Monday in Michigan

by Tracey G

Monday in Michigan

Welcome to my first Monday in Michigan post! I really wanted to start out with something photography related, and I may get there yet in this, but right now my past 3 days have been filled with one severely ill child. Another stomach bug that's going around and is particularly nasty has caught up with Harry. The poor kid's nightmare started Saturday about 5:15 a.m. and here it is Monday, and it's still not letting go of him. He woke up last night (well, technically early this morning!) about 2:30 a.m. with a fever of 101.3. And here I thought we were on the upswing! The stomach issue of it is lucky it stopped when it did, or we were going to the ER. He couldn't keep anything down, not even a sip of anything. He spent yesterday on the couch (after staying on it all night Saturday night) dozing on and off, and that trend continued right on throughout the night - awake every hour or so, and therefore so was I. I was fortunate enough to have just enough children's acetaminophen on hand to battle the fever when it reared its head in the middle of the night. Why is it you can be stocked up on any medication your child might need at any point in time and when you actually need it - you find you're praying you can get that last drop out of the container for an accurate and full dose? Ugh. So, all that said, I'm running on little sleep so I hope I don't get too rambly. LOL

And now, I think my brain is ready for some photography stuff. Just didn't feel right to gloss over the germ battle that's been going on around here as it's what's been in the forefront of my mind for the past 3 days.

With everything going on, I felt I needed a treat - I'd gotten a notification from my favorite one-stop-shopping-take-the-photo-and-it's-processed/edited-and-ready-to-go app, Hipstamatic, that there was a new lens and film out! Yahoo!! I am a total addict when it comes to that app, lol. The more the better. While granted I wasn't sure I wanted this new one, I bought another one that I'd been tossing about my brain on whether I wanted it or not. ;-)

When I first got the app, I hardly used it. Seemed overwhelming somehow, even with just the kit lenses and film it came with - there were so many combinations to be had for different looks/effects! Then I started using it a little bit here and there, and was really liking it when I found a cool combo that worked, but I was still anxious with it as I couldn't ever seem to remember what combos did what and so forth. So, one day I decided to play with it and try different combos with the setting that was the lowest quality so it would save fast and I could see what did what. That's when I discovered the Favorites setting, I could test out combos and save them as favorites to pull from when I wanted something in particular and it would be there. But I was still not quite remembering what the actual combination would look like, lol. I discovered there was no magic pill to remember these things other than use it and get to know it. Pretty soon I was starting to get a handle on what lens did what (or basically what it did) and what film did what so I could base my combos on that. And just because a film and lens came together as a bundle, that doesn't mean you can't use each with a different lens/film combo! So, even more options are opening up, offering tons of possibilities!

I really put it through its paces last year during the busy beach part of the summer - it's go go go all the time, so there was a whole week I challenged myself to use it exclusively for my CY365 photo-of-the-day project, because it was easier than my big girl camera, more forgiving and easier to take a quick snap and not have to worry about needing more time for processing. It was so much fun, and let me tell you - it can help you break out of a rut too, it makes you think differently in regards to your photo and whatnot. It also helped me to learn more about the lenses and the films. I enjoyed it so much I think I'll do that challenge again - 7 days of exclusively using Hipstamatic for my project.

And now I'll just share some shots!

The first collage is the week I used it exclusively last year for my CY365 project. There's actually 8 shots here, but that's because I'd used it the day before I decided to go with it for a week ;-)

Snapped this while Harry was obviously finger-painting and its Americana Lens and Claunch 72 film.

This combo for my lily is Loftus lens and Dream Canvas film.

I used the Loftus lens and Shilshole film combination for my shadow shot.

I found the little stove at the family cottage on Lake Huron to be a compelling subject for some reason, lol, I think it's the retro look it has so for this first shot of it I used I used the Tejas lens and Robusta film. The second shot.....

...I used the Diego lens and Claunch 72 film.

In this collage, every one of these shots except for the one of Harry, I used the Loftus lens and Uchitel 20 film. For the photo of Harry I used Diego lens and Uchitel 20 film.

In this first shot of Lake Huron, I used the Doris lens and Sussex film. In the second shot, almost from the same perspective I used....

...the Loftus and Robusta film combination.

And lastly, in this collage of photos of the lighthouse, I used the Tejas lens and Shilshole film.

As you can see the combinations are numerous - this is but a handful of combos. It's a lot of fun to experiment with it when I have the chance, I've been known to grab something and just take photo after photo of it in the lowest quality setting running, through every lens I have combined with every film I have, lol. It's helpful to see what you can get with different combinations of the lens and film!

And now, I feel like playing with the new SnapPak I bought today! :-D Enjoy your week!