What Is Typical of Me

In photos? People, backlit. In Black & White I, this doesn't work so well. I think tonight Jahnavi told me my highlights were blown out. Sounds good, right? Like, if it was your hair, that would be good? Well, no. The evaluation part of camera class has been a little disheartening, so far. The rolls I took last week, just not that interesting, not what I pictured, but no interesting mistakes, either. Decent film camera? Just not that forgiving. 

But I get so excited in class! We learned how to make prints tonight. and I squealed when the TA chose the negative I would be allowed to print, then again when the light from the enlarger first shined through the negative in its carrier, giving me my image, large for the first time. I squealed again, multiple times,  as Amber's wry smile emerged from the tray of developer. I probably squealed as much as I agitated. My classmates ask me "Are you excited?" as a joke.

So I've been thinking, as is typical of me - what's up with all the classes? And I got it, last night. It's just progress. Always something that shows progress. That's what I care about most.

Sharing

Sometimes the twins are like this



And sometimes they are like this



It's pretty entertaining.

Kate Served Pie

I would have told you that, once upon a time. I would have told you about that, and I would have told you about camera class, and Cafe Presse with Letch, and dinner with Kirsten and walking the grey beach with Court and sitting in Caffe Fiore watching the light hit Karl's familiar hazel eyes a certain way, and a hundred other things I've done since I last wrote something substantial here. I have taken so many photos lately that I would not have known which to post here first but all of them would have given me an idea of what to write. 

The photos are different now. The point and shoot was broken and not replaced. Instead, I bought the good camera, big and time-consuming and memory-absorbing. The photos are more precise, more light-filled, but they yield themselves less easily and become just one more hurdle to using this as a notebook, a place to come and spend a few minutes, dash something off and let it be just what it is. Now there is converting to do with the digital SLR, scanning to do with the toy camera photos, and developing and printing with the Pentax K1000 I have on loan from Chris for my Black & White 1 class. 

The writing follows suit. Fewer words, and fussier. More fiddling.

And still. Something good is going on. It feels like investing. It feels like those first runs before you get comfortable, acclimated, strong enough to wake easily for the short few miles that leave you feeling good all day. Something in me is strengthening and getting better, I learn and grow more patient and know better what to do with all this light. 

I Saw A Lilac Tree In Bloom Today

Seemed wrong. But then, so does close to a month without a single blog post! This won't be much of one either, I'm just here to say, Hey, I'm here. The world right now is all classes and change and staying the same. All those things, mixed up in a blender. Those earrings, worn again today, almost a year later, and the sweater I was wearing in that photo is the sweater I was wearing yesterday, at the Farmer's Market, which may very well have been exactly where I was that Sunday a year ago. In the coffee shop this morning, the barista told me she had seen me at the other coffee shop, and that the camera I had was cool, and I had to think for a minute, because I was in the same coffee shop both days this weekend, but with two different cameras. 

For the new part, there's camera class tonight, though the camera is old, and the friend who loaned it to me is an old friend as well, and the restaurant across the street where I'll be tempted to go after class is the same restaurant that was a favorite last year. Still, it all feels different. And good.