the price I pay

More photos from that one trip I took back in 2003. These are a continuation of the film I shot with the Pen-EE. I'm starting to get the hang of color correcting in Photoshop, but nonetheless most of the photos I've taken with the tiny Pen-EE are better than the ones I've shot with the more elaborate Pen FT, which is a bit of a shame since the latter cost about 10 times as much. I'm still working on getting to know that one (the FT) as well, and one of the things I'm learning is that even when the handheld light meter and the camera's internal meter match up, the pictures will still be overexposed. I figure I'm going to scrap the attempts to use E6 with the FT for now since it seems to be too precise for the camera and I'll stick to shooting color negative with it, which seems pretty much fine. It doesn't make sense, but it's going to take some time for me to figure out what's the problem. On a slightly side-note, at least all the photos I took when I was in SF last weren't all f'd up by my own hand or by airplane x-rays, though the true cause is still a mystery to me and doesn't really ease the disappointment in losing all those scenes.

Anyhow, these move in somewhat chronological order: Topanga Canyon road just outside Santa Monica on the way to Malibu, to a ways up north. Check out those crazy green sneakers I had on and the motor-ing fuel (Mountain Dew—every road trip in those days was all about junk food. The first drive back from LA to Delaware consisted of 4 packs of peanut butter crackers and about 8 liters of Mountain Dew.) For a while I also added chain smoking to the mix of candy, soda, and punching the roof in time with the music, but in later years the smoking habit had gotten pretty foul. I still like to do it occasionally. There's also a photo of the Road Warrior Integra (the car I bought for $300 while living in Sacramento—even though it looked totally beat up, I totally loved that car) and the good luck charm I hung off the rear view mirror to keep me safe.