Into the Woods Again: Squaxin Park in the Snow (Oly 13)

Near the Squaxin Park trailhead (off Flora Vista Dr NE) 

It is summer in Olympia. The days can be hot (90º deg. F), but the nights are cool. Compared to my previous homes in Vicksburg, Houston, Athens, Karachi, and Rangoon, summer here is a delight. Still, let's cool off with some memories of the February 25 snowfall. This was the second snow of the 2023-2024 winter, and it was too good to resist. I drove to Squaxin (formerly Priest Point) Park with my tripod and Hasselblad and broke out a roll of Kodak's famous Panatomic-X. It is a slow film (EI = 25) and may not be the best choice for a gloomy afternoon under dense trees, but with a tripod, you can use as slow as shutter speed as needed. Most of these snow scenes were ½ or 1 second exposures. (Warning: no urban decay here, just "pretty" pictures.)

Looks like a furry chapeau on a stump

Heading home, time for a coffee

The Hasselblad works reasonably well in cold weather. I can use the controls with thin gloves. Loading a film back in the snow would be frustrating, so if in doubt, load a spare one in advance. For the pictures above, I used 50mm, 80mm, and 100mm Zeiss lenses, all with no filters. Praus Productions in Rochester, New York, developed the film.

I hope you all enjoyed this quick visit to winter.

Remembering the Mist (Oly 12)

Summer in Olympia is spectacular. Day after day of cool nights, warm mornings, and warm-hot late afternoons. The humidity is low, especially compared to when I previously lived. We had one or two days of 100º F temperature here, but that passed, and since then, the temperatures have been more benign. Some mornings are overcast, but the clouds burn off, and the sky is blazing blue. When I see news reports that much of the US south and southwest is under extreme heat advisories, I am glad to be in the Northwest. 

But after week after week of sunshine, do you want to remember the mist and fog of winter? Let's try with these random January and February views around town.

  

Seldom-used rail line to Port of Olympia, next to Dancing Goats Coffee (Jan. 20, 2024)

This is the track that comes down Jefferson Street and then makes some minor changes as it heads north to the Port. I think it has not been active for some time because the rails are rusty in stretches where cars do not drive over it. But a Port of Olympia manager told me that this line is officially still in operation.  

 

Awaiting tender loving care at Swantown Boatworks

East Bay pilings

Pilings, south end of East Bay

East Bay Drive NE view west

512 East Bay Drive NE. There are some other black-painted houses around the city. 

View from the balcony - Swantown Marina and Port of Olympia

When the sun bursts through in early spring, the light is magical here. The woods glow.

Chehalis Western trail near Woodard Bay

What to do after a long walk exploring and photographing and you need a snack? Go to Bread Peddler for a Café au Lait, a croissant, and some Édith Piaf (aka. "La Môme Piaf"). And I asked: they use butter imported from France.

The Bread Peddler, 222 Capitol Way N. 

I took these photographs with my Fuji X-E1 digital camera with various lenses. I set the aspect ration to square to resemble Rolleiflex frames, and usually use the Astia film simulation. The RAW file contains the complete frame, but I rarely now reprocess the RAW file with Photo Ninja or other software. The jpeg files from this little Fuji usually look fine and are as good as I could achieve fooling around with various software packages. 

Down in the Alley* (in Olympia) (Oly 11)

View east from Colombia St. NW (40mm ƒ/4 Distagon Lens)

Some streets in downtown Olympia have alleys that run behind the commercial buildings. The alley gives access to loading doors, dumpsters, maybe the sewer. Some of the older housing neighborhoods, like Bigelow and South Capital, also have alleys. The latter are handy for utilities, trash cans, and, sometimes, access to garages. They are a bit boring, so I will concentrate on the city.

Between 4th and State Avenues, an alley runs east-west for about one km. The west end is pretty interesting with art works and some graffiti. This was too good to resist, and on an overcast April day, I took a walk with my Hasselblad and Fuji NPS 160 film. This was also a chance to use my new/old 40mm Distagon wide angle lens in tight quarters. 

Something is fishy at the rear door of Old School Pizza, 108 Franklin Street (40mm Distagon lens)

Walk east for a block, and there is more good stuff.

Loading dock of 312 4th Avenue (40mm Distagon lens). There was probably a hoist once in the apex of the overhang.

Turn 180º, and a carpentry shop has a door that leads to the alley.

Carpenter shop door with shiny new paint - already decorated (40mm Distagon lens)

Rear of 308 4th Avenue (100 mm ƒ/3.5 Planar lens)

Parking lot off State Avenue

Empty lots like this once had industrial or commercial buildings. Maybe a local reader can remember what once stood here. Some lots are empty because pollutet soil has been capped, but I do not know if that is the issue here.

View north to Billy Frank Jr. Place (318 State Avenue) (40mm Distagon lens)

I will show more alley pictures soon. 

215 Thurston Avenue (100mm ƒ/3.5 Planar lens, 1/30 ƒ/8.0)

Two blocks north is this interesting door. Some of you readers may remember it from a 35mm frame that I took with T400CN film.  

