On a day when, yet again, that thing that our CMS provider says never happens, happened again - on a day when I need to be using that CMS to do stuff that is due today - I'm sat here waiting for it to realise that I'm not, in fact, logged in but logged OUT. Because this genius software won't let a logged in person 'log in'. The only way to log out is to click "log out" and if you leave the software in any other way - if your browser collapses, your computer freezes or you get hauled into a meeting and the software times out while you've gone - it refuses to realise you have left the building and won't let you back in the door for 2+ hours. Seems simple enough to know who is in and who is out but this shitty piece of software regularly gets that wrong. Add to that a business support structure that steadfastly says "THAT NEVER HAPPENS MICHELLE YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!!!!!!!!!" and "anyway if it did do what you say it does it would be because it's YOUR FAULT." It's at this point I remind them that they trained me on this CMS.
**crickets**
This CMS makes me want to pour petrol into my PC and set it on fire, then go over to the CMS vender's building and do the same to their cars.
So that's my day. Which can be any day, not this one in particular because this happens ALL THE TIME!
Snap happy
August Break (31 photos for each of the 31 days in August) is over. I'm not sure I had so much of a break - I sure as heck know you didn't - and I'm pretty sure I didn't need one anyway. It was nice that having photographs as a focused thought has meant I finally got my 8 rolls of film from the USA trip (back in March) developed and printed. It also made me realise that there are another couple of rolls kicking around somewhere because I didn't have many photos from Alcatraz and absolutely no photos from San Francisco - but at least I got some done.
It was nice to discover a roll from Chopped 2009 as well - that's one of the nicest things about shooting with film - the surprise at what I get back from LabX isn't always what I thought I was getting back from LabX.
I'm not sure if I told you but I decided to take all my photos during my USA trip earlier this year on my (then) new (to me), unproven LOMO LC-A. Risky as all get out: using a camera I'd just bought from Russia, without testing it first - add to which I found out the other week that the batteries that come with these LOMOs are nototious for juicing up the "on" light but not having enough power operate the shutter. Taking my 8 rolls down to LabX the other week I had a teaspoon of dread in my stomach at the thought that I hadn't actually managed to take *any* photos. I had to spend some time convincing myself that if that was case, I'd just have to exhale and chalk it up to experience and NEVER TELL ANYONE EVER!
A number of my photos didn't come out at all - due entirely to lack of light (didn't use a flash at all) but many did. I used a 400 ASA slide film and had it cross-processed so the images are a bit grainy (because of the ASA rating of the film not necessarily because of the cross processing) - very noticable when scanned and uploaded to Flickr. There is also a colour-cast across whole batches. A colour cast is when the picture has a coloured tint that makes the image look very red, or very blue, or very yellow etc.
I've since learned this is typical of cross-processed film - when I cross-process I'm looking for the colours to do weird and wonderful things so it's not like the cast ruins anything - and isn't restricted to particular brands. For instance - all my films were Agfa 400 ASA but I had red casts, orange casts, and the Chopped photos taken with the same film were hardly cast at all.
Another part of the joy with playing around with this stuff.
Speaking of playing - my latest interest is the idea to float a camera under helium balloons (I don't trust myself with a kite) and take aerial shots of my neighbourhood. What could possibly go wrong!