baroque chalkboard

since taking intro to photo my last semester at school i have become re-obsessed with black and white film. i say re-obsessed because my obsession began with taking and printing my own photos on old-fashioned cameras during my days at Camp Tapawingo when we were taught the ancient art form in a make-shift dark room. since then, Tap, along with much of the world has moved on to what they consider, bigger and better, but i still love, old school.

i have always loved old school everything. things are better vintage. they get better with age. so my “new” camera for the class was a good vintage reprise from ebay, a canon ae-1.

even after the class was over and i knew i might not have the chance to print my own photos again, i continued snapping. i found subject matter that spoke to me and the medium was more profound than most others i had found. i felt, talented. i liked the imperfections. i liked my work and other people did too.

it is an expensive hobby but i get daily emails that alert me to free stuff in nyc. levi’s is sponsoring a free photo workshop where people can learn about all kinds of photography (even the new fangled, pixel-based kind) and develop their negatives and photos.

it is open until december 18. never have i been happier. i am smiling so goofily as i write this.

i have rolls collecting dust, waiting to see the light and now, they can.

my girlfriends and i are the furthest thing from cheerios. many of us were jocks in high school. others were indeed gleeks. some were even gleeks in college. 2 of our beloved housemates were members of an a-capella group called the Shabbatones. we are all self admitted dorks and nerds at heart.

most importantly, we are obsessed with each other and obsessed with our alma mater. i lived with 7 other girls during my junior and senior year of college at 4041 locust street.  we were a perfect group of 8. perfectly mismatched, and all perfectly different and similar in ways that made us get along spendidly.

of course there were the rough patches, but people are always shocked to know that we still adore each other. 5 of us live in new york and the rest moved to other parts of the country, sometimes claiming they have found social siberia.

this weekend is not only halloween, it is homecoming and there will be 8 cheerios taking over Penn’s campus. upon reuniting it is highly likely we will shriek like sorority girls, well, because some of us are, and because some of us (such as yours truly) have trouble containing their excitement.

i love my life post-grad and i know there is much to come. but there is no other group of girls that could get me into a cheerleading outfit, with a smile on.