Paris

Dear Friends,
My internet connection keeps failing on me. I'd send you all postcards but I don't have all your addresses and and spending too much time walking my feet off here. Truly my leg muscles are protesting the hours of walking on cobblestone streets.
Paris is lovely as ever and I'm finding I can still speak French quite well although my accent fails me at times. My son reports he feels illiterate and mute since he doesn't speak a word.
Today we hope to visit the Louvre (yesterday was the Gare d'Orsay) and attend a concert in a church (St. Chapelle) on Ile St Louis tonight. Oh la la!
S

Kew Gardens

We passed a wonderful day in the Kew Gardens yesterday. I took lots of pictures none of which I can post.
A funny thing happened on the way to the Kew. . . .
I chanced to notice that I had a hole in the seat of my pants, or as they say here, trousers. Fortunately they were black pants and I was wearing black underwear--I know TMI. Fortunately also even though it was Sunday we were standing less than a block from a real, American style mall. So I raced off to look for new pants(I'd only brought one pair assuming that it would be 20 degrees warmer here than it is). It is always hit and miss trying to find your size in an unfamiliar environment but after much ado I walked away with a pair of chic (if I may say so myself) Italian blue jeans. So far no one's complimented me. Guess it never pays to travel with men who take you for granted. LOL.
S

Running around

My legs are sore from all the walking we've been doing. Yesterday we were up early, off to Portobello road for the antique market, then to the Victoria and Albert Museum--what an amazing place--then to dinner and a play. Life is good.
Still no pics to post.
s

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.