I take photography. I have a lot of time to think in photography. Here is what I thunk.

The darkroom hallways are too darn skinny... made worse by the fact that my darkroom is at the end of the hall, and it takes a while for one's eyes to adjust to the amber lights. The ambers are out on the end my darkroom is on, making it totally dark. I have to run my hand along the side of the wall, counting the doorways as I go, in order to find my darkroom in the pitch black.

I am not claustrophobic, which is good as the darkrooms are very small. I like this part of photography - taking photographs is fun, of course, but making the prints is the best. I don't like developing the film as I have a great talent for messing up and ruining the film. Today I am making prints for my final assignment: a series of 6 pictures called 'Valley of Heart's Delight'. That is what the Silicon Valley used to be called around the turn of the century, when it was all orchard. There are very few orchards left now, and most of the remaining orchards are being cut down to become housing developments. I took pictures of an orchard to tell my story.

Click. I turn on the enlarger and focus the picture, then turn it off and take out half a sheet of photo paper for the test strip. As I expose the strip for 3 seconds, then move the cardboard block to expose more paper, I get a thought. People are like that too... in that we rarely get the whole picture at once. We get bits, slivers at a time, slowly, until the whole picture comes together. Perhaps we are like the photo paper - in that, if we got it all at once, the whole picture would be dramatically worse than it would be if gotten bit by bit.

Later, I take the finished print from the developing machine. It is still slighty damp from the chemicals, but it's a great print. I love printing because I can work the picture any way I want, and it's so neat to see the finished picture finally come out. It took a while, but there it is. There's gotta be meaning in that. :) It takes time.

Class is done. I hate the elevator. It rattles all the way down to the ground floor.

I have to laugh when I pass the outdoor coffee shop. The machine is 'borken'. Honest typopo, or hidden RinkyDink? You decide. :)

It's windy outside, but it's beautiful. The campus is a very nice one... lots of green spaces and trees. Amazing in the middle of downtown. I stop to watch some playing squirrels, a Swallowtail butterfly, and look at some beautiful callalilies.

Swish. The door to the library opens. Ahh, pollen free air! My poor sniffly nose rejoices. The hay fever time, with the winds stirring up the pollen, are no fun for my nose. The computers are mostly free, so I sit down. I manage to type www.rinkworks.com wrong twice before I tell my fingers to stop typopoing and do it right.

Aaah, RinkForum, RinkChat. Friends online when my real friends can't be around. A yummy Jamba Juice dinner is ahead, and then my Life Drawing class. Aside from the horrid paper I have to do over the weekend... life is good. :)


Sosi"talks and thinks a lot"qui