Kodak Pro Image 100 | Minolta X-700 | MD Rokkor-X 45mm F:2

I started drinking ales from Flounder Brewing about five years ago. Back then founder Jeremy Lees and his friends brewed up a batch of beer when they could, sometimes once a month, sometimes more. Whenever they had a batch of beer for sale, they sent out an email to a mailing list with dates and times. One release day was not unusual to see a line of beer geeks, growlers in hand, standing outside their “brewery”, a small space inside an industrial building in Hillsborough. Eventually, word spread, the lines got longer, the beer got better and more varied, and the team were able to expand. Flounder Brewing retained their small town micro-brewery feel but Jeremey had a vision for growing into a space that reflected the historic farm town character of Hillborough. This year he had the green light to start renovating a barn on the historic farm property at Clerico Lane.

To continue the sense of the community that Flounder Brewing Co. has created over the year, Jeremy hosted a monthly socially-distanced and fully-masked outdoor beer garden at the new property with stringent rules. Throughout the summer and fall, Bhavna and I attended each of these outdoor beer gardens. We brought portable chairs and tables and found a spot under the trees. It was a joy to be with people (from eight feet away) enjoying the same beer, food and local musician.

One one of these occasions in October I attached an MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 lens to my Minolta X-700, and loaded a roll of Kodak Pro Image 100 35mm Colour Negative Film for the first time. I had read that the look of Pro Image was somewhere between Kodak Portra and Kodak Ektachrome E100. It took me a few weeks to expose the entire roll. I somehow got 38 exposures from a 36 exposure roll.

These are the best of them. You can tell where I struggled with focusing the lens. Many of the photos are slightly out of focus. I struggled to get proper exposure. I think the results are better than my first try with FPP RetroChrome film but my technique still needs work. This is the first year I am using a film camera since 1999.

Flounder Brewing Co. Beer Garden

Fall

I failed to get proper focus again.

Brick Farm Tavern

Bhavna and I have had dinner at the Brick Farm Tavern each week since just after the “stay in your home order” were lifted and Governor Murphy permitted outdoor dining. It’s our once a week “socially distanced” outing. The tables are spaced 8-10 feet apart. The food at the tavern delicious farm to table and every week we are surprised by something new.

Cousins Maine Lobster

I discovered Cousins Maine Lobster truck too late in the summer to fully take advantage but now I have developed a weekly habit of dropping in on wherever they are for a lobster roll or lobster grilled cheese sandwich.

Quaker Road Section of D&R Canal

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