Squirrels Go Like This

What could possibly go wrong?

Earlier, I talked about how I got my Kodak Vigilant Six-20 and what it takes to get a roll of 120 film to fit inside of it. I also linked to the first (and so far only) set of photos I’ve taken with it on Flickr. What I didn’t mention was the other steps I took to get the camera ready, and the minor problems it had when taking pictures. (For example, the light leaks in the photo at left.) So, that’s what I’m going to talk about here today… Read the rest of this entry »

Fitting 120 in a space made for 620

The other week, before filming an episode of Fork You, Marisa gave me a neat old medium format “folder” camera from her family’s collection, a Kodak Vigilant Six-20. I was, and continue to be, thrilled with this fun little gift.

So… Why would Marisa give me one of these, and what’s it like trying to get a camera that’s over sixty years old to take photographs? Read on, dear anonymous Internet viewer… Read the rest of this entry »

Busy, busy, busy!

You probably couldn’t help but notice that there hasn’t been much new going on here recently. That’s because we’ve been unbelievably busy in recent months! What, with trips to Mexico, Fork You! filming in various places with Scotty and Marisa, weddings, gardening at our community garden plot, and new cameras, who’s had time for messing around with a blog?

Well anyway, we’re going to try to put some new content up here, soon. All that activity means there’s been plenty of things going on to think about and share with you… Assuming anyone is still following this blog, of course!

LOVE: A thank you (long post!)

Windi and I go way back; all the way to the time when I didn’t talk much. Nope, not when we were babies…college. I had been in the country for a little less than 3 years when I met her and I was -still- extremely shy when speaking English, so I chose to use it only when needed.

About a decade has passed since we met. We didn’t really hang out much until we became part of the Multicultural Student Network where I also met Clarke.

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Ahh, the Internet is an interesting place.

I was looking through my stats on Flickr to see what’s going on with my photos. I was surprised to see some references to Double Bass message boards linking to my Flickr pictures. Hmmm…

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Polarizing results

Ahh, filters. Apparently, it’s a slightly controversial topic among photographers (touched on somewhat in this thread). The con side seems to view them as gimmicky and something that gets in the way of capturing an image. Essentially, more junk for hobbyists to buy and distract them. The pro side views them as a tool for creating the image they are looking to get; that they can add some artistry or interest to some otherwise flat shots.

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Old school fun

In addition to our Canon Rebel XTi, we’ve got an old school Pentax K1000 35mm SLR camera. This is THE classic student film camera: a basic, fully manual 35mm SLR with basic controls that does what you tell it to; nothing more and nothing less. It was manufactured basically unchanged from 1975 through 1997– over twenty years! Production changes over the years amounted to substituting metal parts for plastic and moving manufacturing from Japan to Hong Kong; to elsewhere in China. Our copy is an earlier one. It’s difficult to pinpoint an exact year, but it was made before 1980. Read the rest of this entry »

All kinds of fun

Today was a cool day. I managed to hit an incredible combination of my favorite subjects. Craftyangie needed to buy some clothes at the Macys in the former Wanamaker building in Center City, so we grabbed our cameras and went on a little excursion…

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Ciclos*

Ciclos: Cycles in Spanish.

That’s what having a garden is like. Cycles of beautiful lush gardens, flowers and outdoors; cycles of harvesting the produce you’ve raised from seed and cycles of cold that are enjoyed indoors, baking cookies and getting ready for the next year.

Well, the newest cycle has begun. Our windowsills are being taken over by seedlings…and I can’t wait for it to get slightly warmer out!

*for some reason the word cycles doesn’t really have even half of the impact that ciclos has in me. Must have been a childhood full of those seasonal trucks coming down the dirt streets in Mexico with the guy in the back screaming “tomateeees” (tomatoes) or “sandiaaaa“(watermelon) that made me race to my parent’s side screaming “the -insert fruit name here- man is here!” while thinking of the treats that would be eaten later that day. Or it might just be a psychological, mother-tongue, sort of thing…like when I swear…

Spring is here!

Well, not really, but this household has been taken over garden planning. This will be our third year at The Spring Gardens and I can’t wait!

Last week I ordered from Amazon the book You Grow Girl! by Gayla Trail. I’ve followed Gayla’s blog for over a year now, and her handy “Lazy Gardener’s Automatic Seed Starting Chart” came in handy last year…

Our first year at the garden I started the tomato seedlings too late. I grew up surrounded by fruit trees in warmer, closer to the equator weather, so I didn’t know much about this “plant by” and “frost free” dates. Our second year I was more organized and the tomato crop was plentiful that we were able to share. Read the rest of this entry »