south west crouse

between the showers and with a lessening of the wind. i decided to take the deardorff across the road to south west crouse. i would park near the grave site and the trail head walk around the cove to the other end of the community and make snaps on the way back.

the area seemed to have potential for not only the formal with the rooms and stores on the cove side of the road, mixed with hints of habitation - gloves, cords, weber grill.

made it to the cul-de-sac and had a couple of snaps made, wood pile that mirrored the house behind it, the weber grill, and was heading down a few steps to make a snap of those same steps mixed in with the possessions left on them.

pick up the camera on the tripod to let the legs fall to so that i can lock them level. with the second leg i notice that it leg has fallen off completely - well not completely it was being held on by the centre brace. it seems that manfrotto uses some sort of white metal for its locks.

what followed resembled a 21st century remake of a chaplin or keaton film as i struggled to make sure that the camera would make it to the ground gently.

managed to get the outfit back to the road where i set it up by the house of buddy who was watching as he was heading back from his store and picking up some firewood.

asked him if i could leave the camera in front of his house while i went back to the machine to safely retrieve it.

of course camera-less i saw all sorts of photographic possibilities.

picked up the camera brought out the hobo to finish the outing after chatting with buddy - but not being able to make his snap - didn’t want to seem a stalker. this made an image that i wanted to make even harder as he had hung up his gloves on his line that broke up the rigid formal qualities quite nicely. kept walking back and forth in front of the house hoping that he would go inside so that i could make it. a tripod brings out all sorts of the curious. i am always waving to people in windows as i pass.

i even went back later that day with ubirajara to make the snap and as the shutter went off buddy came out the door.

finishing my allotment of sheet film for the day, and more or less trying to figure out what i was going to do for the rest of the residency. tried gluing the leg back on with the resin that i had bought to affix my front number plate when it came loose when foley pulled me out of a ditch by the post office - mirroring a similar mishap in 2005 - to no avail.

in the end when my brain started to function again i realised that i could use the tripod but in a height challenged mode. i could continue on my way, unknowingly using the pinholed bellows freely.

recaps

- that summer was a great summer. paul said as i ran into him driving through trout river. it was when i was up at parks canada with minnesota flats. photographing and hanging out at the seabreeze.

it must have been true as i was using that summer as a basis for this one, hoping to use what worked so successfully then once again in a place that was even more remote. it would be the same modus operandi where i would restrict myself only to the french shore.

it was the cusp of the season. the “warmth” had returned but everything was still on winter hours - closed. sunset café, granite coffee, trout river interpretative centre, even the post office. i had forgot this. i wanted to deliver some new snaps - taken during the navegatio but forgot last year. luckily trout river is small enough to go to the director’s house.

as i had stated there was a lot of equipment brought along but that was due to the anticipated length of my stay in the atlantic time zone and to the east. they all had their strict roles - joãozão could be used on the mainland and while wandering new york city, ziquinho would be brought out once in cape breton and on the way to conche. it would also be used when the residency ended. on the residency it would be only the deardorff.

after the gravel road to conche everything looked promising - heading down to the cove that first evening standing by casey’s store and seeing two orcas, a lot of dry wood under the bench on the porch, an assuming house with a large kitchen, but so clean i felt intimidated about developing and printing.

it turned out to be the anti parks canada - not due to anything the french shore interpretative centre or the people of the great northern did but due to everything else. the cusp of season where further down the great northern had me questioning why nothing was open as spring had won out. here winter was still trying to hang on - gale force winds with snow showers. when the snow did stop it was replaced with rain, and rain, and rain.

still quite proud of myself, i soldiered on. the rain - and snow - and gale force winds - came in spurts, i would head out and wait. i felt that good fortune was with me when even though the deardorff was blown over but the camera came out of it unscathed.

i think slowly so i was particularly proud when i rearranged the bathroom to develop film at night and the kitchen to dry the negs. i had a work routine down. there was even a lounge to replace the seabreeze. this was going to be great.

except that a good number of negs were ruined by a light leak.

puzzled over it and decided it was a double dark slide so returned the next day to re-photograph the images that i wanted a a few more.

again the light leak. the same spot but not on every neg.

it was intermittent. since i was developing half the negs every evening i didn’t worry as i could return if i really wanted the snap. it was there on quite a few but only because i knew what i was looking for. i reckoned that the images would reflect the place. functional but not pretty.

as i back up i would head out with either ubirajara or ziquinho.

a book of platinotypes - why not - came of it and am quite pleased.

returning to the states in the dark i placed a light within the deardorff turned off the lights in the room and had my own planetarium from all the holes in the bellows.