coffeethoughts

[coffeethoughts]

Analog Love

I got a classic Argus C3 for Christmas from my dad. At first, I didn't know what to expect. It was old and clunky and the parts didn't move so well. But it looked cool as hell. So I took it all apart and spent a couple hours cleaning the insides with q-tips and alcohol and then lubing it all up with baby oil. Voila!

Now that I've gotten my first roll of photos back, I'm happy to say it takes lovely photos! One thing that made me nervous was that a few times, the shutter release caught on my finger as it was releasing. This made the exposure longer than it was supposed to be, but it resulted in giving those photos a lovely glow!

If you get the chance to buy one of these cameras, I'd highly recommend it!

#argus #c3 #photography #analog

[coffeethoughts]

A Brief Moment on a Latvian Train Between Riga and Jumala

Now we are sitting on a Latvian train to Jumala (or something). I bought another Zorki 4 camera just because it has lug bolts (for a strap). I also got this little notebook and pen.

The train bangs loudly on the tracks reminding me of an old wooden roller coaster I once rode. One door swings ajar on its hinges while one sliding compartment door supports itself on the floor.

I point out the window and remark how the nature looks like Africa. The comment is half in jest, but it really does have a wild feel to it. Just like the city.

The trees are overflowing with hanging leaves, the grass is tall and untamed.

The roller coaster begins again as we depart from our first stop. The further we get from the tourist center of the city, the more things seem to be in disrepair. Crumbling brick buildings, reminiscent of castles of old.

I wonder what this town had looked like when all the buildings were new. Or if there ever was a time when everything was new, and when that time might have been. Surely not while Latvia was in the Soviet Union. Or maybe.

The train passes uncountable numbers of empty, vast factories with broken windows and crumbling walls. It's hard to imagine those places filled with workers and machinery and energy.

#travel #latvia #riga #train #notebook scraps #zorki 4 #film #photos #xpro #cross processed

[coffeethoughts]

23

I'm at a stage in my life where I feel like I'm being pulled in many directions at the same time. There are so many possibilities that I'm afraid to do anything so I don't close all the other doors. I feel that right now, I am at the point where I choose what I will do and what will define me for the rest of my life. I have to decide if I'll take a hard, high-risk approach or try to do something safer. And the worst part is just how long this decision takes. Like right now, I'm somewhere in between the risky and the safe and I can't chose which side of the fence to jump down on.

But the thing is, what I do now, that doesn't have to be what I do forever. It's really hard for me to internalize that. A job that I work now, a place that I live now, that isn't set in stone for the rest of my life. Things are always changing. Sure, taking some opportunities makes you lose out on some others. But the alternative is taking no opportunities and losing out on all of them. Honestly, I'm writing this to help myself, mostly. Hopefully, by saying it out to the world, I'll really take it to heart. I'm 23, I'll figure something out.

For now, traveling around hasn't been so bad. Soon, I'll start a one man company so I can start accepting freelance payments. Not a bad start. Maybe starting a small company like that will help me get some useful experience for eventually opening a coffee shop. I know that sometimes I want everything to happen now, at this moment, but some things are worth waiting for. At least for a little while.

#thoughts #searching #self #polaroid

[coffeethoughts]

'That Guy'

Today I have the utter un-pleasure of being ‘that guy’ during my 22 hour journey between Europe and America. You know who I’m talking about, the guy who nobody wants to be near. The guy who sweats profusely from under his arms and half the airplane can smell the acrid over-caffeinated acidity of it. The guy who farts uncontrollably as he sleeps. His head lolls on your shoulder uncomfortably and no matter how many times you shove him away he always manages to settle right back on you, each time feeling heavier than the last. The guy who stares idly at you from across the queue without even realizing that he is making you uncomfortable and self-conscious. The guy who stands up--after sitting eight straight hours next to you on the tight airplane seats-- and has a large wet sweat mark on the seat of his pants.

I’m that guy for the duration of your trip. Don’t worry, you won’t be him this time because I’ve filled the spot for this trip and my connection flight too. 

#travel

[coffeethoughts]

Moving at the speed of life

Things have been moving pretty fast ever since I finished school. That was almost a year ago now. Wow. To be honest, in the beginning I was afraid that things were moving way too slow. I was always waiting for something. Waiting to leave for Norway, waiting to get my visa, waiting to hear back from jobs.

