Today is day seven so I need to write up yesterday’s progress. Day six. Unfortunately the days are sort of running together. What the hell did I do yesterday?
When I got up yesterday morning I had a riff buzzing in my head. It was in an awkward sort of time. I think it was trying to be in 10/8. I picked up my iPhone and played it into GarageBand for iOS in 4/4 with an absurdly fast tempo. The program doesn’t give you the ability to work in wacky time signatures so that was the best I could do. There wasn’t much to it, but let’s call it song number eight.
About an hour or so later there was this:
I put rhythm guitars on the simple little thing I had come up with the night before, song number seven, and onto song number two. That’s all I had time for. I had a meeting at 9:00am and it was getting a little late. Not too late though, I finished my morning routine and logged in to work on time.
Later still, while sitting up in bed shortly before falling asleep for the night, I added some new things to the song I started when I woke up. I tried changing the time signature to 10/8 but that made the GarageBand drummer go super weird and I couldn’t follow what it was doing. I kept losing “the one”… if you’re a musician you know what that means. I switched it back to 4/4 with the tempo set to double time and then set the drummer function to play in half time. It all came out in the end.
When that was done and I was just about ready to fall asleep… I wrote a melody and lyrics for song number one. The first lyrics of the project. I’m hoping to get a couple more done tonight so that I can record some vocals early tomorrow morning. We’ll have to see about that though.
And that is what I accomplished on day six. I fear things are going to be light today and day seven’s update will be uneventful. I’ll let you know tomorrow.
I feel like I owe the universe a detailed post discussing all of the things I did today. Things like picking my step daughter up at the train station after she traveled home from Baltimore.
Instead, I will share a clue as to something that took up a little less than 1/24th of my calendar day:
I am typing this post on a MacBook Pro using a Windows keyboard which means the keyboard shortcut for copy and paste is different than I am used to, which means that I am going to screw things up left and right. Enjoy.
The Frugal Film Project Lives. My second attempt at shooting a roll of (relatively) inexpensive film through a camera I spent less than $50 on each month for a year. I tried it last year and failed after four months. This year I am trying it again. I started in May. This post covers June. July’s edition is 50% shot but nothing has been developed yet. It’s only July 6th, give me a break, okay?
As stated in the May edition of the blog posts, I am trying to do this twice this year. One attempt is shooting Kodak Gold 200 through my Lomo Lubitell 166 Universal. The other is the same camera shooting Kentmere 100.
First, we’ll look at the Kodak Gold images. There should be 12 but because I suck at life there are 11. The camera needs to be manually wound. There is a little red window on the back that lets you see the back of the film as you wind it. You’re supposed to wind it until you see the number 1 in the little window and then stop. That spot will be your first photo. Makes sense, right? Numbnutz over here wound too far and had to start on number 2. Idiot.
So here come the 11 shots. First we have a sunrise at Hampton Beach in Hampton Beach, NH. I took these on June 14, 2026.
Seagulls
Here Comes the Sun
Fishin’
I suck at photography, part 1
After a short drive to the North…
I want to say I like the lens flare but… maybe not
Okay, we’re done with Hampton Beach. Now we move on to the Newburyport Harborwalk Rail Trail in Newburyport, MA.
I had a feeling the sun was going to be too much for this really slow camera and sure enough…
That’s a little better
I feel like I am learning a lesson here
Boats Boats Boats
The bad photography continues
With that, our color experience comes to an end. There should be 12 photos but I am an idiot and there are only 11. Project 2A is complete. Now we move on to project 2B and everything is in black and white. These pics are also from the Harborwalk Rail Trail and they also have problems with too much sun… because I suck.
Water, right?
I mean, at least I wasn’t looking directly at the sun, right?
I suck at photography, part 2
Do I actually like this one? If so, why?
How do you spell buoy?
A bridge too far, or something
I suck at photography, part 3
Yup, I suck at photography, part 4
That’s a little better
Chairs. I feel like I could have composed this better
What was I thinking?
Fun with Flags
There we have it. Frugal Film Project 2B has been shared. Next time I will avoid shooting into the sun when it’s high and overpowering like this. Oh well.
I said the July edition of the project is half done. I shot the roll of Kodak Gold yesterday (July 5th) in Boston. I was planning on shooting the Kentmere roll too but I got pulled away. I will have to go out and shoot one more time this month in order to stay on track. I mean, I can’t have a project go bust faster than last year, right?
