More from Saturday’s outing at the Rawlings Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland. 📷 Nikon N80 50mm f/1.8 🎞️ Portra 800 and Fuji 400 🧪 Cinestill CS41 📷 📲 Epson V600

@rockstarballet.bsky.social took a fun picture of me taking photos at the conservatory on Saturday.

The Desert Room, Rawlings Conservatory, Baltimore, Maryland. 📷 Nikon N80, 50mm f/1.8 🎞️ Portra 800 🧪 Cinestill CS41 📷📲 Epson V600

In addition to my film cameras, I took the #Charmera to the Rawlings Conservatory in Baltimore today where I got some dramatic shots inside the Palm House.

Rawlings Conservatory, Baltimore, Maryland 📷 Nikon N80, 50mm f/1.8 🎞️ Portra 800, Fuji 400 🧪 Cinestill CS41 📷📲 Epson V600

Mixed up fresh color chemistry and am about to develop the rolls from today’s outing at the conservatory. A good use of a rainy afternoon, I think.

Love my Pentax 17, but there’s something to be said for old, mechanical cameras. Their batteries don’t die on you when you are out taking pictures. *sighs*

I just wanted to say that I see all you beautiful #trans women out there doing your #filmphotography. I don’t know how so many of you ended up in my feed, but I’m richer for it!

Figured out a solution to this whole rainy weekend problem (when I don’t have waterproof gear): the Rawlings Conservatory! Beautiful gardens inside a gorgeous historic building. Going to take the newfound #Nikon N80 and the #Pentax 17 (the macro setting on the latter is fantastic). And the husband!

It’s rainy and a bit chilly outside, the perfect day to take in not one but TWO beautiful zines sent to me from across The Pond by @paulasmith.co.uk.

Today’s #collage. This one has one of my photos of an Ecuadorean rose at its center and integrates a couple of postcards from Japan. I don’t know that this is entirely done, but it’s done for now…

One of my colleagues is teaching an intro to B&W film photography course this summer and needed one more student to keep the course from getting canceled, so I signed up. I will finally be getting some formal training in this thing I love to do but do rather hamfistedly.

Quote with a fictional band that is not Spinal Tap.

Had to delete that last post because we don’t have a damned edit button and I failed to notice student ID numbers clearly evident in the photos. They may not be MY students, but they still deserve their privacy. Thanks for pointing that out, @fraochphoto.bsky.social

Test shots with the #Nikon N80 w/AF 50mm f1.8 lens. Shot on Arista EDU 100 and developed in Rodinal 1+25 for 9 minutes. Scanned with an Epson V600.

Look what I grabbed at the thrift store today for $55, a #Nikon N80 w/Nikkor AF 50mm f1.8. Works like a charm. Have a test roll drying right now, but the negatives look really good. My Nikon-loving digital photographer husband is geeking out even more than I am!

I photograph these trees outside my house quite a lot but not usually in color. 📷 Pentax Auto 110 w/18mm lens 🎞️ Lomography Tiger 200 📷📲 Plustek 8200i

Some springtime flowers spotted in the neighbors’ flowerbeds and snapped by the Pentax Auto 110 with the 18mm lens on Lomography Tiger 200. Developed by my local lab and scanned on the Plustek 8200i.

Methinks there was a porn bot invasion while Bluesky was down. Suddenly have tons of fake accounts liking my photos, all with links in their bios that go to the same site.

Did a couple of #pinhole photos with my shoebox camera this weekend. They didn’t turn out great. Didn’t expose them long enough, I’m afraid. Still, they are kind of a vibe — if that vibe involves angry ghosts.

My challenge with liking photos here on Bluesky is that I only feel any measure of trust of film and digital photographers who are either personally known to me or who make a point of indicating gear/settings/film/chems in their posts. Everything else is suspect these days.

Wishing I had an old-school overhead projector and transparencies so I could give my presentation to colleagues about the Analog Pedagogy Project next week. The senior faculty in the crowd would appreciate that. Besides, I really hate making PowerPoints.

On May 31, Unhoused: Yearning for Home, an anthology of creative fiction & poetry, true stories & artwork around themes of homelessness, displacement & statelessness will be published by Prolific Pulse Press. One of my photos will be included & I’m beyond thrilled! youtube.com/shorts/8AFyM...

Spent $5 on this keychain 110 camera (about $4.50 too much), and I had to test it out. It performed as one might expect. It will be perfect for the #ShittyCameraChallenge 📷 Micro 110 🎞️ Lomography Orca 100 🧪 Rodinal 1+25 📷📲 Plustek 8200i #believeinfilm #filmisnotdead #lofi

Anybody want to come pick up a Smith-Corona Clipper #typewritter that has several keys with disconnected linkages that need reconnecting? I just don’t have the patience. It’s a good machine otherwise. Located in the Baltimore, Maryland, area. If not, I’ll donate it to a thrift store.

Got honored at work today for 20 years of service. It’s sort of like saying, “Congrats! You haven’t quit or been fired yet!”

