Intermission: Wasilla: At Abby's, every stool had a butt on it; a cup of eyes

When Abby's Home Cooking first opened, I took a picture of all the stools at the counter - empty. Then I set a goal to take a photograph on the day when I would find a butt on every stool. That day happened today. Unfortunately, I broke my 16-35 wide angle lens in India. I had my 24-105 with me, and if I had brought my Canon 5D Mark II or my 1DS Mark III - both full frame cameras, that lens would have been wide enough to have captured every butt.

But I had sent the 5D to the Canon Service Center for repairs a few weeks before I left for India, but they had wanted $500 to repair and I couldn't spare it. Despite having hit a hard, stone, floor in the same mishap that sheared my 16-35 into two pieces, the 1Ds is like a tank and seemed to come out of the accident unscathed.

But I do not like to carry it around if I don't have to - because it is like a tank.

So I had fallen back on the Canon 7D, which has a cropped sensor and on it the 24 was not wide enough to take in all the butts. So I went outside to see if I could get them all through the window, but there was so much glare and reflection on the window I could not see anything through it unless I came right up to it and blocked the glare and reflection with my head.

Maybe you think I am making all this up, that there really was not a butt on every stool and this is story I concocted.

If you think that, you are wrong. See? From a angle, I could get all the butts. I wanted to keep the same angle as the original, but when one goes about breaking lenses and ruining camera bodies, he has to make adjustments to how he shoots things.

These are the heads and faces that rise above the butts on the stool.

Tim and his grandson Wesley did not sit at the counter. We shared a table. There were diners at most of the other tables, too. People are discovering Abby's.

This is not what I had planned today. I had planned to launch my store and then make another post from India - Suji Niece doing her wedding shopping. But I had a big struggle with the store. What seemed to be simple tasks kept going wrong. I got it started yesterday evening and worked on it off and on throughout today and just didn't get anywhere.

I think its because my last post drained me. It did. It drained me. I could not make my mind bear down on what it needed to bear down on to solve all the problems. So, late tonight, I just gave up and retreated to this glimpse at life in Wasilla, this morning.

I will finish the store tomorrow, though - at least a preliminary version of it. Something to establish the idea.

And, if everything goes well, I will take readers back to India to go wedding shopping in Bangalore with Suji. It was great fun when it happened. I think it will be fun in the blog, too.

Comments

[twain12]

i always like to see Abby's

[Kathryn]

I am so glad to see Abby's is doing well. Wishing all of them continued good fortune.

[Naomi]

I do love reading your blog. One further suggestion. Might you sell any stock, perhaps using shots that aren't your primary going-to-be-in-a-book shots? It won't make you rich, and for people shots you might need releases, but as a college textbook production person who works with large companies, I know they go through quite a few photos and they do have to pay for them. Maybe you already have all these contacts, but if you want to email me I could ask one or two of the people we've noticed are most active in slightly out-of-the-ordinary stock, and see if they would be interested. Most of the photos of Alaska are fairly obvious tourist shots; perhaps someone will need images from a different point of view, once in a while.

[Logbook - Wasilla - Beyond]

Twain - I am sure she would like to see you, too - should you ever wind up in Wasila.

You too, Kathryn.

Naomi - I appreciate the suggestion and your offer to help. While I do not have an organized stock operating, I do sell stock because people do wind up coming to me for images I have that tend to be unique. I have always been reluctant to just turn my images over to a stock company, because then I do not know how they might wind up being used. I will email you.