Canon WP-1 Roadtrip

Today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Six minutes to four, it's Wednesday, and I got a plane to catch. Well, no one really catches a plane, usually just ride in it to go somewhere. It's kind of like an elevator if you think about it, just more expensive. And you know, if it malfunctions, you're on the news for a couple days. But I digress. This time I'm going to Arizona with the gang. You already know them by heart, because they've stolen your heart. Half East Coast, half West Coast, we're meeting in the middle again, because compromise is the foundation of a good friendship. From what I hear, last we left off, Beergoat herself was just beginning her four by five journey and David was busy, I don't know, still doing this, I guess. Me though. I haven't really been doing sh** for the past month. My photo brain has certainly been dormant. I mean I was getting a lot done if you count sending the usual f**k off go away emails. But yeah I always feel like there's a bit of an itch to get back out there when the shutter hasn't been um hasn't been slapping. Uh like I said we picked Arizona this time as our exotic new destination to hopefully get me out of this photography slump. Unfortunately it'd be Arizona during the sweltering summer months so one thing is for sure you can definitely count on seeing my tiny nipples aplenty in this video. I don't like looking at them either. My first stop en route, the part of the journey, the airport. But, you know, your time is your own and you make the situation what you do with your own attitude. So luckily there was a guy at the terminal with an interesting shirt to make my frame of mind change pretty quick. And with that, I was off to Phoenix, Arizona, a bag full of cheap cameras and a dream to one day make it as a photographer. Due to some errant scheduling. Birgit and I would be the first ones of the group to show up, but that's fine. Who doesn't love showing up to the house party a day early anyway? We weren't going to get up to much without the gang anyway, because it was 106 degrees outside at around 8 p.m., which only makes me wonder who the f*** lives here and how. So we crushed some food. We got to the hotel, cranked the AC to the Ice Planet Hoth setting, and kind of just sat by the door waiting for Caleb and David to fly in tomorrow. At the very least, we practiced some card slap so that we can finally beat David at his own little game. Do you think David practices this game? He puts a card down and then just brushes to the other side and is like, okay. Oh, that's cool. Right? Special edition. I was thinking of bringing mine. You didn't? I don't even think it has battery, to be honest. You plug it in like your phone. I shoot film, Birgit. I don't know how to charge anything. You look like you're about to hold a presentation. If we do a large format only, successfully, then a step up from that would be one shot only. So you're saying go out somewhere for like a week? And you only get to shoot the one photo that you really feel like that is worth the one shot. One shot. What if instead it was you have to take one photo on large format every hour? Every hour? Otherwise, what's your punishment? Someone opens one of your boxes of four by five. The film is gonna get exposed no matter if you feel through your camera or... Okay, so this spot I was thinking for tomorrow... For a sunrise. Sunrise, yeah. It's, you know, it's not the most exciting thing in the world, but... Yeah, it looks like the light doesn't really even like touch down until like 6 30. Let's try it. okay yeah yeah then i should load some film tonight so we didn't do any of that instead we sampled the finest local whiskey red bull concoctions we could source and woke up with a debilitating hangover like usual tastes just like how i remember how does it make you feel that you There's like... I have a hundred guys out there who watch your videos on the toilet. And yeah, despite all the 4x5 talk, I would not be shooting that sh** on this one. I'll save that suffering for another time. Actually, on this one, I'd be rocking my cheapest camera. Well, cameras. The Canon WP1. I mean, that's why you clicked on this video, right? Not because there's any entertainment or informational value in it. So it was time to load up yet again. Of the previous roll, I got... Oh wait, we're not there yet. Market doesn't know if it's closed because it's not advancing. It's a good sign. Yeah, frame one. Despite its looks, the Canon WP-1 is not a camera for babies. It's actually quite a capable 35mm point and shoot. I've been shooting mine for years and never had any significant issues with autofocus or just operation. Well, that's kind of a lie. The first roll that I put in one when we went to Banff was underexposed, and