Moving Again

Ok, folks, now I'm on this photo kick, I've decided to branch this off into another blog. Please go to www.clairelightanddark.blogspot.com. It's dedicated to photography and the power of art to channel, you know, emotions and stuff (not to get too gushy or anything).

Here are a couple more. The one in the middle is City House. Once again, I took that in colour, but it looks better in black and white. I so feel like I'm cheating when I can push a button and it's suddenly a gorgeous black and white picture, but seriously, this is the digital age, and I need to get over my dinosaur self.

Here are some pictures I took the other day on my lunch break at the old Yazoo Brewery in Marathon Village. These were taken with my trusty FE2 on 35mm film. I was just bored, needed to get out of the office, and playing around. I've spent a lot of time there in the past year, and the place has some wonderful and some bittersweet memories. The originals were colour print film, but playing around in Picasa produced much better results in black and white.

Kept Promises

Lately, amidst all the turmoil, something strange has happened: I've made promises to myself, albeit little ones, and kept them.

Today, as promised, I went to the Flying Saucer to celebrate the Divorce Day of my friend, Miss B. I kept my promise and took my Diana equipped with a flash and a cheesy homemade paper towel diffuser. It looked kind of strange, and I did get some odd looks, but I took my interior shots. I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about the results. I had to open the shutter and pop the flash at the same time, and that takes some coordination and a very steady hand. I am sure I thought I was keeping the camera a lot steadier than I actually was. But, I took a roll as an experiment, so we'll see how it comes out. Everything handy became a makeshift tripod - Miss B.'s beer glass, my beer class, the back of a chair, the table, my chest - anything to get a steady surface. I would like to attach the flash to the camera properly, but for that I would have to order the adapter for a flash, and I think it only works with the special Diana flash, which is ridiculously overpriced, and I'm not sure I could justify spending sixty dollars on something I just want to experiment with. We'll see how these pics come out - if I like the results, I may stick with this cumbersome process, but if not, I might look into other options.

After the Saucer, we went to The Villager, a place I don't think I've been in at least a year and I realized the picture taking potential in there. It would be amazing for Diana flash shots. I found some blogs at work today on how to finagle a Diana to work with a regular flash. I'll have to check them out and see what I can rig up. I have to slow down a little on the film-taking though because this could seriously eat up all my money, either that or I have to cut down the booze and food budget - oh the sacrifices we make for art! (I'm just kidding really - I'm not picturing myself as a great starving artist or anything - I'm just a girl with a camera trying to drown some demons.)

My Dam Pictures!

I worked for an hour this morning. Apparently no one thought to tell me not to come into work, but that really doesn't surprise me. There was nothing to do and no one there. I sat there, waiting for someone to show up or something to happen, and it didn't, so I waited an hour and decided to leave. Fortunately, something told me to bring my camera equipment. Mr. W. called to tell me I had left my make-up at their house. I told him I was leaving and he said he would have breakfast ready. Have I mentioned I have phenomenal friends?

I persuaded him to come on yet another adventure with me. He's ex-army and kind of tough, so I figured having him along for the ride was a perfect opportunity to take pictures in all the nastiest areas of Nashville today. He was my photo-bodyguard.

We were driving towards Bordeaux when I suddenly noticed an old neon motel sign that had previously gone completely unnoticed, even after driving that road scores of times. I pulled into the driveway and we discovered a photographic goldmine - an abandoned motel with loads of junk and about the best neon sign in Nashville. Mr. W. borrowed my Nikon FE2, and after a little instruction in the ways of "analogue" camera technique, started shooting away, and quite successfully (I already mentioned how cool that camera is, didn't I?).

