meet penny, and a long overdue thank you

Meet Penny*:



She and I have gotten off to a bit of a rocky start. I got the K1000 in the mail almost two weeks ago, took a cursory look at the manual, and set off. I had pretty low expectations to start with, since figuring out an SLR and shooting with film for the first time in years meant a big learning curve. But, hey, I was enthusiastic. So enthusiastic, in fact, that I shot five rolls of film over the next week. You see what's happening here, don't you?

Well, on Tuesday I dropped of two rolls of film to get processed (incidentally, I think only one, maybe two, places in my town still do film processing). I waited the three days, and went back on Thursday to pick up my photos. I was anxious to see how the rolls turned out and was eager to see if I got any good shots.

If you follow me on Twitter, you already know that those two rolls of film were blank. I was so upset. I hadn't been expecting perfection, but was disappointed that nothing had turned out. I didn't know if the camera wasn't advancing the film or if I'd loaded the film incorrectly. The shots I thought I'd taken were lost.

And for a moment I wanted to condemn film to a fiery hell.

Instead, I gave the shop two more rolls of film that I'd shot and the lovely woman told me to check in the next day to see if they turned out. Yesterday after work I went back, holding on to a sliver of hope that something would have worked out. Not surprisingly, they were blank as well.

In the mean time, after the first two rolls, I did some googling on the K1000 and loading film (something I should have done from the beginning, evidently). I really hoped that the blank films were a result of my own stupidity and not some problem with the camera. Being out $20 or so on film, while still frustrating, would be way better than being out the $90 I spent on the camera. So, after said googling and YouTube watching, I'm 97% sure that I loaded the film incorrectly. It wasn't clear to me earlier that the leader end of the film has to go in the slit on the right hand side. Doh.

So, I reloaded the camera (correctly this time, I think) and shot through a roll to see what would happen. After wasting five rolls of film, I figured what's one more if it helps me figure out for sure what I'm doing right and wrong. After shooting the full film (it actually stopped when it was supposed to), before rewinding, I opened the back (I didn't care about these shots, I was more concerned with making sure the film had advanced). Miracle of miracles, the film had advanced and wound properly. Then I rewound the film, which also worked. Hooray!

Now that I've conquered the film loading issue, I'm going to put a new roll in and shoot it properly. At least now I'll know if it turns out blank there's also an issue with the camera. But fingers crossed that the blankness was all my fault.

Penny, can we please be friends?

*************

I also wanted to say a proper thank you to the lovely and generous Anjali. After listening to me moan daydream about wanting an SLR, she sent me the kick-ass squirrel camera strap (seen in the photo above) and a nudge towards getting a DSLR. It's going to take me a while to save up for the DSLR, but after a few months of stalking eBay, I found a Pentax K1000 that I think will be a great introduction to the world of SLRs. And now that I hopefully have the film issue sorted out, I'm ready to have fun. Thanks Anjali!

*************

*Very original name, huh? It also makes me think of this Penny, too, which is kind of awesome.

focus

Friday already...

since there haven't been any cat photos in a while

Ivy's done. Almost. It's been sitting in my knitting basket all week waiting to be seamed. Have I mentioned how much I dislike seaming? As a result, the almost finished sweater has been sitting there in the basket, while I avoid all thoughts of setting in sleeves and sewing up seams. There's also a tiny bit of neck band that needs to be added once the shoulder seams are done. My goal for today is to get the darn thing put together. Tomorrow I'm on the hunt for buttons -- after much deliberation on the buttons versus tie issue, I've decided on the buttons. How I'm going to make the buttons work, I'm not quite sure of yet.

So, instead of doing the finishing up on Ivy, I've been spending a lot of time on flickr. As I learn about my camera and photography in general, I find myself spending more and more time looking at other people's photographs. I've been adding to my favourites like crazy. Viewing the EXIF data on these photos is also helping me learn about the settings used to create the image, and how I might achieve similar results. Since a SLR is not in my immediate future, right now I'm trying to learn the basics of good photography and all that my little Powershot has to offer.

I also find myself noticing framing, focus, and lighting more in movies such as Volver and Munich, getting lost in great shots that contribute so much to the overall effect of the film. I'm beginning to understand the relationship between ISO, shutter speed, and aperture and get a sense of how some of these shots might have been created (although I know nothing about movie cameras, I suspect that the same basic principles are at play as those in film and digital cameras).

Looking through some of my flickr favourites, it's clear that I tend to be drawn towards certain colours and types of subjects. Green, orange, and brown are not surprising, but pink and purple show up a lot, too. Lately I'm also fond of photos of laundry on clotheslines, spring flowers (maybe since we don't have very many around here, yet), and dogs (yes, I have puppy lust). Anyway, since I've rambled on enough for now, I thought I'd share some of my favourite photos from the past while:

Things to do 2 (Not number 6, though, at least not the ones I know)
mtl-07 (One of my brother's photos)
untitled (I heart lens flare)
always hiding (Since I'll be flying soon.)
Inbal Looking Down
buddy up close and green
untitled
self portrait with hair tied back
Oh, I could go on forever.

Hopefully I'll have some photos of a finished Ivy soon. Lots of laundry, packing, and cleaning to do, too, before my trip to Ottawa on Wednesday. I'll check in before I go.

Creeping Ivy

After some tweaking of the code (thanks again, bro), things are a bit roomier chez tangle. I should now be able to include bigger pictures linked from flickr (bigger than the last couple of posts, at any rate). I've also made the banner a bit bigger and learned how to outline text. Photoshop is so overwhelming, but with a bit of help can do amazing things. Like lens flare, you can create lens flare in PS! How cool is that? Alrighty, enough of my shutterbug geekery for now...

