Way Too Early

There’s white stuff.  Coming from the sky.  And it’s not even Halloween yet.  One word: Boo!

Fun with Film: Example I

The roll of film didn’t advance all the way, leaving me with half of the film with a double exposure.  I think I have another one of these coming up in the roll that’s being developed.

My Hair is Purple(-ish). Again.

Because I can. And it makes me happy.

And it will be purple again in the future.  This is the third time I’ve used this bottle of dye and I still have plenty left.  That’s awesomely short hair for you.

Reasons to Not Drink

Hangovers aren’t a huge deterrent because they magically disappear after a day and you forget quickly how crappy you felt.

But it turns out sometimes that I drink too much and share secrets.  And this is a problem.  I don’t like talking about things that I had never intended to tell people.

Perhaps more disturbing is knowing that something is still bothering me over two years later….

I’m going to pretend I never shared anything that night and hope the people I was out with do the same.  And I’m going to think hard about how much I drink next time.

Frustrations and Fun with Film

Thanks to Betsy and her mom, I’ve had a very nice film SLR to play with for the last year and a half, a Minolta X700. I’ve used the camera since that time but I’ve taken many more photos in the last few months, both because my digital camera died and because I’ve had adventures which justified dragging the camera along with me.

As I use the camera more and more I find myself both liking and disliking certain aspects, be it the control of the camera, the properties of film, the delay in processing, etc. Sometimes I can feel both appreciate and despise one of those aspects at the same time because I’m awesome about contradictions like that.

Camera Control: One of the things I like about my camera is that it’s a very nice camera and it lets me control things such as the f-number, exposure time and focus. However, this is also one of the biggest issues I have as it turns out I’m not a good photographer. I often get the wrong f-number/exposure time combination so that my pictures come out either under- or over-exposed. I have learned to start trusting the light meter the camera has on this issue more, though. And then of course there’s the fact that I don’t always focus the camera properly. I choose to blame that one on my naturally poor vision mostly. That is one useful skill I’ve developed actually – I’m pretty good at coming up with excuses for my sad photographs. I might start posting some examples, along with their excuses. It’ll be lots of fun!

Of course, I would be having the same issues with a digital camera that gave me as much control. The only differences are that I would know immediately, allowing me to retake the photo if I wanted, and I wouldn’t have to pay for developing bad pictures. These two differences lead into some of the other points of using film I’ve been running into

Delayed Development: I often end up finally developing pictures more than a month after I first took them as it takes me a while to finish a roll of film, plus there’s at least a week turn-around in dropping my film off and having it ready to be picked up. I actually like the suspense of waiting to get my pictures back and it’s fun to see my photos a month or two after an adventure and remember it all over again. Sometimes I end up disappointed though when I realize the photos I had been waiting to see didn’t come out and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Film: There are, of course, the joys and pains of film itself. There is of course the cost – paying for the film and development (I’m definitely not at the point where I want to learn to develop my own film). And then there’s the hassle – loading, rewinding, messing said things up and ruining pictures. And sometimes the film has defects – inherent or caused by bad loading/unloading, I’m not sure. But I choose to blame the film and not myself. Despite all of that there is something much more real and solid about using film. I like the idea of having negatives rather than digital files; I’ve always been a fan of physical information. And the shutter time is much, much better. There’s also the fact that I’m around CCDs enough for astronomy that it’s nice to escape them sometimes. One thing that bothers me is knowing that the resolution of my digital images is limited by the scanner and is not the inherent resolution of the film. It seems unfair somehow.

In the end, I’ll keep using my film camera and hope that places continue to develop film. I’ve been nervous ever since the grocery store near me closed their photoprocessing center. Hopefully the drugstore will keep accepting my film. I do think I want a new digital camera, though. Nothing fancy, just something smallish (but with a real viewfinder!) that I can happily throw in my purse or backpack and use for all those times when I’m not willing to carry the nice camera or don’t think the shots are good enough to justify using film.

Fall Climbing

There’s something wonderful about climbing in the fall.  Some combination of the vibrant colors, gorgeous weather during the day and the knowledge that it’s likely to be the last weekend warm enough to climb.  I spent Sunday climbing at Peter’s Kill and it was perfect fall climbing.  And given the current weather in Ithaca, it most likely is the very last time I’ll be on rock this year (but ice is coming!).  That leaves me with another sad seaon gone by where I barely climbed outside at all.  I swear next summer will be better, a sentiment I have yearly, but next year there won’t be any pesky Q exams to study for, so I might manage to keep the promise to myself this time.

A little bit of a trip summary below

Back From L.A.

And eventually I’ll even be back to work. But for now I’m getting caught up on my internet procrastination and dealing with classes.  The trip to LA was much fun, even if it was rather cold, at least in my opinion.  And given that it was warmer in Ithaca (during the day), I think that it was a somewhat valid opinion.  I may have complained overly much about the weather, though, I’ll admit.  It was a good trip, and I’ll have pictures at some point in time, although they’ll be trickling in over several weeks as they’re split over two rolls of film – one of which has been dropped off for processing and the other which I just finished up with some fall pictures of Ithaca.  For now, you can find some details of the trip below the page break.

A Life Again

I passed my oral Q exam on Monday which means I’m starting to get a life back again. I’m still busy, of course, but I now have time for fun things too. Most importantly, I’m leaving this weekend to go visit Betsy in L.A.! We’ll go to the beach and and have much fun and gossip much. I am a little sad that I’m missing what should be a beautiful fall weekend in Ithaca, but I’m hoping that next weekend will still be nice enough for a fun trip. And, I’m super excited about going to the beach; I don’t get nearly enough sunshine in Ithaca. Of course, that’s only partly due to the natural grayness of Ithaca; a lot is self-inflicted thanks to the windowless office.

Wasted Days

It’s a beautiful crisp fall day. The sort of weather where I want to be climbing, or hiking, or apple picking or something outside. Instead, I’m inside doing crazy last minute preparation for my oral Q exam on Monday. Which leaves me wondering why the beautiful days are always wasted on the weekdays or weekends where I have commitments. How is it that it always manages to rain and be gross on my free weekends? Why does the weather mock me by being so beautiful when I’m so busy? Grrr…..

Ignoring the Real World

The economy? Sad. And a topic I don’t really want to discuss. (Denial works – really!)

PhD comics? Hilarious.