Now everything is changing. I've gotten a job in the kitchen of a local sushi bar and it's not bad at all. I've also been talking to a wedding photographer here and we're thinking of establishing a trendy wedding video service. We're doing a test in just over a week. I've even applied for an opening at the local newspaper to be a film critic. And I am tentatively helping teach a film course at the end of April if we get enough students. Obviously not all these things will pan out, but I'm really amazed at the opportunities that will reveal themselves when you just start digging.

But the best part is just how much I feel I have changed since coming here to Bergen. For example, when I had first arrived, I was intimidated by everything. I was searching for jobs on just the internet and too afraid to just talk to people. I guess life is just more intimidating from the couch than when you're out there living it.

So my newest goals are pretty easy. I am going to give this wedding filming thing a shot. I'm going to continue to do writing and photography in my spare time and eventually get published in one or the other (hopefully both). And finally, I'm going to build up my portfolio in writing, photography, and film because they are all very location independent and easily freelance-able skills that I would like to work with.

When I came out here with a film degree, I really didn't expect it would do me any good at all, but most of the opportunities that I've run into were in some way or another related to it. Very strange, and kind of a relief considering how disappointed I would be if it was useless.

Anyway, next step, developing film using coffee. Hopefully I'll get into a darkroom soon and can post the results.

P.S. Please pardon the stupid title. :)

[coffeethoughts]

Be Awesome And Establish Yourself In A New Place

It’s been almost seven months now that I’ve been living in Bergen and I wanted to share a few things that I’ve learned that I wish I knew when I arrived here rather than all this time later. To be honest, I really can’t believe that the time went by so fast.

Back in August 2010 when I first arrived here, I only knew one single person in the entire city and that was my girlfriend Maria who was just as new here as I was. She was starting a new school but I had no network here at all. I didn’t yet have my working visa and I wasn’t going to school so I really didn’t have any established ways of meeting people. I’m not the kind of person who is brash enough to just walk up to random strangers and strike up conversations. Nor do I drink often at bars (even if I could afford it in Norway!) so that is out of the question.

It took some time, but I now feel pretty well established here and this is how I did it.

1. Find out about clubs, meetings, groups that are of interest to you. I started by going to a weekly meeting to play Magic cards (call me a nerd haha) but when that didn’t pan out and my unemployment fund dwindled, I looked into film clubs. Eventually I decided to

2. Volunteer for something. That’s when I found out that the local film festival was about to begin. So I volunteered. I worked a couple days, met some people with similar interests, got some free movies, free drinks/parties in the city. It was a great time. Now I’m also volunteering for another film festival and have met some great people in the process.

3. Get a job. This one is pretty obvious, but now that I’m able to work it’s a great way to establish a network.

4. Use email and the internet. It’s not always the easiest thing in the world to find out about events, volunteer opportunities,  jobs, etc but using the internet is a huge help. Don’t be afraid to call or email  people directly and when looking for jobs or volunteer opportunities, realize that most of the time people will ignore your emails so contact as many people as possible and use call their phones when possible. Or better yet, go in in person.

Also utilize social networks to get in contact with people of similar interests.

5. Don’t be a shitty friend. Making new friends and contacts is definitely a challenge, especially when you’re not such a social butterfly, but what’s even more challenging is being a good friend. Keep up with your new friends, remember their names, return their calls/texts, and take initiative. It’s easy to have a lot of people that you’ve met once, but turning those acquaintances into actual friends is where the real work comes in. I remember after hanging out with a couple of guys from the film festival, it felt really awkward asking for their phone numbers so we could keep in contact, but it’s totally worth it. Unless you work with them, chances are people that you meet will just disappear into obscurity unless you maintain contact. Facebook can be useful for that too.

The most important thing is not to  be afraid to take chances. You’re in a new place and there are most likely plenty of people around who would make great potential friends and contacts. Worst case scenario, you meet someone and you don’t click or whatever, you never have to see them again. Best case, you make a new friend who might introduce you to their network and eventually you have a whole bunch of new friends.

This is my first time ever moving to a new place without the safety net of being placed into a network from the start. Because the last time I moved to a new city I made a lot of friends quickly through my school, I just assumed it would be the same here, but it really took a lot of work this time. Even still, I only have a few friends that I keep in contact with consistently.  I’m still working on it too, but these are just things I wish I had known going into it all.

Cheers.

#travel #advise #meeting people

[coffeethoughts]

Five Days in Barcelona

I lost seventy Euros in Spain. That's how I always start the story. I took the money from the ATM, and then I reach into my wallet about an hour later and the money is gone.

