Tag: film photography

That’s More Like It

I left the house at 5:00 and got home at 6:10. No issues* at all. There wasn’t a lot of sun either, but that’s okay for today’s purposes.

First stop was the little boat launch on Canobie Lake in Windham, right near the kids’ father’s house. I used to take pics with my phone there all the time when I was dropping the kids off. I was a little too early as the sun was up but it hadn’t topped the trees yet.

Second stop was the Methuen Rail Trail where it crosses The Mighty Spicket River. I spent some quality time with a family of Canadian geese. Fortunately they did not take offense to my arrival. The river was dead still but there was some groovy looking mist over it.

The next stop was Greycourt Park where I took WAY too many pictures of the courtyard ruins. Even though I was on top of a big hill, the sun still hadn’t really topped the trees yet so there isn’t much in the way of golden hour stuff.

The next stop was our tiny little downtown. There is one little stretch where three businesses in a row have signs hanging in front of their windows. I wanted that. From what seemed like the best vantage point I could only get two of the signs into the shot. The one I couldn’t see was the one I wanted the most, the used record store. I was a little distracted though because while I was standing there I found an entrance to the foot bridge over the Spicket Falls Dam! Holy Shit Snacks!

The water falling over the dam was loud, but there wasn’t a whole lot of it. I took a bunch of pictures anyway. I finally got a little sun as the canal that follows the dam goes by an old mill building (which is currently an apartment building) and I got a few shots of the sun hitting the building above the water. They probably suck, but I don’t care.

I ran out of film at that point so I walked back to the used record store and took one with my iPhone, just for luck, and then went home.

Stupid shadow

Now it’s time to unwind the camera while praying to the film canister gods that I don’t break anything. Wish me luck.

*The camera appears empty. It was a roll of 24 shots but the counter is at 21. Now I have clear memories of complaining about the counter not being accurate way back in the 1980’s so while I am pretty sure I shot the whole roll without issue, did I? Or did it crap out again with only three shots left? I choose to believe the roll is empty. Mostly because I know it is.

Fail City

What a waste

The sun came up at 5:10am today. I was out of the house at 5:05 and heading to Greycourt Park to see if I could take some first-hour-of-sunlight pics of the castle courtyard up on top of the big hill. I got there just after the sun came up and there were already people there. What the hell? No covid exposures for me. I didn’t even stop the car.

Next I headed for a public parking lot in our tiny little downtown. You know, the place with the clock that I post pictures of 100 times a day (be patient, there’s one coming)? It was full. Oh, come on. I could have parked in a business parking lot. There is exactly one of those. No, I was annoyed. I left.

I headed for Walnut Grove cemetery and it’s 1800’s family monuments. There was no one there, which is normal in my tiny bit of experience. I got out. Took a few pictures. That’s when it turned into the epic fail.

I had a roll of 24 exposures. I was on shot #12, I think. The camera wouldn’t wind. At first the mechanism felt stuck, and then it felt like there was nothing there. No resistance from the film moving along the track at all. Safe to assume the film is off the track again? How could that be? Everything was working fine? It was wrapped around the spool and everything was good?

To hell with it. I got back into the car and tried winding the film back into the canister. Yeah, I’ll waste half a roll, but maybe I can salvage a few pictures. Remember the first few were already burned when I fixed the roll the first time. Rolling back up was difficult though. Was it difficult the other day? I don’t remember. I feel like it was fighting me the whole time, but eventually it finished.

I am pretty pissed off. My first try at this and everything fucks up. I’ll try again, but I am not pleased with this situation at all.

I took one picture with my phone while I was driving around, just so I would have something for my photo a day thing on Flickr. Here it is. Blah fucking blah.

At least I was able to stop at the gas station and top off the Kia’s tank so Jen won’t have to worry about it when she drives to the office today. That’s me looking at the bright side and shit.

Not Ready for Monday

I am just not ready for this… Monday. Crud.

I’m on track today. I started work before starting breakfast, which I don’t like, but otherwise all is well. My day’s exercise is done, the laundry is running and the bed is made and things are looking good. I just want another day for the weekend, that’s all.

I only got four hours of sleep Saturday night, thanks to the sunrise chasing. Last night I got seven hours but the numbers were as good as I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if that’s enough though because I am pretty seriously sleepy right now.

I stayed up later than I should have last night because I was being a camera nerd. Well… a camera researching nerd. Is that a thing? I was on youtube watching videos of common film photography mistakes, and tips and tricks for film photography beginners, and videos of people taking their Pentax K1000 on street photography photo walks around various places. I’ve done that a couple of times in Boston and New York. Well… usually I was doing something else and just took my camera with me and pretended I was on a photo walk.

I want to do it again with Dad’s camera now. Like… lets do it now! I need to get some fast film so I can do it at night too (assuming I don’t screw up loading the film again). I want to start at the old Tower Records location and just walk down Newbury Street to the Common, and then walk through the theater district, and then go back up to the building formerly known as the Hancock building and the church next door, and then go to the North End and go through the farmers market, and then, and then, and then. Man, I friggin’ love Boston. Screw Covid for keeping us away.

Oh, and then we need to go to New York, and then we need to go back up to the mountains and find waterfalls. All of it.

Also, if I don’t play my guitar soon I am going to die. Just saying. Thursday is the day I have pegged for trying to trade in my Strat. If they give me cash I will use that cash for the upgrades to the two 1970’s Gibsons.

Okay. Time to take on Monday. Mondays suck. I wanna go to Boston and wander around instead. Unless it starts raining… and it’s supposed to rain. Crud.