Not My Presidents Day Protest with Presto 400 film (Oly 19)

Last Monday, May 26, 2025, the USA celebrated Memorial Day to commemorate fallen service members. Many died in action to help maintain the federal form of government that we now enjoy. We all benefit from their ultimate sacrifices.

I thought it was appropriate to show pictures from the "Not My Presidents Day" protest that was held at the Washington State Capitol on February 27, 2025. That these people can gather and express their feeling and beliefs is a key element of our form of government. Will we be able to continue protesting in the months ahead? When will the repression start? It has already begun on some university campuses.

Read the posters and signs below and consider what they are saying. The people in individual or group portraits gave me permission to take their pictures.

The Olympia State Capitol

SNAP refers to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Oozing into Gilead

The Handmaid's Tale is a horrifying allegory of a totalitarian state (The Republic of Gilead) where white women become breeding machines for the ruling class. "The novel explores themes of powerless women in a patriarchal society, loss of female agency and individuality, suppression of reproductive rights, and the various means by which women resist and try to gain individuality and independence." (from Wikipedia).

"It Takes All of Us to Make the USA" 

Checking out Truth (Fraud) Social?

The protesters were vocal and energetic, but largely mellow. No fire bombs or torching buildings. 

I took these phortographs on discontinued Fuji Presto 400 film, the same emulsion as Neopan 400 Professional. The camera was my little Pentax MG with a 50mm ƒ/2 Pentax-A lens. My Indiana friend, Jim Grey, sent me some boxes of this superb film. Based on limited experience, I think it resembles the classic older style of Tri-X. I will write about Presto in more detail in a later article. Thanks for the film, Jim!

This is Abandoned Films no. 14 and Oly no. 19.

HANDS OFF! in Olympia, Washington (Oly 17)

Blog Note:  I just posted an article about my Volkswagen Squareback car. I will withdraw it and repost it in the future because I want to share some pictures from the April 5 Hands Off protest.

The Hands Off protest gathered in front of the Washington State Capitol on the afternoon of April 5, 2025. This mirrored hundreds of similar protest around the country and even internationally. People here and around the country were protesting the loss of medical research, funding for agencies, the gutting of scientific staff at federal research agencies, a chaotic tariff program, and potential threats to social security and medicaid enacted by Elon Musk and the felon traitor in the White House. I cannot predict if the protests will have any effect at all, but real American patriots are angry and are speaking out. 

View of the Capitol steps

The speakers were on the north steps of the Capitol. It was a bit hard to understand what they were saying. My wife and I walked around and admired the signs. The crowd was in a good mood - no Molotov cocktails, burning effegies, or tear gas.

Here is a sampling of the signs, many quite clever.

A bit further north, sculpture and some handsome mature trees.

It was a sunny hot afternoon, almost a hint of summer. The crowd was peaceful and not too noisy. Several people commented to me that the current president made Richard Nixon and George Bush II look good. I did not hear anyone compliment Ronald Reagan. Hmmm.......

I took these photographs with my Fuji X-E1 digital camera with the compact 27mm ƒ/2.8 Fujinon lens. I set the jpeg output to be black and white but later realized that color was much more effective on this glarey sunny day. The pictures above are from the RAW files as opened with XNView MP software.