Misadventurous

Yesterday for me was absolute insanity wrapped in crazy misadventure/epic quest. However, I believe I managed to capture a few good pictures. So here's the story:

Me and two others were all set to go the Punk Rock Flea Market in Philly at the Starlight Ballroom. We drive into the city, no problem. But we get off the exit, get confused, and effectively get lost in the car for roughly 45 minutes to an hour. So we park in a garage. Maybe, on foot, we'll be able to figure it out better because we don't have to worry about all that "one way" business. Not so. We took the bus, got even more lost, and wandered around on foot for like, two hours. And that's not even an exaggeration (though it's a complete estimation). While wandering, we asked a cop for directions. 

"You know what?" he said, "Just get in. This isn't a good place to be wandering around." So we got to ride in a cop car. Pretty sweet when you're not in handcuffs (!). He put on the sirens, too. Anyway, battle-worn, we FINALLY got their. It was postponed until JANUARY because the time slot got pulled by the venue. It was pretty much the greatest sense of defeat I have ever felt. 

We gave up and went to South Street. Here's where the pictures come in. I went into this antique store and, as soon as I walked in, I was completely entranced. The whole ceiling was filled with chandeliers. There was all these strange lamps and sconces everywhere, sitting on all these wild tables and chairs. I took a ton of photos until I started feeling really self-conscious about it and was afraid I was going to knock something over. I think they should be pretty good though. It was difficult because the lighting wasn't great all over and their was some really interesting objects I would have loved to photograph.

But alas, I used film that cannot be processed at school. We will have to wait and see how they look.

Hello Again…

I'm finally posting some more darkroom stuff. Look and see. Comment if necessary ;D






Two of these are obviously facing the wrong way. But I don't feel like fixing it. Sorry.

Shutter Speed!

Okay, so here's the thing about shutter speed:

The shutter opens in order to let light into the camera to expose the film, similar to the aperture. However, it is only open for a certain amount of time, such as 1/30 of a second or 1/1000 of a second or what have you, depending on the setting. In general, the settings double as they go, such as from 1/2s to 1s. When used in conjunction with the aperture, the shutter speed allows for the proper exposure of the film. Let's say, for instance, you're shooting in a dark area. To capture the image properly, you need to let more light in. This can be achieved using a larger aperture. However, this can also be achieved with a longer shutter speed. The longer the shutter is open for, the longer a window of light exists to expose the film. Ta-dah!

Unfortunately, my camera has an automatic shutter speed, so it automatically compensates for the light lacking from the aperture (I think.) So this concept feels a little bit distant to me :(

Halloween Spirit

Last night, some friends and I went to "The Great Pumpkin Carve" at the Chadds Ford Historical Society. It's a little cheesy and childish, but the carvings people turn out are amazing. So, I took as many pictures as my camera could hold of some of the pumpkins I liked. I apologize in advance that they're kind of blurry, but it's pretty crowded in the "pumpkin patch" and my friends kept moving on without me, so I was half-ready to walk when I took ninety percent of them.

"El Cielo Es Azúl…"

So after two days in the darkroom, I enlarged three photos and uploaded two of them here. They're both from that day when back when when the whole class pretty much just played around in all that garbage behind the school.

Here's Cassie standing next to a dumpster. Sorry, no arty, poetic titles or anything. I can never think of good titles for anything. As far as the picture goes, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I like it, I guess. I was pretty proud of the fact that it showed up at all, so go figure.

Can you guess what this one is? People seem to be having a little trouble with that and, I've got to say, I like that. Enigmas make me happy. Anyway, it's water in a piece of industrial tubing (I think that's the right word for what it was.) I really like it compositionally, but there are scratches and stuff from my dirty negatives and it's not exactly centered. I guess I could work on that if I really wanted to, I just don't know. I was surprised by how much I liked the photograph when it developed, so I don't exactly have an attachment to it. It's not like I was dying to see it in full. Maybe I'll work more on it… I don't know. It's been a little tough for me to work on anything lately.

Fun With Apertures

So, time to talk about all the things I've learned so far. In particular, three things about apertures.

1) The aperture is the opening which controls the amount of light that reaches the film. The larger the aperture, the more light reaches the film. The smaller the hole, the less light. Pretty simple. Used in conjunction with shutter speed, the proper exposure is achieved.

2) The aperture is gauged using numbers. The larger the number, the smaller the aperture. The smaller the number, the larger the aperture. For instance f/1.4 would be larger than f/8. Confused yet?

3) The aperture is also responsible in controlling depth of field. This allows you to focus in on what you choose. For instance, making a point in the foreground very clear and keeping the rest of the image slightly out of focus.

Now that I know all this stuff, I should probably go work on that aperture photo assignment.

The Beginning of a [Possibly] Beautiful Friendship

Hello, Blogspot and others! I'm Victoria, an 11th grade student at PFA. As part of my darkroom photo, we're creating blogs to post our work. So I'm going to start with these photos I've previously taken.