pictures of pictures

This post is about maintaining the memory of my family camp for as long as possible. In northern Maine, my family has this camp that my grandpa built in 2000 for my dad and his siblings and generations to come. My dad and I thought it would be interesting to try and take digital pictures of the ones we only have on film in order to have copies that will last forever and so that we can send them to whoever. This is the first time that I’ve done this before so my results weren’t perfect, but I’m happy with how they came out. I enjoyed taking these because it’s keeping something that’s important to my family alive and now we have these pictures forever.

X-T2 ƒ/11 3.5s 35mm ISO100

X-T2 ƒ/13 6s 35mm ISO100

march 19

march 12

budapest part 2

On Thursday, we went to Heroes Square. Heroes Square is known for its statues of the seven chieftains of the Magyars and other important Hungarian national leaders. After that we began to walk towards the water because we had a boat tour in an hour. I was starting to get hungry and so was my sister, so we stopped in a sandwich shop to get some takeout for lunch. The service at this shop was so slow that we were starting to run out of time before our tour, we begin to walk to the pier and realize that there is no way that we can walk there in time. My mom went over to a taxi and he drove us to the boats at what seemed way over the speed limit. Our boat tour was really informative and it was about the history of the two sides of Budapest (Buda and Pest).

Friday was our last full day in Hungary so we wanted to make the most of it. My mom’s friend gave us a tour around the city and we pretty much walked all day. Our first stop was a bagel shop for lunch and it was delicious, after that we went to a little design store to get a gift for my dad who is a graphic designer. My mom’s friends took us out for a nice dinner afterwards as a farewell. Saturday came around and it was time for us to leave. We packed up all of our stuff and went off to the airport, where I was stopped in security because of the film from my camera. Next week I will be back to writing about national parks and my experiences in New Hampshire.

X-T10 ƒ/10 1/400 27mm ISO200

budapest part 1

This week is February break and I am in Budapest with my mom and sister. We’ve been planning activities to do everyday, on we went on a tour of the Parliament building which is the biggest Parliament building in Europe. On Tuesday we went on a two hour walking tour of the Jewish district in the Pest side of Budapest. Here we saw multiple synagogues and went inside the Grand Synagogue, on our way back we went to the Basilica of St. Stephen, we went inside and saw St, Stephen’s hand which was found when he was being re buried and his hand was taken and mummified. Today we went to the Buda side of Budapest to the Castle district. This was probably one of my favorite activities because I got to see a whole different part of the city, I am staying in the Pest side so it was really cool to cross the river that divides the two parts and see what the Buda side was like.

Next Tuesday I will talk about what we are doing for the rest of the week and have more pictures.

X-T10 ƒ/5.6 1/420 27mm ISO400

warner, nh

This past weekend my dad and I decided to go on a little adventure and find a state park to go to. We decided on Rollins State Park in a little town called Warner, NH. We were excited to go around the park and see what was available to photograph, but when we got there we realized that in the winter the state park became a snowmobiling path. If we had been more prepared then we probably would have stayed and tried to take pictures of the snowmobilers, but since we had Milo (our dog) with us it didn’t seem like the best idea and we headed back into town.

In the downtown area of Warner there is a little coffee shop and my dad and I went in there to warm up and try to find something to take pictures of. The barista behind the counter mentioned that there were covered bridges in the area that were worth photographing. We thanked her and went on our way to find a covered bridge.

My dad and I ended up being way happier about the covered bridges than we would’ve been with the park, we were better suited for landscape pictures as opposed to action shots of the snowmobilers. My film from this past weekend is still being developed so I don’t have any pictures right now, but I will put them up as soon as they come in.

field hockey (another try)

This past weekend I went to another one of my sister’s field hockey games. I wanted to give action photography another try because I wasn’t very happy with the results I got last week. Last week most of my pictures came out blurry and it was hard to tell what was going on, that was because I hadn’t figured out which settings worked the best for me. This week I learned which shutter speed to use and which ISO best goes with it so that the photo is not too dark and the shutter speed is fast enough for it to be in focus.

Next week I want to go back to taking pictures outside, because even though taking photos of sports is interesting I prefer to shoot outdoor photography.