I suppose everyone who's ever lost money before has a similar story, but mine’s made even more mysterious by the fact that my ‘wallet’ was a security wallet, tucked deep within the front of my pants. Unless muggers in Barcelona have begun borrowing invisibility cloaks from Harry Potter I think I would have noticed any man, woman, or child who got close enough to dig their gritty hands into the front of my pants, fish out my money, and even have the guile to zip the pouch back up. This made it all the more difficult to attempt to explain it to my girlfriend.

"So I'm walking, money safely tucked in my pants, when this little seven-year-old midget reached down into my nether region with hands so small and delicate that I had no chance of feeling it. I'm sorry, honey, I really didn’t stand a chance. Kids in these countries are taught to steal before they’re taught to read."

"Wait," she says, "was it a child or a midget?"

"Both!" I shout, thinking that a child-midget must have enough magic to pull all kinds of trickery if he or she desired.

"I don't think his arms would be long enough," she replied. She would need a little more convincing, but she'd come around. After all, what were the alternatives?

"Sorry honey, I thought I put the money in my pocket, but instead I missed and threw it on the ground and didn't have enough mental ability to notice."

No I couldn't say that, not even if that's most likely what happened.

They say one of the greatest skills is being able to admit a mistake when you make one, but I disagree. I think an even greater skill is never making a mistake to begin with. That would negate the need to admit anything and totally one-up the admitters. 

I know a lot of people who, when something bad happens, brings in little bits of good things that happened around the same time to excuse away feeling ashamed or embarrassed. I do it too. It’s really hard not to. So when I lost the 70 euros, I thought to myself: “hey Nick, it’s not so bad. Think about how cheap the plane tickets were. And the hotel too. Hell, that 3 euro chicken kebab wasn’t half bad either. It would cost at least twice that in Norway!”

It’s weird, but that kind of give and take logic actually works a bit. It works even better than the “maybe someone found it who needed it more” logic. 

I’m not sure why I always have to justify things in my head and make everything even out. I feel like it would be so much easier to just accept the ups and downs without comparing them.

But on the subject of ups and downs, I got some really sweet photos in from Barcelona and maybe even sweeter ones from the smaller nearby city of Sitges. I’ve got nothing to complain about.

#travel #photography #story #barcelona #spain #diana mini

[coffeethoughts]

Happy Accidents

I ran across a dilemma while using my Zorki camera this fall. I swear I had taken somewhere around 30 photos on the 24 roll and somehow it just kept going. Obviously something wasn't working properly, so instead of taking photos I may or may not ever see, I just decided to remove the film, but I didn't get a chance to develop it until just yesterday. 

Turns out, something had happened with the film advance mechanism and the 30 photos compressed down into 18. Some were totally normal, but the beginning ones were crazy! Some double and some triple exposures. Definitely not your average vacation photos.

Strangely enough, I really love some of them. They're weird and quirky and totally perfect.

It makes me wonder how much stress and anxiety is just a product of perspective. If I was a professional photographer shooting a wedding and that happened I would curse my unlucky stars. But instead, I'm just pleasantly surprised.

#photo #experiments #analog #photography #zorki

[coffeethoughts]

Thoughts on Ebook readers after a couple weeks with a Nook:

I have noticed some things I like about the Nook over a book and vice versa.

The Nook lacks:

- browsability. You can’t flip through an ebook like you can with paper.

- durability. Gotta charge it. Can’t drop it. Dust, etc.

- personality. Each paper book has a distinct look, feel, weight, and smell. Ebooks lack these. This is just personal preference, but I miss those things.

- shareability. Although Barnes & Noble is implementing a new lending system, the borrower must also have a Nook. Due to licensing, there is no way to resell a “used” ebook after completion.

The good stuff:

- travelability. As someone who is always on the go these days, I can’t overstate the importance of fitting all your books into something the size of one.

- affordability. Ebooks tend to be cheaper than their hardcover (and sometimes softcover) counterparts. There is also the option to rent ebooks from many public libraries.

- sustainability. Read books without killing trees.

- added features. The Nook has wifi and a web browser. Handy if I need to check email or look something up. It also plays audio books and music if you’re into that stuff.

So there you have it. That’s my take so far. The travelability alone is enough to make me love it. It probably saves me some 5 kilos in my checked luggage.

#nook #ebook #reader #thoughts #opinion

[coffeethoughts]

Turn Your iPod Touch into a WiFi iPhone (With Free Calls and SMS)

I probably shouldn't be sharing this because maybe if too many people start doing it Apple will make it not work anymore, but it's just too good to keep inside.

