The first in a bunch

OK, there's the first SD card edited, of four. No, don't panic. I'm not going to show you all 874 photos on this card. Not even the 106 edited photos. Not even all the whale photos.

I'm planning to edit 1 SD card a day. I'm going to work through developing the medium format film a roll or two a day. I'm going to take the 35mm film to a lab later today. There's a plan to buy the colour  chemistry and do it myself, but not on these rolls. C-41 chemistry has a shorter shelf life and it might be a while before I expose more colour film. 

I'm thinking the blog will continue to be as topical and frequent as ever, but will probably include at least some Newfoundland photos, and maybe tell some of the stories around them. But not all at once. Maybe not even in order. The blog might or might not include anything that might or might not go into a Memories of Newfoundland book that might or might not get done. Some of the film photos might, I hope, will be good enough to be included in the currently titled, The Film Project book. Which, I'm hoping might actually sell a few copies. More detail on that as they develop. (I hope you see what I did there.)

We started and ended our trip in St. John's. We stayed in Quidi Vidi (which is sort of between St John's and the airport), Brooklyn (near Lethbridge on the Bonavista peninsula), Twillingate, Burlington, Cox's Cove (north of Corner Brook), Rocky Harbour, Port Saunders, Raleigh (which is just about as far north as you can get in NL), and then heading back, Daniel's Harbour, Bishop's Falls, and Chance Cove. I'm working on marking up a map that might or might not get included below. Mostly we just put our destination into my phone and followed the blue line. Mostly. Google has no clue where Chance Cove actually is.

I drove 5,500 Km in those 28 days. Some of it was easy, cruising along empty roads. Some of it was brutal, dodging maniacs and potholes. Lots of twisty turny roads at 30 kph going through places purported to be villages. Lots of construction. Gas was typically about $1.80/l. 

The other transportation was feet. I walked more than 120 Km, and Linda much, much further. I haven't figured out the Linda rampage conversion factor, but I wouldn't be surprised if she walked over 200 Km.

Nearly everywhere we went, often before we even got out of the car, a local would drive by and give us The Look. The Look that said, we know you aren't from around here and we want you to know someone is watching in case you're weirdos. Once, while at the lovely swimming hole near Cox's Cove, I'd been working on some long exposure photography. I'd just put the camera gear in the trunk and we were heading off, when a Conservation Officer in an official truck, and an NL Constabulary officer in a marked car showed up. They both gave us The Look, but let us drive off without any further interaction. I've no idea why they were there. Maybe it was a nice spot to have lunch and share info about evil-doers.

Anyways, there's two rolls of 120 developed and digitized. A couple of nice photos I'm happy with, and some so so. One I'm wondering why I took the photo at all.

So let's start with the Citadel, overlooking St John's harbour.

What it looks like from the parking lot at the top of the hill.

What an old time sailor would have seen from the sea, or what it looks like from Cape Spear.

Can you imagine, back in the day, trying to storm the castle, before there were stairs, before the undergrowth had been cleared, with people shooting at you or dropping rocks over the edge. One thing NL will never have, is a shortage of rocks. I'll return to this topic.

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ) (Hint, there might be a section for Newfoundland driftwood coming soon.)

Yukon

Film (new) Another view of the little breakwater in Policeman's Flats.

Michelle, as we scoped out a location for a photo session in Fish Creek. This is the backup location, the desired location being a thigh deep wade.

Linda. There's lots of her in Newfoundland, so maybe it overlaps categories. Life is hard all over.

Newfoundland

We had fabulous luck with the weather. Only a couple rainy days, and we had wanted to do some indoor stuff as well, so that worked out. If you're in St John's, The Rooms and the Geo Centre are a must.

The view inside the lobby of The Rooms, and another down a little.

One of the most amazing art pieces I've seen in my life. This is by Billy Gauthier, It's called The Earth, Our Mother. It started as a fin whale skull, 4' 8" high, 6' 8" high, 30" deep, and weighs over 600 pounds. The carvings all have a meaning. It represents the earth, and says she is alive. 

The view from The Rooms.

The Geo centre, on the side of the hill leading to the Citadel. It was more amazing than I thought. There's a huge section on geology, of course, but that leads to a section on oil and gas, and also about the space industry. I could have spent an entire day at either place.