[soosh]

I have the Tokina 12-24 and I can’t say enough good things about it. It’s one of my most-used lenses. I haven’t tried the 11-16, but I would expect good things from it, too.

I dropped my 12-24 in the snow on a night hike and it was out in the elements for two days and nights in the winter here in Alaska. When I found it, it was about half-way encased in snow and ice. I defrosted it, and it’s worked fine ever since.

I sent that story to Tokina, and it got me a gallery on their USA web page.

I don’t find that I mind the fact that it’s f/4 rather than f/2.8. Everything I do at night is on a tripod, the focal length is short enough that I’ve never had a problem with it during the day or inside as far as handholding, and I don’t think you’re really going to get too much more depth of field in most shots that would be noticeable at those extreme wide angles.

[soosh]

I don’t think I’ve ever driven the wheels off a car like I did to my 1998 Subaru Forester. I had it for 9 years in a town with a closed road system where the road goes 40 miles north of town and then stops. I bought it used in 2001, and put over 125,000 miles on it and it only left town once on the ferry. There’s not a stretch of back road here that it didn’t take me down, often in unplowed snow that was nearly up to the axles. Damn shame about the head gasket weakness in that particular year’s model.

I also drove a Forester from Anchorage nearly to the Canadian border in one 900 miles in 20 hours trip, with about 120 miles on some of the roughest gravel/ice/frostheaved road I’ve ever come across. I saw two other cars in 120 miles. The guide I had said to allow 5-6 hours for the 60 mile one-way trip to the end, and I did it in just over two hours. There were a bunch of times on that trip that I came over a small crest and saw the 50-yard slush-filled lagoon in the road ahead of me and I was sure that was the end of the joyride, but we powered through everything.

Last month, on Prince of Wales Island, the rental car company had the nerve to give me a six-year old Taurus. I took it on a night-time 150 mile one-lane dirt road that had so many twists, turns, steep inclines, and huge holes that 15 miles an hour felt like breakneck speed.

Goddamn, I love driving.

[soosh]

So my Dad’s wee Fiat is actually related to a Ferarri now?
We have a Ferarri! I have driven a Ferarri!!!!

One thing you’ve got to hand it to the Italians for though, you can take a little Alfa or Fiat and barrel through the mountains like a maniac without raising a sweat. I used to pass Honda CRXs in my ’68 Berlina.

The big ol’ Benz I drive now, and most of the American cars I’ve driven remind me of (to bring us back slightly on topic) the HHTG quote: “Looks like a fish, moves like a fish…steers like a cow”.

I’ll never figure out why American car makers are so hesitant to put a suspension and brakes that match the engine into a car. For a while, I drove a 62 Austin Healy, and that thing was like driving a go-kart on the interstate.

I drove a little tiny Toyota something, probably a Yaris, when I was on Kodiak Island. Thing looked like a cherry tomato, but it was fun to drive. Probably wasn’t built to be a rally car, but hey, it was a rental. I got all four wheels off the ground twice on a one-lane dirt road.

[soosh]

Nice! Is every building in Alaska moss covered and falling down?

no, but I take a lot of photos of the ones that are.

[soosh]

“fish” leaves a lot open to the imagination. I’m thinking of photographing a squid ranch, or perhaps the great fish stick migration.

[soosh]

why didn’t I think to use this photo? It’s not like I’m going to be able to use it for anything else.

[soosh]

b-sides

[soosh]

I’ve got a piece of gold-filtered welding glass.

I’ve taken quite a few shots of burning magnesium before without problem, and plenty of sparklers. I’ve yet to see any damage.

[soosh]

last time I checked, magnesium can be even *more* interesting in the rain 😉
/don’t blame you for not wanting to disturb the pitweilier though…

Yeah, I was counting on that. I was thinking about spelling out FARK in three-foot tall letters of ribbon on the beach, putting the camera on a tripod up by the road thirty or fifty feet overhead, and then lighting off the strips of magnesium one by one.

I probably would have ended up with a big white blur, though, unless I stopped down all to hell.

I’ve got plenty of fall-back material.

[soosh]

nice stuff. I spent a full evening going through your farktography profile one night. You’ve got a great body of work.

[soosh]

magnesium isn’t gonna happen tonight. rain picked up kind of heavy and I’ve had a big fuzzy pitweiller sleeping on my feet for the last two or three hours.

[soosh]

not that I know of. I think it’s more to get a run of prints with no variance, and just having an account that easier possibly to invoice for tax purposes.

[soosh]

hmmm. rely on what I have or go play on the beach tonight in the rain with some magnesium?

[soosh]

congratulations on the new young sir. Please convey my apologies for the mess we’ve made of things.

[soosh]

if what you have is just isoprop with deionized water, that should be plenty fine. I just haven’t been able to source that easily where I live.

[Author]

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