MorseBlog

Our last day in Anza Borrego we selected a hike to Torote Canyon. Now Torote is the Spanish for Elephant tree. We like elephant trees. They are odd trees that grow only in specific places in the park. Four years ago we hiked up to them and we wanted to see if we could find some more.  Torote canyon runs out to a broad flat plain. It is a sandy drive up to where we started the hike. Much of the hike was on the dirt road as we did not have a 4WD to get us further up the canyon. Nevermind it was a pleasant walk with hardly any people about.  The day was not particularly hot but it was warm. I found myself 'blacking dogging'* it in the shadow of the canyon however to stay comfortable.Throughout the day I felt hot and tired and worried there was something wrong. It transpired that I had picked up some food poisoning from the night before and my condition got much worse over the next 24 hours. Never-the-less the area was beautiful and we had nice day out though we cut o...

Every few years when we visit friends and family over Christmas in southern California we stay a few days in Borrego Springs. Borrego Springs is a small resort community in the middle of the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. The first time I took my wife here she was shocked at how bleak and desolate it is. It is very desolate and dry. In winter however the weather is perfect for hiking. After some time she began to see the subtleties of the desert and now we both enjoy visiting and walking in the park. My grandmother first introduced me to the desert. She lived north of Phoenix in the Sonoran desert and she had a great love for it. They lived on about 5 acres in a house with great big windows that brought the desert landscape into the house. My grandfather built a pond and waterfall that attracted wildlife from all over the desert. In addition to the rabbits, coyotes, mule deer, mountain lions, rattle snakes, and gila monsters my grandmother taught me the names of different cactus...

I recently bought some cheap unopened Orwo photo paper. Readers (I know not many) of this blog will note a number of entries dedicated to attempting to use old paper. I am sure many find this a waste of time and money, which it probably is, but I learned a bit of history of photography along the way and maybe something of techniques. Some results have been quite good while others a complete failure. Sometimes I can rescue papers using different developers. Orwo was an East German brand of paper which was part of a breakup of the original company after WWII. The paper is graded double weight Fiber with a smooth (not gloss) surface and 'normal' contrast.  I ran an initial test strip, and it didn't look favorable. f8 Test strip This allowed me to run a full-size print at 8 seconds. This confirmed my suspicions. The paper had extremely limited contrast. This was probably less than the original normal contrast and most likely due to the age of the paper. f8 at 8 sec Un...