First night in Washington. It was midnight by the time we were settled and found a meal, but having a hotel a few blocks from the White House made it too easy to wander.

Around the corner, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building was almost completely covered in scaffolding.

Coming from Canada I was initially startled by scenes like this chest thumping American patriotism (even amongst renovations) which seemed to imitate Nazi aesthetic. I don’t know if it is just because I am foreign, but the American flag and accompanying styling impress upon me none of the comfort that I imagine is intended. As a visitor, these displays served mostly as dramatic and frequent reminders that I am personally conflicted over what America represents in the world today.

Nevertheless, I was there to work and do my part in Ameruhkee. At the conference center things were still quiet apart from the impressive security presence. I was there a few days early for setup.

Since we had no internet access yet in the room in which we were meant to work, the only option was to walk out into the common areas for wifi. Checkin’ da e-mail.

Andrew standing in front of the racks where I did most of my work.

I thought I’d get this shot and then another when it was full of people, but I later learned that full of people made me not so inspired.

We arrived on the east coast in to a record breaking heat wave. Forecast: “Highs of 38 °C. Feels like: 42 °C.” Awesome.

In the crew meal room I went in to decisive moment capturing mode.

Since it was so amazing to me I had to go back to see that building again.

But this time continued on to the National WWII Memorial as the evening began to set in. It sits at the other end of the reflecting pool, opposite the Lincoln Memorial.

Lincoln Memorial in the background. Shooting 1/4 s by that point.

Fortunately, they keep ol’ Abe pretty well lit.

I had to switch angles after I began to appreciate how dominant his hands and feet were.

Sitting out on the steps infront of Abe looking across the reflecting pool.

After some long days at work we finally found an opportunity to head to the Smithsonian.

A glimpse of the DC metro. Which was interesting to be inside after playing Fallout 3.

Right here we’re riding what was perhaps the most incredible escalator I’ve ever ridden. At first I actually thought there was a performance going on up ahead outside, some kind of drunk saxophonist, then I realized that no; it was actually the escalator, moaning, wheezing and grinding its way around and around. That’s at the Archives station, by the way, in case they still haven’t fixed it.

Also, you can find the shot from the other side a couple images down over on this internet web site.

With so many options and not enough time our group split in two, half heading to the National Museum of Natural History and half to the Air and Space Museum.

Crossing the park in front of the Capitol. If you’re keen you’ll find the ball.

That was right outside the McDonald’s built in to the side of the Smithsonian. They might actually use that to drive hamburger buns around.

Once inside I hung out with my buddy in the space station. I really didn’t end up making much photography there because our time was limited and I wanted to read and look at things while I had the chance.

For some reason I kept thinking of Reporter in Generation Kill, and then my buddy JJ walked up and said the same fuckin thing.

The Soviet half of the Apollo-Suyuz Test Project. A recreation of it anyway.

The Hubble Test Telescope.

JJ in front of the SS-20 and Pershing-II nuclear missiles.

We had dinner at a secret destination one evening. It was a long, mysterious drive and when we got there the tables were sticky, but the food was alright. The deep-fried dill pickles were interesting.

Riding on a bus to some place called the Newseum where there was a party that night.  I saw that on the way.

Then I saw this which I rushed to get since the bus was unloading. But I didn’t notice those fellas entering the frame.

Newseum turned out to be very interesting and I ended up mostly ignoring the party and wandering the exhibits which were almost empty due to the private function. It is basically a museum dedicated to journalism and they have some fascinating displays including the largest section of the Berlin Wall to be found outside of Germany. Nearby there is also a three-story East German guard tower that once stood near Checkpoint Charlie. All very humbling to stand amongst, even so displaced of context.

I was going to make a photo of another section and then these guys stood there.

This is the Journalists Memorial. Here are honored the names of over 2000 reporters, photographers, and broadcasters whose lives have been lost while at work.