to this day I still cannot figure out why. It keeps me up at night. That and, of course, the demons. Metal latch. Who made that for you? I can't tell you. So yeah I also received a structural upgrade from a friend who machined some new film door latches out of metal for me. The OEM latches on these cameras have proven to be quite uh I guess faulty over time and when they break it pops your film door open exposes your film and makes you wish that you had never been born in that test tube or maybe that's just me. And that's better than what it was before? Yeah because it's like cheap plastic from the 80s and they like snap really easily. That's the last thing I remember until my alarm went off the next morning. But it would be a great morning, actually, despite the 100 degree heat and a pounding hangover that made me take a vow of sobriety for the next 100 years. Because we picked up the legend himself, Caleb, from the airport. Which marked the first time I've seen the man since I moved out of LA. It was a welcome reunion. And I'm sure Birgit was only immediately really annoyed by us. You deliver on floor 3. I'm playing with it a little. And also the formats. Get it? I do. We weren't there to get mushy, we were there to crush some photo bangers. So we got some food at a local diner, snapped a photo or two on the WP-1. You already know the first photos are never good, but how would I know the difference? And then we were on our way out to the desert to shoot an abandoned town that we somehow missed a couple years ago when we were in the area. I'm gonna shoot the out of that. Crazy dude. It's hot as out here. Surprise, there is another WP-1 I brought exclusively for black and white film. F*** it, I'll just tell you now. There's a third one too for, I guess, night stuff, but we clearly aren't there yet. Anyway, I put some Kentmere 400 in. This camera has an orange filter taped to the front of it. That orange filter cuts about one to two stops of light depending on several variables and the WP-1 is going to read that internal DX code and shoot it at 400 ISO which is flat and ass if you ask me. This camera does not meter through the filter so I'm just going to tell my lab to push this roll two stops to compensate. Anyway this town was capital F f***ed up. I guess about 500 people live here now but you'd never know that based on you know appearances and overall eerie quietness. Coming to Arizona in September. I don't know if it was the right choice. The police department seemed, um, how do I put this, well-funded. Operating out of the old, uh, bank building. Apparently the crime rate in this area is much, much higher than the entire state average, especially when we come around. The mayor of this town actually once said that there are more police cars here than police officers. Well, my, uh, my main video camera overheated. It was only out here for like five minutes. It is that hot. I guess this town was also polluted with lead and other stuff from the mining in the area so that's good to know now not to eat the paint or drink the water starting from now on. I'll do a better one with the smokestack in the background. I guess there was also a notable person born here called Dick Tuck so that guy probably had a rough childhood. Maybe I need to come up with a new funny name to get on my own hometown's notable people section or maybe just actually do something meaningful with my life. Whatever, I don't hate these photos. The colors pop when there is color to be shot. The photos on this roll though did come back a little overexposed. I don't really know why either. The pattern just seems to be that the first roll in this camera always is up in some way. That usually gets sorted by roll number two and is fine from there on out. Scanning these slides as HDR and then pulling the highlights down significantly saved quite a few of them. With a no-cop-no-stop policy firmly in effect for the car, we rolled out of there because David, the final member of our trio of four, also a certified exposure god, he just landed in town. So he picked his ass up and headed north to higher elevation, hoping things would become a little more temperate. That night we planned a stay at this place called Arcosanti, a small architectural oddity out in the desert that describes itself as an urban laboratory. Though the only thing they were experimenting with in this laboratory was how well four people could share two tiny rooms with three beds and almost no air conditioning. Whatever, we popped up to the pool for a bit around magic hour to cool off. It is cold? Well it's hot outside so be a man, just be a man and go all the way. You gotta just do it Jason. The architecture around the spot was undeniably unique but with the light waning pretty quick we'd have to save