News from the Great Beyond

*Happy little sigh*

Mission accomplished:

Hubby and I went to Best Buy and found this little darling for $199.  It's slightly smaller than my previous model, and 4 MP instead of 3.

Funny story - as we pulled up in front of the MetroCenter Best Buy location, Hubby noticed the "faux YC's" Mongolian BBQ and was pining for the REAL YC's.  He suggested "I bet there's a Best Buy somewhere near the Scottsdale YC's."  Oh, possibly, I told him.  But since we're here, and all...

But that Best Buy was all out of the Nikon CoolPix 4600... so when we got back in the car, he looked up Best Buy in my Dex On-the-Go yellow pages, and discovered there indeed was one in the same shopping center as the Scottsdale YC's Mongolian Grill location.  Still, we decided to go to Arrowhead Mall to Best Buy, and perhaps grab dinner at the new Chick-Fil-A down the street.  Love Chick-Fil-A.  Mmmm.

Anyway, the Arrowhead Best Buy was also fresh out of the 4600 model, but the helpful young man in the camera department did a search to see what locations would have it for us.  Hey, they have plenty of them at the Scottsdale Pavilions location, it would be the safest bet for us... And guess what?  That location?  Is the one right by the Scottsdale YC's Mongolian Grill.

I'll give you three guesses what we had for dinner, and the first two don't count.

Dark Clouds, Silver Lining?

So I was out on my lunch hour, busily snapping photos for my next creative marvel (*ahem*), when I stumbled on some tragically uneven bricks.  My chunky-heeled sandals overturned.  I tripped over my own two feet.  However you want to say it happened, I fell down and went boom.

Unfortunately, as I said, this happened while I was taking pictures with my beloved digital camera.  The zoom lens was fully extended, and when I fell forward, the camera hit the ground and the delicate little pieces of metal and plastic at the end of the lens flew off.  I found the little cover that snaps onto the end, but as bad luck would have it, some parts were apparently lost or jarred severely, and 'tis broken.  Thankfully we have an SD card reader and can retrieve the photos that I'd taken since my last download (dozens of them), but I suspect the cost of repairing the camera will be great enough to where it would be more cost effective to buy a new (and better) one.

I foresee camera shopping over my Memorial Day weekend...  What are your plans for the holiday?

Procrastinate Much?

OK, remember several months ago when I promised I was going to do a photography project with my new digital camera?

I finally finished it (had fun with Photoshop tonight, too).... check it out here.

Now to start on the letter "B".  I have my first photo taken anyway... expect the results in oh... about 6 months.  Meanwhile, I still have pics from Hubby-head's uncle's wedding in October, as well as several others, that I was planning to post.

If you think that's bad, get this - I still haven't ordered reprints and enlargements of my wedding photos.  After almost 4 years.  I hope the photographer still has the negatives, because I really was planning to do that.  *ahem*

The Mad Photographer Has a Project

The professor in my photography class this past spring made a suggestion for a photo project if I needed something to work on in my "spare time" in order to get more rolls of film taken. I never needed it during the semester, although it struck me as an interesting idea, and now that I don't have to develop and print all my pictures (yay for digital cameras!) I thought I'd give it a shot.

What she suggested was to pick a letter of the alphabet and take photos of whatever you run across that starts with that letter. Of course, the point is not just to get a quick snapshot, but to practice good composition and technical stuff like aperture and shutter speed settings. Since my digital does not have manual aperture and shutter speed, I have to work with the presets and automatic stuff that the camera does. I'm working on how to get better angles and interesting presentation, and I'm going to do some work with Photoshop for effects and improvements.

It may take me a week to get through this first one, or I might post what I have in a couple of days. Keep an eye out!

Let the Bouncing Resume!

OK, OK, for those who were anxiously awaiting Thursday to find out what my surprise was, I actually got it earlier than expected.

Voila!

Class is OVAH!

(To borrow from Chairman Kaga)

Today was my final photgraphy class of the semester, with next week being "pick up your final portfolio whenever you get the chance." We went through, discussed and critiqued the final portfolios of the 15 students who stuck through the whole semester... there was some good work shown, very creative, and at times I felt like my portfolio was just... blah.

I. Am. Exhausted.

Next-to-last photography class today... I was at the lab for 8 hours. My feet hurt. My hands are dry from the chemicals. And I'm wiped out.

Things started out not-so-great. After finishing off a roll of film this morning taking pictures of the hubby-head eating popcorn and sunflower seeds with chopsticks (funny!), I took another half-roll of him eating pizza with said chopsticks... glad I did, because when I got to the darkroom I was unable to reel that first roll of film. After trying 3 or 4 times, I realized that 1) the film was badly torn near the end of the roll, and 2) the first part of the roll had the curl going the wrong way. Apparently the film had flipped over inside my camera at some point, or had been rolled incorrectly at the factory. Whichever it was, I nearly had a breakdown inside the darkroom.

Then the half-roll that I took turned out overexposed, and I was just on the verge of going home in disgust to plan to take more pictures when the professor reminded me that overexposed negatives can be corrected in the printing process. And those pizza pictures actually turned out the best of the bunch.

Blogging from Photo Lab!

So I'm waiting for my contact sheet from the first round of "Chopsticks" pictures to go through the final wash and dry... I don't think the first run worked out so well.

Doesn't help that I'm a moron and I didn't check to make sure the top was tightly on the developing tank before I started the developing process...

Mounting (and printing, developing and photographing) stress

OK, not such a great play on words. But, my final photography class portfolio is due in less than 2 weeks, and the stress is mounting. Every morning while taking a shower, I start thinking about all the stuff I need to get done that day, and every morning I end up stressing about this photography class. It's unhealthy.

Unreasonable Emotional Outburst Caused by Photography

I don't know what my problem is this morning.

I skipped my photography class today because... well, frankly, I'm not prepared. We're supposed to be working our final portfolios (due in 2 or 3 weeks) and I have taken no pictures for it whatsoever.

I got approval to do the unusual food items with chopsticks idea for the final - teacher thought it was amusing... But of course, she's got a lot of ideas for how to tweak the idea that don't really fit with what I was envisioning, and would make it a lot harder for me to actually accomplish over the next two weeks while working full time.