We snaked around Nashville in the gorgeous weather (when I post the pics, you'll see the gorgeous deep blue skies dotted with little independent puffy cotton-wool clouds) and made our way through scary neighbourhoods (Bordeaux, Buena Vista, Jefferson, Dickerson Rd.). We were only yelled at once, by an Indian woman who scowled at me and told me I couldn't take a picture of her crappy hotel sign. She doesn't have much choice about it if I take it from the street anyway, but I didn't want to get into the legal specifics with her. The great thing about shooting a TLR - no one thinks you are taking a picture because they don't see you raise it to your face. Sneaky.

On Buchanan Street (a street filled with photographic gems - I would love to go at night, but simply lack the bravery/stupidity to do so), I took a picture of an old laundry/dry-cleaners. Across the street, the Nation of Islam mosque blasted their sermon via loudspeakers for the surrounding blocks to hear. On Easter, the effect was quite surreal. On Dickerson Road, a bum carrying a brown-bagged 40, who stumbled across the street oblivious to the cars swerving to miss him, asked me to take a picture of him. I declined as I only had two shots left and still had to backtrack and shoot the Last Chance Liquor Store, but I should've.

After driving through Nashville's nether regions, Mr. W. and I went back to Wolf Camera to see Miss L. and get our rolls processed. She, as predicted, had already developed our film from Friday night. A few of mine came out great, especially one taken on the pier at Old Hickory Marina. However, we deduced I might have a shutter-sticking problem, because three pictures in row came out severely over-exposed on mine. Strangely enough, they were all pictures of Old Hickory Dam. Miss L. exclaimed, "your dam pictures didn't come out!" Dam pictures!

I got some prints of my latest rolls too, but I don't have a scanner here at the moment. I promise pics soon!

Unexpected Play Day!

Today I unexpectedly got out of work at 11:30. I need the money, but there was nothing I could do about it, so I decided to enjoy the day. I went over to my parents' house for a while, came back here and had a shower, and decided, as it was a perfect, gorgeous day, to head out to the country and take pictures. I picked up Mr. W. and we headed out to Ashland City, Charlotte, and came home through Dickson, where we ravenously ate BBQ. I managed to get a good roll of film (I think) and found a really cool old house to take many pictures of. I'm hoping they come out as fabulously as I envisioned, but I don't know how often that actually happens.

Driving around all afternoon with the top down on the car has made me super tired. I could go to bed and pass out, and as you may or may not know about me, I am a little bit of an insomniac and almost never feel truly tired. It's always a fight to get me to go to bed, but like a two year old with terrible two tantrums, apparently the secret is to make me play all day in the sun.

I plan to go into work tomorrow, but I'm not sure if there will be anything to do. I envision getting home early. If so, I might go to the Flying Saucer in the afternoon and take some interior shots there - the windows are really gorgeous and I think with a Diana and a pop flash, it should come out rather interesting and pretty. I'm curious to experiment with the Diana and a flash and see what I get, especially indoors during the day.

I'll keep you posted. Sorry I haven't posted any pictures yet, but I still don't have my scans back. As soon as I do, I will post anything that's semi-decent.

Photodate

Last night I had my photodate with Miss L. She brought her Mamiya TLR, so we were both shooting old school. This got some questions when we went down to the marina. People were fascinated with our old, strange looking cameras. The light wasn't as good last night as is was the night before, but it turned gorgeous right before it got dark, so I am hoping I captured some of that. Miss L. took my film to be developed, so I should have results tomorrow, at least of the negatives, and I am so excited about getting my scans Tuesday.

We went around the lake and the dam and the marina, and took some pictures of old stuff here in Old Hickory. I am about to have a shower and do it all over again with Mr. W., who has offered to humor me and come with me to take some pics. The light is gorgeous today, so I'm hoping to get some good shots, of what, I don't know. I guess we'll figure it out as we go. Wish me luck. I'm taking the Diana, the Zeiss, and my trusty Nikon FE2 (which by the way, is my first real camera - I'll tell you the story of that one day - and still my true favourite. I love that camera like it's family). Anyway, I wax nostalgic. Time to get off my arse and go and take pictures!