IT’S THE ALTITUDE  06.30.2009



weirdly, i spent the past few days at a secluded lodge some 9,000 feet up in the Rocky Mountains and, apart from the unexpected loss of cellphone coverage and the billions of stairs i had to climb on a bad hip, it was pretty enjoyable. the air was fresh, the mountains were peaceful, and the afternoon rain was as gentle as it was refreshing.

Denver, though, gets two thumbs down from me. one thumb is for having to pay a toll of $2.50 every five miles on the highway. the other is for the obnoxiously cheerful chimes used on the inter-terminal tram at Denver International Airport.

conclusion: Colorado good. Denver annoying.

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TITANIUM BALL AND SOCKET  06.24.2009

got my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon pushed up from July 22nd to the 8th. score!

anyone out there willing to donate a hip?

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AT THE EDGE OF SPACE  06.23.2009

spent an hour today trying to get a copy of the radiology report for the hip X-rays i took a couple of weeks ago. do records offices only hire surly people? it certainly seems to be the case.

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WHAT, KIND OF LIKE THIS?  06.20.2009

spent the day shooting a big motorcycle cruising event thing with lots of bearded, tattooed bikers. it went pretty well until some drunk white kid called me a “son of a bitch” for “bombing Pearl Harbor.”

didn’t think that sort of thing happened anymore.

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WHERE BE THE CRUTCHES  06.19.2009

so i found out why i’m limping.

i woke up this morning in one of the worst ways possible: doctors calling with bad news. apparently, the X-rays i took last week showed that, due to restricted blood flow to my left hip, the joint has been greatly weakened and is susceptible to collapse. all fingers point to good ol’ leukemia though it may also have been caused by my short stint of (legitimately medical) steroid use. oh joy.

i think i may prefer being stabbed awake tomorrow.

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A BIT OF GRAPHITE ON THE THREADING  06.17.2009

it had been a while since i’d done anything out of the ordinary so i gave my equipment bin a good rummage today to see if i could do something about it. what i came up with is fairly lame and pretty impractical but whatever, i needed to get out of a rut.


    1. Nikon EL-NIKKOR 50mm f4 enlarger lense
    2. M39 to M42 adapter
    3. Nikon T-mount adapter


in its current state, the only way to focus this lense is to move around until the subject is about six inches away. it does not auto-index or focus to infinity but the lense is distortion-free and surprisingly sharp.



this is a sample photo of a brick wall (imaginative, i know) straight from the camera and as you can see from the 100% crop, the EL-NIKKOR is pretty sharp (at f8). not bad for a lense that was never intended to see the world firsthand, eh?

next, i’ll try replacing the T-mount adapter with the M42 adapter (with correctional optics) i keep on my Zenitar 16mm fisheye.

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