or should i call it phone-camera. i just uploaded the 115th phonepic to my blog directory. this one i made from a new trick i learned. put your thumb over the camera’s lens. when you’re ready, quickly move your thumb out of the way and immediately press the capture button. my cell phone can hardly re-adjust exposure in time and you end up getting a washed out image. my phone’s camera tends towards blue images. some of them look sort of solarized. this is what idle time on the train gets you. you might see some others on the random phonepic mosaic.

since we own a deep fryer now, ryan and i made tempura and tonkatsu (one of my favourite meals). as my friend anthony knows, tonkatsu sauce holds a special power over me. the tempura turned out so-so (we learned we probably should put the pieces into the oil one at a time so they don’t stick) but the tonkatsu — awesome!

tonkatsu–

thin sliced port chop, boneless
powder in flour and pepper and salt
dip in egg batter
cover and press in panko flakes
deep fry, 3 minutes per side

i’ve never had such juicy breaded pork before.

and of course, everything goes well with ruby sake.

life is moving at both speeds for me now. i’m dealing with a complicated and swift housing situation, and nothing else is going on. at work, i am buried up to my ears in projects still. i haven’t had enough energy/motivation for photography lately. maybe things will be up next weekend. oh, i have been adding phonepics, but that’s about it. that and a few offramp things.

time to go home and decompress. parents are coming up soon for financial stuff. in need of “me time”.

so, umm, i went above my original budget for our little wine-tasting trip this weekend. between three of us, we bought about 10 cases of wine. half of that is pictured here on my kitchen counter before it got inventoried, tagged, and most of it put away.

it is all awesome wine, it will be difficult to forget about it. i put most of it away in taped-up boxes labelled by year. at least a case every year for the next several.

read on to see the see the haul.

Continue reading…

tonight i did some catch-up on my sheet developing. still have some left over from the party.

then i did my first contact prints from the party portraits. oh man, contact prints of portraits are fun! this portrait is of my friend anthony.

first darkroom run tonight. notes:

now i need to get my negs in order and start shooting again. i’m thinking about getting a contact printing frame. i really miss darkroom work. now i need to spend a lot of time organizing the room so you can move around

today i got my powerbook scanning. my tools aren’t that great and i’m working from a laptop, but at least i can get some scanning done for posts. this is a 8×10 sheet shot with a kenro k lens, a pretty sharp wide angle lens that seems to work on 8×10 with movement! i can’t wait to do real shooting with it. i took this shot quickly while i was getting ready for dinner.

as you can see, i forgot how wide angle the lens is. i had the standards racked back a bit and the front it showing in the image. oops.

the lens is pretty sharp. my scan isn’t the greatest.. but you can at least make out the screws on the lens mounting ring!

the kenro k is a 8.25″ f/6.8 Dagor (double anastigmat goerz) with 70 degrees at f22 and 80 degrees at f45. 6 elements, 2 groups.