Also, in closing… I feel like a putz for missing a shot on the first roll. I’ll share one more pic. This was taken one week later, July 21st, on Harman Phoenix II, which I have officially moved to the “never buy this film again” list. I just don’t like it. Unfortunately, I still have a bunch of it in my film stash. Crap. This one is the Concord River in Lowell, MA. It sucks, but at least it brings this masterpiece of a blog post up to 24 photos.
Bonus
PS: As I was posting these pics I was blowing them up pretty huge on my big gigantic monitor. These are medium format photos and even though they really suck ass, after viewing them… I get it. The medium format thing. I get it. The resolution is just… I don’t know. It’s something though. I get it.
I tried to make today a photography fun day. Early in the morning at least. I went to Boston thinking I could shoot a couple of rolls of film on Beacon Hill and along the Charles River by the Esplanade where they had the 4th of July spectacular yesterday.
I got through one roll of 120 and one roll of 35mm and was starting to think of what to load up next when I got called home. I guess that means I have to go back soon, right?
When I got home it was time to start cleaning out the closet where the plumber needs to work tomorrow. We also went to IKEA and another furniture store. Tomorrow, after the plumber leaves (assuming he fixes the problem) I will be putting together a Swedish dresser.
We also picked up an order of a couple of rolls of bread from a bakery that Jen’s high school friend is running out of his house with his husband. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve had some of their baked goods before oh my goodness…
I think I am going to have a piece of bread now and then I am going to go to sleep because I am freakin’ exhausted.
I am probably going to get my two songs finished for the month of June. File it under the RPM Challenge’s Record Every Month challenge. Yesterday I wasn’t sure if I would be able to finish a song or two, but I had a decent day music wise and now I am in good shape.
Last night before bed I wrote lyrics and melodies for the two songs that got guitar tracks earlier in the day (see the previous post). This morning I cut my exercise short and used the time to record vocals. Both songs were cranked out quickly and poorly. Tonight after dinner I was able to sneak back into the cellar and record lead guitars for both songs. I did so on a guitar with old and dead strings and with a left hand that is 100% free from calluses because I don’t play enough these days.
Oh my goodness, do my finger tips hurt right now. Oh the pain. Oh the horrible icky pain. Ouch-town, population: Me, bro.
I’ll mix the two songs tomorrow night after work. Probably while sitting up in bed wishing I was asleep. You know how it is.
Enjoy tonight’s crappy photos that are basically the same as the crappy photos on last night’s post except I am wearing a work-appropriate collared shirt today where I was wearing an awesome Rush Snakes and Arrows Live t-shirt yesterday.
I told myself I was going to write and record an album’s worth of music this month. 10 songs or 35 minutes. That was the plan.
I have failed, epically.
I started working on seven songs. As of this morning they were only midi bass and drums tracks with a midi guitar track acting as a guide for when I record the actual guitars.
It has been two weeks since I did anything musical at all. Yeah, the 10 song plan isn’t happening and the seven songs are going to mostly fail as well. Last month I wrote and recorded two songs. That’s my new goal. Call it a single. One song for the A-side and another for the B-side.
I put rhythm guitars onto two of the songs today. That’s good. I’m still probably going to fail though because now I have to write lyrics and a melody for both songs, then I have to record the vocals, then I have to record the lead guitars, then I have to mix the two songs and I only have two days left in the month. Most of my recording time takes place in the morning before work, and one of the two remaining days is not only a work in the office day, but its a work in the Foxborough office day and Foxborough is super far away from home so I won’t have any before work time.
So before I sleep tonight I have to write the lyrics and the melodies, and then tomorrow before work I have to record the vocals. Then probably after work I will have to record the leads. Then I can mix after work tomorrow.
Before any of that happens though, I have to have a watch-a-movie-on-the-living-room-couch with my beautiful wife. We’re watching Project Hail Mary again. Know that it is a great movie that is made better by a series of t-shirts with science jokes on them. If you haven’t seen the movie, you should. Then once you’ve seen it you should write a song or two.
I got the scans back for seven rolls of film today. What have we learned? We learned that I don’t like Harman Phoenix II. I didn’t like Harman Phoenix I either, but now I officially don’t like II… and I have a bunch more of it in my film stash. Crud.
I also learned that Lomography 800 is grainy.
And finally, Kodak Ektacolor (the film formerly known as Portra) is awesome.
