Successfully refamiliarized myself with my late MIL’s sewing machine tonight, after not having touched it for ten years. Ready to ease into some basic projects… like pillowcases.
Category Archives: creative
Outdoor Camera Fun: November 2016
In an age of smartphones and selfie sticks, I’m doing my best to raise a budding young photographer.
One brisk morning last November, Connor and I went out to photograph in our yard — he with his little blue camera, and me with my long-neglected ActionSampler.
I love seeing his perspective on me…
…versus my perspective on him.
Downtown Photo Walk: December 2016
My five-year-old son’s film camera is a no-name focus-free 35mm camera that my husband got for free years ago. At first it was a toy… but, as it turns out, this little camera takes contrasty, vignetted photos that I really love. So, I’m never hesitant to load up his camera when he asks, because I know he’ll get bored with photographing at some point, and I’ll get to shoot the rest of the roll.
I took the generic blue 35mm on a photo walk downtown back in December. These were the results.
Fujica Half Test Roll
I learned about the Fujica Half while researching sub-miniature and half-frame cameras online. I don’t recall exactly where I learned about this camera, but I decided I had to have one. After watching eBay for a while, I got one for $46.75 shipped this past January.
It arrived in the mail on a Saturday afternoon. I opened the package like it was Christmastime (except more carefully), and was immediately pleased with the size and heft of the camera. It didn’t look like the built-in selenium light meter was responsive, though, which was a bummer. No worries — I’d just forked over some money-well-spent for a battery adapter for cameras and accessories that were build to use mercury batteries, so my Kalimar accessory shoe light meter would serve me well. I was so excited, I loaded up the camera and took it to dinner to try it out.
In the car en route to our favorite Vietnamese joint, I realized that the needle in the viewfinder was moving, and the on-board meter was functional. I compared the readings between all three meters — the Light Meter app on my iPhone, the Kalimar, and the selenium cell meter — and they all read 1/30 sec at f/2.8 indoors. (Which is admittedly on the low end of not needing a tripod, but I was anxious to start shooting with this little camera, so I took a chance.)
[Taken 21 January 2017]
[Taken 21 January 2017]
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Pouring Concrete on the Umpteenth Floor
Part of N. St. Clair St. was closed today while workers poured concrete in the mid-to-upper floors of the Tower on the Maumee (formerly Fiberglas Tower) in downtown Toledo.