Posts tagged "festivals"

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Protests and Parades

One of the interesting things about living near City Hall is I never know what I'm going to walk into. Some days it's a protest about the declining state of trans rights in this country. Or one by the Burmese or Iranian communities to try to raise awareness of the issues at home.

Other days it's an Irish festival that somehow has large representation from law enforcement. (For more information about the impact of the Irish in San Francisco law enforcement, read Season of the Witch.) I had my black and white film camera out, but I also had a roll of Kodak Vision 3 500T film in my rangefinder camera that I got processed and scanned much later.

I was interested in the parade and curious to know how it would proceed in the rain; though like many other observers, I kept a distance from it. I come from a country where protest isn't allowed (except in a very specific park with strict rules requiring pre-approval), so I am always going to be photographing and gawking at any protests, and parades (which also require pre-approval where I come from), I think, even if I might not agree with all of them.

Tomorrow, I'm going to go to a rally for trans rights. It's cool that I can just stroll over to show my support for things like that.

a scan of a color photograph of a homeless person walking by a large contingent of police in San Francisco who are attending St Patricks Day festivities

The entire street was closed.

a scan of a color photograph of two cops holding flags. one american and one irish

San Francisco is the hub of the Irish diaspora in the West Coast. The police force has also been a favored profession for that community.

a scan of a color photograph of a red classic car with the grand marshall of the parade in it

Classic cars are my thing.

a scan of a color photograph of an old lady walking through a park looking at people who are playing with their dogs in a dog park

Rainy days are here again.

a scan of a color photograph of a multi-color playground in San Francisco

I really like the colors on the motion picture film. This photo would not be as interesting on regular color film!

All photos taken on Minolta Hi-Matic 7S II, with Kodak Vision 3 500T, processed and scanned by Eureka Film Lab.


St Patrick's Day in San Francisco

Some photos from the first roll of film I developed and scanned myself.

I have been wanting to learn how to dev and scan for many years now. The sheer number of items and chemicals to procure left me dizzy, and I never did. I'm lucky to be near the city-run community darkroom and photo center, Harvey Milk Photo Center. For a reasonable price ($193 for 6 months, you can have unlimited access to the developing chemicals, equipment, and darkroom and digital lab.

While walking to a black and white film development class, I came upon the St Patrick's Day parade that the mayor of Cork and the mayor of San Francisco took part in. I took some photos, and less than an hour later (including transportation to the darkroom, and learning how to load film into reels for developing.. challenging for a person like me with dexterity issues), I was able to see how the photos turned out, on a light table.

It took some more time to scan. I am still figuring out my dev and scan workflow, and will keep trying different things until I find something I feel I can stick with.

a scan of a black and white photograph of the mayor of cork, ireland, in a car in San Francisco's St Patrick's Day parade

The mayor of Cork, Ireland, was visiting San Francisco and took part in the 2023 St Patrick's Day parade.

a scan of a black and white photograph of a group of people participating in the St Patrick's Day parade in San Francisco

Many people participated, in spite of the weather (the 10th or 11th atmospheric river event in San Francisco!)

a scan of a black and white photograph of a bus that says Galway Association of San Francisco with people in it, and a person walking alongside the bus with a poncho

Rain or shine.

All photos taken on Olympus XA2 and Tri-X 400, developed in Kodak D76 1:1 for 9 min 45 seconds, and scanned on Nikon LS-40.


2 posts tagged "festivals"