my life, as far as i know.

(2237×443)

i’ve been working on expanding my family records using more web research. i’ve found another possible branch of the family, surname szlachet. there is also a schlecht family, who owns a poultry processing company in poland.

anyways.. i’ve been using a package called phpmyfamily to enter in family tree information. i used an open source graphing package named graphviz to draw the above graph. a moderately complicated sql query to phpmyfamily’s database generates a list of parent->child relationships and an awk script reformats it into the metalanguage for graphviz. once i’ve done some updates to the database, it takes me just a few minutes to generate a new graph. i hope to automate this..

the graph is helping me visualize the tree without having to redraw it on paper. it’s also making more obvious the holes, missing parts, and possibly linkages. i hope to gather enough bits of information to connect the large parts together.

lake tahoe, taken with my cell phone camera. i need to find/make a supplement lens which will allow it to focus at infinity!

this weekend i went with a large group of friends to lake tahoe on a ski/snowboarding trip. i don’t do either of those sports, but i do enjoy a good drive, the company of friends, and opportunities to take my camera out.

i packed by shen-hao 4×5, a bunch of holders, and ilford delta 100. i shot about 25 sheets, so it will take me a while to get it all processed. these images here are just from my cell phone.

clockwise from upper left: my camera on the lake, emerald bay, the drive home, and genoa.

one of the most interesting places i visited was genoa, nevada, nevada’s first settlement. it is a small town with a lot of charm. i would have spent more time there, but the wind was getting really bad and my dark cloth was acting like a sail. next time i spent time in tahoe i hope to return there. the pic of the silos is on the outskirts of genoa.

this is my stepdad jim.

this christmas i decided to shoot the remainder of a small box of portra 400nc i had in 4×5. i brought the crown graphic and my tripod. we shot them out on my mom’s new deck behind her house.

unfortunately, once i got there i realized the rangefinder was busted. the batteries had corroded and mucked up the mechanism inside. i was able to clean it out a bit, and without my loupe to verify focus i took the shots anyways.

i had the film developed at newlab. i turned the film in around 4:30 and they got it done (dev only) by 7pm closing. what great service!

it’s been a while since i used portra. i really like calm colors it produces. and of course, making the switch from black and white to color in 4×5 is amazing. these were all shot at +1 (iso 800) at around f/5.6 and 1/100. the images are crops. i found the images nicer cropped down from the original, since i am not very well practiced with the crown graphic. next time i will remember my loupe and just use the ground glass, since i was using a tripod!

this is my mom. i love having a hyperlinkable mother. :)

this is my parents’ french bulldog, corky.

doing large format color is definitely very enticing. but i have enough projects to work on as it is……