7th Avenue tunnel (100mm ƒ/3.5 Planar lens)

This is not quite an alley, but rather the grungy 7th Avenue railroad tunnel. An occasional train with petroleum tank cars trundles through here heading for an industrial area in west Tumwater. 

I took these photographs with my Hasselblad 501 CM camera using Fuji NPS 160 film. This was my last roll, and it is no longer available. Photoland at The Evergreen State College developed the film. 

* With apologies to Elvis Presley, who recorded Down in the Alley on May 25, 1966 on Spinout Records. The lyrics are not pertinent to my article, just the title. 

Danger: GAS and a Review of the Zeiss 40mm ƒ/4 Distagon CF FLE lens for Hasselblad (Oly 10)

Zeiss 40mm ƒ/4 lens with filter holder and 93mm UV filter in place

40mm Distagon ƒ/4 lens without filter holder

40mm Distagon lens mount. The slotted circle with a red arrow is the shutter cocking screw. The contacts were for the 200 series cameras (not used by my 501CM body)

The GAS Attack

Yes, yes, I know, I utterly lack discipline. I suffered an explosive bout of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and bought an ultra-wide lens for my Hasselblad 501CM camera. I already owned a 50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens, but sometimes I wanted to be closer or be right inside the scene and capture it. 

My 50mm lens provides a diagonal view similar to a 27mm in the 35mm format. This new 40 provides a 22mm view (note, the frame proportions are not the same, square versus rectangle, so these are approximations only). I have already learned that this 40 is hard to use and need to take advantage of its unusually wide view. 

Zeiss made four generations of 40mm lenses to fit Hasselblad V bodies. These are the mid-20th century mechanical bodies that use 120 film, usually for the 6×6 format. It is difficult to find production years, but this is an approximate summary of the 40mm lenses: 

Distagon 40mm ƒ/4 C with Bayonet 104 filter. This is a huge optic, computed in the 1960s. It was a pioneering retrofocus lens at the time. Single coat 1967-1973, multi-coated T* 1974-1982. These C lenses are said to be front heavy and hard to focus. Zeiss also made versions of this 40 for Rollei SL66 and Rollei SLX/6006.

Distagon ƒ/4 40 mm CF (FLE). Newly computer smaller lens with floating element, 93mm drop-in filters, 1982-1998.

Distagon ƒ/4 40 mm CFE (FLE). Newer style body (see the pictures above), 1998-2003.

Distagon ƒ/4 40 mm CFE (IF FLE). Internal focus, final 40mm model (rare and expensive), designed for use with digital backs, 2003-?

Hasselblad also offered a 38mm Biogon type of lens permanently mounted in a special body, the SWC. This is said to be the least distortion super wide lens. I was tempted but wanted a lens that would mount on my 501CM body and let me frame through the viewfinder. 

My 40mm CFE model accepts 93mm unthreaded filters, which are held in place by a retaining ring. These are the same concept as traditional series filters. But the 93mm units are rare, rare, rare. My lens came with a clear UV filter. Amazingly, I saw an orange 93 for sale at KEH and grabbed it instantly. Yellow and green 93s are unobtanium. If you buy a used 40mm lens, make sure that it includes the retaining ring/shade, the items that hold a 93 filter in place. 

Upper ring adjusts the internal floating element

My lens has an internal floating element, meaning one that can be shifted separately from the other elements. A focus dial lets the user select the subject distance. This is designed to improve optical quality for close-ups. Most of my pictures are of mid- or far distance, so I have only needed to adjust this extra setting a few times. The procedure for close subjects:

1. Focus on the intended subject.
2. Adjust the floating element ring to see the best sharpness across the frame.
3. Readjust the main focus ring. But it may not need to be moved at all.

Focus with ultra wide lenses can be tricky with any reflex camera. But with my Acute Matte viewfinder screen, focus pops in and out precisely. I do not know how the view would be with the older, dimmer Hasselblad screens. Minolta developed the technology for these screens, and Minolta camera viewfinders were known for being easy to use. As far as I know, new Acute Matte screens are no longer available, and used screens in good condition sell for around $500 now. Other companies offered brighter screens for the Hasselblad, (e.g., Beattie IntenScreen, BrightScreen) but the consensus is the Acute Mattes are the best. 

Fuji NPS 160

Cylinder man, Olympia Avenue, Olympia

Carpentry shop, alley between State and 4th Avenues, Olympia, Washington

Unused locomotive permanently (?) parked next to Deschutes Parkway SW near Capitol Lake

Black and White

Former Georgia Pacific Building, Capital Way, Olympia

The Seattle architectural firm of Naramore, Bain, Brady & Johanson designed this mid-Century modern building in 1952 for the Georgia Pacific plywood company. The architects made extensive use of plywood in the furnishings and construction. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife now occupies the building. 

West Bay dock on a gloomy afternoon

Summary

Well, I am happy with my new/old 40mm Distagon. Optically, this 40 is amazing. I see minimal light falloff at the corners of the frame, and the resolution is fine center to edge. I can focus it without hunting back and forth with both the 501's fold-up finder or the prism finder. This lens is wonderful with color film (stand by for more examples soon). 