X-T2 ƒ/22 1/450mm ISO3200

field hockey

This past weekend I went to my younger sister’s field hockey game. I used my Fujifilm XT-2 for the photos because I did not think that a film camera would give mr the results thatI wanted. When I arrived at the game I realized that my battery was very low, and I did not have an extra one. I put the camera on rapid fire because I was at a sports game where there is lots of movement, and so I could get as many shots as possible of the players.

I wasn’t very happy with the results of my photos because the camera was on a setting that I did not know how to turn off. This made it so that every photo was blurry and it must not have been at the right shutter speed because the camera was taking shots slowly. I am using this as a learning experience so that I come more prepared next time I go to take pictures. I also want to learn every setting of my camera so that I am not surprised when I turn on the camera and see something I’m not familiar with.

hampton beach

This past weekend I went to Hampton Beach with my dad so that we could get his stand up paddle board fixed. I decided that I should bring my camera just in case there were any photo worthy moments. Without realizing it I noticed myself almost filling the roll of film when we weren’t even halfway down the beach. It was below freezing out so we decided to head back and I ended up filling the entire roll in about an hour.

the whole reason we went to the beach was because it was next to the surf shop where my dad was getting his board fixed. Watching people surfing that day, and days before, made me realize that I want to start surfing again. I’ve been surfing before, in a learn how to surf camp a few years ago, and my family went on a surf vacation in Indonesia. During those few weeks of surfing I really enjoyed being out on the water, and seeing my dad have so much fun makes me want to try again.

nubble light

Last week I was not able to post because I was overwhelmed with studying for my midterms and could not focus on anything else. On the weekend of January 19th, New England was going through a Nor’easter and the road conditions were terrible but that didn’t stop us from going out to take pictures. We drove to Nubble Light in the storm and once we got to York, ME there were streets that were flooded with water from the ocean and could not be driven through.

Once we got to the lighthouse we realized that because we were in an open area surrounded by the ocean, the wind speed was ridiculously fast. I got out of the car only to find myself struggling to find balance and not be swept away. It felt like the wind was going 50 mph (even though it was really 20)

The worry that I had while taking photos was that my iso was 800. That means that you need to have very little light so that the photos don’t get over exposed. Luckily I knew what the correct f stops were for the light that I had, and my photos were able to come out. However, even though it was a great experience, this was not my favorite roll of film.

Pawtuckaway state park

The plan was to go to a state park, take some shots, and call it a day. It ended up being a little more exciting than that. I had chosen to go to Pawtuckaway State Park for our photos that day so we got in the car and drove about 30 minutes to get there. It was so cold outside but we weren’t planning on staying for more than two hours or so.

When we got to the park we started walking down this road and passed by a family who had just come back from hiking. We asked them if they knew where a nice place to take pictures was and they recommended the campsites farther down the road, so we began our hike.

We had kind of given up on getting the perfect shot because it felt like we had been walking forever, but then we stumbled upon this perfect landscape where the sun was shining right on the surface of a lake. I was able to fill a whole roll of film at Pawtuckaway and it exceeded my expectations

my first roll of film

The first day I took my camera out to take shots, it was very overcast and foggy. I went to a cemetery first and I practiced focusing on gravestones. we decided to photograph a cemetery because when it is overcast out that can make a very interesting and dramatic shot. after the cemetery we went to a dock to take pictures of the boats. It was amazing shooting with film for the first time and I plan on doing it again.

The most difficult part of this process for me was the anticipation and worry about if the photos even came out. It’s tough enough not being able to see your pictures to correct mistakes but knowing that there is a chance that no photo will come out at all is annoying. There was one point while I was out that made me think that I wouldn’t get any photos. I was trying to take pictures at the dock but the button on my camera stopped taking pictures. luckily we have a friend who is a photographer and was able to fix the camera simply by taking off the lens and putting it back on, which worked as a reset. I really enjoyed shooting with film and I plan on using it much more.

Canon AE-1 50mm f5.6

A New Year!

This year I’ve made a resolution to start a blog about my photography and the places I’ve been. I got a 1977 Canon AE-1 film camera for the holidays and have shot one roll so far, here I will be sharing my photography experiences and posting about what I am doing. To start the new year I went to a river during golden hour to take pictures of the reflections on the water, how the sun shines on nature and of course my dog Milo. because my roll of film is not developed yet, the picture above is taken off of a Fujifilm XT-2 digital camera. I also use the Fujifilm XT-10 for many of the photos shown on this website.