April 30, 2004

Siblings


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Siblings
Taken with Kodak Instamatic

Well "Sibling Hometown Tour 2004" isn't happening this weekend. Last night I found a piece of negative from my childhood Kodak Instamatic camera and thought this photo should be posted to commemorate it. The negative looked like it had been through some hard times.

This is my brother and I sitting on the hydro box behind our childhood home. I have no idea who took this photo but I know it was from my camera because one other photo on the strip was taken by me at Scary Christian Camp that same year (1985). Plus my parents didn't own a camera! Can you believe that! This camera was a birthday gift from someone (probably my aunt) and I wasn't even allowed to use it for the most part on account of the price of developing and the fact that I didn't get an allowance.

We often make jokes about how all the neighbourhood kids are probably sterile on account of that box. It was our subdivision's version of a front stoop. It was used as home base for games of tag and hide-and-seek, as well as the place we sat and talked shit through the long days of summer. You can also bet that a lot of small kids have had their heads bashed against the side of that thing or been pushed off by larger, nastier kids. Ah youth!

Posted by Gayla at 06:29 PM | Comments (10)

April 29, 2004

Nice Weather


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2a
Taken with the Windsor/Diana Hybrid

I walk by this place regularly and am always compelled to take a picture although I usually don't.

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Today is the first truly gorgeous weather of the season. It's friggin HOT! I'm still fighting this fucking virus but am about to go to High Park. It would take a lot to keep me inside today. This has been the nastiest virus I have ever dealt with. I am drinking liquid hell three times a day and yet it lingers on. Even my brother says he is still not completely over it.

Unfortunately this weekend is "Sibling Hometown Tour 2004" and I might have to cancel. Which sucks. But the forecast is rainy and cool so it might not be the end of the world if we have to reschedule.

Posted by Gayla at 04:39 PM | Comments (2)

April 27, 2004

This is the Right Outfit for Today


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Fun Wall
Agfa Clack

I have watched "Grey Gardens" several times in the last week. Can't. Stop. Watching. It. I think it might be having a teeny tiny effect on my current state-of-mind.

Posted by Gayla at 10:45 PM | Comments (8)

April 26, 2004

Crocus Cluster


Crocus

Crocus Cluster
Taken with Great Wall DF- (with close-up filter)

Posted by Gayla at 08:01 PM | Comments (8)

April 25, 2004

Vandyke Print


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Harbourfront
Taken with Ansco Shurshot (box camera) Vandyke Print

Saturday was sunny and since I was still too sick to go out Mr. Risk and I tried making prints using really old chemicals leftover from my non-silver photography class (circa 1995). The cyanotype chemical was dead but the vandyke worked. It didn't work perfectly but at least the images have remained after rinsing. You might recognize the photo as this one taken with a box camera last year.

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World Pinhole Day was bust. I woke up to a cold, windy, grey, rainy, miserable day. I took exactly one photo out on the deck and came back inside feeling cold and defeated. I just wasn't in the mood to attempt some kind of indoor set-up. Well it's only 9:30 pm so there's still time left....

Posted by Gayla at 09:35 PM | Comments (5)

April 23, 2004

I'm Alive! And I've Got a New Camera


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Crocus on the Rocks
Taken with Great Wall DF-

I think I'm getting better. Yesterday after taking the herbs I felt as if I was slowly rotting from the inside out. At one point a patch of skin on my stomach felt as if it had been burned but there was no mark and nothing had scalded me. Bizarre. Today I felt like hell, but a manageable kind of hell rather than a slow death sort of hell. I don't feel like throwing up after every meal. That's a pretty fast turnaround when you consider that I'd been carrying the symptoms since last week and only started taking the herbs yesterday.

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I bought a new camera yesterday in preparation for a big project I will be labouring over solidly until October. Okay the actual "getting" of the camera is all down to Mr. Risk since I was laying in bed thinking about my aching body and not where I was supposed to be -- hunched over my keyboard repeatedly hitting refresh and waiting to place a bid at the last second in order to snatch up that camera from someone else's unsuspecting hands the way so many have done to me in the past. Bastards!

The camera is a Mamiya c330 Professional F. It's a TLR camera that has a bellows and takes a variety of lenses. I'm very excited about it! I have been secretly coveting this camera for many months now but could not justify it until the project was "GO". It's a giant beast of a camera but it should serve me well for it's intended purpose... and of course for fun too!

