Diana F+ First Roll

As promised here is the first roll of film that I got developed from my Diana F+!  All of which were taken in the San Blas archipelago of Panama, which is where we went for Martin’s two week R&R from Iraq.  (:

I’ll post even the two that turned out horribly, see?  Maybe they are bad because I didn’t use the flash…which I can’t currently locate…hmmm.

For those of you not familiar with a Diana F+, she looks like this:

And for anyone wondering where I got my 120mm film developed, you may or may not be surprised to hear Rite-Aid!  I had done a lot of research online and found that Dwayne’s Photo was a reputable and reliable developing lab.  But for one roll of 120mm film, approximately 8 exposures, it would have cost me around $10.00.  To me that just seemed like a lot, especially since I was afraid all of my photos would turn out like the two horrible ones above.

I had read that it was possible to have your 120mm film developed at places such as Walmart, Rite-Aid, CVS, Target, etc because they have to send out their film regardless, with some of it even ending up at Dwayne’s apparently!  I was skeptical but after more digging around the internet, I found this from Red Kiwi Photography on Flickr and decided to give it a shot.  Here is what she says to do in order to have Rite-Aid develop your film:

I put a big X over the whole section of the envelop with 35mm film developing options and write special instructions

My instructions say:
“C41 120 size film
Process & Print (4″ x 4″ glossy prints)
sleeve negatives
approx 12 exp
Thank you!”

So that’s what I did, and it worked!  It took about two weeks for this roll of film to be developed and I am still waiting for my second, but for a total developing price of $1.80, I ain’t complaining!

Uglies

My mission this afternoon was to document the uglies of Cambridge.  It is kind of unfair of me to only post the pretty pictures here, right?  Because it distorts reality.  And the reality is Cambridge is not as charming as we all expected it to be.  In fact, part of the reason why I started photographing all the pretty things I saw on my walks was to foster a more positive attitude towards the city I call (our temporary) home.  I still don’t love this city like I thought I would, but I have to admit, I don’t totally despise it like I did a few months ago.  Damn you Massachusetts and your beautiful summer-yet-taste-of-fall-in-the-wind weather!!  I’m sure if you live around here its already been mentioned in a Facebook feed or two, but this weather is quite literally the best ever.  The best.  Like even Texas can’t touch this weather and I love me some Texas!

 

 

Lomography First Attempts

A few weeks ago One Kings Lane had this adorable little camera for sale and I almost immediately had one in my shopping cart for purchase.  But there was something holding me back, you see over a year ago I bought a Diana F+ from a friend, stocked up on film, went on a trip to Panama with Martin, shot said film, and then nothing.  Having the film developed, since it was an uncommon 120mm, would cost me an arm and a leg, and because I had no clue if I had even used the camera correctly (I feared paying a lot of money to get entirely black frames back) the undeveloped film sat in our cabinet for months and months.

So when along comes this flash sale for a totally cute 35mm camera my interest and curiosity in analogue photography was again piqued.  Here was a camera that could provide hipster quality photos AND I could get the film developed at the Rite Aid down the street!  Me, the eternal cheapo, decided to troll Ebay for a while to see if I couldn’t find this La Sardina for less, which I did!

And here…da da da, are my first photos.

All of the above photos, with the exception of my Ralphers, were taken at Dinosaur Valley State Park in Texas.  Those are actual fossilized dino tracks you all are seeing in that first photo!  So cool, huh?

Getting this film back from Rite Aid felt like Christmas, except I have to admit, I felt disappointment when looking through the photos for the first time.  This camera promises vivid colors and multiple exposures, and while the multiple exposure glitch must have been an user error (oops), what’s up with the muted colors?  Bad cheap Rite Aid film?

Stay tuned though, I finally did get some of my Diana F+ film developed recently and am thrilled with the results.  As soon as I scan them in, I’ll share!

 

Tony & Esther’s Place

This past summer Martin was in Dallas interning at BCG, the job requires a lot of traveling but he still needed a crash pad for the weekends.  Insert Tony & Esther’s charming home in Forest Hills.  I sometimes feel that when people hear I am an interior designer that they assume the only kind of homes I fancy are big, expensive, luxuriously decorated ones.  Many times though that can’t be further from the truth, I prefer a home that is cozy and lived in to something styled sterile any day of the week.

