Pinhole, Football, Flowers

Yesterday was the first home game of the season, and I planned to take the pinhole camera to the game with me to see how tailgating and parades and the whole spectacle would look through that lens, but it was pouring for most of the pregame yesterday (and for some of the beginning of the game, too), so I took the camera for a walk today instead.

I'm not really impressed with the stadium pictures, and only two came out decent enough for me to even want to share:





The one of the infrastructure is at least sort of interesting, but in my defense it's not really my fault that the front of the stadium is architecturally bland.

I walked around that side of campus for a little while:





(Estabrook actually looks better in dark, blurry focus; that building desperately needs renovation) and then went to the gardens:



Overall, I didn't have a really good day with the pinhole. I wasn't careful about exposure times, and a lot of pictures had light leaks and that annoying red glow. Also, I picked a lot of stuff that just wasn't that interesting. On the other hand, I like the regular pictures I took at the gardens:







I'm especially intrigued by this one:



because that flower looks exactly like a red pineapple. I don't know what kind it is, because the plant didn't have a little info tag in front of it like most of them do.

If anyone knows what it is, please tell me? Thanks.

Pictures of January

I've got some random photos from the last couple of weeks that don't all go together and don't really tell a story (or just don't tell a particularly interesting one), but I want to share. My friend Leo did an excellent 2011 in pictures blog entry, (you should look at it even if you don't know her, because it's just that good) so this is inspired by that, except that mine are kind of the leftover pictures that didn't make it into other entries.

1) Toy friends:



Taken at the campus Early Learning Center when I was riding with Jeannie while my car was broken.

2) Blurry:



The camera that I had for years and years and used to carry everywhere before I went digital. Mom and Dad bought it for me for Christmas sometime in the late 1980's.

3) Pinhole on campus:



I think it's odd how none of the flame, which is in the Torchbearer's outstretched hand, is captured by the pinhole. I've tried this angle before in lower light, but then you can't really see the statue. I will probably keep experimenting with it, though.



I think that motorcycle picture is just perfect. It looks exactly like I hoped it might when I took it, which means (I think) that I'm getting better with the pinhole camera.









I really like that the pinhole camera can take things that I see every day (like McClung Tower) and render them strange and new.

4) Remember when I bought that orange resin clock with the rocks inside?

I still like it.



5) Summer's over:



These have been sitting on top of my shelf since I stopped wearing contacts a year or two ago. It feels wrong to throw away perfectly good sunglasses, but I have no idea what I'm saving them for, unless I decide to try contacts again in a year or two.

I miss being able to openly stare at people from behind dark lenses.

6) Graffiti on campus:



I don't think evolution works that way.



Childhood will never die. What's kind of hilarious is that this cartoon probably wasn't even on the air anymore when the person who painted this was born.





Current events, in stencil.



And a scorpion to round out the collection.

I saw most of these around the entrance to the Art and Architecture Building that faces the pedestrian walkway, which in over five years on campus I have never actually used:



I guess I still need to get out of my office more.

7) Rare Pages III

Since I've never been to that particular entrance to the Art and Architecture Building, I didn't know that it also houses a sculpture:





"Rare Pages III" by Blane De St. Croix.

It's a collection of concrete tiles in a rack, and you can slide the tiles in and out to see each one:





The animals are all rare and endangered, which might explain why that tamarind looks so sad.





I did a little online research and found a link to the sculpture on the artist's website, which left me with two thoughts.

First, it's not quite in the same condition as it was when completed in 1992.

Second, I'm willing to bet that at least some of the animlas on the tiles have become extinct between 1992 and now, and that was a little depressing to consider.

More Pinhole Camera!

I continue to experiment with the pinhole camera that I built last weekend, although some of it turned out to be a bust. I tried some nighttime pictures with a four minute exposure, but all I got was blurry smudges. Either the pinhole is not good at full dark photos, something that the book of other people's photographs that came with it suggests is not true, or I need to leave the shutter open for much, much longer.

For the rest of the photos, I took the pinhole camera to familiar places, as I have the idea that I will learn how to manage it better if I practice on things that I already know and am used to photographing. Since I was already on campus for Open House, I figured I might as well start there.



I've mentioned before that I think that sculpture is pretty ugly, but it's softened and almost non-offensive here.



McClung Tower came out in surprisingly sharp focus, but "Europa and the Bull" in front of it is pretty indistinct:



(Side note: My class seemed rather surprised when I told them the myth behind that statue early in the semester, and that Europa was riding the bull and, later, riding the bull in a whole other sense. Yay for learning!)

I stuck the camera on a random tree branch, too, and got this shot, which I think is really pretty:



Completely unexpected, but that's part of the fun, I guess.

Before I left campus, I drove up the hill to Ayres Hall, which is recognizable even in this format:



Here's a photo I took another time with my regular camera, just for comparison:



It looks almost like an older photo, the kind you'd find in your parents's photo albums, and I was definitely right last week about things being clearer if I open the shutter for just a second or two longer.

I walked around campus a little more, taking some ugly photos with bad exposures that I didn't like and don't want to share, and then headed downtown to World's Fair Park. I was supposed to take pictures there last week, but ran out of film just as I got there, so this week I made up for it by studying the bridge:







and the Sunsphere:



And I accidentally took a picture of myself:



I guess I need to learn to lean a little further over, to get out of the frame, but there's always time for that next time.

A quiet walk around campus

After a delicious brunch of biscuits and gravy with eggs, cheese, and chorizo sausage:



with Bryan's family, who are in town for a few days, I took a short walk around campus to clear my head. It's nice to see them, but also sad, and I needed some alone time to process a little.

Fortunately, spring break started on Friday, so walking around campus is pretty solitary:



Not a student in sight.

I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, just walking, thinking, and snapping random images:







In addition to working on my black and white some more:



I also did a little bit of playing with color:



I'm not sure I like that, but I took it with the intention of coming home and tweaking the hell out of the saturation, so yay for deliberate photography over point and click, I guess.

I also took about five versions of this one, which I think is the best picture I took today:



I like that photo a lot, and also, I feel better.