From Dusk to Darkroom

This summer, my sister Annie and I had a goal to make a wet darkroom in the older side of our basement...It was sort of a distant thought until I came across a Beseler enlarger at a local goodwill. I didn't know much about film photographer so I got my Annie to look at it. She said that it was the same brand as the enlargers they use at her school.

So we got the Enlarger after testing it out for $15


Over the next couple weeks, we kept our eyes out ( what a funny expression...if thats even it "kept our eyes out") anyway, while digging through trash piles we got a couple trays. But the jackpot came when Adam stumbled across a large pile outside someones house that contained the makings of a very advanced darkroom. I think he said he spent around 3 hours digging in that trash pile.

Anyway, the list of things we added was extensive and all of it was FREE.


We then began clearing out a corner and light proofing the basement. It took some black trash bags and some old thick blankets we had around the house.


Our father helped us fashion a safe light out of some sheet metal and red plastic we found.
We borrowed a lens from our Grandmother, who has a darkroom.

Annie's photo teacher was ecstatic about our project and donated a timer and several bottles of new developing chemicals.

We made our first prints using Annie's negatives from the past school year. she taught me how the workings went and I did my first composite. Definitely a fun time...and more to come.

Total costs
Enlarger - $15
low wattage light bulb - $2.39
Everything else - FREE

The Voyage of Yumei

Dream Fulfilled, my mother has gotten a small boat.

A family friends father had a heart attack and they wanted to liquidate his things so he could possibly move into a retirement home...anyway, about the boat.

It is a 9-foot fiberglass dingy with a sail. As my mother told me, this is a good thing that it has oars because if there is no wind, you can put your arms to the work. As opposed to a Sunfish type of boat, if you're without wind, you're stuck.

she got the boat for $50. the original price was $100 but they couldnt find the sails so....
It need some repair work to some rotted wood at the stern and fiberglass holes in the bottom.
She worked hard to repair these problems then painted the inside of the boat.

We planned to bring it up to Deep Creek maryland just to float and row around in the lake, but Dr. Hymas suggested that we craft a make shift sail out of a tarp.
We cut one up, and sewed it using the same old sewing machine that my mom had used to mend the sails on Zephros when they were sailing in central america. I think it brought back some good memories of her youth.



We rode up to deep Creek Friday night and had the maiden voyage on saturday morning. The lake was a bit cold and the wind was scarce but it was perfect weather to learn on. She taught me the names for all the sheets (ropes) or a sail boat, names for maneuvers and even the jolly rodger song.

I also got to look at the photo album with all her pictures from the five years living on Zephros. It was inspiring and made me want to keep a little picture of the boat along with me anywhere so that if i was ever feeling boring square, I could look at my mom sailing through the ocean and be inspired to go on an adventure.

As tons of speed boats, water skiers and jet skis zoomed by us, we were enjoying the unique feeling of capturing the wind and using it to move. We also enjoyed the wake created by the boats as they created a rough sea taste.

At night, we enjoyed making fake owl calls by the camp fire and watching other campers flash their lights up into the trees looking for the owls.

great time with my mom, and awsome stories about her sailing days.
PS. Yumei means Dream in Japanese. We called it Dream because it was her dream to sail again and to have a boat that she could operate alone and drive in the Van.

Journey to the end of the world

Last weekend, Adam, Whitey and I decided to take a bike trip. Ride for a day, camp out, and then ride back. We looked at some maps and plotted our route North-West on the C&O Canal.

After a late night dancing at the Blackcat, we got to bed around 4 a.m. Tired and sore, we woke up, packed our bikes down, and stuffed food into our backpacks and took off to Ballston where we took the metro to Rosslyn. From there we rode across the Key Bridge into Georgetown and started up the C&O Canal trail.

The trail was nicely paved with pea gravel and for the most part there were no hills. It was a pleasant and scenic ride that was almost entirely under the shade of big trees.

Around Great Falls area we all started feeling a little fatigued so we stopped a bit and ate granolla bars and carrots. Feeling a little bit better but we biked on passing through the large crowds swarmed around the Great Falls.

we set our goal for 25 miles and once we hit it, we started looking for a secluded place off the trail where we could camp and not be seen by any bikers or worse...trail patrol.

We found a place a ways off the trail through thick thorn bushes and down a small cliff. After struggling to push our bikes through we came to a grassy little beach right on the River.

We had made it a rule that we could not look at our watches or anything that would tell us the time for the whole trip. So we figured we had about 3 - 4 more hours of daylight so we built a lean-to using the sticks from the large pile of drift wood nearby. we found fire wood and prepared a fire pit and laid the tarps out under our lean-to.



With about 3 hours of daylight let, we swam in the Potomac. It wasn't very deep at all so we waded out into the middle and floated/frolicked around on a log. we carried out.

Once night hit we lit the fire and ate our dinners. As we got ready to go to sleep, the mosquitoes flooded the camp site. We spent all night swatting them away and trying to keep from getting bit while also keeping our ears covered from their weedwacker like hum.

I think its accurate to say that non of us slept more than about 30 minutes. Exhausted and defeated we got up as the sun was rising and jumped into the river to wake up. We ate a little breakfast, loaded down our bikes then rode at an incredible rate for home.
We returned at about 10:30 a.m.... meaning that either we left extremely early or rode very fast.

Total riding distance - 57.05 miles
Number of hours slept - .5
Number of mosquito bites: 300