Cats!

From Animal Care and Control last week . . . I bring you two orange mama kitties.

First up, the aptly named Mamma. She LOVED having her head scratched.

She DIDN'T love the lei so much. Why, Mamma, why?

Next up, Sparkles. She was super sweet, a real lover.

And she had the prettiest face.

Tomorrow, kittens!!!!

In Black and White

More highlights from my first roll of black and white film.

Now, as I've said, this was my first roll of black and white. And I guess I was confusing it with digital black and white a bit, otherwise known as greyscale, because my feeling when I look at these images is, where are all the shades of gray??

I see the black. (Or almost black.)

I see the white. (Or almost white.)

But where are the in betweens? Did I do something wrong? Screw up my exposure?

Or is this how it's supposed to be? Look, the cats were NOT in super contrasty light. There was contrast, yes. But not as much as the pictures make it look like.

After I pondered this for a while, I felt better. The pictures aren't that terrible. I judged about 50% of them blog worthy, for one reason or another. That's a high percentage!

I just feel like I know my digital cameras so well. I take a photo, and before I take it, I know what it's going to look like. Film is still a mystery. An intriguing one.

You might remember these sprinklers from the color photos in this post.

And of course, I had to take a photo of Evan.

And then he had to return the favor. (Not my best moment.)

And then here's that gardenia I stole. Looks better in color, doesn't it?

So, all in all, film = still a mystery. Me = still going to pursue it. You all = get to come along for the ride.

You're welcome!

Katie and Baldvin - Sneak Peek!

Katie and Baldvin had an amazing wedding on Sunday (although the weather didn't quite cooperate!). Half in English, half in Icelandic, but one hundred percent genuine, it left me with such a smile on my face.

I can't wait to share the rest with you all, but until then, enjoy these!

This blog . . .

 . . . has kind of been languishing. I know it. I come here with good intentions to blog every day, or five days a week, or at least REGULARLY, to some sort of schedule so the good folks who haven't totally given up on me would at least know when to check in.

And, well, it's still a work in progress. Which is not to say that I don't still love it; I have no plans to give it up at all. It's kind of a sanctuary, it's a record of my life and what I see in the world that surrounds me. It's precious. Just not necessarily simple or easy.

I have a tendency to want to say yes to everything. This is not a character flaw. I honestly believe that it's one of my greatest strengths. But when it comes down to the wire, sometimes I just don't have time for everything. And things like the blog (which will always be here tomorrow) get pushed to the wayside.

I don't really have a solution, maybe this is an explanation more than anything. I just wanted to let you know, I'm still here, I'll still be here, and so will this blog.

So don't go anywhere. Stay a while.

We'll see what it becomes.

Bouganvillea - Wordless Weekend

Light and Shadow (Film on a Friday)

I started out with my roll of Fuji Neopan 400 (a black and white film) in my film camera at a bit of a loss as to what to do.

Now, that's not to say that I'm uncomfortable with black and white. On the contrary, I love it. Black and white calms things down, filters out distractions, and makes a moment feel timeless.

It's elegant.

But choosing which color digital photograph to make black and white is not the same thing as visualizing a picture that has to be all in shades of gray.

I worried about my subjects, about contrast, about blown highlights and blocked shadows and everything being the same shade of dull gray . . . . I made a hobby out of worrying. And the roll of 36 exposures seemed to stretch out in front of me forever. I was always going to have that dang roll of black and white film that I didn't know what to do with in the camera.

But I thought of a few tricks. One of them being, patterns of light and shadow. That always looks good in black and white, right?

And I think it kind of worked out. I don't love all of them, and I feel kind of like I'm missing the midtones, but  I am happy with the feel of the images.

I also purposely kept a 35mm lens on the camera the whole time, as another constraint for my creativity. Mostly I think it was a good idea, but the types of scenes I envisioned with a 35mm (bustling street scenes, moody portrait shots), for most of these I was too unsure about the result to go ahead and take the picture. So I don't know if the focal length was the right call after all.

Anyway, if you had a roll of black and white in the camera, what would you take photographs of?