Tag: photography projects

I Need a Film Photo Project

I used to do a New Years Day post where I took one photo from each month of the previous year and reshared them in one big post. I did that a bunch of times, but I can’t remember if I did one for 2022 in 2023. Did I drop the ball last year? I know I’ve been dropping it this year. I mean, today is January 8th and I haven’t done one yet.

Thinking about a post like that (even though I haven’t done it yet and am not sure if I will or not) has me thinking about things I can do for photography projects in 2024. The Photo a Day Challenge is alive and well, though very not-interesting at all. What about film? I haven’t taken a photograph on film since the weather started getting cold. What can I do as a project that is entirely film based?

Maybe instead of a photo a day on film (which I was thinking about doing this year but eventually decided against) I could do a film photo a month? I could plan one photo walk sort of thing for each month in 2024 and take a few film photos each time. Then when they are all developed and scanned I can lump the 12 monthly photos into one post here. Does that sound like something I could do? It does, if you don’t worry about what the monthly photo walk would be. Logistically it would be easy. Creatively… maybe not. 

We’ll see. It’s already over a week into January so we’re behind the 8-ball to start with. We are planning a visit to Vermont in early February. I could use that for that month. That doesn’t help me with January though. Boston is right down the road… maybe I could talk my wife into going for a walk in the city with me? That could be fun and creatively beneficial.

I don’t know if I want to charge myself with this. We’ll see. We’ll also see if I do a 2023 retrospective one-pic-per month thing. I might do that tonight. Again, we’ll see.

Three Hours to Go

Three hours left in the work week.

180 minutes.

10800 seconds.

It’s a long weekend for me too. The company I work for puts a cap on how much personal time you can accrue and as your bank builds up you have to take time off to stay below the cap. It’s not as bad as the Boston Bruins salary cap woes right now, but it will get there if I don’t use time regularly. Because of that, I took two days off next week. Monday and Tuesday. That all means that ol’ Robbie has himself a four day weekend coming up.

Sadly, Jen was not able to take the two days off too, so that means I am on my own for the second half of my super long weekend. That means there will be lots of personal creative project type stuff. I checked the weather at the ocean for the next few days and both Sunday and Monday are looking like good candidates for sunrise photos. At least one of those mornings will be Photography Day where I will grab some sunrise at the beach and then hit a few places on the way home. Film and Digital. Bank on it (weather permitting).

There will also be a lot of music. As much as I can stomach. I plan on making gigantic progress on the 50 songs in 90 days challenge. That includes guitar tracking, vocal tracking in the car (because I have a weird mental block that won’t let me sing when people can hear me unless I am playing guitar with a very loud band), and mixing songs as I finish recording them.

There will also be progress on the current Doctor Who series binge watches. I finished season one of the original show this morning, and I am almost done with season four of the current show. So very many more seasons of each show to go. Progress will be made. I fully expect to move from the 10th doctor to the 11th doctor in the new show but I expect to still be on the first doctor in the old show. Like I said… so much Who to watch.

I am also thinking that I will be back on the couch to 5k wagon next week. It’s been a couple of weeks since I stopped. I want to get back into it, even though I am very doubtful I will ever run that mythical 5k. It’s still a goal, I just don’t know if it’s an achievable goal for me.

I have two days off booked in August too. They are for a weekend trip to Maine for a wedding. Bellana will be joining us for that and I expect lots of photos from Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor. Again, film and digital. That include Cadillac Mountain, which is the first spot in the continental United States that sees the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean. It would require a SUPER early wake up to see, but I want very much to see it and photograph it. Now that I think of it, I should replace my broken tripod before we leave for that trip. The broken guy is good enough for this weekend, but for Cadillac Mountain? I’m going to need something that works. I’ll take care of it.

Okay, my late lunch break is over now. Time to get back to work and finish off this work week on a high note.

Cat Nap

192/365

The picture has nothing to do with the rest of the post. It’s just really cute when Lily sleeps. It’s also unusual to see her do anything other than chase Robin around and try to bite her head off.

I’m still feeling a little under the weather. The headache is lingering but it’s not too bad. I just feel sort of worn out after last night. These experiences take a lot out of me.

Jen is working on some hardware upgrades to her computer. Harry is asleep. I’m in the living room watching YouTube videos about camera gear. I can’t afford a good medium format film camera, but what about an ancient folding camera? That could be fun, right?

I’ve been thinking about camera gear over the last few days. Specifically, I have been thinking about Bellana’s graduation. We are not going to be able to sit close this time, unlike her high school graduation where they let the valedictorian’s family get right up to the front. Did I mention she was her high school class’ valedictorian? Anyway, I don’t have a zoom lens for my mirrorless camera. I should get one. I have a couple of zoom lenses for the film cameras. My Nikon has a 35-70 which would help a little, but it’s in pretty crappy shape. Dad has an 80-200 which would be really great, but it’s a pretty cheap, crappy lens so I’m a little afraid to put any faith in it. I am going to use it with the Pentax to Nikon adapter on the next roll of film I shoot on my Nikon to see how it goes. If it works okay and gives half decent results, then it will come to graduation for some film moments. Mostly I plan to go digital for the important things at graduation, so the question of a lens for the mirrorless camera still needs to be answered.

In the meantime though, I have a small project for myself. Photographically speaking, I need new places to shoot this year. I need to prep with Google. One project is lighthouses. I need to find them so I can visit them. Beyond that? Google: “hiking trails near Methuen, MA”. Think it will give me anything worthwhile? Here’s hoping.

For now though, I might go over to the eBay and search for Nikon lenses. I’ll let you know if I find anything.