Every year a few awesomely hardcore photo nerds get together for two week(end)s in January to take part in a very special marathon. The class I speak of is held at the SAA and run by Graham and Thery. It's officially scheduled for 6 hours each day over two weekends. In reality 6 hours is barely enough to get your fingers
wet.

Yes, everyone, it's Gum Bichromate Printing Time!

Mmm...chemicals. Now remember, kids, if it glows orange...don't lick it.

During Fall Term I took 4.341: Introduction to Photography and Related media. The class was taught by Andrea Frank from the Visual Arts program. The best part of this class was that it forced me to take photos--often two rolls a weekend.

Also, I got the chance to use the VAP's really, really nice darkroom (pictured below). I soon found out that nice doesn't necessarily mean comfortable. Although the VAP had an abundance of ready-made chemicals and lots of space, I never felt quite at home there. Instead I spent my nights in the SAA darkroom, which gave me the opportunity to use a range of developers. And besides, I was also taking Graham's "Making Light Work for You" class--which was extremely helpful.

Although I had some frustrations with 4.341 I was really thankful that I'd taken it at the end because I produced my first real piece (actually...two pieces).

So, no updates since November...oh, man I'm terrible. I've been putting it off because the last time I fidgeted with my backend I broke something. And after I broke it I left it along for a few months, and now, well, I have no idea what I did exactly. (sigh)

See why I want to redo my blogging software? It's three years too old.

But this is a summer job, because right now MIT is eating my life.

So in an effort not to let this delay continue, I'm going to update my site by hand. That means generating all my XML and entering stuff into the database manually. This is annoying and time consuming, but it's less annoying and time consuming that completely redoing my backend.

Without further ado, lets begin our recap of three months and more.
[ Also, you might notice that the date is not really the date I'm posting on (March 2nd). Why? Well, I don't feel like having n+ entries all on the same date, so I'm going to spread them out to approximately when they happened. This entry is on January 1st because I'll be recapping stuff from last year. ]

Okay, seriously, enough with the blabbing now...

Everyone, meet Einstein! He's Ben's cat, and he's on a mission to catch the mouse under the stove. He arrived at the beginning of this school year (not in a bike), and he will be leaving with Ben who is graduating in June.

Wow, it's already November...my last post was in April. So we've gone from warming up to FREEZING COLD in a span of two posts. Great.

Anyway, I'm really sorry for my blogging hibernation. I blame several things: mainly my laziness and the fact that I really do not like the user interface I designed for the backend of my blogging program, and I've been telling myself that I won't blog until I fix the stupid thing...well that hasn't happened yet. Another blame would be classes. Every time I want to blog, I think oh I really should do that p-set, or write this code. And most of my photos are now on film. Yes, my dear Nikon D70, although I love you dearly you still cannot match the extreme detail and tonal depth I get with a 4x5 speed graphic. Oh, and the darkroom? IT'S A BLACK HOLE I TELL YOU.

*sigh*

Oh, and one more thing. This project has recently eaten up all of my free time, after, you know, the darkroom, classes, and sleep.

Anyway, let's recap my life in the past, oh, SEVEN MONTHS.

I will start with where I left off after my two months in Uganda: my week in Germany visiting family.

Ah, it's spring in Cambridge...the weather is perfect, and the end of the school year is just around the corner. Classes end on Thursday, and next week I have a final in 8.022 (E&M with Theory) on Monday, and a final in 18.03 (Differential Equations) on Thursday. Between now and then I have a paper due for Graham's Artist in the World seminar, and Lee's Ancient Greek Philosophy and the Birth of Mathematics class.

Then on the 31st I will be leaving for Uganda once again, this time for two months, and funded by the MIT Public Service Center.

While there, I will be keeping a blog at uganda.mit.edu. You should check it out.

Anyway, so today I got my first uber awesome lens (that isn't the default lens that comes with an SLR). It's a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens. So far I've only dealt with f/2.8 at most, which provides a good range of depth of feild, but the f/1.4 is simply amazing. Just take a look at these new pictures...