Winterlong

It’s been really cold in Australia (at least, the eastern part). The other day it was something like four degrees Celsius, which is the coldest it’s been here in years. The wind chill is pretty bad as well. Going to university has been alright because as soon as I walk into the building it’s warm. But once you walk outside the breeze from the sea gets you. At least I have the wonderful excuse of wearing scarves and my new coat that I got last weekend. Oh, not to mention, my new jeans that actually fit really well. :) I sure as hell love wearing skirts and stockings but I wear my signature skirt all the time – it’s a denim skirt I got a few years ago and it’s just so comfortable – and since I haven’t bought any new skirts lately, my new peach and white jeans are sure to be worn a lot this winter. :D

Speaking of skirts, I was going to buy one the other day but changed my mind because I didn’t like the length. I actually told my mum it was not short enough. Oh, here I am channelling Amy Pond – quite possibly my favourite female Doctor Who companion! – with her short skirts. ;) I don’t mind long skirts and dresses, but I tried on a skirt that made me look short because of its length. It didn’t quite hit the knees and it wasn’t a miniskirt like my signature skirt. I wasn’t a big fan of the brownish colour either.

Yesterday I went to university to process and print a roll of film. When I processed it, all was well. :D I always get paranoid that I don’t develop or fix it for long enough and the film will come out crap. Luckily that’s never happened. I also printed nine photos yesterday. What with spending a whole day in the lab, you’d think I would have printed more than that, but having to do test strips to make sure each photo comes out perfect – it’s really time consuming. Nine photos is quite a lot.

I also had lunch with Edmond and Tommy, and I took them to the handmade noodle restaurant that I’ve been to a few times with James. I made Edmond try the flavour noodles since they are… very flavourful. He liked it. Looks like I’m good at suggesting food to people. He was surprised when he asked me if I knew any good restaurants and I said, “there’s Pepper Lunch down the road, and Poporo in the shopping centre as well as a really good sushi train, and the Vietnamese pho place in George Street… there’s also a pizza place up that way…”

It was nearly time for the lab to be closed (5:00pm) and the teacher in charge, Jennifer, kept saying at 4:30pm that we had “ten minutes left”. I printed about three photos without even doing test strips, and I was hoping like hell that they would come out okay. They did! I haven’t received my other task back (the one with portraits of my brother) but this week I should be – I’d love to scan them in and post them.

My Music in Shadows project is pretty much done. I decided that I didn’t want to take another roll of film. I only have two, and I was able to choose nine photos, so I think that’s alright. Some people took at least four rolls. But I’m thinking, I know it’s suggested that we take as many rolls as we need prints (for this particular project we need six prints) – but if I can get many good shots from just a couple of rolls, no point in taking more, right?

I even asked my tutor, Paul, what he thought of my photos. He pointed out at least four that he definitely liked, so I think I’m doing really well. /bounce Only one of mine isn’t technically of shadows – it’s a photo of my guitar with the sun casting a shadow on the floor. But since the photos are supposed to work as a series, the guitar is my first photo, and the rest of the shadow photographs will depict tones of music, and because of their different shapes, they will represent both different kinds of music and different parts of a song. I hope I choose the best photos for this project! /faw Fingers crossed.

I’ve been working on a new layout and hopefully I can put that up with my next blog post. ♥️

Comments on this post

Oh thats cool! I can never wear knee-length skirts! They make me look so… strange. My mum bought me a BROWN knee-length skirt once and like you, I’m not very fond of the colour brown… at least on a skirt anyway. xD

Glad that your photos turned out well! ♥

Wow, it does seem that your good at suggesting food places for people! I suck at that. I only know a few restaurants and food places … and when someone asks me “Where shall we eat?” I’m always like “I brought food with me so….” *awkward* /hehe

I’m glad that your doing well with your photography! Best of luck! /heart

Having once taken a black and white photography class in which we had to develop film, 9 photos is a lot! I was lucky if I managed to finish one in 30 minutes back when I took the class. (I can’t understand how professional artist develop color photographs by hand…)

Can’t wait to see the pictures!