Posted by Gayla at 12:36 AM | Comments (9)

April 21, 2004

Panoramic -- Tenant 1082


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Tenant 1082 (Alley VIII)
Taken with Horizon 202

I'm sick. Turns out I've contracted some kind of flu-ish virus and didn't realise it. It didn't present itself in the usual cold/flu symptom way just exacerbated the usual symptoms I deal with to varying degrees on a day-to-day basis such as vertigo, nausea and tiredness. The body is funny that way. My immune system is incredible now in some ways but some parts of me are still really weak. So when I'm hit with a virus I don't sneeze and cough like the rest of the population just spin and puke (actually I haven't thrown up yet).

I'm taking a powerful combination of goldenseal and oil of oregano which tastes like hell mixed with water. I took oil of oregano for a short time years ago and it literally put me off the smell and taste of oregano entirely for three years. In fact when I first started doing Chinese Medicine I had to drink a disgusting mud-like tea and then add drops of oil of oregano to it. The concoction was so gross that I actually started smoking in order to stomach it. I'd drink a big gulp and then haul on a cigarette. What a joke. I was taking the stuff to deal with my illness and smoking to deal with the medicine. I gave up the smoking a long while back so now I'm stuck just drinking the mix with a plain water chaser. The worst part really isn't even the going down. Oil of oregano makes you burp a lot and every burb is a special re-introduction to the flavour all over again. Well, despite it all I'll take this over the cold medicine induced haze any day.

Posted by Gayla at 03:30 PM | Comments (10)

April 19, 2004

Like It, Hate It


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Wood Wall (Alley VII)
Taken with Horizon 202


Things I Like

My brother recently sent me an mp3 of "Blackbird" by Nina Simone. Good lord I thought I knew every good song by Nina Simone but I was very, very wrong. This song is incredible. Where do I start? My brother was commenting that he couldn't believe such a song was ever put on an album. It's fairly minimal and incredibly dismal. I can't stop listening to it.

A second recent addiction is "A Change Is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke.

"It's been too hard living, but I'm afraid to die.
Cause I don't know what's out there beyond the sky."

OR

"And then I go to my brother
And I say "Brother help me please"
But he winds up knockin' me
Back down on my knees"


Things I Hate

Wreathes.

Posted by Gayla at 07:16 PM | Comments (5)

April 18, 2004

Meat and Return of the Konica


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Meat
Taken with Great Wall DF-

Here's one from way back in early December.

I blew the entire afternoon today attempting to put together the Dirkon paper pinhole. Actually I put together a simplified version that was posted on ToyCamera.com a while back. Unfortunately I used cardstock that was too thick and the film holding areas are too damn tight. I also can't quite figure out how to load it and don't have an empty 35mm cartridge to use for take-up.... and the back doesn't fit. But other than that it's really solid and fairly indestructable due to layers upon layers of tape.

In order to make up for the wasted time I decided to finish assembling the Spartus Full-Vue pinhole. Now all I have to do is construct a tripod mount. While I was on a roll I disassembled the Lubitel 2 pinhole and made a new hole for it. This time I used an acupunture needle (yay for acupuncture!) instead of a sewing needle. The hole is significantly smaller so I'm hoping for better photos this time around.

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Yesterday we attended the Toronto Photobloggers Meet-up. Conversation started out slow but once the cameras came out it was a full-on geekfest.

Since we were in the area Mr. Risk and I popped over to the photo discount store to see if there was any good crap on discount. I bought some filters for my Polaroid bellows Land Cameras and a telephoto and wideangle lens kit made to fit the Konica C35 MF. Unfortunately I don't have that camera but I did have the Konica C35... which I gave to my brother several months back. The lens kit cost about two bucks so I took a chance and bought it. Turns out they don't fit the rangefinder as the MF camera is an autofocus camera. However, oddly enough they just happen to fit an old Nikon instamatic we have.

Now my brother has never really loved the Konica rangefinder. He wanted a camera to document some of his dj nights and the rangefinder is useless in that environment. He can't see to focus. Mr. Risk and I have no use for the super automatic Nikon camera because we like manual cameras. So in the end I did a trade with my brother. I traded back the Konica C35 and in exchange gave him the automatic Nikon and the lens kit. So much confusion.

