long exposure

Things I don't understand...

1) gambling
2) sports
3) betting on sporting events
4) the Saw movie franchise
5) kristen stewart's movie career
6) angler fish
7) antiperspirant
8) the science behind basically everything Thomas Edison ever invented
9) the crusades
10) women

Here are some pictures I took while we were waiting on the top of a mountain for a meteor shower. The mountain took about half an hour to climb and it was a cold and fairly miserable excursion. The sky was cloudy and we ended up being seven hours for the event anyway.

Lev wouldn't let me use my flash because he was doing long exposure photography so I had to get creative.

Speak easy,

Neil

Found: Painted Turtle

Today, I took Ross and Brooke to this old abandoned cranberry bog. When I was a little kid I use to spend almost all my time walking in and around the bogs, exploring the empty land and hoping that I might stumble on something amazing like the kids in The Goonies (which, along with the movie Gremlins, was a movie I watched on a weekly basis). I can recall many Saturday mornings where my brother, our friend Austin, and I would wake up at the crack of dawn and collect the bloated egg sacks that the frogs leave behind in the water. They were always filled with little soon to be tadpoles. So much condensed potential. At this point in time Austin is divorced and has a four year old daughter. We haven't spoken in years. A lot of the people that you are friends with when you are little seem to shape who you find yourself to be later on in life (i.e. Stephen King's Stand By Me).

The sheds that populate the overgrown area are littered with graffiti now. The white spray paint takes the shape of male genitalia, derogatory terms, drug paraphernalia, and symbols of hate. I guess these are what kids find funny.

Speak easy,
Neil

Misc.

Although much of my day was devoted to recording, Mike, Brad, and I did find some time to have fun testing out the reaction time of my new camera.


This is a picture of Brad running into his car and using the momentum to flip over the car. He broke his glasses and almost gave my mom a heart attack in the process.

I wasn't as productive as I wanted to be today but I have all summer. Plus the package store that I was planning on working at for the next two weeks doesn't need me for the time being so I'll have a little down time.

Speak easy,
Neil

No Robots

UMass has a Quidditch team. For those that are uninformed, Quidditch is a sport played by wizards in the Harry Potter book series. In the novels, the game is played on levetated broomsticks hundreds of feet above the ground. The school's team does actually play other colleges in Quidditch matches.

It seems to me that there are categorically three separate incarnations of the disinterested. First, there is the kind of person who makes a conscious effort to seem engaged. Even if the conversation is one sided and masturbatory, the disinterested party will fain interest. Another kind of disinterested is the one that will not fain interest but will not prevent a lengthy dialogue. Every once in a while there will be a nod or two but for the most part you will be looking at an individual presenting a 'one-hundred yard' stare. Finally, there is the person that disregards a topic that they find boring right off the bat. This saves time overall, but can also be a little standoffish.


Lev bought a macro lens this week. This means that he can take high quality pictures of objects at a very close range. This is a picture of my eye.


This sign is above the back seat of every public transport bus on campus. No smoking, no food or drinks, no robots.

Speak easy,
Neil

The Dark Bus

When I was 11 years old, my friend Austin told me that I should make the most of being 11 years old because, he said, one day I would be his age and wish I was 11 again. At the time, Austin was probably about 14 at the time. He said that life is more carefree when you are 11. I still remember where I was when he told me this. I still remember how, even though he would joke around a lot, he told me this with stern confidence. At the time I didn't understand what he meant. When I was 11, all I wanted to do was get older and have great experiences. Deep down inside me there is still an 11 year old kid that just can't wait to go to High School and get his license and eat outdoors right before graduation and attend a loud concert and go to prom and kiss a girl for the first time and watch rated R movies at 1 in the morning. Austin was right now and he was right then. You don't know it but you should really take advantage of how old you are right now because some day, when you're older, you'll wish you were young again.


Lev is writing out some sort of scholarship application and asked me whether he should use the term "Health Field" or "Health Industry". I Googled* both phrases and "Health Industry" has 12,000,000 more hits. This is the most popular terminology, so I recommended he use it. It's interesting how different life is now with computers and all.

*I have heard that the English language is one of the only languages that actively adopts nouns as verbs. "Googled", "Texted", and "Friended" (for example, I friended him on Facebook) are the most common among people who fall within the 14-23 age bracket.

