And now onto my comparison:

I think digital photography is a faster and easier process but you don’t learn as much or get as in depth in the settings as you do with film. For example, my professor explains people who learn on crappy digital cameras today; they take the picture and if it doesn’t turn out, they keep taking it until they get what they like and just delete the bad ones. They don’t know the settings or what they do or why they work. They aren’t making the photographic decision. It’s trial and error with buttons and settings, not really knowing what they’re doing. With a fully manual film camera, you have to really know your manual settings and record them, so when you develop and see that you over- or underexposed, you can see what you did wrong and calculate how to fix that the next time.

I also really love the “magic of the darkroom.” It’s so much more hands on than digital editing, which is just pushing some buttons and moving your cursor around. Getting a good print in film requires so much more skill in developing the film, exposing the negatives correctly, having the right paper, using the chemicals long enough, burning and dodging right, etc. etc. It’s a much richer experience than “open this image file, tweak, save, close.” I’m not sure if they’re even too comparable. I’m beginning to think they are more like cousin art forms… sort of like comparing a watercolor painting to a printer print-out. Not that there aren’t some very high-end and beautiful art works that were printed on fancy printers, but painting is just a longer and older process that is much more hands on, get dirty in your raw materials as compared to the completely virtual process of digital imaging. You basically never have a tangible piece of art in digital photography until it is printed. Whereas with film, you’re working with tangible mediums with your negatives and your paper.

In the end, digital is a much faster and relevant process for today. Especially for portraiture, where you’re expected to have lots of images in a short period of time, and need a fast turn around and lots of options for paying clients. But I still see a use and a need for the film process as art and as documentation. Silver prints still last decades longer than ink-based digital prints. Personally, I would like to use film more, if darkroom and printing sources were more available after I am no longer taking classes.

Comments on your preferences in film vs. digital? What’s your experience?

Yay, holiday season! I’m on a three week break from school, and Christmas is soon approaching. I’ve made cute little mugs of candy as gifts for my friends. They’re easy to make. You just need to arrange the following:

• A Christmas Mug
• Peppermint Patties (in the bottom)
• Giant Christmas Kit Kat Bar
• Skittles or M&M Tins, containing their respective candies
• 2 Sweet Tart Candy Canes

And you’ve got yourself an affordable and enjoyable gift for many people. I think this also sort of counts for one thing my list of 101 Things to do in 1001 Days; #28. Make Christmas presents. This counts, right? Sure….

It is my hope that everyone enjoys this holiday season. (And really… who can’t have a nice time with all the pretty snow, music, lights, and happy friends and family about them? If you can’t, you are a grinch. And I’ll call you out on it!)

A note to Santa: I would like my own Santa Hat this season so I don’t have to Photoshop one onto my head each year. (P.S. I’ve been a very good girl.)

Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah!

~Ellen

Considering I will pick one, I’m balancing which would be more useful versus fun. Entrepreneurial would certainly be useful. I can see it being creative and fun. I mean, being an entrepreneur means starting your own business from scratch and being your own boss. Keeping a business like that takes a lot of creativity. So I think I’ll be okay, just as long as it doesn’t get all technical business lingo-y on me; that’d just be downright scary.

Writing, however, I would probably pick mostly creative writing classes since that’s what I enjoy the most. I would love to take some Creative Writing classes or Intermediate Poetry. But writing can also be useful. So many people don’t know how to communicate effectively with the written word. Or their grammar makes them sound like they’ve just graduated from Primary school. Just the other day, someone posted on facebook, “I don’t want to go to class either but I already have went to one.” That makes my die a little inside, each time I read that.

Anyway, writing is a big part of communicating properly on the internet. You can’t be there to explain your services to someone on your website, so you have to be good at communicating effectively in writing without getting too long, or complex. I tend to be a little bit long winded (as I probably am here, but it’s my blog and I’ll rant if I want to), or I can’t think of enough to fill the space.

Winding down, I still can’t decide. I think next semester I will start some Intro classes for each and maybe that will help me decide. Until then, any input from readers would be great! Anything I’m forgetting to consider, ideas, opinions, your experience with college minors? Thanks!

So I’ve been going to WalMart lately and have been passing this “Off to College” section they’ve rolled out that has bedding, bathroom stuff, mirrors, lamps, kitchen equipment, and some furniture. And I’ve been walking past these storage ottoman things… and yeah. Now I have two of them. In purple. With micro-suede. Mmmm. So nice. But I love them! A fifteen inch cube you can put stuff in! It’s brilliant! And they’re comfy! So yeah… that’s what I got.

Then after I brought these home, my mom remembered she had some gift cards that Bed Bath & Beyond gave her when she was buying wedding presents for a relative’s wedding. She said I can have them! So I’ve been stuck in the Bed Bath & Beyond website for two days, browsing through all the stuff they have. It’s awesome! Problem is, I don’t know how much is on the gift cards yet. Probably not very much, so we’ll see what I can actually get. (Instead of that nice $130 bookshelf, settle with $20 in throw pillows or something.)

Well, I’m still thrilled to be moving back to school! As predicted, I’m getting tired of being stuck in the ‘rent’s house. College, here I come!!! Again… !!!

EDIT: I just found out, you can totally play tic-tac-toe on the top by “drawing” in the suede! Woohoo!