the photography mostly for the morning if we survived that long. This is where we're sleeping tonight. All right big boy? Maybe you. I'm sleeping under. Okay he's sleeping under. I'm sitting on my feet. You realize this is not even a real mattress? Either way, I loaded up some more Ektachrome into the third and final WP1 that I had in my ass. You know, analog safe storage, which in this case, yeah, is literally my ass. I don't think anything's confusing about it. Ektachrome, black and white, Ektachrome. It would more or less just be the night photography camera, you know, just bare bones, no filter needed because E100 looks incredible at night. Sorry, E100 can look incredible at night. Anyway, in search of food, we headed out into the night and found our spot. And even better, found some photography through an open door off to the side. The green tones hitting hard. You better get used to this look because it gets way worse in the future. We're not really getting much sleep because Caleb and I were busy, you know, catching up on our kisses. And yeah, there was a whole ass ecosystem of f***ing insects in our room. We got ourselves up for sunrise to catch that good morning light on Arcosanti. This semi-remote refuge was built starting sometime in the 1970s by an architect who studied under Frank Lloyd Wright. It was mainly designed as a response to the boom of urban sprawl during the 60s and 70s. I believe it was mostly built on a volunteer basis by students and friends, which is a funny way of saying interns. It is considered an ongoing project, which is what my girlfriend also considers me. There was a writer's workshop there at the time that we passed through. Totally surrounded by beautiful nature, I can see how this place would This would be a great way to focus on IES's significant body of work. For nothing, though, it was a great opportunity to capture some interesting visuals in the gorgeous morning light on Ektachrome. I love this shot. E100 with an 81C filter taped to the front of the WP-1. Oh, and there's a disassembled chromist in that filter set as well that I'm harboring like an enemy of the state. The 81C filter is there to warm up the image a little bit, and it only cuts a very nominal amount of light. I typically do not account for this stoppage of light when metering, and neither does the WP-1, and that's why I love it because it doesn't give He doesn't give a f*** about anything and that's beautiful. of the previous 36 exposure bulk roll of ektachrome that was kind of up. I got 16 keepers and maybe two portfolio shots. I quite like this one too for the message, i.e., you know, give up your cool ass childhood dreams about becoming a cowboy roaming the frontier on a horsey and just let life absolutely break you down so goddamn hard that you become a boring responsible adult with a house. But anyway, there's no interesting color in it so I'm not sold. My voice is cracked. You're my 13 year old boy again. Yeah, I actually can. It's focusing right now. I'm sure I'm not going to... Well, I'm going to use it. Anyway, we were close to the old mining town of Jerome. And while we like our old mining towns to be a little more f***ed up, sketchy, and on the brink of total financial collapse, this town still presented us with some gems for photography that morning. Though all I could think about truly was booting myself up with some coffee. It wasn't very long before the heat of the day caught up with us, so we found a popular river near Sedona that promised some splishy splashy for us as I contemplated soft launching a backwards hat look for myself. Let me know in the comments if you think it works well on me on a scale of let's say 99 to 100. I don't know, it was a nice reprieve from the heat and the harsh midday lighting was not going to do us any favors, so we enjoyed a brief siesta even if I had to take my first involuntary shower of the trip. But I guess not all of us can turn our photographic eye off because Birgit decided to pop out the 4x5 in the middle of the river. It was certainly a total logistical challenge to get that stuff over the river there. It was basically equivalent to getting men with Hasselblads to the moon. But she did it and you'd have to ask her if she thinks the result was worth it. But I think it's pretty cool. Worth it at least to get the engines of 4x5 photography fired up again for the first time on this trip. So with it being monsoon season all the classic telltale signs were there to me that a storm was brewing. She's rolling in. My knee's been hurting that's how I know. Trying to taste it. Are they milk and almond? With it getting darker all around us we decided to pull over and do the unthinkable. Get struck by lightning. You know trying to get a photo of Here's a photo of the ever elusive Bolt