Posted by Gayla at 11:39 PM | Comments (5)

April 17, 2004

Panoramic Alley 6 & 7


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Furniture Discount (Alley VI)
Taken with Horizon 202

I don't like to imbed the vertical panoramics so here's a bonus photo. This photo was taken in the same location as orange chair. Unfortunately both the green bench and orange chair are long gone.

Posted by Gayla at 12:09 PM | Comments (4)

April 16, 2004

Yellow Wallpaper


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Yellow Floral with Rocks
Taken with Great Wall DF- (with close-up filter)

Above is the top of the dresser seen in this photo. I think the floral stuff is good ole' mac-tac, but it reminds me of the awful wallpaper I had in my bedroom as a kid.

In my early childhood, my mother had the notion to decorate my room with a partial roll of wallpaper purchased from the Sally Ann -- too little for even one wall. Her solution was to hang it in strips with wall space between. As I got older I came to despise that floral wallpaper. I was not a floral gal and I was certainly not a strips-of-tacky-yellow-floral-wallpaper-spaced-evenly-across-one-wall-with-gaps gal. In silent defiance I slowly tore away at the wallpaper behind the bed in tiny strips during extended pre-teen telephone conversations; damage that was not revealed until we moved a few years later.

I spent many anxiety-filled nights worrying about what would happen if and when she discovered my mini-defilement of her design. But when it was all revealed I silently moved my belongings into my pink and blue floral wallpaper room in the new house and nothing was ever said.

Posted by Gayla at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)

April 15, 2004

SPUD -- Lubitel 2 Pinhole


Lubitel Pinhole

Taken with Lubitel 2 Homemade Pinhole

This one was taken with the dead Lubitel 2 I converted to a pinhole. The hole was made with a very thin needle and a pie tin. The shutter is a wad of electrical tape. I need to figure out a better method because removing and reapplying the "shutter" is difficult to do without jiggling the camera.

Still, it blows my mind that I can make a picture with a hole in a pie tin and a piece of tape. I've been trying to get Mr. Risk and others excited about the *Wonder and Magic of Pinhole Photography* in time for World Pinhole Photography Day. The bastards ain't care.

Unfortunately I had anticipated photos with a wide angle, much like the Zero 2000 images. As a result I ignored the viewfinder and have been left with several photos of headless friends. oops.

Posted by Gayla at 10:48 PM | Comments (3)

April 14, 2004

Back


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Alley Drawers
Agfa Clack

The above is from the first roll through the Agfa Clack I traded the Kiev 35A for way back when.

I'm back on my computer but have lost all saved email as well as my existing inbox. Everything. All gone. All kinds of super important correspondence and various other bits of information are lost forever. The next few days are going to be a scramble to get in touch with people who's email addresses I don't remember to retrieve necessary stuff. Thankfully I had printed some things out simply because I hate reading onscreen.

So if you need to get in touch or I have not replied to a recent email, please resend.

Posted by Gayla at 10:11 PM | Comments (8)

Computer Mishap

There will be no photo today. I had a little computer mishap last night and Mr. Risk is currently in the process of getting it all back.

Last night I was working late attempting to get ahead of the crunch when everything went "poof". My immediate thought after the panic wore off was that it couldn't be a worse time. But I'm sure if it had happened last week or next week I would have thought the same thing. No time is the right time and everytime is the wrong time when it comes to computer troubles.

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Last night I got a bunch of film back and managed to scan the roll from the Lubitel 2 pinhole I constructed a while back. I'm not overly impressed with the results but may still pull it out on World Pinhole Photography Day regardless.

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Does anyone know what happened to a female rapper called Jane Doe? The best example I can think of to explain who she is is her guest spot on a track called "Twice Inna Lifetime" on the Black Star album. She's amazing but I have never been able to find anything by her except guest spots on various tracks.

Posted by Gayla at 04:10 PM | Comments (2)

April 12, 2004

Post Easter



High Park Bushes
Taken with Horizon 202

I've slowed down here lately. I've got lots of deadlines and stuff happening so all my reserve energies are elsewhere. Something off my "To-Do List" is about to happen and while that's a great thing and I've very proud of myself blah blah blah etc etc... there have been many sleepless nights dealing with the mixed emotions of it all. Getting what you want isn't always sunshine and roses. I'm simultaneously exhilarated and terrified.