It’s great to hear that you are doing well with your photography! Sounds like it’s tons of fun!

It’s also so cold here seeing as it IS Winter… isn’t it Winter there too? Oh yeah, it is… I think. I’m so terrible with any sort of geography or general knowledge with countries etc. Quite sad. It’s always nice to dress up super warm with scarves and beanies, but I cannot wait until Summer comes back. :)

Cannot wait to see your new layout!

Hmm… I don’t think that you should treat the situation with a “take as many rolls as required” attitude. You need to shoot with more of a film mentality rather than what people are used to in the digital age now – so that potentially every shot you take could be used, and there should be no “bung” or bad shots per se, just shots that are better than others and more likely to be used. You should really challenge yourself and aim to get all six shots out of one roll! You can do it!

Also, 9 photos a day is pretty good if you’re starting out, I guess. But it’s definitely possible to do more, even as a beginner. A trick I used to do was – you know how in some photos there are “spacier” places whilst other parts of it are more busy-looking? You could test strip both parts in one go to make sure that the time you’ve decided on works well in terms of contrast, etc in both places, which will ensure that the whole photo comes out looking the way you want it, without having to continuously re-do test strips! :) Because it’s the waiting for test strips to sit through the developer, stop and fix that’s the most frustrating part! haha

Yep, that’s just what we were suggested though. I got nearly all nine photos in that one roll and there were quite a few my tutor liked as well. I dont even like that crazy idea of using so much film – as I said, if I had quite a few usable shots from just one roll then I must be doing a good job.

The prints came out okay – the ones I did in a rush. I knew the rough exposure time based on my proof sheet. :)

I wish my Dad and I had similar tastes in music. The only one band we both like is the Beatles, and otherwise we generally hate each others’ taste in music, lol. I was struggling to get everything done on my sites recently because I had this incredibly long to-do list that I’ve had for probably about a year now (I’ve been adding to it of course). I recently got a huge chunk of work on it done and now the things left on it actually seem doable within the rest of my summer break so I’m actually really happy. XD As long as I don’t get to distracted with watching anime I should be fine, but I can get addicted sometimes, lol. I barely use my debit card too, since I’ve gotten it I only used it once to get money out of an ATM, and I haven’t bought anything with it. I imagine once I go to university in the fall I’ll be using it all the time though. I actually just recently started driving on the freeway, and so far I’ve been doing quite well with it. The only time driving on the freeway becomes a chore is when you’re merging from the on-ramp when there’s a lot of traffic, but once you’re on the freeway it’s pretty much smooth, straight driving like you said! XD Lol, I pretty much did the same thing when I made test-strips. A lot of the kids in the photography class weren’t as organized though, they’d forget the time increments on their test strips and they ended up cutting tiny pieces of photo paper to do mini test strips over again. It was ridiculous though because we’d have a bunch of tiny strips floating in the chemicals, it really started to annoy me after a while. I agree I love working with film photography and it really helps you improve by striving for the best shot every time whereas in digital photography you can basically take as many pictures as you want. I also like going through the developing and printing process because putting all that work into your photos makes you cherish them more in the end. :D

I love wearing skirts too! Or at least I used to… Right now I only have one skirt because I went through a several year period of not wearing anything besides jeans or pants, lol. I wanted to buy a lot of new skirts and dresses when I started wearing them again but instead I ended up buying only dresses. I definitely need some new skirts, and miniskirts are my favorite! :3 Wow, nine photos in one day is A LOT! I’m surprised you didn’t go insane, lol. You should definitely scan some in, I’d love to see them!~ The music in shadows concept sounds really cool too! I don’t know why but I really like nature/outdoors photography so many of photos from my photography class were of nature or landscapes. For one of the projects I did a study on street photography and went downtown to take photos, that was probably my favorite. :D Anyway good luck on the new layout, I’ll look forward to seeing it. <3

Hmm… Peach and white jeans sounds really interesting because I haven’t heard of such a thing! :P You seem to wear scarves a lot, because I keep reading about it in your blogs, so I’m guessing it’s one of your favorite things to wear aside from skirts? :) What exactly is your “signature skirt”? I’ve never heard of such a thing, ahah.

