Wednesday Blues

My Favorite Four-Eyes

I figured I'd hit a couple of birds with one stone:

• Post pictures on my blog
• Participate in a relatively popular trend right now of portraits against textured backgrounds
• Display my penchant for Adam and the bottom left hand side of my pictures. I don't know why. It just appeals to my aesthetic, ok?
• And, make Adam hilariously mad at me for putting pictures of him all over my blog. Only jokingly mad of course... right?

 

This one's actually digital with a couple of filters... I know, cheating, right?

Chemical Magic

World,

Are you ready?

It sounds a little crazy but... the high have of my day, my week, my month, hell maybe even my year has been tonight.

Tonight for the first time I printed the pictures I processed.

It's an indescribable feeling to see your images, your vision, your work and your effort come into fruition with a few shakes of a canister, some sizing adjustments, and a couple agitations.

This is my contact sheet from my first roll processed. Take note of the light leaks that start about mid-way. I don't QUITE know what it was, but I have a strong feeling it was because while winding I sort of broke the camera winder. I hope that's all it was (I've fixed it since then). I have to develop another roll to be sure and/or determine if I just have a broken camera. I'll consider it a happy accident for now given that no awesome pictures were ruined.

And now....

Are you ready for it?

I couldn't even contain myself during class. Laughing at my dog over and over everytime I looked at it.

World, welcome my very first completely processed and printed picture by me: Sydney

I am absolutely breathless with anticipation for the possibilities of what can be created. For the magic.

Gone for the Weekend

Don't expect any posts this weekend (not like I have any actual readers yet).

I'm going CAMPING!

So, expect an overflow of pictures next week as I learn how to make my own prints, process a LOT more film, and recuperate after my nature-y weekend.

Hope everyone has a good one!

At the Reina, Spain 2010

Tunnel Vision

Mid-Week Escape

I always feel my energy and emotional stamina flagging in the middle of the week. Work is wearing on me, my hope is wearing thin.

I could use a pick-me-up right about now.

All Aflash and Aglow and Full of Wonder -- Spinning

(Diana, Barcelona, Spain)

This morning, on a complete high from last night's film processing excitement, all I could think about was film, film, film. I felt like I was... happy. Strange, I know. I felt like throwing a parade. And everyone who knows me knows that there is little more that I love more than a parade.

Work brought crashing back down to earth just a little though.

But I refuse to let it bring me down too much.

Future photography plans:

• Take as many photographs today and tomorrow as possible.
• Get some practice processing Wednesday or Thursday
• Take even more pictures over the weekend! (Camping!)
• Try to fit in processing them on Monday before class.
• Finish my B&W I class

I'm currently debating whether I should take B&W II next, and further develop (ha ha, develop) this skill set before I move on, or if I should take Color I, where I know I'll ultimately head.

I am absolutely enthralled. Which is new for me. New, different, and such a good thing. A breath of fresh air.

Grappling in the Dark

Today I completely processed, on my own, my very first roll of film.

This is a big deal for me.

First off, I processed black &white 35mm.

I am overwhelmingly proud of myself and unquantifiably excited. It's like a whole new world has opened up!

I can't wait to shoot off just about  half a million pictures in the next month that I get full lab access.

Growing. That's what I'm doing. Learning.

The Opposite of Drowning

Happy Saturday

Zoo Aquarium De Madrid

Diana

Happy Friday

My first look at the Mediterranean Ocean.

As a girl whose lived beside the Pacific Ocean her whole life, being witness to another body of water is always, somehow, significant to me.

And with that, with sighs full of thoughts of daytrips, adventure, warm mediterranean beaches, cool night jazz bars, and escaping the grueling work week, I wish you all a Happy Friday.

El Parque Del Buen Retiro

I'm posting so many to make up for not posting yesterday.

I'm gonna have to start taking a lot more pictures soon to keep up with this thing.

And, I plan on getting a better, more awesome scanner eventually...

City Night Lights

The Clamores Jazz Bar.

By far, the coolest fucking thing I've ever done in a very serious sort of way.

(Diana print 4x5)

Vacation Blues

When we went to Spain we made a day trip to Segovia. This is the cathedral that we took about 9 million pictures of. Day trips somehow add a feeling of breathlessness, excitement, and freedom to pretty much anything.

This picture was a mixture of those feelings and the grand scale (and sometimes overbearingness) of the buildings that surrounded us. The humbling expanse of the detail and history and the rich culture around us.