As you may know, I'm back in the USA for a few weeks over the holidays and such. Well obviously, living abroad I haven't kept up any sort of cellphone plan here in the States. I do, however, have an iPod Touch (4th Generation) and so I figured there must be some way to use it as a phone, right?

Right!

Using only free tools I am able to call and text any phone in the US or Canada for free from my iPod (anywhere where I get wireless internet). Here's how it works.

First you need a Google account. If you have Gmail then you're set. Next, go to Google Voice. You should be able to login with your Google account and and get a free number. I'm pretty sure they're past beta and you no longer need an invite.

It might ask you to setup a phone to ring when someone calls your Google voice number. Just cancel that, you don't need to.

If you are only interested in texting then get the Google Voice app and you're done.

To add the calling (and receiving calls) features go to the settings option on the Google Voice homepage and click "Voice Options." Now check off the box that says "Google Chat" under the "Forwards To" option. It should show your Gmail address underneath.

Finally, download the Talkatone app for your iPod. Login with your Google account. Talkatone gives you the option to call using Gchat's Call Phones option (which is currently free within the US and Canada) and all the calls will go through your Google Voice number. Pretty freaking sweet, if you ask me.

To be able to receive calls, have people ring your Google Voice number and make sure Talkatone is running or running in the background (i.e. if you open the app and then click the home button or sleep button).

So there you have it, your iPod Touch can be a WiFi phone that calls and texts for free.

I haven't tested compatibility with any iPod other than my 4th Generation one, but I assume any one with a microphone should work.

#call #text #free #ipod #touch #iphone #phone #wireless #wifi #this shit's legit!

[coffeethoughts]

How to extend your life

I’ve never really been one to make new years resolutions, but this year I actually gave it some serious thought. I decided that this year I would make at least one real resolution. This meant figuring out what I really want in life, or at least what I wanted for the year. The resolution I chose was to not take anything for granted. Not the good stuff, and just as importantly, not the bad stuff. Nothing.

I made this my resolution because no matter how amazing (or difficult) life can get, I have the tendency to get used to it. Maybe it’s something built into human nature-- to accept the good, accept the bad and carry on. Or as the Brits say “keep calm, carry on.”

In all that carrying on, there isn’t much room for enjoyment, for love, or much emotion at all. If you keep calm, you might avoid some stress, but without getting angry or stressed then the good stuff doesn’t mean so much. Results of hard work don’t seem so rewarding, or even lose their meaning entirely in the face of total calm.

But these are just thoughts and musings. Just words. Let me put them in perspective.

In 2010, after graduating from university I moved to Norway to live with my wonderful girlfriend. I had just finished the book of my 365 Days photography which funded my plane ticket over and I was pumped about getting a sweet job with my shiny new degree in my shiny new city, living together with the girl of my dreams instead of almost 5000 miles away from her.

Well things didn’t go exactly according to plan, big surprise, and I ended up having to wait much longer than I expected for my visa which would allow me to work. In fact, I’m still waiting (though hopefully just for a few more days, fingers crossed). This left me with a lot of free time on my hands, more time than I’ve had since I studied abroad (that’s another story for another time).

In that time, I had the chance to practice ukulele, watch a season of Dexter, and to really think about what I wanted and where I was going. I decided to consistently teach myself new skills starting with computer science. I had a burning desire to not waste any moments of my free time, lest I fall into a lazy comatose state of vegetation. In other words, I was scared and I was going to spend every minute busy so I didn’t have to think about it. And I didn’t think about it. Instead, I just got used to my situation. As soon as that happened, the days flew by. Boom. Over.

And now to deliver on the title:

Have you heard the saying that time seems to go faster by the older you get? Feels like it, doesn’t it? Ever wonder why that is?

Think about it like this, do you remember when you were a kid and driving 20 or 30 minutes to grandma’s house felt like an eternity. Grandma lived A MILLION MILES AWAY. Kids don’t take anything for granted. They don’t have enough experience to realize the trip will take just as long as it ever has and that wining and complaining won’t change anything. They see all the scenery whizzing by the window and measure each moment as it passes. 

As adults, we see 30 minutes in the car as nothing. We drive hours to work every day as a routine. We take for granted the passage of time, and train ourselves to be indifferent to it. We take for granted everything that passes by because we’ve seen it before or at least it’s not so different from something else that we’ve seen before.

People tend to think of time in increments. As soon as you’re 5 or 6 years old you’re thrown into schools where each semester, each year classes change, classmates change, rules change. Every year is distinct and meaningful. The passage of time is easy to measure.