Once out of the party we jumped on a bicycle taxi that gave us a tour through more of the city. I hadn’t been to the Jefferson Memorial yet, but I also hadn’t been to the bathroom in a while so I took the opportunity to pee in some of his nice bushes.

Him again.

The WWII Memorial at night.

I made this photo mostly because it resonated perfectly with almost everything I had seen so far in DC. The dedication made to remembrance is stronger in this place anywhere else I’ve been. Sometimes I thought that it was difficult to judge whether this imposition of self-importance was legitimate or just dramatic. But mostly it was awe inspiring because where I come from our ancestors are not celebrated with such extravagance.

The last night of the conference, and one more party.

Some sort of art.

Our last night in DC. My team got together and went out for some drinks. The next day we were splitting up for different destinations.

And that was DC. Next stop, New York.

Underneath a shopping mall in downtown Vancouver I was with Kevin.

Particle physics chatter from behind the coffee.

Pagans, pagans are awesome.

I think we all know what’s to become of this image.

Lou.

Zane is my favourite Our Town performer.

Tenant plays Pub 340.

With friends Cortez the Killer. Getting nice and drunk for this show which was a real treat.

Beard and I met up with JJ for some cheeseburgers.

While we waited for him to finish with the telephone there was an artistic flash of genius.

This portrait is in response to this campaign by Translink last year.

It was a high class dining experience.

Another evening at the Reef, a great Caribbean restaurant around the corner from my place.

He said he didn’t have time to pack a decent lunch that day. We didn’t let him get away with that without a photograph each.

My friends Sarah and Norm collected a group to celebrate and send them off to South East Asia for 2 months.

This is one roll of Kodak Tri-X, +1.

This is my first time blogging with a pro gamer mouse. Seems pretty much the same, really.

I was impressed by these mods. Maybe the auto experts can chime in, but I’d say that is good for 7 horsepower.

Randy returns to form.

Fair enough.

Birthday party, chocolate cake and beer.

It wasn’t that dark actually, the light was incredibly bright but I didn’t have time to adjust the exposure so I got it a few stops under. On the ground between us is one of those search lights aimed to the sky and rotating.

Hmm, how many interesting things are happening here?

You may have heard that the Bloedel Conservatory will close this year. Although this seems sad, because it is a beautiful place to visit, I do wonder if that place is really a good way to allocate resources. Maybe we could focus more on preserving existing natural environments than ruining them to create artificial environments?

If you’re a fan of Battlestar Galactica you might find that place somewhat familiar.

BLOG’D.

There is a film named Kodak HD 400. I shot a roll of it in my Nickelodeon Photoblaster.

Interestingly enough, the results from this expired roll that has been in my fridge (a number of fridges, really) for years are rather delicious.

Brother Entropy surprised us all in Vancouver with the weather throughout September but in October it began to rain at last. Quite convincingly I might add.

This cat convinced a number of individuals that being in a salad bowl on the floor really is not so bad.

Limits tested, but not met.

Quite content to be back on the floor again. I guess it is really nice to have a camera around for these situations.

Add another point in my decisive moment column.

I love that the film recorded the nature of the sky to some degree, polluted by the light of the city landscape.

I missed several cute/intimate moments between these two but I still wanted them anyway so I had to take them.

We were all in attendance to see a guy in a place.

Pretty sure that was 1/2.

Apparently that is what I looked like, proudly demonstrating my Nickelodeon Photoblaster back from the shop in tip-top shape.

Discovering mirrors is a bit of a strength, I would say.

Guy outside of a place.

Hm, and snapping to finish the roll off the next day. That place burned down on November 12th. That place where I spent so many days, taking oh, okay, maybe one more cup of coffee. Where the food always hit the spot. Where I truly loved the staff. Where.. I don’t know where to go any more.

Good thing, then, that we went inside that day. I guess this was the second to last time I was there. Kodak Tri-X.

I am going to weave in a roll of NPZ here and there and intend that I am slotting it in pseudo-chronologically. Again, different cameras and simultaneous rolls, so who really knows.

Kidnap Kids at Goonies.