I'm entering the home stretch with Ivy. Last week, I mentioned how I'd made a mistake and there was ripping to be done. After checking both fronts against the pattern, I realised that the mistake was apparently in the (completed) left front. Now I didn't mind how the left front looked. What bothered me was that the left and partially completed right fronts didn't match.

left front

right front

See how the edges curl in different directions and how the cable fades into the body on the left front? So, I made a decision that would ease my mind but make some knitters cringe -- I ripped back the right side.



While I could have just gone as far as the end of the cable ribbing when I was ripping back, my brain works in strange ways, and for me it was easier to start the side again.

A few movies and a Sunday morning later, the right front was nearly redone. I finished it up this morning and now face some calculations before starting the sleeves. I had planned from the beginning on making this with three-quarter length sleeves. Now, I'm thinking maybe shorter sleeves. The problem with this, if it's really even a problem, is that I'm a directions girl when it comes to most knitting. If necessary, I can figure out minor modifications. Creating short sleeves on a sweater is not a minor modification when I've only ever knit two sweaters (one was a baby sweater and the other remains knit but un-seamed in a bag halfway across the continent). So there's some math involved that I need to be in the right frame of mind to tackle. I'm also doing away with the ties, and am thinking of somehow using buttons with loops instead of buttonholes. Any suggestions? I'm big on plans and short on confidence, as usual.

hello sunshine

I had to struggle to drag myself out of bed this morning. I've been trying to establish and maintain some sort of rhythm, some systematic productivity, with varying degrees of success. Now we're well into May and I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the rest of April. As usual, bits and pieces are getting done, but nothing is really being completed. After seeing snow three days during the past week, the forecasters are calling for highs of 14C today (and 29C tomorrow!). While these dramatic swings in the weather are likely to create havoc with my allergies, I'm hoping once again that the sun and warmer temperatures will help to kick me out of my rut. I feel like I've lost my sense of discipline. My mind wanders easily and aimlessly, and while my 'To Do' list grows, I'm slow in checking things off the list.

I'm still making my way through my camera manual and will soon be ready to tackle the book on exposure. I've been taking pictures more and finally upgraded my flickr to pro. As you probably already noticed, I even figured out how to make a banner for the blog. I'm not completely happy with it, but I think it adds a bit of brightness around here.

Knitting on Ivy continues apace when I actually spend some time with it. The back and front left are finished, but I am stalled on the right front. I've made a small but annoyingly visible mistake. After considering several options for continuing on and attempting to make the error fit with the rest, I've come to the conclusion that the only option is to rip it back. Like other knitters, I hate having to rip back what is otherwise perfectly lovely knitting, save that one error. So, it sits for now in my basket, waiting for my patience to rise to the challenge of knitting surgery. I'm going to have to tackle it sooner rather than later, though, as I want to have it finished in time for a trip in a few weeks.

Probably in defiance of most economic logic given my current employment status (that is unemployed), I've booked a trip that will most certainly do a great deal to preserve my mental health. For two weeks at the very end of May and beginning of June I'll be in Ottawa. I'm so excited about this. M. had already planned a trip home to spend time with family and friends during a short school break. In a sort of spur of the moment decision, I thought it might be a nice opportunity for me to get to see him and to visit with his family. My previous trips to Ottawa have been in the winter (very cold) and fall (unseasonably warm, but beautiful), so I'm happy to be able to experience a different season this time around. I've already started checking out some of the goings on while I'll be in town and this photography exhibit at the National Gallery is currently at the top of my list.

More soon (hopefully with some photos). For now, I'm going to enjoy the sunshine.

it goes

The weather has improved ever so slightly here over the past week. However, the mild temperatures the hovering above freezing temperatures combined with all of the rain have reminded me (and my sinuses) that the warm weather that I've been waiting for brings with it all manner of allergies. Ah well, I'll take the nicer weather and manage the sneezing and itchiness.

As for the rest, I'm working on translating the ideas knocking around in my head onto paper, trying to make sense out of everything. I'm taking Anjali's advice to heart, watching less t.v. and spending more time doing the things that I like, things that might actually help me sort through the jumble of thoughts that race through my brain. Working on realising that little things might help improve the bigger picture is a challenge for me. I so often get frustrated by my inability to make the big changes that I want or need, and forget that, at the very least, the small things can provide some manner of comfort when everything else is so overwhelming.

In that vein, I'm working on setting some small goals and projects for myself. Ideally these things will help me focus and renew whatever creative tendencies that I have. Therein I might be able begin to see what it is that I want to be doing. There's a purely practical aspect to this as well -- the financial implications weigh heavy on my mind much of the time. What I'm beginning to see though is that the two, a rewarding career and some level of financial stability, don't have to be mutually exclusive. Yet I find it difficult to not let looming debt control my decision making process. While I have no illusions about making scads of money, enough to live a modest existence would be nice.

That being said, I'm working on establishing these projects. Over time, I want to set them out here, hoping that by exposing them I'll hold myself more accountable to actually seeing them through. One of my first goals is to really learn how to use my camera. Inspired by what I've been seeing on flickr, I get frustrated when my results don't even begin to compare. After owning the camera for just over a year, I only know what a fraction of the functions mean. Between pestering my shutterbug brother and glancing at the camera manual, I can get sometimes satisfactory, but not outstanding, results. The camera search feature on flickr shows me that my little camera is capable of so much more. It's time for me to sit down and read the camera manual, along with this book that I got last summer. I figure that if I can take better pictures, I'll be likely to take more pictures.

I also have some other ideas, but more about those at another time. More soon.