from a safe distance, Mom. For me that'd be a little tricky with the point-and-shoot. The WP-1 does have a slight relay delay when pressing the shutter. It's probably because it's moving the lens to the proper focus distance before exposing. Of course with the new metal latches in the camera I basically was also a target for Mother Nature to just absolutely obliterate me. What a way it would be to go, you know, in a random violent electrical explosion. Oh sh**! I might have got that in the shot. Anyway, I didn't get it in the shot. In fact, no dice for me whatsoever. But one person rose to the challenge. Birgit actually got one on her Mamiya 7 just by keeping that trigger finger ready, like Lee Harvey Oswald. Out there. It was soon time for that monsoon to goon that afternoon, so we got the out of there. Once we got through the absolute dumping of water we were rewarded with a roadside abandoned motel which really made me question if we actually died in that rainstorm and this was purgatory because metaphorically it was almost perfect. Yeah thanks. Well I'm wearing the hottest latest Arc'teryx and the shortest shorts I have so rate my fit. With the storm more or less gone we continued north of the Utah border only stopping if a potential banger presented itself which it did from time to time. Here's David going handheld on 6x17, which is pretty wild, but you don't get the title of Pano God without a little bit of danger. He said it was so beautiful. With a legendary playlist of Creed, Hoobastank, and Lips of an Angel blasting, we eventually made our way to our sunset spot for the evening. The light was absolutely magical, which only, you know, compelled us to grab our cameras and go on the hunt. It was also windy as f***, so I'm not really sure how beer get pulled off the 4x5 up there. I do like these shots though. So much orange against the blue. It's kind of dazzling. I used to hate the color blue in my work. That's why I shoot all my Ektachrome with a warming filter. But I don't know. It's kind of growing on me. Here it's almost like a royal blue sometimes and I think that works if for no other reason than it's just beautiful. And just like that it's gone. I still obviously find it difficult to capture landscape photos, less difficult when the light is this good, but still a challenge. Is it maybe just that landscape photography is more about capturing drama and beauty, whereas the type of work I focus on usually is more about feeling and emotion? I don't know. I don't have the answer. I've been working through this exact idea a lot in therapy, and by therapy I mean talking to Birgit about it. The 36 exposure roll of Cinestill 400 pushed two stops. Most of it sucked, but I got 11 keepers and maybe one portfolio shot that will probably get demoted down to the ass category at some point in the future. So yeah, we crashed at the local travel lodge that night like usual. Speaking of crashes, we were woken up at 4am to the sound of many of them for the next hour or so. Best I can tell, someone was dropping bowling balls over and over again. That or the SWAT team showed up and started body slamming people. But how about body slamming a great deal on a website through today's sponsor, Squarespace. Need a professional website like yesterday? 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Set up appointments in no time at all through a whole host of business modules specifically designed to get the wheels of your business turning. And furthermore, if it's a loan that you're looking to get your up and coming business off the ground, Squarespace now offers Squarespace Capital for easy and quick financing, allowing your business to grow in no time. So what are you waiting for? Go to squarespace.com slash granny days or click the link in the description for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use code granny days to get 50% off core plus or advanced annual and monthly plans. This is a limited time offer for November. So go to squarespace.com slash granny days today. After some much-needed coffee, we made our way out to Horseshoe Bend, a famous landmark where I shot nothing of personal significance whatsoever. But hey, at least there was a funny, albeit horny, license plate. So it was bound to happen. Bulk rolled film in the back of this camera. Sounded like it got stuck. It didn't make the normal noise. I'm gonna throw it in Birgit's dark bag. See if I can un- a up situation. So that roll of 36 exposures of E100, I got about 13 keepers, and at least maybe one for the portfolio, maybe two. I don't know, the story is strong on this one, even if the colors aren't. Don't bulk roll film and put it in point shoots, guys. Oh no, it's fine, it rewound it. I'm impressed. Another day in the adventures of bulk rolling. Pretty. Pretty. Do