had a TTArtisans 35mm f/1.4 manual focus lens attached, and it was the perfect combination for this morning.  For one, auto-focus lenses hunt around in fog, so just keeping the lens at infinity and f/4 to f/8 was all that I needed to do. I shot at ISO 100 and 200 for the most part, so handheld shots were possible.  The thing about fog is that if reflects and scatters a lot of light, so it's actually brighter than you think because above the cloud bank, it's a perfectly clear sky.  Unless of course, it's at night. I was prepared to work quickly, because the fog could dissipate at any time.  So, in the span of about an hour, I drove and visited several sites that I felt would be interesting, and they were!

My first stop was just down the road from my house, at the Weaverville Mulch Yard.  The mountains of mulch looked like a mountainous view, with the diffused light creating silhouettes of mulch piles.

My next stop was a little over a mile away at lake Louise Park.  There, the water and the fog created a very special combination of diffused light and reflection.

After that, I ventured right into Weaverville, and shot some street scenes, but the views into the nature park were the most rewarding.

I then drove over to Reems Creek Road, and the old Balcrank factory building was dissolved in the mist, much to my delight.

A little farther on Reems Creek Road, I stopped at the Karpen Soccer park and was happy to see that a lot of the damage along Reems Creek had been ameliorated.  There were some great views of the creek and the surrounding vegetation that caught my eye, especially the bamboo thicket on the opposite side of Reems Creek.

In the span of a little over an hour, I shot a lot of images in b&w, and I am quite happy with what I got. There are a lot more excellent images other than the ones  shown here. The Nikon Zfc really did the job. Sometimes it just takes getting up early to set the day off to a good start.  Carpe diem, they say.

It's been a Helena time

Finally, I am able to post something while I have wifi access at a Verizon Hotspot in downtown Asheville. You have no doubt seen some awful images of the destruction in Western NC. While I live about 5 miles N of Asheville, and not in a flood zone, we did get hammered with the winds last week. It's been 11 days without power and running water. Other than one pine hitting our roof, we sustained little damage to our home. I can't say that the rest of the county and surrounding region has been that lucky. The River Arts District of AVL has been largely obliterated, with only some buildings standing - all of which are brick, and not cinder blocks. The 1916 flood was the lasert one to compare to, and it reached 21 ft. This one reached 25 feet. Before Helene struck us, we'd already had 11" of rainfall from another weather system. People that have lived here a long time cannot remember a hurricane hitting the mountains. I have taken a lot of images, and none of them do justice to the vast amount of devastation suffered by some areas. I'll post some when I have a good upload capability. There is a lot going on with relief and supplies, and I am hopeful that we will soon have our power restored. Take care, Mark 

 UPDATE OCTOBER 9 

 Our power came on Monday night around 8:30, and what a surprise. It's amazing how having lights on makes a big psychological difference. Shortly thereafter, our internet was also available. One good thing is that we are incrementally getting more services, etc. The weather has also been sunny and glorious, which is good for the first responders, cleaning up, etc.  I'll be posting images of some of the devastation in another post.  For now, enjoy the beauty from yesterday morning.

Looking to the NE from our neighborhood.  You can't see anything amiss at this perspective.

Shooting 41 Years Expired HP-5

I recently acquired a bunch of rolls of Ilford HP-5 that expired in Sept. 1980. Now, you know that I like testing the limits of what one can get from expired film, and a black and white 35mm film that's that old probably is going to be disappointing, right?  Well, follow along and see.

In 1980, I was working on my Master's degree in Entomology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY.  It was the year that I spent over 2 weeks on the road to the Southwest on a field trip.  I used a Pentax Spotmatic that I borrowed from my advisor, and shot Kodachrome and Ektachrome along that journey - and I still have those slides.  It was my first experience with the wide open West, and I learned quite a bit on that trip.  I am sure that I did not know a whit about Ilford film back then, as I was so used to the ever-present Kodak, though I know I did shoot some awful GAF slide film prior to 1980.  

In 1980, Jimmy Carter was in the last year of a pivotal presidency.  In 1980, PacMan appeared as an arcade game, and Post-it notes were sold for the first time. That was also the year of the fantastic "Miracle on Ice in lake Placid, NY, as the under-dog USA Hockey team beat the Soviet Union in the winter Olympics. Believe me, that was an exciting game.  It was also the year that Mount St. Helens erupted, causing significant destruction and altering the regional climate for a short time. It was the year the 7 rolls of Ilford HP-5 "expired," locked away in someone's closet or camera bag to resurface 41 years later in a donation of photographic equipment.

As I examined the boxes of film, I realized that Ilford had done some things with the packaging that I had not seen before.  Each plastic canister was sealed with a plastic strip that has to be torn away to open it and remove the film. The film has the typical long "Leica leader" that used to be on 35mm films, but probably stopped by the early 1980s.  The film cassette is reusable, as the ends can easily be removed.  Of course, the box also housed printed instructions on a sheet of paper. Interesting note, is that the instructions tell you to expose at 1/250 sec at f/16 under a full sun.  That's overexposing the film by a stop if it is rated at ISO 400. Also, the film is HP-5, not HP-5+, still rated at 400 ASA.  

