Thanksgiving 2013

This week I have been feeling as if the world has been spinning without me. I started getting sick on Saturday and I've been in this hazy head-cold world since then. I really wanted to develop a new roll of film, but I just have not had the stamina!

 These photos were all taken on 11/28/13, before and after dinner. And that photo of Gracie is the first I have taken of her where she is posing in front of a tripod, and following my command to stay!

 This week I'm looking forward to getting back on my feet photo-wise, working on holiday gifts and finishing Jane Eyre! (So good.)

Darkroom Adventures: Scanning!

I finally set up my scanner so that I can properly document my darkroom adventures. Here is the roll of film that I developed earlier this week, I was worried that it wasn't going to come out. I didn't have quite enough fixer and I had to do math to figure out the correct ratio... ANYWAY, they came out and I'm happy. I still need to buy more chemicals in order to develop more. I'm really happy with the scanned contact sheet. It's not beautiful because the glass I use is full of scratches, but hey, what's a poor girl to do? I printed images 21 and 22, the first few rows are over exposed, but most are workable, not sure if I'm going to print anymore from this roll, what do you think?

 I finished another roll yesterday, and I'll buy more chemicals as soon as I get paid on friday! I talk and think about payday way too much :)

Goals

Do you ever feel like you never complete anything? That's how I've been feeling lately. I feel like I have so many things started and not enough time or money or PATIENCE to get anything finished! Patience being key here, in this age of technology I have been feeling my patience grow thinner and thinner in all aspects of my life.

So here are some new goals to work on:

-work on patience

-finish website update

-make more effort to keep in touch

-meditate regularly

I'm not setting a time for when I want to have these goals accomplished by because they are more of a lifestyle change in general, well except for the website update, that happens this weekend!!!


And because I cannot post without photos, here are some I took yesterday after our first "snow" of the season.  I use quotes because it was just a dusting.


Well I'm off to get dressed, hope everyone has a lovely day, whether it's cold or not!

Snapshots: Camping at American Legion State Forest

Last week Jan and I went camping for the first time together.  It was great.  Getting away from all of the regular stressors was amazing and so relaxing.  Sleeping where I didn't have a streetlight shining in my window was the best!  Here are a few shots from the trip:

Gracie likes to make sure that I'm always safe, I had to tell her to stay at the campsite so she wouldn't follow me to the car.

our campfire looking very majestic 

Gracie's silhouette in front of the fire 

Gracie's back

campfire self portrait
The last few are long exposures that I took on my Canon s90, I used a high ISO and 15 second shutter speed to capture the little light that was being thrown by the fire.

I cannot stress how much I want to go camping again! We had so much fun.  On our hike (I didn't bring a camera) I saw a porcupine climbing a tree!!! It was amazing. 

My only regret is that I did not take a film camera with me.  By next time I will have acquired a cheap 35mm point and shoot that I will not be afraid to take hiking.  I also wanted a break from taking photos, in a way it's tiring, thinking of how I need to have my camera ready all the time.  On this trip I tried to focus on the experience, not how I would remember it.  

Snapshots: Barbara's Garden in August

Some lovely flowers from Barbara's garden in late August.  I'm sad the summer is almost gone and I did not get enough time to help her garden.  That won't stop me from photographing the fruits of her labor.  And there's a token photo of Gracie to brighten your day!  I'm off to work soon, more posts soon about the recent darkroom developments and my camping trip :)