The Hitch'n Post

When I picked up my film for my recent day trip to Deception Pass, there was an old roll of developed film that had been at the photo shop for some time. I was pleased to get it but a little frustrated that it had been lost there for so long. These pictures were of Matthew and Seanna singing at a backyard concert in the summer of 2015.

October 5th - Matthew and I got up EARLY and head to Deception Pass to take some photos and a short hike. The weather was perfect and a little research showed that the moon would be setting at 6:55a and first light would be at 6:45a. Since October 5th was to have a full moon it seemed like a good opportunity to capture the setting moon. We were on the bridge at Deception Pass and unfortunately it vibrates quite a lot as vehicles roll across it - the future I will focus on timing my shots better as all of my moon set shots are blurred :0( After shooting the moon, we switched sides on the bridge to catch the sun rise. I still had problems get sharp pictures even though I did try to time them between cars. After photographing around the bridge, we drove a short distance to Cornet Bay where took a break to make some much needed coffee. On our hike to Hoypus Point, we caught the sun rising through the trees which made for a great "selfie" opportunity. And at the end of the trail w...

Life has been a bit hectick while trying to get caught up following our trip to Australia. We finally had a chance to take Koibito out on the Sunday before Labor Day, it was a great day for it. We were in the Possession Sound just off of Whidbey and Hat Islands. No whales today but great weather and very relaxing. Another boater took a picture of Koibito in action and was nice enough to send it to us - thank you! Lots of smoke in the air from the forest fires in the Northwest but still a nice day for the two of us: And the wind and the waves all cooperated:

I didn't really have time to prepare for solar eclipse as I had just returned from Australia and we celebrated Matthew's 21st birthday the day before. So I just threw my film camera's the car along with a couple of tripods in hopes of having a moment to take a few pictures. I had a 35mm Pentax ME loaded with Kodak Portra 400 color negative film attached to a 300mm zoom lens and a 35mm Nikon FM loaded with Kodak Tmax 400 B&W film attached to a 110mm Zoom lens. I haven't developed the B&W film yet but here a some of the shots I toom with the Pentax:

The final leg of my flight plan was from San Francisco to Vancouver, B.C. As I found out when I checked in at the beginning of my journey in Melbourne, this last leg, while labeled a United Airlines flight on my itinerary was actually operated by Air Canada. Unfortunately, this meant that United was not able to make my seat assignment, that had to be done when I arrived in San Francisco. So yeah, I ended up in the middle seat, second to the last row :0) The flight was full so they strictly enforced the baggage size limits which meant my "checked" luggage was now actually getting checked - this was the one flight I would have actually wanted to carry it on so I could get out of the Vancouver Airport quickly. I was quite hungry now since there had been no time between flights to grab a bite and the last food the airline had given me was at 4:00a on my flight in from Melbourne. But it was my luck, and because I was sitting in the back of the plane that there was very little ...

The rest of my trip home was wrought with delays, hurry up and wait, very little information on what was happening next from any of the several organizations that touched my journey (United Airlines, TSA, US Customs, etc.) - it was a difficult part of my trip. Getting through customs coming into the US at LAX means you need to pickup your checked luggage and then ideally re-check it after walking it through customs. But starting with no information on which baggage carousel my luggage was going to be on, then no information on where I was to re-check my luggage, the LAX experience only go worse from there. US customs required that I fill out a form before my arrival but the form was never looked at by customs, the same questions are asked at the kiosk they make you use. My passport was also electronically scanned and compared to a photo the kiosk take but I still had to meet with an agent who does the same thing - Not a very LEAN process. The coordination between United, TSA, Custo...

Goodbye to Melbourne, after a brief delay we were finally in the air. I ended up in the same seat I flew over in, lucky 28L. It's a window seat, which I like on flights that I'll be sleeping on. Having a window seat allows me to lean against the window while I'm sleeping (or trying to). Unless you are in business class or first class, the seats don't really recline much so your head will bob forward when you fall asleep - it's painful to watch people trying to sleep like that. The return trip from Melbourne to LA was a little harder than the reverse for me. The trip starts in the morning so people are awake and talking, the reading lights are on and the video screens are lit with shows. All of this plus that fact that is was during the day rather then at night made it was harder for me to sleep. Several episodes of M*A*S*H and a movie later we still had 8 hours to go - geeze this was a long flight. Eventually, we approached the US coast line north ...