In London!

Hi all,
I'm in London playing tourist and am one happy camper. Alas, my laptop is still balking at my spending any time on the internet so no photos today or perhaps for the duration of the trip. I'm on a borrowed computer now.
I have already taken a zillion photos so much posting to follow when I'm on-line or home again.
Best,
S

The Best and the Rest

I thought I'd share with you my first (actually second since my first roll I've hand developed the negatives but haven't made prints yet) role of print film in ages. I bought some cheap color film and had it all cheaply developed (one hour photo at Walgreen's). The shots are pretty bad! The colors look off, most are under or over exposed or dreadfully blurry. I'm almost proud of how awful I am.



For my class we are using black and white film and doing our own developing so it will take me longer to get feedback on the quality but hopefully I will be learning a lot.
In the interest of full disclosure, I will also show you my worst shot. It's OK to laugh.

Busy, busy

Sorry for not posting for so long. Every time I seem to sit down to do so, something comes up. My computer is moribund as well. I'm not sure I'll be able to resurrect it.
In my not so infinite free time I'm taking an analog photography class. I find it hard to think of the camera as an analog camera. Whatever happened to "film" camera? Today I developed my first batch of negatives. Some of them even came out. I won't get to print the film (yes we're doing dark room too), until next week.
The photo is of my, borrowed, camera. I may splurge on a used Canon SLR--they are priced well and are compatible with some of my Canon lenses. My aim in taking this class (besides being entertained and that the class time fit with my schedule) is to get more comfortable with the manual settings on my DSLR. Hope it works.

Just a taste. . . .

How was your holiday weekend--that is if you are reading in the U.S? Mine was so busy I hardly got a chance to check my e-mail much less blog. I'm here to post at least one photo from the holiday.
On Friday the family, a couple of friends and I picnicked in Grant Park to listen to a concert and watch the fireworks (Chicago's traditional celebration is on July 3rd). The crowds were daunting--I ran over to the Taste of Chicago, a local food fest to pick up some dinner for myself and the boys and felt somewhat like it must feel to be dancing in a Mosh Pit (is that spelled correctly). Not my thing! Intimate relations with thousands of strangers is creepy at best. I had vivid images of how a person could get crushed if they fell in a crowd like that.
Nonetheless, the picnic was fun, the company exceptional, the concert a bit lame and the fireworks fun as always. And it only took us 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot on the way home. When you attend an event with hundreds of thousands of people, expect traffic! I'll look up the actual head count later. There was also an amazing police presence, but that's for another post.
I'm late to work! Will post now and add picture later.