I am going to buy a California State flag to hang over my bed. For some reason or another you are able to get just about any kind of flag on Amazon.com for 0.01 USD.

Here are some things that I thought of today that I want that may or may not exist...

1) Desaturation Glasses - Glasses that allow you to see the world in black and white.

2) Dark Bus - A relatively hollowed out bus that has been converted into a dark room.

3) Rave Glow Gloves - Soft, thin plastic gloves with the same properties as glow sticks.

4) Boxton, MA - A small town made of card board boxes. This might actually happen. The girls working at the Brooks/Brett cluster office asked Lev and I if we could think of anything interesting to do with the extra boxes that they have. They really liked the idea for Boxton and asked me if I wouldn't mind if they used it.


Last week the Cape Cod Times published a few of my photographs. It is kind of an odd caption to be associated with, but I don't mind.

I am actually mentioned in the article as "an aspiring and talented photographer." Not too shabby.

Speak easy,
Neil

Adventures In Photography

I helped Lev construct this photography studio box today. It allows you to take a picture of small objects in a white atmosphere (complete with even 3-point soft lighting). In order to get all of the lights to work for the box, we had to jury rig* the lights to make everything line up properly.


* Jury rigging refers to makeshift repairs or temporary contrivances, made with only the tools and materials that happen to be on hand. Originally a nautical term, on sailing ships a jury rig is a replacement mast and yards improvised in case of damage or loss of the original mast. - Wikipedia


This picture of a calculator is an example of what the box allows you to do. There is soft shadows and no overbearing light source. Not too shabby.

This evening we also decided that we are going to try and convert the area underneath my bed (currently being used for television and drying clothing) into a fully functional darkroom. It has been about a year since I have developed any black and white 35mm so I am itching to get my hands wrist deep in developer once again.

For anyone interested, here is a list of all of the cost of supplies (shipping and handling included) to make this happen...

- Photo Paper ($49.99 + $8.00)
- Trays ($4.99 x 3.00)
- Photo Reel Canister ($6.99 + $8.00)
- Enlarger ($15.99 + $20.00)
- Timer ($10.00 + $10.00)
- Contrast Filters ($6.00 + $5.00)
- Dark Room Light ($10.00)
- Chem Seal Container ($1.95 x 4 + $5.00)
- Film Developer ($6.95 + $5.00)
- Paper Developer ($9.69 + $5.00)
- Film & Paper Fixer ($19.95 + $5.00)
- Tongues ($3.00 x 3)

The total should set us both back a little over a hundred dollars but it will totally be worth it. We are thinking of selling framed prints at about $20 a piece. The price, comparable to most original framed prints, is actually incredibly inexpensive. All we wish to do is make sure that the darkroom is capable of paying for itself.

This is a blue print of what I envision for my allotted workspace.

If you are unfamiliar with darkroom photography, I will try to elaborate. The object in the left hand corner is the enlarger. It holds the blank piece of photo paper and the negative (or image that you would like to use) and projects the negative onto the paper. Once you have exposed the paper to the image, you take the paper (without exposing it to light) and drown it in four different trays of liquid. After this process is complete, you hang the picture up to dry.

I splurged on a haircut today. It was worth it.

Speak easy,
Neil

Mettons nos lunettes de soleil. On va avoir l'air mysterieux!

Today, instead of using my own photography, I thought I would showcase some pictures that I found while roaming through my friend's Facebook photo albums.


Taken by Lev. He entered this to be in some sort of summer car calendar competition and he got it. Lev's only regret is that the two people in the car were not attractive females.

Taken by Brooke. This photograph is responsible for making her a finalist in the 29th Annual College Photography Contest.

I got this from Tim Kelly's profile. Between the colors, the expression, and the overall layout, I think it is a great picture.

This is Andrew, unsure if he will be able to walk on solid ground.

Today I was using the restroom at the Franklin Dining Common and there was a guy at the urinal using his cell phone. This is the first time I have ever seen this happen. It wasn't as annoying as witnessing a driver using a cell phone, or as inconsiderate as someone using their cell phone at the check out counter. The most interesting thing that I have noticed is that these phone conversations never seem to be very important.

Speak easy,
Neil

P.S - I finished watching '4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days'. Although it was a great film, I don't feel comfortable recommending it.

Also, the title of today's blog is something I found in my French book. It means "Let's put on our sunglasses. We'll look mysterious!"