(Taken with my Diana and then printed 4x5)

First Sundays

Every first sunday of the month you'll likely find us at the Alameda Antique Fair!

I thought you might have already gotten sick of seeing too many Diana Squares. These are from a couple of months ago that I never got to scan until this morning.

These are smaller instant pictures from my Fuji Instax Mini. I also have a Polaroid Land camera. I'll upload more of that camera later.

Metro

I find the Metro both ridiculously convenient, kind of awesome, and somehow romantic. Maybe it's because I'm american.

One day I'll have a more extensive series of old men.

There's just something endearing about finding what fits our definitions of the quintessential Old Man.

I've never really known many. Or encountered many. So to me, they're somewhat... intriguing.

Just look at it. How could the Metro not be romantic?

Reflection

Just got my Spain film developed! Get ready for Spain overload! I'll try to post with an editing eye.

In the Shadow of a Behemoth

I find photography a thousand times intimidating.

I see pictures of the most beautiful type of the most beautiful things so often, my breath is taken so often, I feel like I'll never see things as beautiful as that, I'll never be in places as beautiful as that, I'll never create anything as beautiful as that, let alone capturing any of that in pictures as beautiful as that.

In a world where everyone can have a camera and everyone can use the instant power of the digital to see the art around them, to find that creativity inside of them, it's terribly difficult to feel like one will ever belong, let alone stand out.

I'm terribly intimidated.

It feels like ground zero, while most people my age have already created at least a slightly sturdy foundation. I haven't even decided anything in my life let alone begun building.

I am constantly so astounded by the work of photographic artists that I am intimidated to even casually and as a hobby take pictures.

I try to tell myself that everyone has once been a beginner. And everyone must start somewhere. And better I start now, a little later, than start later, when it's even... later.

But tonight? Tonight will be the first day of the rest of my life. And the first real step into this journey.

I'm nervous, excited, a little scared, really intimidated, and I could probably throw up.

More on this later. Plus pictures.

Monterey

Monterey, CA

A really old picture from 0ct. 22nd, 2007, from my old (and first) fisheye.

The fisheye was actually my first foray into toy photography. 

Introductions

Oh, and in case you were wondering, this is me!

(as taken by Adam on my Diana)

Introductions

My Best Friends (and roomates):

Adam, my fiance

&

Penelope, my little disaster

(she's much bigger since this picture was taken)

Introductions

My Playground

Introductions

My Home

The Beginning

Highway 1, between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. Taken with my Diana.

Beginnings

I had really bad vision as a kid. Everyone in my family wore glasses so I might have even been half lying when I told them I had vision problems. I wanted glasses but I wasn’t quite convinced that I needed them. Almost decade after my first Mickey Mouse pair that I picked out (and my mom let me purchase even though it surpassed the vision plan allowance) that I lied about a month or two later, saying they were lost, and knowing full well that I hid them under my bed, I still refused to accept it. Maybe life was meant to be this blurry, this doubled and this strange. I was soft focused.


Just before the big Urban Outfitters and flickr / tumblr craze hit I found Toy Photography. And it felt like magic. It felt like it was the way all photography should be. Full of light, a little blurred – soft.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t call myself or consider myself a photographer. Not even just “an amateur photographer.” I’m not there yet. I’m not so big headed. I see that anyone with a couple hundred bucks and the internet can call their pictures art. I don’t want to be that. As much as I wish I were, I’m no artist. I’m a hobbyist, really. I’m not looking to become a professional blogger or barely even a professional photographer. I’m just sharing, really. Hobby sharing.

I’m 23, I’ve got a bachelor’s degree, and I work for my family in a pretty dead end job that I feel obligated to keep. It’s not a stretch to say that I’m lost. I’m floundering. Drowning.

So, this past New Year’s Eve I made a resolution:

I would find my calling. I would begin more hobbies than I’ve ever had. I would continue old hobbies that I’ve neglected. I would find the small thing that would ground me.

So this blog and this project is trying to delve a little deeper into this. Something that I love, something that makes my heart beat a little faster, something that will one day, maybe just one day, be the way my life was meant to be.

I'm going to try and have the following:

• Picture posts daily
• Camera reviews
• Picture adventure stories
• Camera purchase adventures
• Photography class entries
• and my general learning-growing experience.

Wish me luck!