Nadja at the Rickshaw.

They were great.

lol

I failed exposing that one, oops, was in a hurried commute. It is almost what I was going for though, to be fair.

That was Mono at the Biltmore, October 6. I only made that one shot on film. Actually, maybe I should include a few of the digital frames I made there…

Here’s Beard wondering if he’ll regret that face. Though he was happy to send me off with the 5d.

So Randy and I hopped in a cab.

The stage was set when we arrived.

The show was sensational, profoundly sensational.

To celebrate we visited 7-11.

On October 9th, 2009 the Centaur upper stage of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite impacted the crater Cabeus near the south pole of the Moon at a velocity of 10,000 km/h. I made a photograph for posterity.

We talked about something cool. Can’t remember what it was. Good story, right?

Waiting to get somewhere.

Quaint. It is always good to get involved with the community in pro-active ways.

Or to just sit and study.

Or sit and sip, discuss.

I am a little rusty.

So, something else that happened in October was my 10 year high school reunion, yep.

Eventually the photographers of the class converged a bit. Everybody loves to handle the Nickelodeon Photoblaster.

It was a weird event. Oh, no, not the reunion. Just the fact that someone almost managed to pull focus here.

That hat fell from the balcony above where a wedding reception was taking place. The hat was being used as a prop for photographs, unfortunately I ended up wearing it for a while before realizing what it looked like on me. Fortunately, it was legal for us all to drink this time we got together, and drinking definitely did occur.

I played with the photographer above who had by that time realized I was in possession of her hat. I was working my way up the stairs to deliver it back to her when I was intercepted by a friendly dude, the brother of the groom perhaps, who had come to retrieve the hat. I didn’t get any farther than that, which I regretted. I wanted to say thanks for playing with me.

Then it was time to celebrate a birthday.

And have a bit of a jam. I think Weston is going to be the family drummer.

That composition grows on me every time, more than last time. ;]

We drove to the supermarket. Careful not to get a parking ticket.

A portrait of a person; a portrait of quality time.

Completing the circle of life, queuing to pay. On the internet, at the cashier, on the internet.

Hallowe’en was approaching, and the last day at my old apartment. Still I had not found a new place to live.

Our Town had become a fairly regular spot to regroup.

And the packing was underway. I was fortunate to have amazing help from amazing friends. And a place to live was found.

As my apartment emptied I paused to make one last image in that place.

I moved on October 31st. The weather was incredible, as was the help I received. Hi, mom.

Later we returned to Command HQ and launched Operation: Destroy Brain Cells.

Other things also happened that night, as they usually do.

Although I dawned the horse to this party, the hot dog guy found an appreciation for my style. We traded hats and I wore his zombie Barack Obama mask which worked out nicely because I was dressed formally and it was possible to shoot through the eye holes in the Obama mask, unlike through the horses mouth.

Salacious!

November 1st deserved going out for breakfast.

R.I.P. Idle Thumbs <3 (that was being out for breakfast another day in fact). I was boycotting the price of razors for a bit. :/

We are at the Elbow Room.

The painting walls occurred. The consumption of Stiegl occured, occurs yet.

Leica eyes. You know’em or you don’t.

You’d think I might be near Our Town again.

Might be right…

It is happening on all sides of me.

Oh, this is unique. I brought to a show a flash device for my camera, then I used it.

I am impressed you’ve got this far, honestly.

But do not worry, we are almost there.

OK.

I think we’re good.

You know what, Internet? You’ve never looked at your watch, or crumpled your forehead, or quoted me the time, or inquired ‘Morning… ?’ and I love you for that. Your reward is this blog. We commit your mortal remains to the bosom of the MAE-West. That was a really funny joke I just made, it’s just unfortunate that you don’t get it.

I preferred this lot vacant but it is full of used cars again today. This first roll of b&w was shot during August through October in one of my infrequently used SLRs, the trusty Nikon FG.

Things happening on street corners.

This might be the masterpiece of the entry. I know I am getting started a little slow. We’ll see where this goes.

