Front gate to Mont St Michele, 1935.

  They were bringing tourists in a high tide in a skiff.  The guy standing in the boat has a dog under his arm.  The lady at the top of the stairs has an armload of firewood.  This scene still exists today and, God willing, Katie and I will walk through here in about 10 days.

  I"ll have this photo with me.  Might leave it at the tourist office which is just inside the gate, though to tell you the truth, it's such a beautiful photo, (bought off ebay), that I hate to give it up.

  Taking 5X7 into Normandy.

Ansel Adams printing Moonrise, Hernandez.

Mostly talking about it, but always interesting to see.

Here's another very interesting piece of film:  Ansel, Virginia Best, Cedrick Wright and others climbing to the Diving Board via Grizzly Peak gully.  I can't believe they pulled it off in the snow.  I've been up this route in better weather with Chris Johnson.  We didn't make it, ran long on time, hadn't planned to be out overnight, the fog closed in, it got dark and we endured a very cold sleepless night at about 8000 feet in the Sierras in early June.  We did make it two other trips, up past Nevada Fall and taking the easier route around the back of Liberty Cap.  Tricky routefinding.  We spent the night both times.  Hope to visit at least once more and take Katie up.

Late afternoon with the shadow of North Dome on the face.

Ansel in Yosemite, 1974.

Dawn.

Ansel was only up there twice, this trip and once before.

History

  This must be about 1987.  Struggling through a really difficult time in my life and not being able to make any headway or see a way out.  Somehow I had bought myself a 120mm Fuji wide angle for the 5X7, (later destroyed by a poltergeist at Shiprock and then the pieces of it stolen by indians), and it fit my vision perfectly for that format.  Going through these old negs every once in a while I find one that looks like it works.  I'm sure I won't ever print these, but they are nice pieces of seeing.

Little Sandy Hunting Club boathouse.

Deserted driveway.

iphone images of the proofs while I was sleeving and refiling the negatives.  Got that old central composition going.  Just in the cold darkroom for about an hour and a half to finish off this box.  Whole box of negatives is now proofed and...on to one of the next 30 or 40 boxes.

More Plowing through files of negatives.

  It gets a little weird at times when you have completely forgotten, (until you see the image) about making the shots.  I did notice that by this box I had bought a wide-angle lens for my 5X7.  It was a Fuji 120mm later killed by a poltergeist at Shiprock and replaced with a 120 Super Angulon.  Sure made a difference in the shooting.

Holly at the lake under some penetrating afternoon light.  Just an iphone copy of the wet proof.  I love the wandering shadows and the cow-cropped branches on the bottom.  These trees died two years ago.  They are standing ruins now.  This was 15 years back, at least.

Zeorlin gave me a sunflower.  I remember walking into the studio and the whole place smelling peppery.

Hay bales and clouds.

Swann Furniture sign stashed in the old brothel building downtown.

Upstairs bedroom, or workroom in the old brothel building.

There is, (not shown), a deep-river bottom negative of an old concrete bridge support standing in the middle or the Sabine or Neches.  Six of them, pairs of three slight variances in view.  Looks like a tombstone.  Love to go back and see it in overcast light.  Have to look that one up in the log book and see exactly where it is.  I hadn't thought about it since I took it.

Never proofed any of these negatives.  I haven't scratched the surface on the proofing to be done.