you think this compliments my skin tone? Today we were headed northeast towards Monument Valley, something I was personally looking forward to ever since I visited a few years ago and, you know, didn't really do a great job. I'm looking forward to saying that all over again about this new work in another four years, or whatever. In that sense, I was on a revenge mission with myself to do better. So, I sat there in the car, silently and angrily contemplating how I'd handle business when we arrived, which probably concerned my friends. My powerful concentration was only ever interrupted when David told me they sequenced a fly's brain recently in the computer and made it play Minecraft, which is f***ing awesome. ------- sick. After contemplating what horrors a fly's brain could do with access to Adobe Lightroom, we saw an abandoned gas station just off the side of the road. I grabbed my black and white loaded Canon WP-1 and got to work. There wasn't really a lot of color and the light was harsh enough to warrant some Kentmere, is what I'd say if I was trying to sequence my own brain into a singular informative thought on photography. Thankfully for us, Kentmere 400 itself is quite a malleable film stock. It worked very well in low light inside. And it did some good things outside in the overabundance of light. Though I do understand now that it's possible I was hitting the WP1's own mechanical ceiling of 1/250th of a second in F22. Quick tangent though, I looked this up on Google to see if F22 was the maximum aperture that this camera can do, and the AI thing cited me as a source back to me. So I had to go back and basically waterboard myself with my own stupid video to verify this info. I can't watch this. It's complete. Transcript of this video. Yeah, I never said that in the video. I think AI just lied to me about myself. Anyway, back to reality. The real gem here was the coin laundry facility, or at least what's left of it. It was impossible to pass this shot up with our cameras, especially with that light pouring in at just the right angle. It's maybe one of the best shots of the trip. We carried on to Kayenta, which is more or less a way station out there on the Arizona border. There really isn't much around it, other than Monument Valley of course, but it's where we got lunch and where we'd be hanging out for the night. So deep in the middle of my redemption arc with this epic location, we hit the valley floor and did the loop. We'd have to be in and out pretty quick though, like SEAL Team 6 eliminating Bin Laden. Sunset was only a couple hours away and we wanted to be at the main overlook for that golden light as the forecast was looking clear and good. I started off with some black and white at this spot with a rock that looks kind of like a whale. And if you don't see it, then never mind. I don't have the energy to defend that take. Sure, the orange setting out there was nice, but the light was so harsh. I was hoping some glowy Kentmere 400 might kind of nerf it down a little. I like this photo. It looks like she's ready to run away from all of her problems. Honestly, same. Anyway, well on our way towards ripping out our rental car's transmission on the trail, we stopped at another overlook and, you know, us being so far from home, you know, far from our own local pondering bridges, this would have to do. I took this photo as well of this horse that clearly shits a lot. Of course I waited for them to move the wheelbarrow mountain of horse crap out of frame to take it. Go fat! Floor it. Oh I love how everyone's having fun and I get to drive. It's dry. Oh! Uhhh, Shafty. With the lights starting to cast interesting shadows on the valley floor, Birgit went full Ansel Adams or Dorothea Lange and used the car itself for a better vantage point. But format, size, it don't matter when you're rocking this tiny beast. It was time to bring out the color and get those orange and royal blue tones again. Anyway, that was the end of the loop, which is antithetical to the idea of a loop, but whatever. We were at the main overlook now, with the lights slowly starting to transform into magic. But we'd have to wait a little bit for the sweet spot. Yeah, I mean, I don't really love how touristy this spot is. Says the tourist himself, but at the very least it can give you some interesting subjects to use as foreground material for your shots. I mean I do find it to be an interesting dichotomy that a lot of people hear on their phones right in front of what is probably one of the most dramatic and alien landscapes on earth. I suppose I'm no better though, I was on my camera the whole time instead of sitting back and enjoying it. With peak performance sunlight now in place, shutters started slapping left and right like a firing squad. I