August 07, 2013

Montezuma Hills adventure, part 3 of 3


click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Over 40 years ago I met the lady rancher who lived in this shack. In those days she had it fixed up quite nicely, from what I could see on the outside.

She stopped her pickup next to me on that dusty road and asked what-in-the-Sam-Hill-I-was-taking-a-picture-of. "Stubble", I said. The side-lighting late in the day was making it look coarse, like the bristles of a scrub-brush.

Those were the days when I was using my 4x5 view camera shooting with Polaroid#52 film packets. Costly; $1.60 per shot in the mid 1970's, but gave almost instantaneous results--much like digital. The prints were small--but I like small; 4-1/2" x 3-1/2", and have held up well over the years.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

So, yes I did manage to get myself thrown off private property on Saturday. I was snooping around the ruins of a barn and the shack (top photo). Fortunately, not before I had gotten my shots.

A rancher on his ATV putted up near me, and the script sort of wrote itself; "I guess you don't want me in here", and "Okay, I'll walk out", and finally "Sorry to bother you". The rancher only said; "out", and I'm guessing he didn't speak a whole lot of English. Spanish is not my strong-suit either.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

This concludes our 3-day tour of one of MY favorite places; Montezuma Hills.


CLICK for 40 photos on what I call my "big site"; photoarrow.com.
CLICK for "Photographing Marin County"; my Marin County exhibit.

2 comments:

John @ Beans and I on the Loose said...

At a $1.60 a pop in 1970's time, you no doubt chose your shots very carefully.

Nancy Ewart said...

Nice post here - I guess you didn't say "Hasta la vista baby" to the rancher, being all polite and such.

 
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