This weekend, we adopted two new family members, Sally and Gretzky. They are living in the basement and they are super cute!

It has been forever and a day since I have posted anything here or on my photoblog. Actually I tried to post a photo recently and I couldn’t even get it to work right. Something must have gotten screwed up last summer when I switched webhosts and I didn’t even know it until just last week. So I have decided to ditch this old photoblog and try out a new application for the photos. Unfortunately I am unable to import all of the old photos and comments into the new system, so I might be starting from scratch, or I just manually add the old ones back in, over a period of time. We shall see. But watch for that to come soon, well not that anyone will read this…

Another recent change… I have decided to quit my volunteering at Blue Sky Gallery, where I have been for about the past five years, and just this week I started my new volunteer gig at the House of Dreams cat shelter, which is a no kill, free roam all volunteer shelter. House of Dreams is possibly the only shelter in the NW that will take feline leukemia positive kitties. They have a separate room for them, and all of the kitties in the house are free to stay there for the rest of their lives if they don’t or can’t get adopted. I took many photos of the residents today and I hope to take many more in the future as I get to know and help out these wonderful animals. If you want to adopt a cat, let me know and I bet we could find you someone wonderful there. I have only been there twice so far, but these are just the sweetest, nicest cats.

This is Special Agent Dale Cooper.

… I’m leavin’ on the 16th… I’m gonna wake up in the city that doesn’t sleep….

Woohoooo! I am finally going to see the Big Apple!

Here are some pics of the new yard, with it’s spring/summer growth! It looks really nice back there. It’s actually grown in even more since I took these…

So it’s been a while… how’s that for an understatement.
Some changes in the recent past:

• I’m vegan
• I’ve gone digital (Nikon D50)
• I’m giving up film and gelatin based paper once I’ve used up my supply
• I got a Lensbaby 2.0
• We got a new kitty, but that doesn’t really apply here. But I like him.

So I hope to get some inspiration and some time and start posting again. And I need to develop that roll of film that’s in the camera and see if I got anything interesting…

Edit - all these changes might mean it’s time for a serious makeover here… we’ll see…

Developed 2 Holga rolls of Arista 400 from the trip to the beach, in HC110-B. Dev’d the first for 5 minutes, then as an experiment dev’d the second in the same solution for 6 minutes, agitating for 15 sec per minute, instead of my normal 10 sec. First couple of frames look ok, fairly equivalent to the first roll, but the rest of the roll doesn’t look so good. But that would be a camera/exposure issue as opposed to development, so I think the experiment can be seen as a relative success.

My latest ebay box arrived this week, bringing me many new old cameras, several of which are very cute and make it all worthwhile. I’ve got:

Kodak Brownie Flash 20 - very cute and seems to be in really good condition, the lens looks really clear. Takes 620 film, so I will need to check and see if 120 spools will work, or if I need to respool to give it a try.

Kodak Brownie Starlet - takes 127, very cute, a little beat up but not too bad. Had a Kodak Supermite Flashfolder attached, it’s so little!

Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash - I already have one of these, but I think this one might be in better shape. It’s a little different as it has a metal film wind, my other is plastic. It seems to be a little heavier.

Spartus Rocket - this little thing is adorable. Takes 127 film (still had a roll in it!). All that holds the back on is one little metal clip, hard to believe it can be light tight, but I will have to test of course. Shutter release is sticking a bit.

2 Kodak Instamatic 35mm cameras - one is a 104 and one is a 154, which came with a cute little case. Not overly excited about these ones. Not really even sure how to work them!

And lastly a seriously beat up and dirty old Kodak 3-A Autographic Jr. It even still has the old metal stylus in it for the autograph window. This thing is a wreck, but will still look really cool on the camera shelf.
I think that’s a pretty good deal for $20!