The Handmaid’s Tale Finale

The final episode of The Handmaid’s Tale is out. I watched it before work this morning. I have two spoiler-free (or if not spoiler-free, then spoiler-light) thoughts.

First, I was curious about how they were going to set things up for the sequel show, The Testaments. I thought maybe they would resolve some story lines in ways that would change things for the next show. They did not. They left almost everything right where it should be. I was of two minds on that. On the one hand I thought it was good because I want the next show to succeed. On the other… I really wanted to see some happy endings that would have ruined The Testaments. Maybe not ruined, but significantly altered. So… yeah.

The other take away is pretty much the same as last week’s episode. Did I ball my freakin’ eyes out while watching it? Why yes, yes I did.

I seriously hate what this phenomenal show does to me. I don’t want to feel those feelings. I don’t want to live in a world that is sliding out of control toward the seemingly inevitable Gilead outcome. Can’t reality just fast forward through all of that shit and treat it like an archeological study?

Yeah, it’s a fantastic show and my tears and I are going to miss it when it’s gone.

Recreated

I think it was Father’s Day in 2006. I had a nice little Kodak point and shoot camera and I wanted to use it so I drove into Boston and just walked around. I had an idea to stand at the base of the Hancock building and point the camera straight up. That didn’t quite work the way I had hoped, but when I moved just a little bit I got this:

Hancock Tower in Boston

It might still be my favorite photograph that I have ever taken that doesn’t have Jen or Harry or Bellana or my niece or any of my nephews in it. I like it.

Every time I get a new camera I think, “I’m going to try and recreate that picture” and then it never works out as well. My Nikon D90 gave me a bunch of really good pictures, but nothing close enough to the accidental original. I just couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong.

Ever since the film obsession began a few years ago (when my sister found my father’s Pentax K1000 while cleaning out his dresser and asked if anyone wanted it and I suddenly realized that I really, really, really wanted it) I’ve been wanting to go into Boston and see if I could pull it off on film.

Today I went into Boston to see if I could pull it off. I had the K1000, the Lubitell 166, and my digital Nikon Z5. I was messing with the K1000 when I accidentally figured out what I needed to do. I didn’t move to my left, like I thought I did. I moved to my right. All three cameras tried it out. Obviously we have to wait to get the film developed to know how they did, but the digital I can already see.

Close enough?

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All I need now is the airplane to come back.

Sunrise Fail

The forecast called for clear skies at Salisbury Beach at sunrise today. The forecast was wrong. I was there and I took a bunch of pictures, but the clouds covered the horizon and there was no photo of the sun coming out of the water. It was a wasted effort on that front, but I went to Plumb Island after and got a nice pic of the lighthouse.

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When the sun eventually did break through, it made the Merrimack River look nice.

267/365