My home at college was so exciting. I lived in the same building as many of my friends, I didn’t have to ask my parents if I could go out or have my friends come up for a movie. We just did it. And I loved the freedom. Now that I’m back in my parent’s house, it’s a little restricting again. Even though I do have more freedoms than I did while going to grade school here (read: car), I still have all those memories of being trapped here because I wasn’t allowed to go out. It makes it pretty suffocating here still. So my goal, as I leave my little dorm room an come home here, is to try to make it more exciting again. Basically, stay active and creative so I don’t feel so suffocated at home.

So guess what I did?! First thing I did when I came home Thursday, was jump in my car (I missed it) and drive down to the beach and take pictures of the sunset. I had about three minutes before it was gone when I got there, so I snapped until my battery died. Then I just sat in the car for a while and watched the sky get dark. It was nice. As much as I hate the clichéd pictures of my town’s lighthouse (there are only so many angles one can cover), I don’t think I can ever get sick of the sunsets over Lake Michigan.

I went out again last night. This time in an attempt to chase some lightning. I didn’t get any good lightning pictures, but I got some cool rainy night shots  of the bridge and the river downtown. I also have found some good locations for shooting lighting on the lake for when the weather is better. It’s still a bit chilly out here. Some summer rains will be more comfortable I think. See the results from both nights of shooting on my Flickr.

So, of course I don’t like any of the fifteen themes provided here so I’ve made up my “perfect” theme for a summer study abroad in England; Creative Writing and British/European History. My class options include, Creative Writing, Poetry, Shakespearian Literature, and European History from 1848-1914. I might add a Philosophy course or another history course as options, but in the end I will choose/be assigned three courses to take.

I’m excited for this opportunity, but it’s a little far off. Sometime next year, I’ll really look into it and start applying. But I’ve found out what information I needed now and this is the first thing completed on list of 101 Things to Do in 1001 Days. :) Yay me.

Kingston University

Once I had the perfect swing, I would spend the almost whole grueling 20 minute recess on that one swing. Usually I’d have a friend next to me and we’d race to see who could get the highest the fastest. And whenever two people got stuck swinging together at the same rate we’d shout, “Get out of my bathroom!” and other such childish things.

Other times I would be alone, or just in my own mind and I would just watch the clouds above, aiming my feet at them. Then I’d imagine being able to jump off at the very top of the upswing and fly over the football feild and over the trees on the other side.

This is one of my few childhood memories that let’s me pry into that child’s imagination I had back then. I savor these memories and still enjoy a good session on a swing to really remember them. Now, if you were also a swing hog, then you know the one funny downside to swinging for so long. When you finally jump off at the end of recess when they rung the bell, you land in a spray of dirty gravel and stand up and do that funny waddle back to the classroom because your butt has lost partial felling from the swing seat.

To all fellow swing hogs: go find a swing for me and go swinging again. :)

Part One – Art Institute

We took three charter buses at about 8am Eastern Time and left Grand Rapids to get to the Art Institute fifteen minutes before opening at 10:30am Central Time.

Art Institute Lobby

Now, I’ve been to the Art Institute half a dozen times in the last 18 months, I have the place memorized forwards and backwards, and since we weren’t on any sort of tour, I hit up all my favorite rooms. I oogled my favorite painting in the impressionists wing again and looked at all the Miniature Thorn Rooms that I have a fascinating book on at home. There was some spectacular photography by Yousuf Karsh in the basement as well.

Part Two – Park

Cloud Gate "The Bean"

Once I had skipped through all the exhibits I wanted, me and a small group of people walked through Millennium Park in 20ºF winter weather. It’s my policy, that any chance you have to see “the bean” in Chicago, do it. So, we went to the bean!

And as is tradition for most people with the bean, you always take fun self portraits. Here is one of mine.

Self Portrait in the Bean

After that, we made our way into the nearby Giordano’s Pizzeria for lunch. My four friends split a large deep dish pizza. But I’m a sucker for pasta so I ordered a delicious plate of cheese ravioli. I don’t regret it, though I’ve still never had deep dish pizza. Hahaha!

Part Three – Cultural Center

Fat Pigeons

So we backtrack a little bit and go to the Cultural Center which I still, to this day, don’t quite understand it’s purpose. But we saw some enormously fat pigeons and two more small art exhibits which were not that fascinating.

Cultural Center

Though one thing I love about the Cultural Center is the fact that it used to be the public library and they have amazing tiled ceilings with famous author’s names and quotes about books and reading and several glass domes inside.

Part Four – Hike

Frozen Chicago River

After that, it was a journey across the city to the Museum of Contemporary Art.  Along the way we crossed the Chicago River which I had never seen frozen. It was cool. (Haha! Get it? “Cool?”)

Me and the Silver Moose

Then we walked past on of the coolest scupltures ever. I just call it the silver moose. I got my picture taken with it because meese (yes, meese) are one of my favorite animals and it’s just full of bad assery.

Then, I made sure we stopped into the Apple store. I had to update my Twitter,  of course! Apple Stores are always fun though. And they’re a safe bet when you’re a broke college student because you know you can’t walk out with any purchases because it’s all too expensive. Yay!

Part Five – MCA

We finally made it to the Museum of Contemporary Art which had really awesome exhibits but they were dumb and didn’t allow photography. Still, there were these awesome light exhibits by Jenny Holzer that would have been awesomely fun to photograph but their security guards watched like hawks and were rude. But here are two videos of the different installations on the MCA website.

Orange Floor Installation

Purple

I also got a picture of the underside of their staircase which is really cool and sculptural, if not oddly uncomfortable to walk up.

MCA Staircase

And that was the end of the trip! Other than the bus ride back home where I got bored and started taking long exposure shots of car and street lights going by. Go here to see a map of the full route I walked and buildings I visited.