Happy Fathers day to all who are fathers or who play the roll of a father in someone’s life. Whether you are a biological father, a step father (like me), or a single mom who covers both the mother and father responsibilities (a good definition for the word “hero” if I ever heard one), then today is your day. I don’t know about the rest of you, but the one accomplishment I am most proud of in my life is that in September of 2007 a six year old girl and a four year old boy let me be a part of their lives, and in the nearly 19 years that have passed since then they haven’t changed their minds. Frankly I am honored and I hope I’ve been up to the challenge. I’m sure I’ve failed left and right, but over all… here’s hoping I’m doing right by them.
That’s not really the point of this post though, it’s just a nice bonus. The point of this post is photos! I went on another morning photo walk today. This time I hit three riverwalk type things in Lowell, MA. The Wamesit Falls Overlook, the… whatever the riverwalk along the Merrimack River near the Rourke Bridge is called, and a third little thing that I never saw before but noticed as I drove past that was basically a gazebo and a boat launch and a lot of graffiti.
I finished three rolls of film. One roll of Phoenix II 200 in 120 in my Lubitell, a roll of the new Kodak Ektacolor 400 (that is supposed to be just Portra 400 under a different name?) that I loaded in the Nikon N90 yesterday to use at my nephew’s graduation party (but only took a few shots), and another Phoenix II 200 (this time in 35mm), again in the N90. I took those three rolls and the four rolls I shot on last weekend’s photo walk adventure and shipped them off to The Darkroom Lab earlier. Give them a couple of weeks and then I’ll share any of those that don’t suck… assuming there are at least one or two that don’t suck. We’ll have to wait and see.
The rule on these little jaunts is to shoot film while walking away from the car and then digital while walking back to the car. The twist on the digital last week was that I used a lens that came in the kit with the N90. I used the other lens from that kit today. It’s an AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8. I got a lens with exactly the same specs when I bought my broken Nikon F401 last year, but despite the identical specs it is definitely a different lens. I have dubbed this one 50mm f/1.8 number two. I actually used it on all shots taken on both Nikon cameras today. The N90 and Z5 (with the FTZii adapter, of course).
But enough of my yappin’, here come some pics!
First, a bunch from the Wamesit Falls Overlook, which is a riverwalk along (and in two places, across) the Concord River.
Concord River
Expect lots of white water through the trees pics
Told ya
Would I lie?
Not sure what that concrete wall thing is doing there
Fun with reflected sunlight
The view from one of the bridges
Same bridge, looking in the opposite direction
I saw the sign
Lowell, MA has old mill buildings everywhere. I don’t know what this one is now, nor do I know what blew that hole in the wall
Falls through the trees. Yes that is a mattress on the left
I’ve heard of going over waterfalls in a barrel, but on a mattress?
Ducks!
Above the falls
This is probably my favorite view
Now we skip the second stop, which was the boat launch with all of the graffiti because it was such a short visit that the digtal camera never made it out of the bag. So instead we move on to the VFW Highway and the Merrimack River.
The Merrimack River and the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the United States
The Roarke Bridge and UMass Lowell Crew’s dock
How do you spell buoy?
The dock through a fence
A 40 something year old temporary bridge
Ducks!
More ducks. No geese, thankfully
I had never walked right up to the bridge before, but today is the day!
Bridge
I’m just tryin’ to find the bridge. (Led Zeppelin joke, thank you very much)
The Roarke does include a foot bridge but you couldn’t pay me enough to step onto it
Under the bridge
Please don’t feed the animals
So there you have it. Another couple of hours on another Sunday morning, wandering around like a nerd with a bag full of cameras. I am thinking the next time I do this will be just after the 4th of July. I have an idea about going to the Esplanade in Boston and seeing the aftermath of the Pops concert and the fireworks. We will see.
I went on an epic photographing journey today. I went to two locations and I walked something like four miles. Who even am I?
I paid for it with chores though. The cellar has been put back together after twice being blown off by a contractor. I won’t say it is “clean” but I will say it is drastically “cleaner” and that’s good enough for me. Speaking of contractors, yet another is scheduled to come by tomorrow to fix a piece of broken furniture in my step son’s room. Along with cleaning the cellar, I got everything ready for that too. Now it’s time to post some photos and then its time to nap.
I had a bunch on my photo to-do list this morning. One, shoot the sunrise (which required me getting out of bed at 4:00am and being on the road toward Hampton Beach, NH by 4:20… yikes!). Two put a roll of 35mm film through my new (to me) Nikon N90. Three, complete the Frugal Film Project for this month. Four, use the crap out of the 70–210mm zoom lens I got with the N90 on my Nikon Z5 via the FTZii adapter that I mistakenly called the F2Zii adapter in a post yesterday. Five, if possible finish off the roll of film in my Nikon FG-20 that’s been sitting there since March or so. In all five cases, mission accomplished.
