The Aperture Ghost

Friday! Yes, end of the week. Fridays are always lazy as hell. I played guitar for most of my afternoon, and I actually wrote a new song in ten minutes. I’m very proud of it.

I was lazy all of tonight, seeing as most of my day was spent going to university and back, and at university processing and printing another roll of film. Wow. I can’t believe how intense doing a subject during the break is. Madness!

I have to take photos of someone for my second task and I chose my brother Brandon. I had to take a few photos at night or in artificial light so my results weren’t that great, though it was a nice challenge! I printed an intentionally motion blurred photo of him walking down the escalator at the station. It turned out a little eerie and dark but I liked the effect. It sort of conveyed a bit of mysteriousness and the fact that he was in his own world – even though, yes, he knew I was photographing him from behind. Hehe.

Photo paper is so expensive, as is film. It’s driving me mad, every time I get paid from work, all the money gets blown on photography stuff. I’m not so stingy about it as I am with other stuff though. Usually with food I might choose the cheapest thing on the menu… but hey, this goes to show much I like this subject because I’m willing to spend quite a bit of money.

Today I finished photographing Brandon at the station and I bid him farewell when he had to get off the train at his stop, on the way to school. I was so worried when I developed my film in the tank that something would go wrong, for two reasons, 1) I was using a different type of film that needed different developing times, and 2) I accidentally put too little fixing liquid into the tank. I shook the tank a bit more to make up for it, but to be honest I was worried as hell. Thankfully, my film negatives came out alright! There were definitely some useful shots there, but also a few failed ones where the shots had turned out completely black. Probably because of the crap lighting in Brandon’s room.

Once I printed a sheet with a copy of all the photos, I left it to wash in the water. I printed another one because the first copy was grainy, but I decided to keep both anyway. A classmate, Edmond, was also in the darkroom printing. He left the room and I put one of my sheets in the dryer to dry, and as soon as I put it in, I went outside to see how he was going checking out his prints in the light. When we went back inside, my print had disappeared from the dryer. We spent a while looking on the table around the dryer and on the floor around it, as well as in the bin, in case it dropped in.

It was actually freaking me out that the print was nowhere to be found. @_@ Edmond thought it might have been stuck, but we realised it wasn’t possible, because the dryer is narrower than the sheets of paper. After I put my other print into the dryer, it came out okay, so it was really a mystery where my first sheet went. We decided to put our photo paper away (should it hit the light, it would be deemed useless!) before turning on the lights completely. When we did, we found my print halfway across the room, right under a workstation.

Freaky that it must have gone flying or something. Similarly, Addison had been checking for the right settings for his print, and he came outside with a full print, not having changed any settings, but his picture was so much lighter.

“Are you sure you didn’t change the aperture?” our tutor asked.
“I didn’t! I didn’t change anything,” said Addison.
“Must be the Aperture Ghost,” replied our tutor.

I’m amused.

Comments on this post

Hahahaa that’s so creeepy! The darkroom back at high school had like a double L-shaped corner so that there wasnt a door but were enough corners to stop light from getting in. I used to get so annoyed with people who would hide around the corner and jump out to give me frights, urgh.

Hahhaa we have that exact same entrance! No one has tried to scare anyone though. XD

Hi! I love your tutorials, could you maybe write one for how to create a “fading slideshow”. For example, if you go to my web page, theres a slide show of 3 pictures on the home page… How would I make those cross-fade?

I’ve always been fascinated by photo development. It’s one of those things I was completely confounded by when I was younger, yet for some reason, I’ve never bothered to look up now that I’m older and have access to Google. I even have friends in photography classes that I’ve never asked. I guess maybe I really don’t want to know. Although, I’d love to go into a dark room some day. Those sound like fun.

You should post the blurry picture of your brother. I looked at indecisively.me to see if it was there, but I don’t believe it was there.

So creepy what happened with your photo!! But at least you found it right? I hope the rest of the photos turned out alright!!!

Money spent on something one enjoys is always worth it, no matter how much is spent on it. Why else would you want to take a photography class knowing you’d have to spend a lot of money for it if you didn’t enjoy it? Feel good about it, in the end it might be worth the knowledge. ^_^

The Glass Aperture Collective! That’s what this post’s title reminded me of. :3 Which also reminds me, fucking fanlisting revamp marathon. xD I might try to do a couple today… Betcha neither of us will get to seven. ANYWAY, related comment time, hah.

We played guitar together! Oh wow, I forgot you sent me those recordings. I’ll listen to them after this comment. My left index finger is hurting really bad right now because of all the sliding in The Truth About Heaven, and I have to have it kind of on two strings because I have to mute one of them. It’s not hard, but it hurts because I haven’t played in so long.

I hope you’ll scan the picture of Brandon at some point! I couldn’t really see it when you showed me on MSN. I mean, I could see it, but not the motion blur.

Did you end up being able to keep the non-grainy print even though it flew out of the drier and across the room?

I hate it when I have to pay for things for school. =/ Like buying textbooks, ugh. Hopefully some of my books next year will be available as ebooks, because then I can just bring them on my iPad, and they’re cheaper too.

I hope your tutor wasn’t being sarcastic and didn’t think Addison had just fucked up. D: Speaking of, was he able to get a good print of his photo?

A poltergeist is in the print! OMG another Twilight Zone moment :P
Your photography class reminded me of my video class, so much work to do out of the class. Love it but it did my head in …

Hello!

Wow, photography sounds like a VERY expensive subject to take D:. VERY expensive. At least with other subjects the most you have to fork out is like $150-180 dollars for a bloody textbook you’re only ever going to use for about 3 months XD.

It was nice of Brandon to be your photography subject :). Hahaha your description of the photo is enough to make me think it’s mysterious :P. If that even makes sense XD.