A subtle PBR cache.

This is a government of Canada building. Somehow in this country you don’t get guns pointed at you by private security contractors when you point a camera towards architecture.

Seeing a lot of these lately now that the new subway emerges right down the block from the office.

I was on a trip to buy some film that day. It was when I realized that the price of Tri-X has risen dramatically in the last few years. It was quite a while since I’ve bought any since I had a modest stash.

As an experiment I recently picked up some Arista Premium from Freestyle photo (google will tell you that many people consider this repackaged Tri-X or at least almost identical to Tri-X). I will talk about it in a future update when I get around to shooting some since some of the photographers reading might be interested (it is priced almost 1/3 the cost compared to a roll of Tri-X).

Since I’m down the path of wankery already, here is the Zeiss ZF 50/1.4 at 1.4 on Kodak TMAX 100 (the old version). This is the flower garden outside my old apartment on 14th. I often read when commuting and so when arriving at home I’d like to sit there for a while and finish off the current chapter. I guess that POV is a nice memory now.

Same thing, 1.4.

And finally, 2.8, probably my favourite aperture on that lens.

Seems this guy was wearing a hat.

I’m not quite sure why I did that. It was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time. Maybe I thought 1/4th made me a videographer too.

I was talking about how much character the shutter on the Nikon FG has. Naturally I had to demonstrate.

There was a rainbow. I promise.

In October I got my Leica back from service and put some trix in there. I guess I did not write about it here but in the summer my Summicron fell apart. Not many people know this, but on the third day, God’s Summicron fell apart also, and from his tears the oceans of the Earth were formed.

I said stand still I need to test the focus. I don’t know what’s more amazing, that my collimation is now corrected or that he didn’t make a face.

Let’s not.

His name is Rich Hope and he’s gonna whip it on ya.

But really I was there to see Grady.

And I had the pleasure of proximity permitting me to photograph the Gordie Johnson signature truss rod cover. It’s nice to look for the details like this when shooting live music. The stuff the other photographers will never get.

Then again it also helps being close enough to get knocked out by the headstock.

Rocking the epic double-neck.

And the Explorer, no less.

So that was the first roll through the reborn M6. This has been an intermediary update. More soon, kiddies.

Our new subway line in Vancouver has a system of television screens which appear will be used for advertising. The first time I rode the line I saw this unregistered software notification on the screen so I snapped thinking it wouldn’t last long. It was at least a couple weeks before they did something about it.

If you’re used to shooting on the street with a 35, this compositional catastrophe is what happens when you try and do it with a 50.

They were getting ready for Halloween already in September at Value Village.

When chasing a child around the store becomes exhausting, this is possibly your best option.

Until it is learned that ears could be very fun toys!

Who likes some kitty portraits? This feline’s name is Frida.

I still believe firmly that the best pet portraits are the ones where you can make them out like historical evil dictators. I couldn’t quite nail that mood here.

Dave.

Hanging out at the studio after working on some tracks.

And here to add some ancient history to this post are a few shots beginning with Kevin.

So this is what ends up happening when you fail to realize or remember that you’ve shot a few frames on this roll before and then pulled it back out of the camera. Oh, and not sure what Kevin is up to but we’ll get a closer look…

Wasn’t sure which framing worked best. The frames are completely off from being aligned.

Quite flattering. If I remember correctly, he had a couple drinks.

This frame helped me finally to date the exposures. It was 2 years ago last September that I was sitting at that table. I was waiting for my new landlord to meet me at the cafe to sign the lease for my new apartment. The same apartment I will leave in 2 weeks.

So this is what the kids are doing these days. They plug the iPod in to the sound system and then they don’t have to actually perform any music, they just get to sing in the microphone. It helps if the venue is almost empty.

This is Tom and he’s waiting to play next. A couple days ago I saw him running for the bus on Broadway. Tom, you run for buses like a fucking pro.

He’s not so bad with the sound machines either. The name of this group is Haunted Beard.

