Vagabond Jim

 "Asides" will be occasional series; my ramblings on subjects that are dear to me and of importance to the blog but not a destination.   Modern photography is amazing.  The computational stuff has made it VERY easy to get a stunning exposure. Whereas on used to have to think about how and how much light to let hit the film, no one needn't.  All.  The move away from chemicals to pixels made that not just possible but inevitable.  The old trade of was to choose between a fast burst through a wide opening (a small aperture (f-stop)  = large opening) or a long exposure (slow shutter speed). Short exposures with a wide open iris would stop motion - think sports. Tiny apertures with long exposures would create amazing depth of field (how much of the picture is in fine detail, moving along an axis away from the film) - think Ansel Adams.  (And his colleagues in the f/64 club.) Assuming that was done right, there was still room to screw up.  In the dark room.  I never played ther

 Quito, 1430 I slept poorly last night.  On previous nights I was dead to the world by 2000.  Last night, I saw 2335 and beyond.  (One learns to NOT check the time too often as a chronic insomniac. I checked only once.) Part of it was noise.  When the sun goes down, this part of towns shuts comletely down.  The streets are absolutely empty.  The stores are all shuttered by 1800.  The place rolls up the sidewalks, the tourists disappear. (I am in the historic old town it is tourist laden by daylight as is appropriate for one of the original UNECO Heritage Sites.) It has usually stayed deserted until a few hours after sunrise (~0615 +/- 20 minutes year round.  Sunset is always ~12 hours later.)  When I wake at 0800ish the stores are just re-opening. Last night there were trucks parked outside.  Lots of conversation.  Lots of diesel engine noises.  Lots of exhaust fumes. Ear plugs and a mask helped.  But only a bit. I awoke tired.  And I still feel so. Here's the street when I woke up

  Day 1 - 5/30/23 Destination: Quito (LAX-RDU-MIA-UIO*) Written: 35,000' above the Caribean & in Quito $0.60 per Alleve for dozen alleve in RDU was a good investment.  The headache is gone.  The backache from lugging a backpack around hasn't.  Oh well.  MIA was a mess.  Late arrival (WX.)  35 gates to cross (D17 - D52).  Boarding started before I deplaned from RDU.  People were being far too slow to disembarked even knowing others had tight connections.  Really annoying to watch endless cycles of "You," "No, you!" I hustled.  Group 8 (of 9) was boarding when I got to the gate.  And, the little lady in the wheelchair made the connection before I did.  Uggh. I'm using an old work backpack.  It's great for luigging a laptop and such.  But the bag itself weighs in at 5+ pounds.  And has too many dividers.  It was never going to be The Bag.  No it won't be a bag I use going forward.  Who needs a really good piece of kit?  Everki Atlas 32L - free t

Day 0: - 5/29/23 En-route to: Quito Ecuador Travel: LAX-RDU (MIA-UIO*) Written: in RDU @ 0200 What a long day so far.  I'm writing from Raleigh-Durham at 0200.  The place is empty, I have a headache (but no aspirin).  I'm hungry. Yet, it's been a decent start to my dry run. I am happy. That was supposed to be a "secret dry run" but the secret is out.  Dad called while I was in the quiet area of the LAX Admirals Club (yes, all that flying on American still has some residual benefits - in this case I can use the clubs on international itineraries.)  When I asked to hang on until I was in a place I could chat he asked if I was in a library.  Nope, that was Saturday to print some stuff. I don't lie; I fessed up.  Of course I did.  No, I did not chop down the cherry tree. RDU is empty except for a dozen pax overnighting and 3 dozen security and cleaning folk.  But, I'm indoors.  I was hopeful but did not expect that.  Previous fun at JFK taught me that