Tom Robbin’s  secretary at one time ,her name escapes me however she is  an interesting woman who has fashioned several wooden kayaks by her own hand.

The author Tom Robbin’s ..possibly displaying the price for celebrity….you decide

Inspite of his countenance this guy is a very nice guy and very mellow…really!

   You are looking at the feet of John Simon,another of the Skagit

valley 

washington, Usa ,school of painters.

This is a film photo taken in Italy in the mid nineties while on a one month excursion. Italian design and their intrinsic ability to blend the ancient with the new was a constant state of entertainment and pleasure for me. The lemons were just ripening in the trees in January in Rome.

   this was taken through a window  with some refracted lighting, hence the somewhat  out of focus image

   The concept of fresh lemons and window screen (spring summer symbolism)  tying to the  coming  wedding season was quite clever.

  As a youth I was an intrepid traveler. Often times lighting out without a cent in my pocket. An army jacket,tennis shoes and a sleepingbag,and of course my thumb. It was not uncommon for me to ‘sing for my supper’ in a mission, a drunk on each arm. Mexico was a favorite destination for me . In   1973 I was traveling in the mountains near Tepic  on a second class bus, the only way in to Barre de Navidad (Christmas Reef) . Here I found this young lady ,fascinated with a ‘not seen often’ Gringo with a funny looking device  in his hands.  She was quite obliging of the moment,   all the while her mother keeping a close eye on the proceedings , not wanting to seem   to concerned.. This is not a sepia filtered. It is the original light inside the bus.

  Before the trip I had purchased an ‘antique’ 35 mm  camera at a junk shop for 5 dollars.Probably made in the 40’s I would say. It was ‘semi-automatic’  probably  one of the earliest of its kind. I bought some film for it and took it along to record my adventure.  I really didn’t know how to use it.  In ‘automatic ‘mode you had to adjust the f-stops So I cut the flap off the film box and taped it to the back of the camera. 

 The flap had  a coded  diagram that inluded a sun,a cloud over the sun, a moon..etc…etc,  this is how I new how to set the exposure for the shots.

  I scanned this in a professional  scanner at 400 dpi.and pp in CS3.

Taken in 2007 on the Washington State Ferry from Anacortes to San Juan Island.