especially like this one that I snapped, I guess, post-sunset. I've actually been shooting most of my E100 at 160 ISO instead of 100. I think it just helps me save the highlights a little bit, and it gives you that classic exposed-for-the-highlights look from the Kodachrome days. It's actually pretty easy to do in an automatic camera like this when you bulk roll Ektachrome into Ektacolor 160 canisters. The hard part, of course, is finding someone who actually shoots Ektacolor 160. Anyway, I guess according to some people that we talked to, it was a rare day of the year where the shadow of this butte just Nosferatu's its ass right over onto the smaller one in the back. Which, whatever. It seems like it would also do that the next day too, but what do I know. At some point I wandered inside and the museum downstairs was quite lit up with fluorescent tubes. Old fluorescent tubes. If you have some weird aversion to the color green you might want to look away now, coward. The Ektachrome really baked that green into the photos, I mean goddamn. A small detail in these shots that I like is that you can see where they've replaced the bulbs, as some are clearly older and I guess detuned. Mixed color temperatures from different lighting sources, in this case the sun and fluorescent tubes, has always been a bit of a challenge for me and I don't think I'm alone in that one. But I think that hurdle has more or less been cleared ever since leaning into that artificial green look that is completely ripped from Paris, Texas. Finally it was time to get out of there with yet another monsoon rolling in on the horizon and my knee throbbing again, but not before we nabbed a quick, cute-ass family photo on David's X-pan. I'm gonna listen to the K-pop together. Stop arguing, you're upsetting the baby. I'm the baby. Anyway, we got some dinner and then someone, probably me, suggested we get ice cream from Sonic which turned out to be the move for some more green sh** that will surely make you lose your appetite. Chug it for all I care. Is there a medical device called the cheek spreader for spreading butt cheeks, question mark? Ew, dude. Yes, a device of this type is commonly known as a cheek retractor rather than a cheek spreader. Retractor? It exists. So how many people glue their butt cheeks together? Oh God, this again? How many people every year super glue their butt cheeks together, question mark? God damn, this camera couldn't rewind any of my . Of the ganked up 36 exposures of E100 in my nighttime WP1, I got something like 16 keepers and a healthy handful of portfolio shots. I don't know. That morning I guess we were technically beginning our return journey down to Phoenix as we had commitments to attend to, but it wasn't long before we spotted some more jank ass stuff to take photos of like usual. I think the trick with overgrown or abandoned structures is to find a way to shoot it to show time and what it does to, I guess, unkempt places. Sure, detail photos are nice, but when you can get a wide with good lighting and some overgrowth in the foreground, then I think it works best at providing a full scope of the place. At least that's where I'm at mentally with this stuff. Anyway, we eventually looped back to Sedona for the evening as we didn't really get to spend much time there on the front end of the journey. I guess it's true about what they say about the Sedona Vortex. It eventually pulls you back in. This time though, it was the BBQ Vortex that got us. Another chance presented itself for us to nab some lightning bangers. And another chance passed me up. But the storm did cruise right overhead and we heard an absolute rip of thunder up real close like I've never heard one before. It's too f***ing fast. Boy is only human. Maybe if I was AI. Not scared or anything because I'm not a baby. We took our time getting in the car and, not in a hurry or anything, we took off. Anyway, we took the initiative there in Sedona and decided to turn our own vision into a swirling vortex itself with alcohol while we waited for the monsoon to pass and the light to come out in the evening. we did have a sunset spot in mind but it would require a little bit of hiking to get there which should be no problem what with you know barbecue and wine being our most recent sources of nutrition anyway i was pretty proud of the gang because no one sh**ed themselves but we did go the wrong way for a little bit eventually though we figured it out and started climbing up a rock as the light began cascading eloquently across the valley floor then they're always always filming content unlike us we're over here we live in the in the moment coming to you live I'm on the top of a rock. It'd be cool to go up there, but I'm not Alex Honnold. Yeah, this is the . It looks good up there? Do