I did not ship out the film for developing yet. I am planning on taking the N90 to my nephew’s high school graduation party next week (CONGRATULATIONS!!!!) and I might try to sneak in a second photowalk next Sunday too, if the weather cooperates. I’ll wait until after that to ship out the film. As usual, the day of blog post is only digital photos. Unlike all of my previous posts with images shot on my Z5, this one has a zoom lens. Not only a zoom lens, but a 70–210mm zoom lens!
First stop, Hampton Beach where the sky was completely clear and I saw the sun come out of the water. Success!
70mm
210mm. You can almost touch it!
I love how the sunrise lights up the windows
Dig that crazy star
The huge zoom let me steal a shot of this dude fishing. He was far away but the lens brought him close.
I drove up the coast a ways to get a different view. This time from way up a hill. The tide was so far out you had to walk half way to France to get to the water. It kinda took some of the granduer out of it for me. Oh well.
Rocks
Bike
Islands in the distance
210mm is kinda awesome
The next stop was the two Rail Trails in Newburyport, MA. One is called Clipper, I think, and the other is called Harbor… I think. The plan was to shoot film while walking away from the car, and then to shoot digital while walking back. So these first shorts are on the Harbor trail after I turned around. The sun reflecting off the water was kinda brutal. My Z5 and N90 both had fast enough shutter speeds to handle it, but my FG-20 and my Lomo Lubitell were struggling. I’m a tiny bit nervous about how some of those shots are going to turn out.
Zoomed way in on that little boat heading out to sea
See what I mean about the sun reflecting?
Boats, boats, boats!
Hey look, a lighthouse! I think it’s a restaurant
Water
The new lens managed some blurry background at f/4!
What do you call a boat like this? Is it a catamaran?
Today is Flag Day after all
The new lens managed some major blurry background at f/5.6! Wow!
How do you spell buoy?
Chairs
Steeple
Grass
More boats, boats, boats!
I took a lot of pictures of stairs for some reason
A little stroll through the woods
More blurry background
Bridge
Fence
Library books
And there you have it. A shit load of pointless pics that I had a lot of fun taking. The film version will come… someday… maybe.
The pricks did it to us again. Yesterday one of the contractors that was supposed to work on our house blew us off. After their arrival window closed they called and said they had to reschedule. My wife booked 7:30–10:00am today and got them to guarantee they’d show up.
They didn’t show up.
My wife called them at around 11:00am to tell them to go take a long walk off a short pier and they put her on hold for 40 minutes then sent her to voicemail. Boy did she let them have it. Both barrels.
In preparation for this work I had to tear one of the kids bedrooms apart and then totally destroy our entire basement. Since we’ve told them to screw, I started putting things right again. The bedroom is back to normal, an one area of the cellar is done. There is still a couple of hours worth of work to undo. I’ll take care of that tomorrow.
Speaking of tomorrow, I was sort of planning on taking a bag full of cameras to the ocean for sunrise this morning, but the rescheduling screwed all of that up. Instead, I am going to try to do it tomorrow. The forecast at the coast looks pretty good. The only downside is that sunrise is at 5:04am, which means I have to be out of bed at 4:00am. It should be worth it. I’m thinking of hitting a couple of spots near Hampton Beach, NH and then maybe a riverwalk somewhere. Maybe in Lowell? Not sure yet.
I got ready for this by putting film in all of the film cameras, and like a schmuck I burned one shot on the medium format camera. Dumb ass. I also put one of the manual focus lenses that came with my last eBay purchase onto my digital camera to give it a test drive. It worked great.
The lens is smart enough that the camera can control the aperture but not smart enough to auto focus. I have focus peeking turned on though and that is a HUGE help for an old fart with weak vision like me. I’m not sure if I will use it tomorrow, but I might. We’ll have to wait and see.
Other than that the only news right now is that my step daughter is coming home today. She’ll only be here a couple of days before she’s off again, but that’s fine with me. Any time with either of the kids in the house is time well spent.
Also, as a bit of forewarning to regular readers, once I get the cellar put back together you can expect a barage of music posts. I have five songs in progress right now and I hope to start putting guitars onto the demos soon. Duck and cover, everyone.
Until then, never forget that donald trump is a fascist and a rapist and a pedophile. Release the complete, unredacted epstein files. I don’t care if it brings down the entire US government. If it is bad enough to do that then the US government deserves to be brought down.
Finally, on the Rush 50 Something Tour, is Anika Nilles doing a drum solo?
Inside the Red Head's Head 