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The Australian War memorial in Canberra. At the end of each day, there is the Last Post Ceremony. People lay wreaths at the reflecting pool and then the story of one of their soldiers that died in service to their country is told.

With more than 102,700 names on that list it will take almost 300 years to honor each name.

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The first thing you are handed before entering the front door of the tannery is a handful of fresh mint.

After that there was some discussion in Arabic between our guide in Fez and the guide for the tannery. Then some French is discussed between my wife, our guide and the tannery guide. Once it’s known that I’m the only one that doesn’t speak French there is some more back forth in Arabic and French. After a bit, my American-ness shows itself as I blurt out “Ça Va?” Trying to get an idea of what’s going on. With that the tannery guide just looks at me, laughs and starts speaking almost perfect English but with a bit of southern drawl. He looks a bit like a cross between Walt Disney and Kevin Spacey.

He leads us up four floors of their leather shop where they have almost every sort of leather good you could want. Each level with its own expertise. When we get to the top floor, it is wide open on one side which opens up to the Chouara Tannery. You then quickly put that fresh mint to use by holding it right up to your nose.

The smell that hits you is just as strong as the sight of all the clay and brick pots filled with mysterious liquids and animal skins. Unpleasant is an understatement. I can only compare it to being next to where a fast food company stores their waste grease; after multiple hot days. We were lucky because the wind was blowing the smells away from us, but when that wind stopped, it hit you full force. The mint leaves helped, but it can only do so much.

The many pots are filled with dyes made from natural ingredients, but it’s far from safe. And men spend all day working the skins over and over. Moving them from one pot to another.

The white pots are where the skins are first placed to soften them up. Those are filled with water lye and pigeon poop. And where do they get the pigeon poop? From the people living in the Medina. They pay roughly a euro for kilo of poop collected.

When we were done taking everything in we looked over the many leather goods. I was interested in a leather jacket and had the most uncomfortable time bargaining with our guide to get a good price on it. But we agreed on a price and I got a nice camel belly black leather jacket.

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Listen/purchase: Go Luigi (Full Version) by Jarrett Sleeper

As the kids say: Shits fire yo

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East Fork Lewis River.

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My original plan for the day was to go to a shooting range. I dont even own A gun, but its possible to rent a gun at the range to shoot. Though its not possible to go to a range (this range at least) by yourself and rent a gun to shoot. Insurance reasons apparently.

Instead I went to downtown Portland with my new-to-me Fuji X-E3 with a 27mm 2.8 lens and walked around for about 2 hours taking photos and figuring out the quirks of this camera. I'm a lifelong Nikon user when shooting digital, so there is a learning curve for sure. Still shooting but in a different way.

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Uploading photos of my fixie project to my Tumblr. What fucking year is it?!

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Helmet Required

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Oía Santorini.

Influencer central. Woof

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Sweet rides of Santorini

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So...

Is thing on?

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The Palace of Fine Arts is a beauty all dressed up on Flickr.