Hey. So I’ve been a darkroom fiend, and I was planning on going in today, but I decided slash realized that I should probably take the break while I had it, because I don’t need to go in tonight and I wont be having as much free time as the weeks go on. This is the first week where it’s starting to pick up. Where did I leave off? Ah yes, Sunday night.

So I made my silk screening plates, there are four, one for each color, black, white, light blue, and dark blue. I got mom’s package with the shirts today, which are white, so I might not need the white layer after all, because I was under the impression that they were colored shirts. The pens to make the plates are neat, they’re more like ink. Michele came up and worked on her homework, and Tudor came by for a bit, which was nice because I haven’t really hung out with him yet, and it was fun. Michele told me the story of her summer, which was a LONG one, but enjoyable and interesting to hear nonetheless.

Uh. Monday. Yesterday. I had color in the morning. My teacher still seems very nice and like she’ll be a good teacher, but she assigns a lot of work. We have to take two rolls of film this week, get them developed, make contact sheets of them, and print 2-3 pictures from the rolls we brought in yesterday. Yikes! The assignment is to take a picture every hour either one day or two days, using about 2 rolls of film. I started today by setting my alarm every hour this morning and getting up and taking some out my window, but I stopped after noon. Oops. But that’s okay because I already had plans to do it Thursday, when I have to go into the city to buy ink for silk screening. I have to go alone, and I’m annoyed at that, and at the fact that the only thing I need is damn ink! That’s all, for a trip into the city. I need to check if I need anything else, but I don’t think I do. Oh well, it’s actually probably for the better because I need to learn to be more comfortable doing things like that on my own, and because I need to take those damn color photos.

In class, we started the basics of color printing. Developing is entirely too toxic to do by hand, so we take those out to get them developed. But what makes up for that is we don’t develop our prints by hand either, they get run through a fancy machine. You stick ‘em in, and about 5 minutes later, they come out all chemicaled, washed, and dried. It’s rather spiffy. So we learned about the color filters and balance and all that stuff, briefly, and a lot of learning it will be practice. Then we made contact sheets out of the rolls we had and some people got as far as working on printing a picture. Another strange thing about color printing is that you do it in COMPLEATE darkness. Therefore, we have individual rooms, not a common darkroom with 20 enlargers, like black and white. So I have a key, I can go whenever, but I share it with some other kids who I don’t know. So I left a note saying pretty please Sunday’s are my best day to print. Hopefully, it’ll work out fine. Otherwise, I’m not that worried about it, I’ll make due. It’s just that by the time I take the film she wants, go get it developed, and THEN print, it’ll be Sunday, no sooner. And I have all of Sunday free, so I could be in there the whole day if I pleased. I have Saturday freeish too, but I like the idea is Sunday.

Anyway, so the paper is gray. I shouldn’t know this because I should have never seen it, being in pitch black, right? Haha. I ruined a piece, no biggie. The other annoying thing is that you can’t run anything small through the spiffy machine, so you ALWAYS have to use a whole sheet, even for test strips, which is wasteful, and means I’ll go through my paper very quickly. That’s how it goes I guess. I really don’t have any sort of hold on any of this yet, so this week should be… interesting. Hehe. Oh well.

Then I had world civ. in the afternoon. My teacher is fine for a lecture teacher. Not boring enough that I can’t pay attention, so I managed to take good notes. But I do think I need to be reading that horrendous book… gah. Mom and Dad, would it be allright if I don’t bother to get an A in that class? I don’t know if it’s worth that awful book. Haha, don’t worry, I’ll try again. And again. And again. I’ll do my best. You know I always do.

Then, what did I do? I went to the gym. Good for me. Then I went to the darkroom until 11, printed stuffs for today. I’m not entirely pleased with what I have, but you have to filter through them and put them up in class and have feedback to really know sometimes. So, I had a few today that people liked. Of course I had fun in the darkroom! Thank you for asking! Haha. But Jesus, it was CROWDED last night. That was pretty annoying. Lots of kids who have class on Tuesday I suppose.

And… this morning! Today! I already said I woke myself up every hour from 7 until 11, when I get up to go to the gym, to take pictures. It was a hella rainy day, but still so warm. That’s still so strange to me, because it seems ridiculous coming from Oakland. But I like it, other than the wet part. I liked getting wet when I go out to play, but not when I’m trying to protect my artwork. I’m sure most people would agree. So oops again on not taking pictures the whole day, I just didn’t really want pictures of campus. Hopefully (slash hopefully not) it’ll be rainy on Thursday too so it’ll be the same quality and I can just pick up where I left off today, but either way, I don’t think it matters too much because I think the point is just to have a range so you can see the differences in light on different days and times of day and the quality of color because of it. It’s not all precise and stuff.

