Thought I'd post a pic of Xander. Since that's all you really care to see anyhow:)

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I was sitting on the couch last nite with my camera. Discussing the projects we should work on and singing eachothers praises when we decided to play with the shutter speed in low light. I thought this one was neat and my camera thinks we definately need to explore this slow shutter speed thing more in depth.

I'm A Wretched Procrastinator.

Not sure what I was trying to accomplish here, but I scared the baby with this one. We were looking at pictures, mostly of him. I would ask who it was and he would say "me, me". Cute. Then this one came up and I asked who it was. He covered his face, whimpered, and buried his face in my shoulder. Kinda funny.
I didn't like this shot at first, but now that I have terrified my child I think I was looking for something else.Something not scary, but scary works!
So, why am I posting this nonsense. Because I should be working on my term paper, but I am a wretched procrastinator.

Funny Picture.

I can't think of who this reminds me of, but the hairdo had to be shared with the world. Ha! I feel like the camera should just be permanently attached to my face. It would save some time. I was able to hang out with Xander and do some fun things today for a bit. And when I say a bit I mean a bit. There are , of course, more pics in photobuck
et:)

It's 3 a.m

It's 3 in the morning. I've spent the past 6 and a half hours taking pictures.

Of myself. For another project. I'm getting really tired of looking at me. I never really like looking at me to begin with and having to look at myself over and over again for 6 hours knowing there is only going to be more fun filled Erica hours to come in the dark room only adds to my disgust.

One person should not be forced to stare at themselves for such a long period of time. It's unhealthy. I'm starting to see things....blemishes, scars, stretch marks, hair,etc...that I know will never be noticed by anyone but me. And maybe someone else who decides staring at me for 6 hours is amusing, but I highly doubt I'll ever come across that person. At any rate......No one else may ever notice my new found faults, but I know they are there. Just like dust bunnies and dog food under the fridge, and it will annoy me just as much.

Speaking of annoying me. After 6 hours the above picture is all I got that was worth anything. So... let's see that makes this particular photograph worth $300 if I were charging by the hour.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was nice and quiet this year. Mom cooked and the rest of us ate like piglets. There are some more pictures in photobucket. Check them out, especially if you'd like to see Xander's latest boo-boo.

Trudging...

Gilligan was the focus of all the love yesterday.

Sweet Condemnation!!

Well now, one would not expect that having your house condemned would be a good thing. Today is the exception. Turns out yesterday someone, somehow called the police department and consequently the fire department came to the house in Ypsilanti. Cited as a fire hazard are the following;

1. 9 people living in the house that were not on the lease. Which means there were 11 people living in a 3 bedroom house.
2. Excessive number of pets and pet excrement.
3. Uncleanlyness to the level of creating a fire hazard.
4. Holes in the walls (which the lovely tenants puched through themselves to run cables) with exposed wires.
5. A room in the basement with no eggress window.(this is not a room, but a cubby hole for the utility box that, yes, someone was sleeping in.)

The Fire Department, who are now on the top of my favorite people list, consequently told everyone that was in the house at the time they inspected to take their pets and whatever they could carry and leave the premises. The house is now padlocked and inaccesible to anyone but Tony and the Fire Department!!

Tony had filed eviction papers expecting it to take months to actually evict them. In the meantime they were having a great time trashing the place even more. It's been a nightmare. Finally it's over. Sweet Condemnation!

Oh Me Miha..Oh Me Miha.

The holidays are fast approaching. I'm not sure I'll even notice them this year. Do to the fact that my head is in a pretty good spin right now and I can't see it stopping until closer to 2008. At any rate...me Miha sent me the most wise email today. I thought I would share it with you, oh internet. Here is what me Miha has to say about the end of this semester and the coming holiday break.

"I have come this far and I will finish. Come hell or high water I will rest when this is over. I will roll in the snow capped hills and fall on my butt trying to ski. I will have white knuckles from holding on to the rail to hard on the ice-rink and I will do a belly flop on a snow-tube. I will sit on Santa's lap and wish for something, then go buy it myself so that my wishes will come true this holiday season. I will lose my voice singing Christmas carols. I will send everybody and their mother a card for Christmas and I will make a Christmas tree and have little presents underneath. I will host a Holiday Salsa Night and snuggle between my flannel sheets and then ....then if I'm tired and exhaused....I won't care, because then I'll feel as though I've lived and my sleep will be peaceful."


ps-the image is of Rachel. She is winter.

Ceremonious Burning of the Pinhole Camera.

I made this pinhole camera out of an oatmeal can for a project in class. I must add that I seriously disliked my pinhole camera not all pinhole camera's. Actually some people make pinhole camera's out of pretty nifty stuff and take some awesome pictures with them. I am sticking to my 35mm for now.
At any rate

I decided to use the ceremonious burning of my pinhole camera in my new assignment. Which is to capture time. These are some pics I took with my digital. I'm planning on making a collage with my black and white prints and coloring in the flames. Should be nifty.

Photo's Playing at the Park.

Xander and I went to the park this afternoon. A place we had not been in a while do to how cold it has been. I got lucky and was able to get quite a few good shots of him. The ones that are blurry are suppose to be. Which means they're good because it was intentional.Whereas if the blurryness had been a mistake, the shots would have been considered crap. Make sense right?:) Ask my photography instructor...I don't get it either.

If you'd like to view them just go to photobucket!

Just When I Thought I Was Smart...

I'm not sure if anyone recalls the time when I sent my brand new zoom lens back to the manufacturer because I was sure it was broken, and it ended up that I had left a wide angle adapter on it. Yep. That was a moment of brilliance that I want to remember for eternity. Alas, that moment has passed and a false sense of security convinced me I was smart again. Until yesterday that is.
You see the negatives for all of my projects have been horribly underexposed.(keep in mind I've never used a manual film camera) I was nearly brought to tears after developing the roll that I shot of Rachel and found that not only was it underexposed, but more often than not there wasn't even an image to be seen. I put away my camera for a few days and mulled over what the problem could be.
Was it me? Was I a terrible photographer that should run screaming away from anything to do with photography?Maybe.
Was it the camera? Was it broken?No.
Had I bought a bad batch of film?Unlikely.
Was the light meter broken? Yes. That had to be it!
So, yesterday I sat down with my very patient and kind instructor to discuss the problems I was having. Within 30 seconds it dawned on me what I had been doing wrong.
The first thing I asked was for her to check my light meter and make sure it was working since I had decided that had to be the problem. It just couldn't be that I was a blundering idiot. Turns out that I was wrong. My light meter works fine. Here's what I was doing wrong:
My SLR camera is aperature priority(the aperature works like the iris of your eye). Which means that it is my responsibility to decide which aperature setting I'm going to use and then the light meter suggest the shutter speed. Makes sense and I knew that but for some reason I wasn't using that knowledge.
I, being smart and stuff, was not changing the aperature. I had it in my head that the light meter suggested the shutter speed and then the aperature was to be set accordingly. Which means that I was taking all of my pictures as f/22 and anywhere from 1/1 to 1/4 and even at the bulb setting. Which means that the aperature was the smallest it could possibly be letting in very little light. I was confused as to why the camera was metering every situation similarly, but took the pictures anyway.
Live and learn, right?

Anyhow, the pictures I have posted I took with my digital camers. Hence, why they are visible. Xander is constantly climbing on Delilah. She has saintly patience with him. He loves every minute of it!

Halloween Dragon!

I'm still waiting on more pictures..don't ask....just enjoy them as they come.:)