Always Chasing Rainbows
![Always Chasing Rainbows](/content/images/size/w2000/2019/09/142359020037.jpg)
Years ago, a sighting of even just one rainbow flag or sticker around and about the neighborhood would hearten me, as they'd typically been quite rare.
These days, however, I find my spirit and sense of support bolstered by the number of HRC and rainbow stickers on vehicles on the blocks in my general vicinity. Nonetheless, prominent and/or year-round displays are still fairly uncommon. Thus, I try not to take them for granted.
During 2019's Pride season, there were some fantastic displays, most of which were fleeting. On my block, for example, there was a pair of rainbow flags flying prominently from a condo building. Though that display was fairly short-lived, it was beautiful if one caught sight of it.
And on a prime block of Colley Avenue, Naro Cinema knocked it out of the park with a rainbow flag that flew for a considerable while and a fleeting marquee post that referenced the 50th anniversary of Stonewall.
![](https://www.kileypike.com/content/images/2019/09/142359010003-1.jpg)
![](https://www.kileypike.com/content/images/2019/09/142359010005.jpg)
![](https://www.kileypike.com/content/images/2019/09/142359010008.jpg)
Naro Video also mounted a truly lovely display, with a rainbow flag posted behind the vivid and iconic neon sign that so colorfully identified that fantastic repository of culture, which has since – I'm sad to say – closed after 30 years in operation. Taken together, though, Naro Cinema and Naro Video's displays were striking at night, and if there was a single motivation for me to photograph neighborhood rainbow flags on film, it was indeed that.
![](https://www.kileypike.com/content/images/2019/09/142359020037-1.jpg)
![](https://www.kileypike.com/content/images/2019/09/142359020036.jpg)
So, what you see in this post are images of various rainbow flags around and about the neighborhood, captured on Kodak Portra 400 film – which, at the time I made these photographs, I'd never had any developed and scanned. In addition to that uncertainty, some of these images were captured with an Olympus OM-2N from which I'd never had any film developed. The others were from a Nikon F100 and zoom lens with which I had previously achieved pleasing results. Nonetheless, I had some unexpected results from even what I deemed a tried and true Nikon camera and lens combo, and experienced some issues with the Olympus as well (light leaks, I think, which surprised me, since I'd changed the seals on it; perhaps my efforts were not up to snuff).
![](https://www.kileypike.com/content/images/2019/09/142359020032.jpg)
Given some of those unexpected results using film cameras, I've lately been rephotographing, using digital gear, some of the sights that still remain; we really are fortunate to have some very nice and rather prominent rainbow flag displays around the neighborhood even now, as we move swiftly toward October.
![](https://www.kileypike.com/content/images/2019/09/142359010035.jpg)
![](https://www.kileypike.com/content/images/2019/09/142359010024.jpg)
![](https://www.kileypike.com/content/images/2019/09/142359010031.jpg)
![](https://www.kileypike.com/content/images/2019/09/142359010037-1.jpg)
![](https://www.kileypike.com/content/images/2019/09/142359010029.jpg)
Note: Across Colley Avenue from the Naro, Ghent Antiques flew a lovely flag during the Pride season, though it was posted only during business hours and I never did get a good shot of it.