As usual I completely forgot about the long weekend. Easter is one of those pseudo-holidays that seems to change dates every year. This year it was spent doing taxes!

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We've made some bad film choices lately. The films themselves have been good, just too heavy for my current state. Thursday evening we watched "Capturing the Friedmans" and last night "Stevie" -- both documentaries about really miserable situations. I really need to start renting some comedies.

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Been attempting to arrange my sibling "Hometown Tour 2004" but have been coming up against some roadblocks. VIA Rail does not have a baggage car for that route which means we can't bring our bikes and I can't find a place in the city that rents them. I haven't checked with the bus company but I'm pretty sure they don't allow bikes either. Again I'm in a situation where having a driver's license would make things a million times simpler. My brother doesn't drive either! Anyone in St. Catharines know where I can rent a couple of bikes?

Posted by Gayla at 06:30 PM | Comments (7)

April 08, 2004

At The Beaver (with Kitty)


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At The Beaver
Taken with Horizon 202

This is what happens when a cat with a fetish for crinkly things gets hold of a piece of film.

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Just read all the stories on The Forgiveness Project {via SuperHero}. Of all the stories, I related to this woman's perspective best:

"For me forgiveness began with murderous rage."

Also the wisdom of these words from Desmond Tutu:

"To forgive is not just to be altruistic. It is the best form of self-interest. It is also a process that does not exclude hatred and anger. These emotions are all part of being human. You should never hate yourself for hating others who do terrible things: the depth of your love is shown by the extent of your anger."

More than ever I know I need to figure this forgiveness thing out, but my anger is only just now even remotely beginning to surface... Forgiveness is so often conceptualized as a concept separated from and opposite to anger. These words have made me think.

Posted by Gayla at 10:46 PM | Comments (13)

Honest Ed's


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Honest Ed's
Taken with the Windsor/Diana Hybrid

More about Honest Ed's.

Posted by Gayla at 11:55 AM | Comments (5)

April 05, 2004

Zenit


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Yes I know. Not my best photo ever but I felt a strange obligation to follow up on the Zenit EM. Basically my first roll was blah, mainly comprised of photos of our cat rolling around in catnip and this grainy bottle of hot sauce taken with a closeup filter.

Someone commented that the Zenit would be different then my other cameras. They were right. I don't mind it, I'm just clunky with it and don't see it becoming a regular. I find that if I'm awkward with a camera, my photos reflect that awkwardness.

Meanwhile Mr. Risk loves his and has made it a permanent addition to his camera bag.

In other news I think it's time to redesign. That navigation bar is so inconsistent with my style it sometimes feels like someone else designed it.

Posted by Gayla at 08:20 PM | Comments (6)

April 04, 2004

Conference


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Brick Wall
Taken with Horizon 202

We've spent the last few days at the Flash in the Can festival/conference/whatever, and it is seriously fucking with my sense of time. Because we haven't had a weekend I keep forgetting what day of the week it is.

I don't think I'll go to another conference unless I'm paid to be there. I'm just not a "sit-in-a-room-watching-shit-on-a-screen-all-day" person. Neither was the guy sitting behind me during the first presentation who fell asleep and snored very loudly.

One of the main reasons for this sort of event is hob-nobbing with your peers. I don't hob-nob well. Neither does Mr. Risk. So unless people say hi to us first, we tend to talk only to ourselves.... which we could do any day for free in much more comfortable chairs in a much more comfortable environment.... and with better food.

We suck.

Posted by Gayla at 11:40 PM | Comments (6)

April 02, 2004

Big Fives


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Alley Wall
Taken with Horizon 202

Last night's "Big Fives" event was entertaining. Some people really did reach back into the past to play "all-time" favourites. My personal highlight was the second dj (can't remember his name) who was honest enough to play "Africa" by Toto. He followed that up with "Breakfast in America" by Supertramp.

I can't remember my brother's lineup but "Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield was a huge crowd pleaser... so much so that he played the entire parts one and two.

I'm off sick today (Before you think it, not that kind of sick). Am now going to crawl back into bed to rest my weery body. Mr. Risk and I will be attending the "Flash in the Can" festival this weekend so I gotta get better.

Posted by Gayla at 02:19 PM | Comments (9)