I’m probably the last on my block to discover the wonders of online bill payment, but I finally did, and it’s fantastic. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to buy in to what I’m guessing everyone already knows to be a good idea. Maybe I was turned off by the fact that my bank charged for the feature (it’s now free), but in hindsight, it would’ve been worth the $3.50 a month they wanted (the five stamps I use each month is half of that already, without accounting for time saved and hassle avoided). In any event, I’ve moved out of the stone ages, at least when it comes to paying bills – I’m still not getting a cell phone.
What's been on my mind lately? Read on...
I heard Peter Mulvey on the radio this morning. Someone please get this man a voice-over contract, stat! At least have him do a book on tape. I could listen to him talk for hours…
My project for tonight: archiving negatives. All my photo negatives are haphazardly stored in various containers in a drawer – it took me half an hour to find a particular frame the other night.
Saturday just wasn’t my day. On two occasions, friends that I was meeting up with didn’t show (one says I got the day wrong, but I’m not convinced…), and my car got hit. Fortunately, it was a nice day to be outside waiting for people, and the folks who hit my car were kind enough to leave a note. Oh, and also, my new film scanner broke.
Sunday, on the other hand, was a great day. Rif and I went for a nice bike ride along the river and a great walk in Mt. Auburn Cemetery (where we saw a cormorant, a green heron, and a kingfisher in the span of about 30 seconds). I got some Scrabble playing in (two bingos: REALIzE for 66 points and QUOtERS for 106 points!), and had a really nice dinner out on their patio with my folks. Glad the weekend turned around…
Last week, I finished making my frame saw, and I put up some pictures of the construction process. Check it out here.
I swung by Calumet on my way home last night and picked up my new toy! I only had about ten minutes to spend with it yesterday, but the preliminary results were very impressive. I scanned one color negative and one color slide, and the resulting images from both were not bad, especially considering I didn’t do any futzing with settings. It’s not speedy, but it’ll do the job just fine…
In reading about film scanners in general, I came across two pieces about image histograms and curves. The first is kind of technical and long-winded, but ultimately covers a lot of ground. The second is a little clearer, but goes in to less detail. Both relate more or less directly to scanning film, and it’s clear that getting really good results from any scanner requires using these functions.
I’ll post samples and more observations as I have time to play…
It’s being reported that Henri Cartier-Bresson passed away. Not knowing too much about him, I found this great collection of his portraits.
I’m considering getting one of these to transition negatives to digital. Any experiences to share?