Now, this shot and some that follow point back towards the title of this blog, the thoughts which inspired it and the associated conflicts. If I wish to document, do I have boundaries? I have to admit I’m less and less a fan of those constructs which persist when they do so without imminent harm or danger. But again, harm and danger are too subjective for my confidence.

If you wanted to understand what’s resonating through him I encourage you to find out.

“It’s not what I imagined.”

My favourite for the surreal quality.

f/1.4 and 1/4th.

Here’s Noah. Seeing him that night was part of a long string of random coinciding encounters we had. Or maybe not so random!

I named this guy Disneyland. Creative, I know.

We wanted to give Scott a ride home but since we had 5 people to fit in the car, with his bike, it wasn’t meant to be.

Another night at Our Town. Noah again, in plaid. Actually, Disneyland is in that picture too haha!

The Collapsing Opposites.

The Head That Was Out Of Focus In The Last Frame.

Thee Ahs. Damn, I came across this looking them up. Big thumbs up around here.

Wasn’t allowed to type between those two.

Dave watching GI Joe PSAs.

Heading home just before sunrise.

Hi, me.

Carcassonne. These double exposures were again a mistake.

As an artist I have some profound statements to make.

See, I told you. I think this statement is something like: I know how far .7m is.

Another important statement: What a Bentley being towed for illegal parking in the handicap zone looks like.

Getting a cappuccino. These are on top of a jazz quartet if you didn’t figure out yet. And it gets weirder.

Like Jon sitting next to himself playing the trumpet while also blowing the trumpet in Rick’s ear back in the previous frame.

So something else that happened at the stag was one guy locking himself in the mens room at the restaurant for an hour. This was a case of what I’d call overenthusiastic pre-drinking. I was in the mens room with Norm, on the left, when he finally unlocked the stall. You can tell Norm isn’t quite sure about this situation.

So there’s Norm playing the drums, with Jon blowing his trumpet while Mike is exhaling his hit off the hookah on the porch behind Norm’s house.

Later in the morning, sitting with Norm before catching a bus back home, and… a pole on a bus.

Trying to look a bit proper the night of Jon’s wedding and another example of flash thievery at a party/show I went to in September.

Meant to do that one actually.

The view in the window of a restaurant with some party goers.

It was groovy to run in to Weston at that party. I had no idea he was into that scene.

This hallway we’re in was stocked with chalks for anyone inspired to create artworks.

Most times when individuals become aware of intended to be candid photograph attempts I’ll just stop because it becomes something I’m not interested in. But I guess sometimes it’s still a good idea to keep going.

Long story, short; this guy thought I couldn’t stop his eyes in a photograph in that light if he kept them moving constantly.

Some thing happening.

Hi, Noah! I am not sure how I received that look from her but I think it makes my temperature rise.

At this point I could click Save Draft and continue this entry later but I’ve reached the extent of what I currently have scanned.

Hi, this is my first picture of this entry.

In the bay, there is a person in the water of the lake among the trees between the mountains.

It is a beautiful day, but this refreshment is fed by glaciers and is cold.

And she’s coming to visit me where I cower upon the edge of a dock I photographed 4 years ago. But let us rewind a little.

This happened one evening in our town while I was finishing off ‘Platform’ by Houellebecq in August. I enjoyed all of it happening. But what I wanted to happen for most of the summer was forest fires to stop burning, roads to open and a vehicle to take me with special people to the family cabin. Well, eventually it happened.

And we were on our way.

We pulled down the soft driveway over pine needles and into silence early in the morning. It must have been nearly 3 am if it hadn’t already passed.

And in the following day I watched my nephew, Weston, crawl around the same grounds, picking up the same sticks and tripping over the same veins of the earth that I once had during the same age.

Because it’s an isolated environment many things never leave and seem to last forever, like toys, and so he set to fill the same trucks with the same dirt I used to haul in my childhood.

I think it was actually one of the strongest emotions I’ve ever felt.