It takes practice to use a lens this wide well. It helps to be right inside your scene. In the same way, I had to learn how to get the best effects from the ultra-wide 30mm lens on my friend's Hasselblad XPan panoramic camera. I also recently bought a 21mm Zeiss Biogon lens for the 35mm Leica - this will require a learning curve, too.

But this 40mm Hasselblad lens is a heavy chunk in my camera bag. I bought a small LowePro backpack to experiment carrying all this stuff. And I have yet to find 93mm yellow or green filters. 

More examples to follow. But no more equipment GAS. I promise.......

Hillbilly Coffee, Littlerock, Washington

Yes, coffee is always a good idea

After a few hours of hiking or mountain biking in the Capitol State Forest and you are in serious need of a coffee, what to do? If you have come out of the hills via Waddell Creek Road SW or Mima Road SW, turn east onto 128th Street SW, drive about three quarters of a mile, and you come upon Hillbilly Beans, the "Cawfee Shack in Littlerock, WA." Look for the "Espresso Bar" sign, an old Dodge truck, various signs, and wood cows. Good stuff!

Was this once a neon sign?

The Hillbilly Cawfee truck 

Pull up to the cow and order your espresso

Yup, coffee makes friends

Trail to Fuzzy Top mountain in the Capital State Forest. This may be old growth (i.e., never logged).

The Capital Forest is criss-crossed with gravel roads suitable for mountain biking. And a select number of trails take the hiker to various peaks. It is a nice resource just a few miles southwest of Olympia. 

I took the coffee pictures on Fuji Acros 100 film with my Leica M2 and the terrific 4th generation 35mm ƒ/2 Summicron lens (the last pre-aspherical design). The view of the trail to Fuzzy Top mountain was with my brand new Zeiss Biogon 21mm ƒ/4.5 ZM lens. It is a Leica M mount lens based on the famous Zeiss Biogons of the 1960s (such as the 38mm version used on the Hasselblad SWC camera). Praus Productions in Rochester, NY, developed the film, and I scanned it with my Nikon Coolscan 5000 film scanner.. 

At The Vintage - Hot Springs, North Carolina

Every year (except during the pandemic), BMW lovers from far and wide converge in western North Carolina to attend The Vintage. The event is held in the town of Hot Springs, a few miles north of Asheville. It is a fun time to share stories, gaze and admire your friends' antique BMWs, and admire how much they must have spent on the meticulous paint jobs and reupholstering (using the correct type of paint, leather, etc.). And you can swap parts and tell tall tales. 

I attended The Vintage in 2017 and 2018. My little car chugged along happily and did very well on the twists and turns of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Running over 2000 miles with some aggressive driving blasted out carbon and other gunk from the cylinders and fuel injectors.

Here is a small sampling of the cars gathered at Hot Springs and at the venue motel, the Hampton Inn & Suites in Fletcher. 

Hot Springs

Rare Baur TopCabriolet version of the E21 body, 1978-1981. Probably not officially imported to USA.

Baur was a German company that modified BMW sedans into convertibles or semi-convertibles. The E21 body had only been designed as a hardtop, so it was not rigid enough to remove the entire top. Therefore, you see this unusual partial open top.

 

Beautiful clean US model 320i (note the 5 mph bumpers), 1975-1983

The E21 was the first 3-series. It followed the famous 2002 model in 1975 and was in production until 1983.

BMW 700 Saloon, minus its bumpers, 1959-1965, 30 hp.

BMW Isetta (1955-1962), with one-cylinder, four-stroke, 247 cc motorcycle engine

BMW 600 Saloon, with single rear door and 582 cc boxer engine, 1957-1959

Paint an Isetta - show your artistic talents

Fletcher, NC

Bauer TopCabriolet version of the famous 2002 coupe (1971-1974?). The wheels are modern.

2002 Touring (1971-1974), a fastback version of the 2002 sedan. This was rare and possibly not officially imported to USA.

The gorgeous 3.0 CSI version of the E9 body (1971-1975; this one probably 1974)

The ever-popular 2002 sedan, this one pre-1972 or 1973

Another 2002 sedan without front bumper and with modern wheels. Note the swing-out quarter window.

E-28 4-door sedan (1981-1988), possibly a European model (note small bumpers)

Heading Home

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a fun way to head west out of Asheville. My little car has nimble steering with excellent feedback for the winding roadway, and had no power issues despite its little 1800cc engine. I did not notice any obvious loss of power even at 6000 ft elevation. This car has Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection, which may adjust the fuel mixture for changing altitude.

My E21 320i, purchased new in Houston, Texas. Richard Balsam Overlook.

Where did that fog and freezing rain come from? 

I bought this little car in Houston, a year after moving there with a brown non-air conditioned Buick. Summer of 1980 was just unbearable in the city, and so was the Buick.

April 1981, Houston, Texas (badly exposed Kodachrome slide). This grass strip is now the Westpark Tollway. 

This ends our short visit to The Vintage. I wrote about the Blue Ridge Parkway in 2021 and the road to Hot Springs in 2018. I will most likely not return to The Vintage. It is a long drive from the Pacific Northwest to North Carolina. Thanks for riding along!