1pt4 | Matt Alofs

M6TTL, CV 35 1.4 SC, Neopan 400, D76 1:1

Southwest

Southwest is still the only American carrier that doesn’t suck. Sure, you don’t get a meal, but airplane food is junk anyway. The unassigned seating does add a bit of excitement; will you get stuck between the fatman and the basketball player; you will if you are C 37. But the staff clearly don’t hate their jobs nearly as much as other airline staff seem to. And that 737-700 is a fine plane. Runs on rainbows now.

M6TTL, CV 35 1.4 SC, Neopan 400, D76 1:1

Portland

M6TTL, CV 35 1.4 SC, Neopan 400, D76 1:1

The Ace Hotel is fun, the beds are comfy, there’s real soap in the shower and real coffee in the lobby, but that damn clock radio is just too cool for school.

M6TTL, CV 35 1.4 SC, Neopan 400, D76 1:1

Portland, in general, continues to be one of my favorite, but least visited cities. We should go back more often. The public transport system works. You can buy food on the street. The art museum is decent. Coffee, beer and pizza are all plentiful. And when it rains, there’s always Powell’s World of Books. The recreational homeless are a bit annoying, but no more so than in other young cities.

M6TTL, CV 35 1.4 SC, Neopan 400, D76 1:1

Equipment

I ran a bit of an experiment on this trip. Instead of my standard, one lens, one type of film, I went crazy. Well, crazy for me. Three lenses; CV 35 1.4, 50 Hex, 90 Hex; and three types of film; Neopan 100ss, Neopan 400 and a couple of rolls of Neopan 1600. All this fit neatly into a Tamrac Expo 601 bag, with room to spare for batteries, notebook, lens cloth and a worthless Fodor’s guide book. The bag itself was great, lightweight and easy to get things in and out of. The grab handle is particularly nice when going through the airport. Actually using all the things in the bag wasn’t nearly as successful as the bag itself. I switched the 50 for the 35 while sitting in the bar of the Indianapolis airport. Apart from one other quick swap back to the 50 for a few shots in the hotel room, I ended up using the 35 the whole time. This proves to me a couple of things:

1. I can indeed carry a bag full of gear if it is light enough. The little Tamrac was no problem to carry all day. It’s a great little bag, lighter, cheaper and more logical than most of the competition.
2. I can’t actually seem to make myself use anything in the bag. Extra lenses just don’t get used. If the camera itself is in the bag, pictures don’t get taken.

This is good to know. Let’s see how long I can remember it.

More thoughts and pictures to follow. For the record, this is post 970, which means I need to start thinking about how this blog should celebrate 1000 posts.