Happy 4th of July

Here is a shot of my Holga....I painted a red+white+blue chevron design on it.....Hope you are having a happy day with your family!

Fisheye Photo Outing

Even though I stayed in bed past 11 a.m. this morning and could've laid around in my pjs all day, I managed to force myself to join up with a little photo outing this afternoon.

One of my super special Christmas presents this year was a fish eye lens attachment for my Nikon camera. It is just a cheap little attachment, but I love using those kind of lenses because they give the digital a little bit of a lomo feel. I was also shooting with my Holga and Instagram on my iPhone 4.

I am excited to see how my Holga images turn out....I'm always nervous whenever I use 100 speed film.

Below you can see some of my favorites from today's shoot with the fish eye lens.

Machinery on the farm

 As grotesque as it looks, I could not stop filming this deer skull. I even made a little stop-motion video with it....

Robert let me bring it home. It is on the mantle now....should be a great source of inspiration. (A little O'keeffe in all of us, right?)

The hip-hop-hippy on a windy day.

How many cameras does it take???

Interior, old shed

Wasp Nest Bird Cage

Jeepers Creepers, where'd you get those peepers.

Photo Collage Friday {Number thirteen}

A few weeks ago, we put together a show of sculptures and Lomography work for the 3rd Thursday art walk in Joplin. Here area few of my favorite photos from the night. It was so great getting to hang out with all of my artist friends.

Happy December 1st!

This photo was taken Christmas morning last December. I remember waking up to a beautiful new fallen snow!

I was so excited that I grabbed my Holga and ran outside to take pictures.

 

I hope we get lots more snow this year, it makes for great lomography!

I am so happy that it is December 1st.

I am on top of things this year.

I mean like REALLY on top of things.

My Christmas cards went in the mail yesterday. That's right, I hand-stamped and made each one (over 60), added a photo, hand-addressed the envelopes, and had them ready to be mailed weeks ago. 

The cards for my co-workers are ready to be distributed too!

My Christmas candy recipes are printed, most of the ingredients are already purchased and I am ready for a fun day of treat making this Saturday. 

My Christmas party is planned. The invites are already sent out. I'm preparing some of the treats this Saturday (a week in advance). I just need to finalize my costume (that's right, it is themed-- SNL Christmas!) and prepare a few more menu items. 

I ordered my gift for the gift exchange today so as soon as it comes I can wrap it and be ready.

Oh, and I need to put a few more decorations up.  

I want to make some more paper chains, but I have a few in the works.

The Christmas tree has been up for a couple of weeks already. 

I even added a mini-tree with vintage ornaments on the porch this year. 

The lights are on the house. 

Most of my gifts are wrapped and under the tree. (not all, but most)

I have a few more hand-made gifts to start/finish but I am excited about my progress. 

I am burning all of our old VHS home movies, from when we were little, on to DVDs for my brother. 

I created a photo book for the ladies in my family.

I want to sew an apron for my student teacher to wish her well in the future. Her birthday and graduation are in a couple of weeks. 

I plan to make my mom a photo memorabilia box. 

My December Daily is ready today!! YIPPEEE! I prepared the main album weeks ago, just need to start taking pictures and journaling. 

Today's blog post will be part of that journaling.

It feels nice to look at my list of things that are done. 

I'm going to be selective this year about what I do/don't do. 

I'm going to take time to savor family traditions. And maybe make a few new ones.

I'm going to spend more time gazing at the tree. 

I'm going to eat fewer 'junk' snacks and focus really enjoying the 'seasonal' ones that are only around once a year....like fudge...and maybe some eggnog.

I'm going to (hopefully) drive around and look at lights.

I'm going to tape more videos.

I'm going to enjoy.

And savor.

And read. 

I am currently reading Bill Bryson, At Home: A Short History of Private Life.

And swim.

Scuba classes started last night...working towards certification.

And keep the stress out of Christmas Eve, everyone celebrates at the same time, its hard to visit everyone that day!

I am so happy that it is December. 

I hope to be a better blogger this month, it will help my December Daily if I am vigilant with my journaling.

Bring on the holidays!! I am ready!

Ghost Town Digital Photos Part 1

Here are my digital photos from the Ghost town shoot. You can see my black and white Holga shots here. Check back tomorrow for part 2!

Lomography: A Ghost Town

Last weekend I planned a photo outing for my lomography-loving friends.

Question: A blogger recently asked, "What is lomography?"
Answer:  Lomography is the term for an approach to photography that emphasizes casual snapshots, sponteneity, ubiquity, randomness, and close-ups, rather than being concerned with the technicalities, aesthetics, and the conventional world of photography.

Lomography.com is an awesome online community that celebrates all forms of toy cameras, high contrast, twisted colors and noticeable vignettes. 

I recently started a club in my town for my friends and lomography-loving photograph enthusiasts. We talk about our Hogla and Diana cameras, film processing, photographers, websites, and all sorts of other photo-related things.

We set out a couple of hours before sunset at a local Ghost Town....The nearby 'former' town of Picher, Oklahoma was a center for lead and zinc mining.

It was discovered that the ground was contaminated and could possibly cave-in so the town was ordered to evacuate in 2006.

In 2008, the town was struck by a tornado. Most of the town was destroyed by the tornado.

In 2009, the school system was dissolved (enrollment had gone from 340 to 40 in 3 years).

The city is considered too toxic to  be habitable.

Read much more factual, interesting, enthralling, descriptive account of the town's conditions in an article in Wired magazine Armageddon, USA: A Tour of America's Most Toxic Town here.

I will be posting my digital photos as well. I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

Below are my first roll of Holga pictures from the shoot.

This is the first roll of film that I have ever processed in the darkroom.

I actually processed two rolls of black and white film Sunday night, in the roll below, every picture turned out pretty cool.

I ruined the other roll because I wound it on the spool incorrectly and the processing chemicals weren't evenly distributed on the film creating white streaks--SO disappointing. But, at least the pictures were of Picher and not Paris...analog....its a learning thing....and the results are magical.

Here is a contact sheet from my first roll. I enlarged the Holga images below directly off the contact sheet in iPhoto...there was some dust on my scanner, and you can see little white dots on some of the pictures, I can't wait to enlarge the real images in the darkroom later!

Check back tomorrow for my digital images. There is a stark difference in the results. I think you will like the contrast.