Shooting

I went back to Citylife Church on Sunday and was just as impressed with the music as I was last week, but the preaching... not so much. Last week there was a guest speaker so the actual pastor took the stage this week. Let's just say I felt kind of intimidated bu his loud an animated and Pentecostal-esque preaching style. The music is fantastic, but I don't know if I could handle the preacher every week. After church I did laundry and got some homework done in the process (you go Hannah!). Monday I had a lecture in the morning and spent the rest of the day in the studio. Storm joined us for Monday night Bible study, which was basically a recap of a series they had been doing for the past few weeks. And after Bible study we had a flat meeting about the Edinburgh trip we're planning. Because a lot of us have Friday classes, Ash, Lily, Jaja and myself will all be catching a train Friday night and meeting the rest of the group at the hostel in Edinburgh. Then we'll have heaps of Scottish fun and come home Sunday night!

The weather was absolutely fantastic today. Before my morning lecture I had to "top up" my phone (aka pre-pay next month's usages for O2), so I got there as soon as it opened. I brought my camera with me so I could get some shots of the city of Sunderland -- I've been in England over a month now, and yet I have managed to take pictures of everything except the city I live in. I didn't have loads of time to go exploring and snapping, but the photos I did get turned out pretty well. After my morning lecture I walked studio, where I spent the rest of my day/evening. My tutor, Dave, taught me how to use the enlarger (it's what you use to expose/transfer thw film negative to regular photo paper). After about 3 hours of trial-and-error, I managed to get my first final print done! Dave also introduced us to our next assignment: portraits. I am a LOT more excited about this one because it gives you so much room for creativity; you aren't restricted by simply replicating an existing photo. Although I don't have classes tomorrow, I'll be spending the entire day in the studio shooting my last film slide and getting my last 3 prints done. Film photography can be extremely frustrating and time consuming, but the quality of the prints is astounding if you do it right. It has taken me quite a while to get the hang of things, but now that I know how to use all the equipment I won't be so timid about everything.

As long as the weather keeps being awesome like it was today, I'll probably start walking to all my classes. I figured it up on Google maps, and today alone I walked almost 3 miles. If I can keep this up I'll be sure to have excellent legs by the end of the semester!