random list of happy things

happy right now...

~ about bright colors of paint in sabin's room.

~ that in my dreams, i can confidently use parts from one polaroid to repair another.

~ that in my dreams i apparently have a  polaroid.

~ that the t.v. is off and the only sounds i can hear are the cat purring and myself typing.

~ that i have a big stack of fabric i just cut to begin a new quilt (#3 this year) tomorrow. this one's in red.

~ that my sister's friends are way weirder than my friends (case in point: one of them, who is not jewish, is holding a bar mitzvah party for her husband, who is also not jewish. isn't that just weird? and possibly objectionable or at the very least culturally obtuse.).

~ new moo cards are on their way.

~ that i did all of the items on my list today except for one (and no, there were not only two items on the list).

~ that matilde (our horse) is gleefully covered in mud and loving it.

~ there was a bit of sunshine today.

~ i went running this afternoon and am amazed how much energy it gave me.

~ and i didn't die of a heart of attack by the side of the road (you know i usually run only when chased).

~ sunset well after 5 p.m.

~ bloggy lists to clear my head.

hope your day was full of small happinesses.

film swap - learning as we go

now, with a big whopping two developed films under my belt, i feel that i can draw some conclusions about this film swap thing and how to make it work. i'm a quick learner, you see. (heehee.)

the film: the first film that shokoofeh developed was a fujichome sensia 400. it was slide film, and so we added another layer to the fun in cross-processing it in C41 chemicals for regular negative film (at least i think we did - shokoofeh had some trouble finding a lab willing to do that). the film shokoofeh sent to me and which my photo lab man lost for nearly a month was a regular fuji 200 negative film. it was developed normally (aside from the losing it). and i think that worked out better.

the ISO:  the film swap people (aka that film swap flickr group) recommend that the person taking the first round on the roll doubles the ISO setting on the camera - so if you have a 400 film, you should tell your camera it's an 800. after these two rolls, my opinion is that that doesn't really work. we're going to try a roll where we've set the ISO to the correct setting and see how that goes.

the light: the shots that worked best seemed to be when they were taken in light conditions that were a bit too dark for the ISO settings. for example, this shot, where the light was good and moreover correct for the settings, shokoofeh's shot is pretty much obscured. then, there were these shots, where the light of the second picture, while obscuring somehow the first one, also brought it out at one and the same time.

half frames: i don't have any theories yet as to what makes one set lined up and one set off alignment, so that the second shots are all half frames on the first ones. one of these ended up with some half frames and some not - it must have something to do with how the films advanced along the way.


the camera: i used a canon AE-1 program to take my shots. and shokoofeh used an olympus OM-1. i don't think the camera matters, tho' perhaps the frames are more reliably lined up if you use the same kind of camera, due to differences in how they advance the film. my sister and i are going to do a film swap and we'll both be using the canon AE-1s, so i'll have more data after that.

the magic: we had a couple of shots on both rolls, where it seemed to be a triple exposure. i don't know if this is because one or the other of us failed to advance a frame or if something else happened, but it was rather magical. other than that, i think the magic is in the serendipitous and completely unpredictable layering of the shots. the magic is just there and you don't have much control of it.

the serendipity: sometimes, the two shots have a similar subject matter, tho' neither photographer could know it at the moment of taking the photo. and it's those times when it seems like the image is as close as you can get to two souls touching.

* * *

ulrika blogged about our photos..please check it out! and thank you, ulrika!

intersections 3: everyday life and light

scenes of everyday life in two countries. cultures separated by miles and climate and even religion (tho' religion is absent here, unless it's a general worship of light). but the photos are full of serendipities and in their everyday subject matter seem to layer a sense of quiet peacefulness on one another. one wishes the geopolitical scene would learn from this...