So I had JSU FINALLY today. JSU= Jewish Student Union. So I got to see Simcha YAY! What a wonderful person, he’s so uplifting and just awesome to be around. Free food yum. Unfortunately, I asked Michele to look at my pictures after he was done talking, but then she asked to see them right then, so then I missed everything he said. It was annoying, no one’s fault, she just should have waited, because I wanted to discuss them with her. Oh well. It was fun, I love being part of that, as I told you all alst year. I can’t wait till Michele’s finally here for Shabbat and we can go to Simcha’s on Friday night. I’m of course invited every Friday, but I don’t know anyone else quite well enough to not feel a little alone. It’s cool, I can wait. Plenty of Fridays in the year, too.

Alright, so black and white photo today was okay. I miss Paul’s class, though. Some of the work I was like okay wow… I know you can do better because I’ve seen better from you. But I could say the same about the work I put up, so there you have it. It was the first installment of the project we’re supposed to be forming and working on. Mine having nothing to do with a project. Oops. Hehe. But, I’ve been contemplating since last year doing a project on hands, their expressive quality, how they can tell so much about a person, a mood, a situation. And my teacher cam up with that based on one of my photos without me even saying anything, so I guess that’s my project. But I’m not gunna focus on it until I’m done printing from my old work, which at this rate should only be another two weeks. I suppose I should start taking more pictures, though, and catch the subtle hand movements and expressions.

The other project I was considering was portraits of people I know, but everyone does that project at some point, and I’d rather just collect the portraits as I take them through my life, rather than force them. I’m not big on forced, posed, portraits. I like it to be a portrait of the person and their life. So hands makes more sense. Things spawning from my old work don’t work here, either, because I also considered some landscape/nature/geometry photographs, and all of my favorites are not from NYC. So. Hands. I guess. I’m not really worried about it, my teacher seems nice and ready to help with whatever. So for now I’ll just stick with printing from my old stuff, hopefully take a few new pictures to get started on this project. Plus, if I start kinda lame and finish really well, that’s cool, too.

All right, so what else? 3-D tomorrow, blech. I forget about it the whole week until Tuesday night, which is rather lovely. Then I have Wednesday to get through, aided by the knowledge of yoga in the evenings, but then it’s over with again. I’m sure I’ll start getting homework… starting tomorrow… but that wont be so bad. It’ll still be only one day to get through, and one assignment to get through. Though reading that world civ. comes at about the same level of ugh. But yeah, I don’t really have a choice though, do I?

I have to go into the city on Thursday, like I told you, to get silk screening ink and take my color pictures. And I’ll have to go after class on Friday to get my pictures developed. Luckily a girl in my class, Susanna, is going to come with me, because she needs to get them developed too. To kill the time while they’re being developed, we’ll take some pictures and wander down to buy some photo paper, hopefully. I also need to check if I need anything else from there, too.

I got some posters from mom in the mail today, and my bird of paradise wrap for Hawaii that Grama gave me (remember it Grama?) so now my room is slightly better and prettier. The walls need to be filled up with a little bit more, though, but it’s fine and better.

Welp, I think that’s it. I think I’ll call mom and have her help me figure out what I should be doing tonight, because it’s not quite 8 yet, so I still have time to do… something… which unfortunately should be homework… I’ll leave you with my first few photographs. Let me know which ones you like and fine interesting because I already sorted down to these, but I’ll need to sort down even further eventually. Sorry they’re really super crappy and blurry and with that awful light glare. Sorry some of them are sideways. You can drag them into your computer and turn them around in Preview. Love you all! Enjoy.


This is one of my favorites so far.


Cute! Let me know if it’s art-school quality, or just cute.


Neat idea, maybe not fully realized. Or composed poorly. Either one.


Better cropped?


Objects in photo are not as blurry as the appear. I like this one. Give me your feedback.


Ideas for hand project. I have at least 6 hand photos, but the others are just not doing it. I need to work on it. I’m excited for the idea.


Here’s the portrait I took of you, Grama. But I want to work more on it with you over Christmas break. I can send you a copy of this one, however. But I think we can do even better! This one’s just a little too typical for me, I want to capture who you are and make it more of a story, and thus a more interesting picture. Let me know what you think.


I really like this one. This one and that broom one were the ones my class liked today. But I didn’t put all of these up, some I’ll be putting up next week.


This is classic and been done by everyone and their mama, but still, I think, very nicely taken.


This one…


Or this one? (I have yet to ask my class, thought Taryn and Michele both liked this one better. A 2 part series, maybe?)


This is not quite printed properly, and unless I can get it right, it wont work. I like the composition, however. It might not be quite there, maybe something to work more on when I’m at home.



All right, you hear me! Feedback! Please. *Love* and goodnight. (Another nice and long entry for Grama.) :)


All images copyright Bonnie Hodul 2007