When you’re at a dead end 9-5 job, 20 years can feel as fast as a semester of college (or so I’m told). How do we change that? How do we slow down our racing perception of time?

Simple, slow down. Create measurable increments for yourself in your personal life, in your work life, in your hobbies. And most of all, don’t take anything for granted.

[coffeethoughts]

Train Yourself: Learn to like it

This probably sounds incredibly cliché and maybe even a bit stupid, but I had a profound realization this morning while I was sipping my delicious espresso.

For starters, I don't usually make espresso most mornings. Usually I have plain regular coffee. I save espresso for either special occasions or times when I really need a boost.

So here I am sipping my espresso when the realization hits me. This tastes really good. Not just that, it tastes smooth and delicate and I might even compare its warm embrace to that of a favorite blanket. It sounds crazy, but I'm serious. 

Then I thought back to the time before I liked coffee at all. We've all been there, when you have to drink flavored coffee or layer on the cream and sugar. Heck, most of America is STILL there. Anyway, I used to need cream and sugar to enjoy coffee too. The thought of black coffee was horrifying, let alone the taste. I used to wonder why black coffee tasted so bad when it smelled so good. I'm serious.

So now you might be wondering how I went from that to now enjoying my black espresso and complaining about how adding cream or sugar only takes away from the coffee's flavor. 

The answer is actually really simple. I trained myself.

Training yourself to like something is probably a lot easier than you think, all you really need is a desire. It's like mom used to say when you tell her you hate vegetables: "learn to like 'em!"

I trained myself to enjoy black coffee before I came to study in Norway just a couple years ago. The reason was simply that I didn't expect cream and sugar to be widely available in cafes here. All it took to train myself was simply starting to drink black coffee a couple months before I got on the plane. 

Yeah, it tasted bad to me at first, but every time I had coffee I forced myself to drink it black. After a while it was a habit and, even if it wasn't my preferred method of coffee intake, I was used to it. 

After a bit more time, I started to taste other subtle flavors in coffee that weren't there before. I even began to taste the paper filter from my coffee maker (thus moving to a coffee press). 

Now here I am enjoying the delicate taste of black espresso without the slightest desire to add anything to it.

This may all seem rather irrelevant if you don't care about coffee, but I'm starting to believe that you can train yourself to like anything. Exercising, reading, eating vegetables, taking risks, public speaking, anything that might seem scary or unpleasant I think you can train yourself to love. These things might even end up being your favorite things somewhere down the line, it’s just your natural reaction to dislike change that prevents you from seeing it right away.

So try it! Next time you find yourself doing something you don't enjoy but would like to, open your mind to the experience and and maybe, before you know it, you will love it.

Note: This is NOT an excuse to train yourself to accept anything but the best from yourself. It is not in any way a method to promote laziness. Quite the opposite actually.

#learn #training #willpower

[coffeethoughts]

Minimalist Fiction : My New Publishing Platform

As some of you may know, one passion of mine is writing short stories. It is something that I don't really publish or talk about too often because I haven't really had a platform for it. Until now.

Today, I am launching minimalistfiction.com. The concept is really simple: I write stories based upon art from the online community.

When I see art (photos, paintings, etc) or hear songs, I often get an image of a story in my mind. The stories are usually nothing too elaborate, but rather a concept that I can build upon. With Minimalist Fiction, I will be fleshing out these stories and publishing them on the site for your enjoyment and my peace of mind. 

One of the things I love about the internet is the insane abundance of creativity, art, and information. I hope that through my efforts, I can give exposure to such artists, while practicing my own art. It's this cooperation, this collaboration, that makes this project so exciting for me.

The best content becomes the best from constant criticism and reiteration. I welcome any comments or questions you might have. 

Visit minimilast fiction.

#launch #minimalist #fiction #website #nick today

[coffeethoughts]

what university did you go to in RI?

The University of Rhode Island...

[coffeethoughts]

Make Productivity Convenient, Kill Distraction, Gain Focus: some tools

This week I have faced nothing short of a plague of constant distraction. There are so many things I want to read or learn or find out about that the multitudinous hours of the day seemed to have compressed down into just a few.

At first, I blamed my distractions on the internet. The fact that information is incredibly abundant on practically any subject makes it harder and harder for me to choose just one topic to immerse myself in.

While I have achieved a lot of things I wanted to this week, I have also wasted countless hours reading information that I will probably forget before I make it useful. I have also fallen back into the checking email/social media pitfall. How did that happen?

