Last month, Lindsay and I took the family on the Clallam County farm tours. Throughout the day the weather changed dramatically from windy and rainy to warm and sunny. The first farm we visited was the Bekkevar family farm on the east end of Sequim:

The last farm we visited was the Dungeness Valley Creamery:

Downtown Port Angeles at the White Crane martial arts center. Joe Jenkins, a Seaman in the Coast Guard, helps build a pile of newspapers that will later be used for a cutting demonstration.

Photo was taken with Kodak’s BW400CN, which is a monochrome C-41 process film. After reviewing two rolls, I hate the film. Very muddy lifeless negatives lacking contrast. I’ll stick to Tri-X thank you very much. The C-41 process is what tempted me, which means I can have this film processed at any photo lab. The drawbacks are apparent and I’ll be sticking with traditional silver-based film for now.

I’m not much for rain, but I do appreciate what it can do for photos. Not many people photograph in the rain, but there are a number of unexpected and often beautiful photos that can be made when the wet stuff hits.

I happened to be kinda bumming in my office thinking about a lot of heavy stuff while the rain poured outside. The weather fit my mood. Suddenly a beam of light burst through my window. I jumped up, grabbed my camera and the 70-200 (the only canon lens I currently have in my posession) and ran outside. Just as I suspected a light rain was still falling as the sun burst through the clouds. The wet and back-lit leaves made for some great photos and cheered me up at the same time.

Yesterday I ventured out to Sequim on my motorcycle. I had a few errands to run and needed something to do while Lindsay and the kids are away. While waiting for some film to be developed I thought I’d cruise around and see if anything was going on.

Something I’ve been wanting to do is begin photographing the community. That’s really broad, I know, but while I wait for a definitive project that begs my attention and is flexible and open enough for me to pursue, for now a really broad scope is working for me.

I came across a crew of amateur and professional farmers working a field. Apparently, on Saturday there was a huge public event that was celebrating the beginning of the harvest. According to a few of the workers, the land of Bob and Glenda Clark has not been tilled in over 60 years. Tom Clark, son of Bob and Glenda, decided it was time to try his hand at farming after toying with the idea for a few years.

On Saturday, the large community event had 9 tractors working the field at the same time. Although, many of the tractors were old and quite small, prompting Mr. Nash to bring his own tractor which made quick work of the field.