Friday, March 17, 2006

Detour ahead!

In a moment of clarity, I created a new blog dedicated entirely to photography. This blog will continue as a Food & Wine resource, but all future photographic endeavors will be displayed at:

Schroedinger's Camera

I hope all three of my readers will make their way over there without difficulty.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Commie cameras rule!


It's been a while since I've picked up my Kiev 4a, made in 1966. Shown here with a Jupiter-8 50mm lens and a hood .

I think the roll of film that's currently in it was loaded about 6 months ago. If I remember correctly, I put the film in the day I got a spiffy 'new' Jupiter-12 35mm lens that I found on ebay, complete with front and rear caps, bakelite canister, AND a matching external viewfinder. All for only $70.

I guess it's time to finish off that film and see what I get. I honestly have no idea what photos I'll get back. That's the joy of having so many film cameras. It takes about two months to finish off any one roll of film, and I frequently forget which camera was used for which occasion. It's sort of a 'grab bag' of images.


Here's a sample taken when I first got the camera. A beautiful example of the stunning bokeh the Jupiter-8 produces. But what I want to know is, why are my best images always from 'test rolls' of film, like this?

A new meaning to beer on tap

A woman thought she was in heaven when beer instead of water flowed from the taps in her apartment in west Norway.

"I turned on the tap to clean some knives and forks and beer came out," Haldis Gundersen told Reuters from her home in Kristiansund, west Norway. "We thought we were in heaven."

Beer in Norway is among the most expensive in the world with a 0.4 liter (0.7 pint) costing about 50 crowns ($7.48) in a bar.

Gundersen said she tried the beer but that it tasted a bit odd and was not fizzy.

It turned out that a worker in a bar two floors below had mixed up the pipes on Saturday evening, wrongly connecting a new barrel to a water pipe leading to Gundersen's flat. The bar got water in its beer taps.

"If it happens again I'm going to order Baileys," she said.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

all you can drink.. and then some


They are virtually impossible for any downtown visitor to miss. Three replica bottles, each 30 feet wide and 90 feet tall with 12-inch letters declaring Budweiser "King of Beers." But there is not an ounce of beer in the 176 concrete silos behind the vinyl banners that greet drivers and pedestrians at the east end of Washington Street. Not a single can of Bud Light, Budweiser Select, Michelob Ultra or Bare Knuckle Stout is brewed or bottled in the mammoth manufacturing facility that includes 40 buildings on 23 acres fronting Lake Michigan and owned by St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch. What does emerge from the Manitowoc Malting Plant operated by Busch Agricultural Resources Inc. is crucial, however, in the production of different varieties of Budweiser, Michelob and Busch beers, and specialty malt beverages like Bacardi Silver Raz. About 2,700 railcars of barley arrive annually at the plant where the grain is processed into malt. After a series of steps involving cleaning, grading, storage, steeping, germination and kilning, it becomes "the heart and soul" of beer. Barley malt determines a beer's flavor and coloring and, with modifications, the speed at which the beer can be brewed. From processing in Manitowoc, the malt travels by train to six of Anheuser-Busch's 12 breweries where the different types of Budweiser are bottled, outselling all other domestic premium beers combined.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006


Taken in the Glenbeulah cemetery not far from my house... the cemetery is nationally known for supposedly being haunted. I didn't see anything unusual, but I have to admit the place certainly did seem like the type that could be a hub of supernatural activity. I think I'll have to go back in the spring during the evening. But I'll need to bring a friend this time. The Buddy System, ya know.

gated community


This reminds me of the old joke.. Why do they put fences around cemeteries? Because people are dying to get in.

And another.. What unlocks the cemetery gate? A skeleton key.