Film shots of Crysta

Here are a couple shots I took of Crysta with my Lubitel. The first one was with a flash, which gives it that cool look of her set off from the blue blue sky. I'm really pleased with how the flash worked with the Lubitel, especially on a bright day.

 This second one is without the flash. You can tell because the separation of foreground from background is less dramatic. Also, there's more shadow on her face and there's a bit of motion blur in her hands. Although this is an odd photo because of her pose, I really like it. It's as though she was just struck by an amazing notion or an invisible creature. Or as though she were part of a modern dance piece.

 

Cozy corner is complete!

Recently, we decided to rip out our fireplace to install a new, much better looking gas one. One day, while reclining on the platform that used to hold the fireplace (oh, it was so ugly and I'm so pleased it is no more), we decided that it was much nicer as a hanging out spot. About a month later, we now have a beautiful "hang deck" with shelves and drawers and lights. One of the coolest features about it is the heating elements under the black tiles. The heat is subtle but palpable. It's large enough to allow two people to nap (we actually have a place for guests now!). And there are enough drawers to house all the CDs we had housed on a grey rolling cart. What a delight! I have the best contractor in the world. Thanks, Jay!

Tenacity

Recently, my husband decided he wanted to "fix-up" my old '94 Toyota pickup. First, he buffed and polished the exterior. Next, he power-washed the engine and removed all the fir needles and moss that had become lodged in the windows, vents, doors, etc. Things were looking good...though he kept talking about turning the truck into his personal "boy toy."

One day, I came home to find he had pulled out the bench seat, the carpeting and the dashboard. The only way to drive the truck was by sitting on a plastic stool (needless to say, it didn't get driven except to jockey around cars in the driveway). He then started working with wood and building boxes for, oh my God, speakers and amplifiers for a new stereo system. I should tell you that he has never actually installed a car stereo before and both of us were unsure of how successful he would be.

He worked on this stereo set-up for days - full weekends were spent in the garage building (and rebuilding) boxes. He also spent many evenings after work with the project. After getting the boxes just right, he began to do the wiring, which he described as "60 wires that I don't know how to connect yet." When I looked at the gaping dashboard and saw the chaos, I knew that I would've quit right then. This is the dashboard:

Horrifying.

Anyhow, I believe in him. I've seen him tear apart motorcycles and rebuild them to running condition, with only a manual by his side. This afternoon, I walked down to taunt, I mean, ask him how it was going when I heard music coming from the interior of the truck. Glory be! He hooked the thing up and, with a little tweaking of the amplifier, he was able to get full-scale, downtown LA, throbbing bass.

We both did a little jig in honor of his genius (though my jig looked better). Here he is, basking in the glory of his accomplishment.

All hail, the tenacious one!

Portraits from yesterday

As I said yesterday, I took a number of photos of my friend, Crysta (4 rolls of film and a number of digital shots to be exact). Here are a couple shots from the G9 that I took. I think they turned out really well (fortunately, she's very photogenic and was an accommodating model). I'm hoping the film shots will be well-exposed and will produce something she and I like.

In my garden

I was fortunate enough to spend some time with a friend this afternoon and take a bunch of portraits of her. She was very tolerant of my "four camera" method of photography, which involves (of course) four cameras (Lubitel with a flash, Fujica 6x4.5, Nikon 35mm film, and Canon G9) slung all over my person and switching on and off a photo flood. I have to take the color film to the lab and get into the darkroom to develop the black & white (I'm hoping I got decent exposures). I may post one of the digital images here in the meantime if she's okay with it.

Because it's so nice, I decided to wander around the garden a bit with the macro function of my G9. I was lucky enough to find this red ant covered in pollen in a dandelion. Unfortunately, this is the only somewhat sharp image I got. At one point I got so close to the ant that he landed on my lens - too close to shoot but it was cool looking - like a dark, ant-shaped cloud.

Hungry ant

I also shot this blue flower - pollen is so cool looking in macro!

Too long on my kitchen counter

Poor celeraic! What did you ever do to deserve a fate such as this? You promised lovely celery scents and tastes as a stock for some delicious soup, but that was never to be. You languished, waiting for attention and for all your possibilities as a culinary delight to be realized. Weeks later, you were a mere shadow of your former, fresh self - a shriveled up, coarse root that could only justify your sad fate by being so wonderfully photogenic.

Celeraic

The rains have returned

Last week we had a bit of a respite from the rain and chilly weather. Oh well, it's April so there's nothing surprising about cold, windy and rainy weather. For all the lousy weather we live with on a regular basis, Northwesterners never tire of complaining about it. We ought to find something else to kvetch about. Fortunately, the days are growing longer so that seems to make up for the periods of dreariness that come and go. Plus, the rain makes for pretty photos...