The news of the past week has left me exhausted, and to add to my suffering I had to go to the doctor today for a running injury that I am hoping won’t sideline me. I’m right at a key point in my training, too. So I’m a little bit depressed and stressed.
I really don’t have the mental capacity to come up with a blog post today. So let’s dive into the Flickr Time Machine and see what I was doing 10 years ago.
Well this is fun. 10 years ago this week I dug my film camera out the the closet, my beloved Pentax P30t, and decided to take myself downtown to shoot some film. I’d been shooting digital for awhile but had an urge to shoot a roll of film. Little did I know a seed was planted that day. 😉
These were taken in Riverfront Park (Spokane, Washington) on August 19, 2007. I probably used Fuji Superia.
Film Swap with Nick. His was shot in Spokane, WA and mine in Oregon. We used film that was expired 20 years.
If I had to blame my obsession with film phtography on a person it would be my friend Nick from Spokane. Back in the days when we used to go on “Photorolls” with the Spokane Flickr Group (years and years ago) he was dabbling in film photography. And doing interesting things with it! Like double exposures and pinhole photography. I remember seeing his stuff and saying in my head (in all caps) “I WANT TO DO THAT.”
Six years later and I am doing that. And I am having a blast.
Inspired by the filmswap I did with Brendan, Nick suggest that we do an Oregon/Washington film swap. I sent some film his way and he sent some film my way. You can see the results of the film I sent him on his Flickr. Here are a few of my favorites from the film he sent me. The film he sent was 20 years expired so that is why it is a bit grainy and has a blue-ish cast.
Look Up
Stone Trees
Lilac and Doug Fir. (sounds like the names of the main characters of a hipster romance).
grid
If you want to swap film with me let me know in the comments! It’s fun!
The weekly photo challenge is reflections. I am practically obsessed with this as a photography subject and have explored reflections in my photography for many years. Here is one that I took in January of 2008 in Spokane, WA when I still lived there. I love this photo because of the distortion of the clock tower’s reflection. This was taken when I was very unhappy. I am not a winter/snow person and, as you can see, we were deep in the dead of winter at that time (and we hadn’t even experienced the “Storm of the Century” yet). I was very unhappy living in Spokane and wanted desperately to move. The distortion of the tower reflected the feelings I had inside of me at the time.
This photo was taken on this day in 2008 in the backyard of the house we still own in Spokane. The flickr caption states that I was learning how to use my new camera, a Pentax K10d. I beat myself up in the tags. I said that this was a crap photo. How mean of me to say that to myself! geez. I need to work on not beating myself up. This has always been a problem of mine and the reason why I have never been successful in any creative endeavor. Well, successful in the perfectionist way I envision success to be. I hold myself up to high standards, standards that I will never meet. And when I realize this I give up. This is why, the past few years, I have “given myself permission to produce crap.” This simple declaration has really freed me up and helped me explore my creative side.
Looking at this now I realize that it isn’t crap at all! It’s kind of a nice photo, in fact. Not the greatest thing ever produced, but there is some potential there. right? I have always had an interest in exploring details as a subject in my photography. I think this photo demonstrates that a little.
I heard a song this morning (Satellites by Parts and Labor) that reminded of Spokane. It reminded me of that really cold, dark, sad time of winter. It made me think of the conversation I had with my husband yesterday about Spokane. When we lived there all we wanted to do was get out and when we reminisce about our time there the conversation usually leans toward, “God, I am so glad we got out of there.” Yesterday’s conversation was different though. We thought about all of the good things Spokane gave us:
I got to spend a good 4 years with my step-dad before he died.
I got hooked in with the Spokane! Flickr group which introduced me to a group of really great photographer friends and also reignited my interest in photography. I think about that and I am so grateful for it! Photography is one of my greatest joys and I am so happy that I have it as an outlet for my creativity.
So, in short, Spokane was not all bad. In fact, it wasn’t bad at all. The good things that came out of living there (because if we hadn’t moved there none of these good things would have happened) make the cold, dark, sad time of winter worth every minute.
Blatherskite 