And here I am at this dock again…

So I thought I’d wander around and raise the elbows at various objects. The condition of this tree actually makes me a little nervous. This point of view betrays the scary angle its hanging at today. The Gun Lake Noise-Makers is us, my family, or at least it used to be back in the 70s. Most of the noise seems to have come before my time.

The trucks used to roll across here for sure, among the alien moss and fungus formations.

He’s new.

He is not.

Think I edited these when my eyes were crossed.

The dump truck has a lever with that ball attached on the end and it manipulates the angle of the truck bed. The truck on the right has foam paddles attached to the front axle and when it rolls it scoops things up from the ground back in to the bed of the truck from underneath. In my opinion these are both good ideas for toy trucks.

My sister was hunting through the past too.

Although we don’t see much of a sunset from our position on the lake, later in the day a tranquil ambiance descends as the light reflects gently off the water.

While our first evening set in we brought out some beer. Somebody was a little anxious cracking theirs.

Lacking the thought of something to play I motioned that we take a simple chord progression from a Nightwish song and turn it into a wilderness folk-jam.

No, I didn’t sing it.

We made fajitas for dinner.

Although this is now ‘the kitchen’ now, there used to be 4 dirt bikes lined up in this corner all my life. They made good towel racks, said my sister.

The art did not evade me for long.

This place is looking a lot different than it did four years ago.

But I guess being there in the fall helped to bare the trees for the light. Also I had bigger balls, shooting wide open.

Maybe that one would make more sense during a different season or at a better time of day.

All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.

If it was the light before noon that gave me trouble it, it gave me other things as well.

Something quite anonymous.

Another structure, less anonymous.

Having wandered a while I wanted next to be stationary and shoot at some cans.

The look of failure.

More super-productive jamming happened throughout our stay.

And on the last afternoon there we realized something.

Weston will feed a horse all day long.

It doesn’t really matter if the horse is not real, or if all he’s got to feed the horse with is branches and dirt.

We went for a walk and I managed to convince my sister it would be a good idea to wear the horse for a while.

If ever a photo needed to be printed, framed and hung on the wall…

Hmm, nice moment to reflect upon.

He was completely uninterested in becoming the horse, unfortunately. Not that I blame him, it’s a rather isolating and claustrophobic environment to be in.

Putting things in your mouth though, you usually can’t beat that for a good time.

We stayed at the cabin for 4 nights. Just enough time to finally unwind and be comfortable, then it’s time to pack up and leave. And we had planned to leave at 11 am! Well in the morning I asked Randall to give some assistance making some artistic portraits. Especially because inside I had found in a stack of children’s books this book titled ‘Horses’. I thought it’d kind of be just like a dude sitting on the porch reading ‘People’ magazine.

I knew the light at that angle wasn’t going to work so I gave my position a turn and got a bit sophisticated.

On the road back home, just outside the town of Lillooet it was necessary to make a brief stop.

The horse child had an accident keeping his breakfast stored in his stomach. He got cleaned up and the remains were buried in the gravel.

Spirits were raised.

It almost seemed like he was emulating me there.

Nearly 7 hours later we were back to civilization.

A gesture which speaks volumes.

I think that’s it for now. Thanks for having this party with me. Bye.

Maybe it’s not the typical time to be doing so but I did a lot of reading over the summer along with a lot of coffee drinking. Here is a summary of my cirriculum.