these are from the second roll of film swap photos that shokoofeh and i took in the late summer and autumn. my camera shop nearly lost this film forever, as it got separated from the rest of my order. the tears pooling in my eyes made the disorganized owner look through his drawer an extra time. he finally found it, labeled with the wrong name, after i mentioned that it was double exposures. i will not be going back to vefa foto on kirkegade in vejle, i can tell you that. both because of that and because he charged me 30 kroner extra per film in comparison to what was written on the packet. i guess that was my special "tax" for speaking danish with a foreign accent.

but back to these photos...they were worth the wait, the extra money and the almost tears. i think this roll is even better than the first one. more on shokoofeh's photostream and her blog. and as shokoofeh mentioned there, if you blog about these photos on your own blog (which is fine with us), do let us know, as there just might be something special in it for you.  thus far, the ones we know about:

eating a tangerine

wayside violet

do let us know if you've blogged it too!

flickr faves - LOVE

accidental love

1. Poladroid Letter L, 2. Accidental Letter "O", 3. flickr.com/photos/48973657@N00/4037102429/, 4. The letter E

from the postcards to blog camp group

1. 16/365 2010, 2. 16/365*2, 3. 16.365 light and shadow, late afternoon, 4. prater, berlin, 5. Fiore Olives, 6. Encapsulated

blue whimsy

1. 110113 Blue on Blue, 2. In Amaravati, 3. How many layers are we talking about?, 4. Some of My Favourite Things, 5. Snowblind, 6. More blue spools

a dose of cute

1. january 8, 2011 - magic in pink and green, 2. Earthuse Shoot-3, 3. Basket Case Quilt, 4. ooak289, 5. ✽ ᴥ ✽ ✽ ᴥ ✽ ✽ ᴥ ✽, 6. Humphrey, Hubert and Heffle

shades of retro blue

1. Hi - Lo Motel & Cafe - Weed, California, 2. Turquoise Trailer, 3. Joy Of Cooking, 4. Shades of Blue and Green

* * *

don't forget to check out a sustainable life - the conversation is getting very interesting over there.

lessons in felting or it's good to have a stash

after patoot's arrival on friday, sabin and i were both fascinated by the whole notion of felting. several years ago, i made a felted scarf and since then, i've bought rovings here and there when i've seen them on sale. as you might have guessed, i also bought several books about felting. but i never really used them much, nor did i really have a plan for all that wool. but now, when we were inspired, it seems we had all of the supplies we needed at hand. (life lesson: it's good to have a stash.)

so we got out the stash and began. i set out to make a cat, but about the time i put little dots of pink in its ears, it began to look more like a frog. so felting lesson #1: you may not be making what you thought you were making.

felting lesson #2: it hurts really badly when you poke yourself with that needle. felting lesson #2a: you will do this rather more often than you'd like.

felting lesson #3: you may think you're making arms, but they may turn out to be feet. (refer to lesson #1.)

felting lesson #4: it is possible to poke the felting needle all the way through your finger - in one side and out the other. felting lesson #5: that hurts like crazy.

this is frode frø - a little green frog. he likes macs too. and i'm amazed how a bit of fluffy wool can become a little character. felting lesson #6: the felting books do not adequately convey the magic of the alchemy that happens between needles and wool. i wish some of those fabulous felters out there that i know would write a really good book about this amazing craft. this is a hint to you and you.

intersections 2: denmark meets iran

more of the shots from the film swap with shokoofeh. i'm still finding it difficult to put words to how amazing and profound i think these layered photos turned out, so i think i'll let them speak for themselves...

cutie patootie

meet patoot the jacabob by kit lane. i couldn't believe my luck. i've been stalking admiring kit's work since she left a clever comment on one of lisa's flickr photos before christmas and the other day, i happened onto her etsy shop at exactly the right moment to make patoot mine. and patoot arrived just in time yesterday to help me make some birthday bunting for sabin's upcoming birthday. featuring little danish flags, of course (the danes are such flag-wavers on their birthdays).  kit is super clever, check out her etsy shop and be sure to read her hilarious profile (just don't take a sip of your coffee before you begin unless you've got applecare on your macbook). but if you want a jacabob, you'll have to be quick, they go very fast.