Whoooaaaa, that is really…creepy. D: VERY creepy. If I were you I’d be too scared to walk into that room again! But I think you’re braver than me :). I’m glad your photos turned out well though :D. Well most of them anyway!

photography is definitely an expensive hobby. I guess one of the reasons it never really appealed to me.

paper does catch air pretty easily, so I can see it floating across the room.

Haha, you must have a photo poltergeist in the darkroom :P How fun that you get to actually develop your photos into physical copies! When we had photography in uni we just took the photos and then it was all about editing them in Photoshop. That was fun enough, but I think getting to hang out in a darkroom sounds much cooler :)

An aperture ghost? That is quite amusing. :P If that room gave you chills though it would just be plain creepy.

I hadn’t realised you’d taken up photography, but yes, it would be a really demanding course. Our school actually offers Higher Photography, which I took for this year but I ended up dropping it in favour of a much needed study column. I’d been told by photography students last year just how much work was involved but it didn’t quite strike me until we were set our second assignment, a photo essay, immediately after an assessment and before the due date of another assignment. It was crazy, and I knew I wasn’t prepared to put the work in, not during my last year at school anyway. :/ It’s a shame, my first and last photo got and A-, which I’m proud of. Maybe I could have done well.

I think it’s a fascinating! The art of capturing a moment, framing a piece of time for ever. There’s something really romantic about it. :) Judging by your photoblog you’ll be really good at it too. Have you been set specific tasks or are you given free reign on what you do?

I love the idea of being in a darkroom. XD Our school has one but it’s mainly used as a studio since the course focuses on digital photography. But I’ve always wondered exactly how photos are developed and I’d love to do it myself. Is it not really cool watching your photo appear?
______________

Looking like a boy in jeans and a tshirt, I hate it. I tend to wear band tshirts too and they’re always really baggy. So I try to compensate with skinny jeans. But recently my legs have just got bigger, somehow. I don’t know if it’s muscle or fat but I cannot get tight jeans on anymore. Then I try a bigger size and they are baggy around the hips. It’s been bothering me quite a bit lately.

Yeah, I agree with you. Sometimes people just see skinnier people and tell them to eat something, as if they only eat lettuce and it grinds my nerves a bit. I know a few people with high cholesterol and I know how they have to be careful with fats and such. Like you said, there are different dietary problems. Some people seem to be under the impression obesity is the only one and if you’re slim, you’re healthy.

Yes, the weather is getting a lot warmer here. ^_^ I was out in town for some last minute holiday shopping and there were people in shorts and skirts and dresses everywhere. I doubt it’s even that warm, it just feels it.

I hope you’re well, sorry I’ve been really slow getting around to replying. :/

Well, at least you’re enjoying your class! It’s too bad so much money had to go to it though!

I’m sure I’d be more paranoid than you if I had to deal with film and all. I’m paranoid enough as it is! I don’t think film and I would get along so well. It does seem so interesting though!

Whatever ghost that is must be having a lot of fun messing with you guys! I wonder how your paper got there, haha.

aperture ghost? that’s freaaaaakkkyyy! /hehe i have a friend who is an aspiring photographer and he also told me that’s it’s quite expensive… from lens to film and the camera itself. like there’s a specific camera for each setting you want. but hey i guess what you are spending for this photography thing is all worth it. i’ve seen your photos and ya… they’re all nice. (Y)

ah thankyou, I hope so too I am a little nervous but I think it’ll be ok
yeah that’s probably what i’ll do to be honest, I was going to make a layout this afternoon but I forgot my cpanel password and now i’m locked out /ehh so i guess it’ll have to be another day. good luck with your extra credits btw!!
Glad you’re enjoying your class! sounds quite expensive, I suppose it’s great that you’re doing it all and the best comes from not scrimping on things but sometimes it can be exasperating when you’ve worked so hard and then you blow all your money. still, thats cool that your photos came out ok!
Haha strange about the ghost though a bit spooky :P least you found your other print though even if it was across the room! lets hope you don’t have any more spooky experiences next time you develop some more photos. :D

I love being lazy on a Friday night. It’s a good way to end a stressful week.

A friend of mine is doing a three year course in photograph at university. I remember her showing me some shots she took in her garden at night. They put lights in the trees to light up the garden and it looked really effective.

I’m glad you are enjoying the subject though. It sounds like an interesting challenge even though it is a bit expensive.

I never realised how complicated developing photographs is. You take it for granted when using digital cameras.

Omg, that’s so weird! Creepy, indeed. Haha, amusing what your tutor said but if it was me. I would be probably be freaking out. Ahaha. As in running around screaming ghostttttt, well not really but you know what I mean. C;

It’s awesome that you love photography so much. My sister is currently learning photography, she needs a good camera though before anything else. Right now she just relies on her HTC camera. XD

my friends are really into photography and they’re pretty stingy with money too, and i was just sooo surprised they would spend so much money! i guess it doesn’t matter if you have a passion for it :)
weird how it disappeared! at least it magically appeared later on haha, better than losing it forever

Hey Georgina!
It’s so awesome to hear that you are doing a photography course!
Yeah, working with film can be very costly. But then again, everything to do with photography is very costly… lens, filters, equipment etc.

That’s so creepy! That happens to me all the time. Things fly everywhere and I’m like what? haha.
Aperture Ghost?! Good one!
I’ve recently discovered that my camera lens can properly manualy focus after all. ==” Heh, a bit late. So I’ve been playing around with it. Can’t wait to see more photos from you! I bet they are spectacular! I saw your photography wall and it looks so cool! I love teh contact sheet of yoru first film roll. That’s something you can’t get when working with digital.

I never tried developing photos in a dark room. I should learn and experience how to do that. For me Monday is my lazy day while Friday is where I’m most active: parties! lol :)