I look really sweaty on camera? No, you look sexy, dude. Just four more hours and we're halfway to sunset. Once again, some of us had to format-mog the rest of us, but I didn't mind. The WP-1 is all I needed to scope the shot. You know, when the light was ready. Always waiting on the talent. Do you want me to go down with you? You wanna do what? Anyway, I guess Birgit decided to take a nap while the light reached peak orange. Have to double check this, but I think for the first time, all of us actually got something that we like from the same location, which isn't always straightforward when we have such different photographic styles. So for these photos, I half pressed and had the WP-1 hold the exposure on the magic hour light bouncing off the mountain, putting that sort of neutral gray. That way the shadow down here in the valley just fell off and added some distinct drama. And Jason sounded like it worked. I'm still going to open in on dark belt. I'm not taking any chances on this shot. Look at the moon, guys. Good to hear your voice, the same as... You see, Chad? This is going to be usable for you. We got to do it again. You got to do it again. Action. Of the once again ganked up roll of Ektachrome in the WP1, I got eight keepers and at least one portfolio shot. Maybe it was more, maybe it was less. Maybe we just move on with our lives. Yeah, it's fine. Yes. Yes, I love that for you, queen. These swim trunks are a little small. That night, Birgit very kindly ironed my shirt because we all needed to look a little presentable for the next two days. So after mashing that shirt back in my bag, I took this photo and I love it. Unfortunately, the next day I woke up, and to make things worse, it got leaked somehow that it was my birthday, and there was really no way around it. I'd be forced to celebrate it Spongebob style. Here's a picture of a cactus. I don't know how it's possible that it's my first one of the whole trip, but whatever. That's way less volume than I thought it had. Eventually we made it to Phoenix and checked into our accommodations at the casino with balloons in tow tied to my backpack because I'm an adult who takes things very seriously. It says smile, it's your birthday. Hoo hoo hoo. I think we have hit the big leagues. Yeah, I guess gone are the days of trying to fall asleep at s***y motels, sleeping with one eye open out of fear for your life during the night. Whatever though, I had big plans that afternoon. Peaceful plans, actually, that were interrupted, of course, by some ice cream cake with Kit Kats on top, which is so goddamn S-tier that it needs a new level of higher classification. Thanks, guys. Daddy, chill. It's your moment. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I was chilling. We were out there, actually, because the Pro Show was coming to town, an annual convention about camera gear and a whole hell of a lot of networking. Luckily, we had an in thanks to Robert's Distributors. So that evening, aside from winning tons of money, obviously, we went to Topgolf for a pre-show get-together. It was a pretty good time, if only just to watch Beer get absolutely demolish some golf balls. The next day was the pro show and it pissed rain again for most of it as I tried to round out the black and white and whatever was left of the E100 in the night photography camera. This one isn't too bad, nor is this one. After all the running around and the socializing, it was time to return home with some feelings floating around in my head about when the next time I'd see gang is. Oh wait, it'd be in two weeks, I'll be fine, but that's a story for another video. I do think I kind of came back to life on this one, you know, jumping out of the coffin of this photography slump and scaring everyone at this metaphorical funeral like anyone's coming to my real funeral. So many colorful landscapes and in-between moments on this one that feel quite documentary and quite special. To have them shot on nothing more than a Fisher-Price-ass looking cat toy camera is pretty cool in my book. I guess I'll keep these cameras for now, especially with their bionic metal upgrades. It was also the first trip that I was really, I guess, stress testing the artificial green look in the field, which is a totally unoriginal look completely ripped off from Paris, Texas. And I got to say, these photos from that museum in Monument Valley were some of my favorites. There's definitely a more nuanced conversation to have around the, you know, Nickelodeon slime green motif, but I'll save that for another time. For now, I guess I'm just happy to have some more photos in the portfolio and Be a little bit more in the photo zone, you know what I mean? Hopefully I don't lose that forward momentum in the next two weeks until I see the gang again.