I did find Tony and Ester’s place to be giggle worthy in one regard.  I told Mart is was as if they went all out with their decorating 20 years ago, dusted their hands off, and settled in for the rest of their lives.  Quite different from our home, where the decor is never really finished!

The Threat Of Dogs & Smokers

Last winter construction began on what I hoped was new public park, excitedly I thought I’d have another nearby spot to let the dogs romp around in.  Boy was I wrong.  I watched with mounting disappointment as the area was constructed, and now finished, 90% of it is man-made infrastructure.  The ground is sterile padded rubber so that little kiddos don’t fall and hurt themselves, banning dirty knees as a thing of the past!  Installed are metal and plastic climbing structures which I suppose are meant to offer a variety of stimulating play, but are completely soulless and in my opinion, eye sores to look at.  Where are the rocks to overturn looking for bugs and salamanders?  Where is the creek to splash and slip in?  Where are the trees to climb, simultaneously filling you with terror from the height but awe inspiring from the bird’s eye perspective their limbs provide?

Architectural diagrams – The more monochromatic top circles are photos taken of the park during the final phases of construction.  The rest is my interpretation of what the space could have been.  Wild, beautiful, carefully cultivated so that things appeared untethered, public garden spaces that people and creatures of all types could enjoy.  Here was my idea, no play structures or padded ground, just imagination.

*Summertime update: They have added some nice landscaping to the area but I still hold strong to my belief that if designed differently the park could have been so much better & enjoyed by a wider range of people.

Also, one day this appeared, which ironically brings me snarky amusement every time I walk by.  Y’all need to hide your kids, hide your wife, and hide your husband cause they’re dogs and smokers out here!

Sunday Morning At Walden Pond

 

 

Bits & Pieces

Vintage post cards are the beginning of a project, except what it is or will be I don’t know yet.

And the little Ralphers who saw something!

The Urban Garage

Today the absurdity of how much stuff we manage to store here made me smile.  But where would I be without my cordless drill, power tools, and cans of left over paint?!  And Martin going without his car maintenance goodies?  Inconceivable!

Here’s to admitting without any hint of shame, that I can not wait for a garage! (:

Life’s Work

Today driving back to the office from a client’s home in Weston, I slowed to let a truck turn out onto the road in front of me. Here he is, see what is tied up to the back of his truck?

Closer…

He is hauling porta potties.  When I saw that, I thought to myself, “That is his life’s work.”  And then felt a twinge of pity for him.  Almost immediately I wanted to take back my feelings of pity, because why should I pity him?  It’s only a job he does.  While at the same time realizing my emotional reaction AND my words were totally wrong.  That is not his life’s work.  That was just his work.  His life is so much more than that.

Detour Road

Excerpt from the introduction of Down Detour Road – An Architect in Search of Practice:

Upon seeing a street sign in rural Eastern Maryland that read, “Detour Rd,” the author writes,

“For all the years that I had spent trying to find meaning and purpose in my architecture – in any architecture – this accidental piece of signage had achieved what I had not.  Meaning perspired off the sign while I sat on the side of the road, on the bare earth, waiting for the light to get just right.  The sign was my whole life.  It was a detour that somehow became a road.  I mediated on the fact that detours aren’t something you choose to take; you take detours when the road that you want to take has been closed, washed out, bombed through, or is otherwise unavailable.

Detours are longer and less direct, and yet often show us parts of the place that we otherwise never would have visited.  They expand our experience and our knowledge, even when we would rather have taken our regular road.  My life had, up to that point, been a series of accidents and mistakes that somehow found purpose and validation.  For all the things I had intended my life to be, for all the things I thought I would be doing at 31, I was sitting in the dirt, on the side of an empty, unlit road, jobless, homeless, cold and hungry, lusting after a street.  And yet contained within this oxymoron was the whole story.  My life, and my architecture, were no longer a detour.  They had become a road.”

I feel as if his words have come straight out of my own mind.  And this is only the introduction!!  Of course, I am still searching for my proverbial street sign that makes everything fuzzy, clear.