apples for nuts

overstuffed
plastic bag
and contents
threatening
to spill

all
rotten

These photos were taken around this time last year on an apple picking expedition just outside of the city. In the initial stages of planning this outing, we romanticized a swarm of people leaping out of the beat up van and descending upon the groves of unsuspecting trees like locusts, eating everything in sight. The reality was slightly more underwhelming; only about five or six people ended up coming and despite initial excitement about ALL YOU CAN EAT in the orchard, we soon realized it was nearly impossible to pick clean a single tree, let alone an entire orchard.

For anyone who has never been apple picking an experience usually goes something like this: Upon entry you receive a plastic bag you are instructed to fill with as many apples as you can. During your time in the orchard, you are free to pick and eat to your heart's content. You pay for your apples by the bag. It's kind of an old fashioned honor system that these enterprises run on. But just as a precaution, once you line up to exit the grounds, the seasonal teenage workforce casually searches your car for hidden stashes of fruits. You can also buy numerous varieties of "homemade" pie at the "country" store, as well as: jams, preserves, butters, sets of colored pencils made out of tree branches various other useless crap your mother can hang on the walls of her neat and spacious kitchen. Adjacent to the pony, hay, pumpkin related activities is a conscesions stand usually peddling cider donuts and, yes, cider. All remarkably cheap, sweet and delicious. At about the two hour mark the initial signs of sugar overload begin to set it and you start to crash, developing a headache or a minor case of agoraphobia. You finish the day with an equally unhealthy restaurant meal and then you drive the two hours back to the city.

I took these with my Fujica 6x9 range finder right after I bought it from my friend Dave. Despite using some of the cheapest film, student grade Delta, the shots came out amazing. These are some of the last things I printed in the black and white darkroom before I switched to digital.