No bangers here. Just testing an #Argus Matchmatic. It works, but its rangefinder is dirty as hell, so I lost a lot of frames on this roll because I couldn’t see to focus them properly. 🎞️ Kodak T-Max 400 🧪 Rodinal 1+25 @ 6 min. 📷📲 Epson V600

Turns out the light meter on the Matchmatic was accurate. My understanding of how it worked — for the first 3/4 of the roll — was not. Whoops. Those last six frames, though. Sweet! Will scan the film later this evening and see if I can save the 18 frames or so damaged by hubris. #NormalizeFailure

This is the finals week grading avalanche. Every college writing instructor knows it well and usually dreads it. I need to get moving so I can park myself in front of my laptop and get after it. It’s a big push, but once I am through it, there is a break (of sorts) waiting for me on the other side.

Close-ups of Ecuadorean roses. I ended up liking the roll taken with the Rolleinar 3 reversed on the Yashica D (first 2) more than I did the roll with the Rolleinar 2 mounted correctly. The images are a bit soft and lack depth of field, but this gives them a dreamy quality I really like.

Rookie effort at #collage is complete…I guess. Hard to know with these things. The photo elements are from a ballet shoot I tagged along on and then printed as a part of a color printing workshop I did. I cut up the failed prints and contact sheet.

Having the first of the tea from the package I got from @white2tea.bsky.social. This package translates to “humble black tea.” There is nothing humble about it! There are beautiful floral notes and nuances of flavor and scent that I am not accustomed to in simple black tea. I could get used to this!

I’ve been so inspired lately by the collage work of @berlinerbarbie.bsky.social that I think I will try my hand at collaging, too. I know nothing about the art, but it feels like a good way to use up the cast-offs from photo printing and unwanted Instax shots. My creative self needs some exercise.

Got a sunny day and the Ecuadorean roses haven’t gone off yet. Going to take them out in a bit and try reshooting that roll of film I ruined the other day when I reversed the Rolleinars. Hoping for pictures!

I got this mystery package in the mail from China today. Turns out it was a bonanza of tea from @white2tea.bsky.social. This is so generous! Looks like I am off coffee for the foreseeable future and on a variety of amazing Chinese teas. Thank you so much!

The other prints and the contact sheet and test print #Frankenlarger #GuerillaDarkroom #PrintYourWork

I can BARELY fit myself, the Frankenlarger, the table, and the rest of the gear in the Guerilla Darkroom under the stairs. Once I get everything in there, I am in there until I am done because the cart with the enlarger blocks the door. Concrete floor is no joke to stand on for extended periods.

GUYS!!!! I DID IT! It’s not perfect. Mistakes were made. But it’s prints! #Frankenlarger #GuerillaDarkroom #Film #PrintYourWork

Frankenlarger has been assembled & is ready to test. Took the negative carrier, the base, and a couple of little miscellaneous parts off a Federal Model 290 and installed them on a Federal Model 296. Keeping the rest of the 290 for parts just in case. This is its cart & folding table behind it.

My dear husband @rockstarballet.bsky.social who is the digital photographer in the household & who wholeheartedly supports me in my film madness. 📷 Kodak Ektar H35N 🎞️ Fujifilm 400 (I think)

Sooo many things I want to do today. Time is precious & I don’t know where to start: develop film, build the Frankenlarger, make first print w/said enlarger, go to thrift store & get things to do collages w/cast-offs from photography (it IS World Collage Day), reorganize storage…

Some springtime snaps with the #Kodak Snapic A1. Can’t remember what #film I had in there at the time. I think Fujifilm 400.

At the foot of my bed, in addition to the shelf where all my scanning, #film #developing, and printing materials live, there is now a cart where my enlarger and #darkroom stuff is parked. There isn’t a centimeter to spare, and we can’t open the bedroom door too wide, but I found a place for it.

Just got some scans in from the lab in time for #HalfFrameFriday. This is my favorite of the lot. Been driving by this old wagon for years. Finally took a snap of it with my Kodak Ektar H35N. #hff

The teaching part is over. Next week marks the intense, end-of-semester grading frenzy. This has been a surprisingly good term. I didn’t expect much coming out of surgery and teaching all compressed courses, but they were great. I had so many wonder students and made real connections with them.

Had half an hour earlier today, so grabbed my TLR, threw on the #2 Rolleinars, and ran outside to shoot some close-up work. Later on, I realized I had put those damned lenses on exactly backwards. Ooops. Guess I’ll be reshooting that. THICK lens goes on top; skinny lens on bottom. REMEMBER THIS!

The Time-o-Lite arrived today, and it is functional. Does anyone know what they painted these glow-in-the-dark faces with? Please tell me it isn’t radium.

The #Argus collection is complete: I have both the regular C3 & the Matchmatic with working light meter. I have all 3 accessory lenses: 100mm f/4.5 Sandmar, 35mm f/4.5 Sandmar & 135mm f/4.5 Soligor. I also have the variable viewfinder that switches between 35/50/100mm & I have the flashgun.

Trying to decide how to arrange the camera cabinet and figuring that SLRs get their own shelf. Am amused that the Pentax Auto 110 and Yashica Samurai both belong on that shelf.

I got off all 12 packages of camera/film/photography miscellany to their respective recipients around the country yesterday. Most people should be getting them by the end of this week or early next week. Can’t wait to see what they make of them. Just in time. Needed the space for darkroom stuffs.