You seem to be having a lot of fun on this project, and I wish you the best of luck! :)

I can’t wait to see the new layout you’ve been working on! I love seeing your layouts and works, because they always look really great! :P

Yes, you told me about your friend with PCOS! I actually think my cyst is … gone? But I’m still not sure. If it is, then I’m pretty sure that something else is wrong, too, because I’m having too many severe symptoms with this stupid birth control.

I haven’t really touched my e-mail recently. I mean, I have read a few, but like comments sitting in my Pending queue, e-mails build up quickly. :( If I would have read your comment sooner, I most likely would have e-mailed you! Haha. I’m so horrible at asking for help. Like, I just want to rant, but I feel like I’m annoying my [offline] friends – hence the reason I’ve not talked to them much for the past two-ish weeks – and I don’t want to blog about it because it’s so … depressing. Thank you… I will most likely be e-mailing you soon, but as a warning in advance, I’m sorry for whatever lameness may occur. :(

I don’t have much to write about daily, either, but I’d love to participate in this BEDA thing so many people are doing, and I have been wanting to ever since Gabi told me about it in April, toward the end of April. I think it would be a pretty good challenge, and I can keep scheduled posts for backup. :P

I have another blog – Kind Lie. I was hosted by you, but I decided to quit working on it because I couldn’t really see it going anywhere. So far I’m just blogging whenever I feel like it, and that’s pretty good for me. :P

*hugs back* Thank you! :D

My mum is proud of my report card. She wants to buy me a gift D: I’m so spoiled /wah Winter seems really cool. But I wouldn’t last long in the cold. How can you wear skirts in the cold? Even with stockings? I guess you’re used to the cold, so you can handle it. But if you like short-ish skirts, does that mean your stocking are extra long? I always thought long stockings are cool.
It seems cool to be a student a t the uni and to know all the good restaurants nearby. I hope you pick the right picture for the project aswell, but I’m pretty sure you will. All this photography talk sound very photographical. /cool

Oh I forgot to mention, our “stockings” are like pantyhose, so they cover the feet and bottom half. XD

mini shirts ftw! lol I have short legs so it’s sad when a skirt is cute, but doesn’t help with my height D: I guess I can wear heels, but I’m inexperience with heels.

It really does sound like you’re doing great in photography class *-* I’m so jealous! haha

I know, HOW FREAKING COLD IS IT! It’s like 9 degrees here, well it was the last time I checked. I am wearing EARMUFFS, in my room …. and I have a heater, hahaha. I look like such a weirdo ♥

Ooo, new layout … (oh god, saying ooo too much these days)

OMG I WOULD LOVE TO SEE THAT PHOTO OF YOUR GUITAR!! It sounds beautiful!! I’m guessing it’s black and white? I LOVE B&W photos. I think they capture so much character and leaves so much to the imagination.

I’m just started liking to wear skirts again because it’s finally summer over on my end. I used to hate wearing dresses and things but lately I haven’t minded. I only like wearing them though if they are not too fancy and just something casual and cute. I actually don’t have a denim skirt though! I’m still trying to find one. Kinda looking for a stretch one since my weight keeps on fluctuating.

I love skirts too, though it’s a bit hard to find ones that I can wear. Some don’t fit well and some make my legs look like sticks, so when I find a skirt that I like that doesn’t fall under any of those categories, I don’t hesitate to buy it!

I’m glad all your photos are turning out okay! I hope you can show them to us soon! I’m especially excited to see the “Music in Shadows” ones; the concept seems interesting. :)

I’ve been working on a new layout too. I’m actually done with the design, though I haven’t really had much time to code it yet. My current layout is relatively new anyway.

