Saturday, September 26, 2009

Film Fridays


This is really a placeholder for a picture still waiting to be developed. I decided to try to get more use out of my film camera - so I've decided to start making it film Friday, with a digital picture taken side by side. Not just as backup, but to remind me when the picture was taken, since obviously film doesn't have exif data. I'll scan the developed photo a few Fridays from now.

Two - three! I meant three things I learned:

1) 50 mm on a film camera has a different field of view than 50 mm on a digital, at least a digital with cropped sensor like I have. Actually, I already knew this, but somehow forgot when I slapped a 50 on each camera and headed out. Then was stupidly surprised when I went from one camera to the other and thought "hey, this looks different".

2) don't bother looking at the back of the film camera after you take a shot. There will only be the back of a camera.

3) if your film camera seems to lock up? you probably forgot to advance the film.

Man, the things you forget when going back to film!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Monday, September 21, 2009

sleepless, 263/365



sleepless, 263/365, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.
prompted by the Facebook meme Shuffleshare, my sisters and cousin were trying to come up with the 15 songs you would put on your iPod if it only held 15 songs ("wouldn't that make it a Walkman?" I asked). Everyone came up with a list quickly, and I finally made mine after a couple of hours of insomnia early this morning. And of course the first song I thought of was Jann Arden's Sleepless.

This went on for a few more pages, then I whittled them down to 15. A lot of them are covers that I like better than the originals, and in one case an original less well known than the hit. The ones that made it:
1. Sleepless, Jann Arden
2. Get Together, Indigo Girls.
3. Song for a Winter's Night, Sarah Mclachlan
4. Say Goodbye, Dave Mathews
5. Kyla Vuotta, Varrtina (Finnish folk-rock band)
6. Back on the Chain Gang, Pretenders
7. They Don't Know, Kirsty MacColl
8. Theme from Pat Garret and Billy the Kid, Bob Dylan
9. Proud Crowd/Pride Cried, Ferron
10. Witch of the Westmoreland, Stan Rogers
11. You were on my mind, Ian and Sylvia Tyson
12. Olivers' Army, Elvis Costello
13. Prickle-Eye Bush, Bellowhead (relatively new discovery from this year's VancouverFolk Festival)
14. It's Hard, The Who
15. Moonlight Shadow, Mike Oldfield with Maggie Riley

Sunday, September 20.

Monday, September 14, 2009

remembering sensei, 253/365


remembering sensei, 253/365, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

though this was actually taken at the end of May, this is the overarching story of the day, the passing of Lethbridge's beloved sensei. I struggled with this - did I really want to be reminded of this sad memory every time I looked at my photo diary? But it's not merely the story of the day, it's the memory of a man who had a profound impact on his community, and on so many lives. So yes, as sad as it is, I still want to remember. Sept 10.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

extreme processing


window of St. Nicholas church, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

I dunno. Is this the photography/processing equivalent of knitting a uterus, or inventing a butter chicken/tater tot casserole?

Actually, even if it's processed more than I normally like, I think I like this better than either of those hypothetical things. This is a restored church at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village near Edmonton, but it was one of the buildings closed the day we were there. My husband and I walked around trying to peek in the windows, and it was hard to get a shot, partly because I'm short and this was way over my head. I like the way this preset made the cloud reflections look a little like smoke wisping up from the candles inside the room.

Eryx preset courtesy of the talented and generous underthewaves at Flickr.