• Watchmen, by Alan Moore. Glad I read it but I felt let down for all the hype. On the other hand it lowered my expectations for the movie and ended up enjoying it unlike the fanatics.
• A Singular Man, by J. P. Donleavy. This guy is a virtuoso. I can’t wait to read more Donleavy.
• Beautiful Losers, by Leonard Cohen. Some great stories in here but something about this book felt dated to me, as if culture had moved on or at least I had. I bet it was amazing to read 30 or 40 years ago.
• The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins. Not sure what to say about this but I think everyone should read it, especially you fence-sitting agnostics. As awkward as Dawkins comes across when speaking publicly, in print he has a charm which reminds us that he’s probably the most passionate and outspoken ultrageek we’ve ever known. (Note: It should go without saying that when we read books, especially books like this, we don’t read them to be told what to think, we read them to challenge and re-evaluate what we’ve thought and will think)
• The Runes of the Earth, by Stephen Donaldson. Book 7 in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. It was terrible and yet I’m still attached to the series for some reason. I guess it’s just because Thomas Covenant fucking rules.
• What is the What? by Dave Eggers. The story of a Sudanese refugee and his coming of age. It is disturbing and also humbling.
• Platform, by Michel Houellebecq. If he’s not my favourite author he’s the author I most wish will write more books.
• Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy. One book where I feel insulting to think of using mere adjectives as description. There is a quote from this book I might talk about in a future entry as it relates to photography. Some of you may have already figured out what quote that’s going to be!

But of course I do actually have some photography to share.

Down the block from my apartment this was happening.

But that evening in Yaletown something involving a bit of drinking was also happening.

By the way, many of these wides are from my little plastic Nikon Series E 28mm f/2.8.

In most entries you’ll see them playing instruments, but this time you’ll see them chewing chicken.

We both laughed after that and I said “you know what I got, right” and he said “yes, I know what you got.”

The next thing to do was to take a little walk…

And to get back just in time to witness Jonathan extract a shot from somewhere between Tanner’s legs.

By now you might have guessed that this was Jonathan’s stag.

We continued to drink into the evening outside on the patio. f/1.4 at 1/6th. Later we went to see dancing girls and due to my camera I was refused at the door. When I eventually got inside I realized why, the girls performing at that venue bored me sober.

How to transition from the peelers to hanging out with my family gracefully? No idea really.

This photo is best without context…

Shifting gears a bit, aheh. And films, shooting 125px in the Leica and Tri-X in the F100. On the first weekend of August my mother was giving her new dragster some break-in runs at Mission Raceway.

Catching the launch.

That was the first time I really wanted to have a rapidwinder on my M.

Here’s the crew before heading down to the end of the track to guide the dragster back. That’s my grandfather on the right wondering why she didn’t hit 3rd gear on that run.

I followed him back to the trailer. My grandfather made a name for himself racing in the 60′s with a car that he built himself, the Syndicate Scuderia.

He brought the car to put on display and it was difficult to get a moment when it was not being crowded with digital cameras.

My sister was camped down near the end of the track, the only place you’d ever find some shade, but it was a long walk back and forth.

The shutter on my M drags at 1/1000 so I made one at 1/500 just to see what I could catch of a nitro funny car. That car ran 6.739s at 207.08 mph.

It had been forever since I’d seen my nephew that weekend. He loves the cars but the sun was intense, it was one of the hottest weekends of the year.

Then my mom sent us a text to let us know it was time to drive again.

When I caught up with her they were in the staging lanes. I’ve never seen my F100 overlap a frame like that before but it hasn’t happened again fortunately.

The one time I brought my F100 to the line to make use of continuous mode, she was placed in the opposite lane. Sad face.

This is almost comedic, especially if you haven’t tried to shoot something like this before. Anticipating a bit too quick, but it is a barrage of the senses, feels and sounds much more beautiful than it ever looks.

Looks like she bounced there.

And the crew setting off to meet her at the end again.

Mom wanted to run alongside him but their crew told us their car wasn’t running straight so they did seperate runs. He ran straight, but slower. Good thing for his ego I guess ;].

Lady spectating in difficult light. f/2.8 @ 1/4000.

Bringing the car back after the burnout.

Catching some air again.

Pulling back up to the trailer. She was running pretty consistently about 140mph that weekend, but I don’t remember the times. Right around 9 seconds I’m guessing.

Went to watch the funny cars from another angle. Even in the first half of the 1/4 mile you can’t stop them at 1/500.

I think my good man maybe needs some shades.

Getting some shade again with my sisters friends.

Finishing off the roll back in the city.

We had some lovely mini-taco things.