I came to the conclusion that the reason for most distraction was its convenience. For example, it is far more convenient to check one's email than to write content for the website one is aiming to launch soon. It is far easier to read useless news articles or seemingly useful blog posts instead of creating anything meaningful for myself.

So I decided to use the internet as a tool to fight against the very same distraction that I hold it responsible, that is, I decided to search for a tool that would make the distractions less convenient than doing productive stuff.

I found a few things.

For my Linux based netbook I found PyRoom. A fantastic and free program written in Python. It is a very minimal typing program with very few options, all of which are accessed through keyboard shortcuts. PyRoom also does not have any option to exit full screen or minimize so if you really want to check your email or anything else besides the text you are writing, you have to save your progress and quit. Definitely more convenient to just keep writing.

Sadly, was more trouble than it's worth to make PyRoom run on my Mac. Enter OmmWriter. This fantastic program (which also has a very capable free version) is not just about writing, but the whole experience. It combines relaxing sounds with a minimal and even hip looking interface. It even has different keystroke sounds you can enable. Very cool. When I first ran OmmWriter, it minimized my web browser, disabled all system notifications and opened in full screen. I have been so intrigued that I haven't quit yet (yes, I'm writing this entry in OmmWriter). I guess making a typing program so cool that you don't want to quit is even better than making it a hassle to go elsewhere.

Another great free product that I've been checking out these past couple days is a new free ebook by zenhabits.net author Leo Babauta. The ebook is called Focus and it's about reclaiming your focus in what he calls "The Age of Distraction" aka now. Check it out, it's free.

Now I'm off to write some short stories in OmmWriter. Cheers.

#focus #free #tools #software #ebook #productivity

[coffeethoughts]

Real life isn't good enough: digital photo realism

I've been spending a lot of time looking at photographs online lately, as I'm working towards a new project of mine (more on that later), and one thing that struck me as totally strange is how unacceptable a plain old photo is these days. To explain what I mean, let me give you an example. 

I walked by 2 or 3 photography studios here in Bergen and each studio displayed some example works in the window. All the photos the studios showed were crazy-edited beyond even seeming like a photo anymore. They had become something like a  photo-realistic-surrealist painting. Yeah weird.

The same can be said of photos online these days. There are trends in digital processing that all the most "interesting" photos seem to follow: slight desaturation, lomo color curves, vignetting, and funky textures. These effects can be applied en masse to every photo ever taken and make them look trendy and funky and hip (at least for now). 

  The thing that struck me the most though, is that I found myself falling into the sheep's mind view of it all. I was looking at some very well done photos that were taken with a digital camera, but they looked a bit boring to me. I wondered what it was, but then I realized: the pictures just looked too damned realistic. The photos that you take with today's digital SLRs look so much like real life it's just boring. 

Or maybe it's just easier to slap on some Photoshop actions than actually taking pictures of interesting subjects.

#photography #editing #realism #formula #trends

[coffeethoughts]

Ghetto Scan Your Negatives

A couple days ago I had the chance to develop some black and white negatives. Of course I jumped at the opportunity and was quite excited to smell the familiar smells of the developing chemicals and to feel the wonderful feeling of developing your own photos. Then I realized that I had no way of scanning them once I had these beautiful negatives. Thus, Ghetto Scanning.

If you ever find yourself in a similarly desperate situation: lacking a decent negative scanner, but you have yourself a crappy P&S digital (or a fancy DSLR), give Ghetto Scanning a try. You might be pleasantly surprised.

The process is quite simple: 

*Hold your negatives up to a light source, preferably one with a neutral background. Clothes pins or a friend (read: Ghetto Scanning assistant) can really help here.

*Take a digital photo of your negative. Try to keep the negative as flat as possible and make it fill the frame of the digital camera as much as possible.

*Import the digital photos and invert/crop them in Photoshop or Gimp or whatever you use to edit photos. You'll also want to play with the levels a bit to get it looking just right.

**extra points if you white balance your camera first, or if you want a blue or yellow tint then don't!

Me and my Ghetto Scan light source My Ghetto Scanning light source and I:

The results are actually quite fantastic. Depending on your light source you might get some glowy cool effects which you can either minimize or maximize when you edit the photos later. Here are a few examples from the first roll I Ghetto Scanned:

So now it's time to try it for yourself. Leave a comment and say how it's worked out for you. All you Tumblr-folk, leave a photo reply with your results :)

Happy scanning. :)

#film #scan #tips #tricks #photography #negatives