Texas in 2011 Part II

Haircuts

 Life Changes

Love

Friends... short and tall.

in-laws and sunsets

Cute guys.

Bar-B-Q. The real kind.

Gulf inlets.

A second set of parents

The beginning of the meat brigade at the party. 

A golf cart seat on top of a four wheeler. Love, Texas. 

My mister's hair was being beautified. 

A father in law and my mister. 

Mama in law with us at the airport. 

And, of course Moonshine.

I play favorites

Remember how I have 5 cameras now?

Well, I definitely have a favorite.

Now, to be fair, there are two cameras out of the running. One I can't play with because we can't figure out why it won't turn on. And the other, my Diana, I haven't had 120 film to play with.

But that aside, my favorite camera is the Pentax.

I love it because:

  It is heavy.

    It has 3 lenses.

      It helps me to create amazing pictures.

        I get amazing compliments on it.

          It takes film.

            It makes me think about the pictures I'm taking.

I love this sucker. And tonight, I found this and this.

I can't wait to take this camera with me to Texas (next week!) and show you what I get from it. 

Now, I just need to buy a scanner....

Hair.... Surprise?

The quintessential bathroom mirror shot. My first ever. 

But that's not what this is about. 

It's about the fact that this is the longest my hair has been in... over 5 years. The mister remarked the other day that he had no recollection of my hair this long. And we've known each other for five years.

But, tomorrow, I'm doing something drastic to it. 

And it's probably not what you think it is. 

Happy Thursday night, my dear friends!

My life in photos, recently

 Not in any particular order:

Ha Ha Tonka

Midlife Crisis Party, after drinks. 

The mister digging. 

Awesome confirmands. 

The mister and his helmet. 

Blowing bubbles on Easter. 

Tulips. 

The grass that popped up has a shadow! And the mister has clean boots. 

Celebrating Alysondra's successful dissertation proposal with wine, carbs, and a gorgeous ring. 

A friend jamming out on the drums. At his show. 

and, finally,

Arts & Crafts time when there were no kids at Sunday School.

What have you been up to?

SLR's and a Diana

Remember that Diana Kit I received as a Christmas gift?

Well, I haven't shared any more film photos because I'm slightly embarrassed. Basically the story is this. My next two rolls of Diana's were ruined via light pollution. Well, that's not totally true. I got 3 photos out of 24. So, I put the Diana away for a while because she was so mean to me.

And then, when we went down to Texas for the wedding my parents gave me my grandmother's SLRs, and my friend (who was getting married!) gave me hers as well. And they are film to boot. They are all beautiful. 

And oh boy did I use film taking pictures. And then I took said film to be developed.

Only to find out that I had loaded it all incorrectly. And I had no photos.

I know. Insert sheepish grin here. The gentlemen who owns The Photo Shoppe, where I get my film developed very kindly showed me how to appropriately load my film and then, even more kindly, didn't charge me for the "negatives" because they, "don't like to rub salt in wounds."

Did I mention I will have everything developed there for as long as I can?

Needless to say, after ruining 4 rolls of film, I was a little dejected, and the lovely cameras hung out in their respective bags with their respective lenses.

At some point, though, I decided "screw it" and took more photos. Here's some of them:

He likes to pretend he's tough...

Okay, so, I didn't take this one, but I like it.

From the Egg Dying party. I'm not sure why there is a shadow, but whatever. It turned out.

And, of course, Texas! A Diana photo from the wedding trip.

So, film. I really love it.

I love that I have no idea how the heck things are going to turn out.

I love that people aren't posed perfectly and you don't really take a photo more then once. I mean, you might, but I'm defintely not taking 124 photos at one time. 

And, I figure that I will get better as I do more.

Right? 

Photo Contests and My Life List

I just entered four of my photos into a photo contest. 

I can't believe it.

Even if I don't win anything, I'm really happy to cross this off my life list. Because, I did it. I submitted some of my photos in a contest.

And, as I become a better photographer, I think I will do it again. We'll see.

Light Painting

I'm getting into photography. Part of that comes from the better camera I got back in November. Part of it comes from the Diana that I got for Christmas. The other third is my desire to not only learn about Counseling techniques and to have a life. 

I enrolled in a continuing ed photography class, and so far it was been the most incredible thing that I've done in a while. I've learned so so so much about photography and cameras... it's been incredible. And, my photos are getting better to boot. 

Anyway, some of the things which I've learned is that for a camera, you just need a light tight box, a shutter, an aperture, and something to collect the light. That's it. That's all that's needed for a camera. Now, lenses and shutter speeds... all of that is important depending upon the kind of photo you want, but the basics? That's all you need. 

And that's all that pinhole cameras are. A light tight box, something to catch the light (film), a shutter (what let's light in) and the aperture (the pin hole). And you can get some amazing photos using a pin hole. 

For example, the one above. That's a pin hole camera made from an empty soda can with a 0.25mm aperture and a single sheet of photographic paper. The shutter was left open for 6 months... 6 months! From the winter solstice to the summer. See the streaks? That's the sun going across the sky. 

Photography doesn't have to be scary or hard and you don't need a $1,000+ camera... you just need to be able to paint with light. 

Photographers Website

Found at: HouseHold Name

Film Love

For Christmas, my in-laws bought me a Diana F+ Kit. That means that I got the camera and everything that you could think of with it. 

 

Do you know how pretty this is? 

Well, within the first week of having it, I took two rolls of films: A 35mm roll and a 120 roll.

I dropped them off about two weeks ago and picked them up last night. 

Out of 39 photos, about 24 turned out (e.g., they weren't over exposed!). From those 24, I really liked 9 of them but scanned 15.

And now, because I can, I'm gonna show you a couple... or six.

 This was a double exposure. You can see the husband in two places; can you find him?

 This one is my absolute favorite out of the whole batch. 

 With the pinhole and cable release.

Happy Friday (night!), dear internets. I hope everyone has an incredible weekend.

A few of my favorite things...

Winter Edition

 My red mittens with a button so my fingers can be free. 

 My black sweater which allows me to see the actual shape of snowflakes.

My very first scarf wrapped around my neck and a comfy pair of jeans. 

What are some of your favorite things?

Sick Days and Snow Days

Sick days and snow days don't overlap, or so a friend told the husband in response to my illness yesterday.

Remember that snow? Well, it turned into 5ish inches between Sunday afternoon and Monday afternoon.

 

Pretty cool huh? Today, it's just cold. Really cold. Like -14 with windchill cold.

Sadly, I was very, very sick yesterday, which was not what I had planned for my snow day. Hopefully, though, the illness has passed and I am venturing out into the country and taking photos, because there are some amazing shots to be had when it comes to snow.

For now, enjoy some of these from Sunday, and I will be back soon.

This one might just be my favorite.