At first I thought it would be stupid to test the film, but then I realized it would be a good opportunity to see just what I could do with it.  I have shot long-expired Kodak Verichrome Pan with good results, as well as Kodak Panatomic-X. However, they are not fast films, and age better than a 400 ISO film.  Using my rule of thumb of losing a stop every decade, and factoring in that the film is black and white, I decided to shoot it at ISO 50.  I loaded a Vivitar V3800N SLR with the film and shot it all in one day in Weaverville. The V3800N is one of the cheaper SLRs that appears as many different brandings, but it's certainly capable enough for this simple test. I didn't bracket any of the shots, and used sunny-16 and the camera's meter to adjust my exposures.

In the afternoon, I developed the film in HC-110B for 5 minutes. I chose HC-110 because it seems to limit fogging on old films.  As I pulled the developed film off the reel to hang it to dry, I was really pleased to see that I had images. The film has significant base fog, but I knew that it would scan pretty well.  

I scanned the negs with my Epson V700 scanner, and the thumbnails of the pre-scan looked really good. The film has a slight cupping, like Kodak Tri-X, making the center of the scan a little less sharp. There are some blotchy lines across the length of some of the frames - and I don't know what they are due to.  Here are some of the scans below.You can see that they are little grainy, but overall, not bad.  My guess of shooting it at ISO 50 was correct. I certainly did not expect that the results would be as good as they are.

It's hard to judge the results without knowing the history of how a film was stored over its lifespan.  It could have been in any number of places, and I doubt that any of them would be a freezer.  The exciting fact is that this film, probably produced in 1978 or 79 is still usable (with some adjustment).  

I know that some people wonder why in hell anyone would use long-expired film. I certainly would not use it for anything critical, but part of the fun is seeing how much life that old roll of silver halides still has after all these years.  It's also a of a treasure hunt - sometimes one can find some film that will really amaze with its staying power. Other times, it's a dud.  These rolls of HP-5 are usable, but not without some minor flaws.  However, one person's grainy negative is another person's art niche.  I may put the remaining rolls up on Etsy, so check it out soon.

   

It's starting to feel like home.

One of the hardest things about moving to someplace that is entirely new is the disruption in my typical routines and activities.  Of course, I would rather be off with my camera somewhere, but there have been many things around the house that need to be done, as well as trips to visit stores for needed items, and I have seen way to much of a Lowe's lately.  In fact, if I don't have to go inside one for another month, I would be a happy man.  However, we are getting our home to fit our needs, and eventually, all that stuff will be behind us.  We are getting to know our neighbors, and in fact, our neighbor Rachel was pleased to see that I had a manual typewriter. So much so, that she dropped off the book Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks.  I have to say that people here are friendlier and more approachable than in Michigan.  The local food scene is wonderful, and there are lots of great local beers.  The weather has been wonderful, and the mountain skies are always interesting.  Do I miss Ann Arbor? No.  It's easy for us to get around and into town, and every day we find new things.  It's really good that we decided to move here, as it has given us a kick in the pants to not be in a rut, and I feel fortunate that we have been able to do this.

Reed Creek will be great for some future pinhole work

In the past week, I have been doing some photography in downtown Asheville and Weaverville, and found a lovely place to visit at the Univ. of North Carolina Botanical Gardens, about 10 minutes from our house.  Reed Creek runs through the gardens, and the terrain is quite interesting.  Getting out for some "me" time is important, as I need to explore the area, and think about the type of photography that I want to do. I'm away from all of my old photo friends in Ann Arbor, and it will take a while to have that same film user community here that I had back in Michigan.   Lance King, from Tennessee, contacted me a couple of weeks ago and told me about a cool place in Marshall, NC and gave me some contact information.  I contacted the owner of the Makers Circle, Susan Patrice, and yesterday I drove over to meet her and see what the place was all about.  It's only about a 25 minute drive from my house, and it's in the lush mountains NE of Marshall.

Susan Patrice with one of her modded cameras for doing
circular negatives.

Susan Patrice runs the Makers Circle, and it's an amazing place with an alt-process darkroom, regular darkroom, a big digital work space, and room to house people that want to do a residency there. She's extremely knowledgeable and is a fantastic working photographer.  Her work is immediately notable in that most of her images are circular. We spent almost 3 hours talking photography, and it was such a great visit for me.  I may end up using the darkroom there until mine gets set up. It is amazing  that there is such a great resource just a short drive from my house!  I learned a bit about local resources too, and my next visit will be to Ball Photo in Asheville, where they apparently have LOTS of film cameras and accessories. 

Today, we finally went to the North Asheville Tailgate Market, which is a farmer's market that sets up on Saturdays on the UNC Asheville campus. One word- fantastic - describes the market.   It really was a feast for all the senses.  It reminded me of the Farmer's Market that I went to in Portland, OR, though not as extensive.  We bought some produce, some bread and cheese, some things to plant, and I spent $3.50 to buy a huge bell pepper that Weston would have envied.  Now I need to set up some lighting and space to photograph it on 6x7.  Then, we'll eat it.

So, yes, this is starting to feel like home, and I am looking forward to many new adventures.