Tag: film

Almost Time to Go

I haven’t been to every city on Earth. Not even close. I love San Diego, CA. I love New York, NY (except for the fucking Yankees). I love a whole bunch of other cities as well, but if I had to pick just one as my favorite… just one city to spend the rest of my days… it would be Boston, MA. My home. Sort of. I grew up about 20 minutes north of Boston and today I live about 30 minutes north of Boston. Close enough. Boston is home. Boston is my favorite city.

For the next few nights we are going to be staying in Boston for my wife’s company event thing. She’s going to be there for the whole time while I am still going to go to work as usual. I’ll just be hanging out waiting for her work events to end each day. I could stay at home while she stays at the hotel, sure, but that would mean we would be separated for a few days and frankly I’d rather stick a railroad spike through my eye than chose to spend a few days apart from my love. Call me sentimental.

Anyway, she’s wrapping up her work day. We both have a bag packed. Yeah, I’ll be home for the work day tomorrow, but I am still bringing cameras. I expect to do some wandering around while she’s at after-hours events. I don’t know if I will have time to shoot any film, but night shooting digital is definitely a possibility. Hopefully I’ll have enough sunlight to FINALLY run a test roll through my new, ebay, Lubitel. Once that is done I can send off a whole pile of film for developing. Disney World and New York photos will be included. It’s a must, really.

Here’s hoping it’s a nice hotel room. If we’re going to be stuck there for a few days it would be helpful if it were comfy with a nice view. It’s close to Boston Common, but not close enough to see it. At least I don’t think so. I’ll probably post a few thousand pictures over the next few days. You know, like I do.

Animals

I redefined the word nerd. We went on the safari ride thing at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I had my digital camera and my dad’s film camera and I alternated between the two like a dweeb. One animal on film, the next on digital, wash, rinse, repeat.

Neither camera had a zoom lens. All of the pics are going to need serious cropping. Also, the ride was bumpy so guaranteed none of the film shots will come out at all.

WHEEEEE!!!

David Lynch

Frankly I am embarrassed to write this post.

With the possible exception of Dune, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any David Lynch work. Blue Velvet… Eraserhead… Twin Peaks… Nothing. I’m not even sure if I’ve seen Dune or not. I know I’ve seen bits and pieces, but did I ever actually sit down and watch the flick? I might have. I’m probably 66.67% sure that I have, but that’s not 100%, you know?

This is a guy who, purely by reputation, I should be very much familiar with. I mean… Eraserhead, right? How can I not have ever seen Eraserhead? Also, Twin Peaks? Eraserhead was before my time but Twin Peaks came out while I was in my first, first year of college and everyone on Earth was watching it. I mean… I was in music school for crying out loud, how did I not watch Twin Peaks?

Now David Lynch has passed away. It’s too late for me to do anything more than catch up in his memory. Somehow that seems very shitty of me.

As always when a celebrity dies, I have written a post about them that was really all about me. I am a selfish asshole that way.

Rest in Peace, David Lynch.

Another Resolution

The Frugal Film Project.

One roll of film per month using a cheap camera and cheap film.

I’ll use my new cheap Soviet medium format camera. I think you’re supposed to use the same film each month but I’ll bend that rule because I don’t want to use black and white all year and the roll in the camera right now is black and white and also I want to feel like a rebel.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Also the link is to an out of date website. It was replaced by a facebook group and I don’t like linking to facebook. You understand, I’m sure.

Camera for a Day

One day in Manhattan. Maybe better described as most of one day in Manhattan.

That’s the plan. Drive to someplace in Connecticut that has rail access to NYC. Stay overnight. Take a train into the city tomorrow morning, early. Stay for most of the day. Sometime in the late afternoon or early evening, take a train back to where we started and then drive home.

That leaves two questions. First, what do we do while we’re there. Second, which cameras do I bring?

To answer the first question, we’ll probably just go where the xmas decorations take us. This trip is an attempt at forcing some holiday spirit onto our grinchy, scroogy selves. To answer the second question… I am not sold on anything yet except that I will not be bringing my new medium format camera. I need to run a roll through it to make sure it works before I bring it anywhere of consequence. I just have to get off my ass and do it. So it’s down to the digital Nikon Z5, and the 35mm Pentax K1000, and Nikon FG-20. Both of the film cameras have partially shot rolls. The K1000 is down to the last handful of shits on a roll of Kentmere 400, which is Black and White, and the FG-20 has most of a roll of Kodak ColorPlus 200.

I think I want to bring the K1000 (my father’s camera) and a couple of rolls of color film. I have a handful of ColorPlus that I could bring. I would only bring one or two. I don’t want to spend all of my time fudging with film. At least… assuming I bring the digital camera too. My thought though… do I want to even bring the digital camera? I mean, I do. I want to bring it literally everywhere I go. On this occasion though? There’s a little part of me that is considering going film-only this time.

I don’t know… I am thinking about it.

Black and White Photo a Day

I decided to make today’s pointless photo a day photo black and white. Why? Because my new 40ish year old eBay camera purchase is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, and the first roll of film I bought to test drive it with is also going to be delivered tomorrow and it’s black and white film.

See how everything ties together? I hope the camera works. I hope I don’t screw up my first roll of 120 film. I hope I don’t find that I hate using a TLR camera. I hope I have a chance to shoot the roll (the camera shoots 120 film in square format which I think means I only get 12 shots per roll. We’re going to need to make these suckers count!) soon so that I can send it out to get it developed and see if the camera actually works. I didn’t pay much for it so if it doesn’t work I will be pissed off but I won’t be pissed off, if you dig where I’m coming from.

Anyway, here is today’s pointlessly black and white pointless photo a day pic.

72/365

Toy Cameras

I really want to try medium format film, but I don’t have a medium format camera and I really don’t want to spend any noteworthy amount of money on one.

Should I get a Holga (a cheap plastic toy camera that just happens to shoot medium format film) just to dip my toes into the water, so to speak? Will that turn me off of the whole thing, or will it send me spiraling down a rabbit hole that my bank account and I will never recover from?

Why can’t I just make a decision?

On an unrelated note, our drive to Vermont to see the kids tomorrow has been postponed for one day. That should not make me sad (we’ll see them Sunday instead of Saturday) but it really makes me sad. I think I might be overtired. Everything is getting to me right now. Go take a nap, Robert.

Post Office

I made it to the Post Office this morning before work. My five rolls of film that are ready to develop are on their way West, heading to the lab. I won’t start feeling all giddy and excited until I get a notification saying the package has arrived. Then I’ll start refreshing my order status all day long, waiting for word that the scans are done.

Nerd boy over here is about to get nerdy.

Here’s the clock from downtown. Heading South toward the post office:

And here’s the clock again, this time heading North toward home:

Finally, today’s photo a day photo submission is this view from behind the post office parking lot. Somewhere I have pictures of this gazebo that aren’t through the trees from a nearby parking lot. Maybe I’ll dig one out and share it. Later.

38/365