I can’t wait to see your new layout!

gah, i hate that woth skirts, too! if they’re not the right length, it just looks stupid -__-
aah, and.. sushi train!!! we have one here in the city, but i didn’t go there yet, but now i’m sort of craving sushi *_*

aww, and thx for the compliment about the layout! :3
and i have ‘normal’ piercings in my ear as well (4), so yeah. :)

hope it’s not too cold over there!

xoxo, tina

Oh, 4 degrees? I’m used to -20 or so in the winter here. But I prefer that. 4 degrees means a cold wind and the air doesn’t get dry enough for it to be really nice. Do you have any snow?? I must say I know very little if the Aussie weather and what to expect but I’m glad I’m here now. Much warmer :-D

A lot of talk about photos here but no proof, lady ;-)

Where I live is about to go through a 2 day heat wave it seems. Apparently, it’s suppose to reach 100F. That should be interesting lol. But I’m with you on the scarves. I love wearing scarves.

Glad you were able to get good pictures that turned out well :)

And that noodles place sounds delicious. I’m a noodle fan :) And I love your friend was caught off guard lol.

I’m not really liking this cold. Melbourne didn’t really have a summer this year either. :(

I have heaps of cool denim skirts that go great in winter and summer, but I’m too scared to wear them because I don’t see many others wearing them; they’re all into the denim shorts. Not that I like to copy what others wear, but I don’t want funny looks.

I didn’t know that you are doing a photography coarse? I’ve missed so many of your blogs. :(

New layout? Can not wait. :)

Aw, thank you :)

Ugh, I hate doing assignments and stuff..it’s the same thing over and over. I have these moments where I’m like, argh ceebz and then it all comes crashing down…

Good luck with your goal! I couldn’t really stick to mine…eh

Really? I love Tumblr! ♥ I haven’t encountered too much spam, haha.

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ooh, I can’t wait to see your photos posted up! I’m sure they will be lovely, like your new layout :D

Geez, I know, it’s so cold over here in Australia. Do you remember in like April-May, when it was absolutely freezing?! It’s a tad warmer, but not really. I remember wearing two pairs of stockings to school because I was shivering so badly. Brr. I was like a snowman in school uniform.

I usually never wear skirts…I love my jeans, they so snuggly! But I have to say, I have a new appreciation for maxi skirts, they’re really nice! I can’t pull off knee-length because it makes me shorter than I actually am, although I’m not sure if that’s even possible. Haha.

I didnt know you had photography classes. While I was reading the first few parts I was like, wait wait, did I miss something? xD It didn’t help tho, I could only picture a very very vivid image of how you managed to process a film. Is that like in a dark room with all the liquid containers and hanging things? /dumb I don’t really know if I could give out any useful advice you could use.. soooo. Goodluck! @_@

Winter? Already? O____O Tho it is kind of cold on the other side of the world, but not to go as far as four degrees. Now I’m scared. It’s just summer here but it’s been cold and wet. I can’t imagine how winter is gonna be this year. D;

Will dfntly look forward to the new layout! ♥

Haha yep, darkroom photography. :D It’s pretty fun, but also time consuming. It takes time to process film and get the printing right.

We had a pretty cold summer. Rumour has it that we’re going through a mini ice age, which is probably true. It’s strange because Australia is generally a warm country.

Oh how I hate cold weather. D: This year in the UK it was our coldest winter in a number of years, it snowed every day for probably over a week. Dx My only signature clothing in the winter is my coat. xP I genuinely do enjoy putting on a coat, boots and scarf in the winter. :P

I’m not really that great at suggesting places to go and it. I honestly just tend to circle the same restaurants often since I’m used to them and I can never suggest new places for people to go and eat other than the usually that they have probably already tried.

It sounds like you’ve been really busy with the work you’ve been doing. The work sounds fun though. ;D I’m glad your pictures have been coming out OK. :) Looking forward to seeing the new layout!