While browsing facebook this past week I saw that my former college roommate had started an art raffle for Haiti. I asked him if he would accept a piece of my work for the cause and he agreed. I pitched in my latest, a linocut of a barn owl that I quite like. I did some color experimentation on it - although nothing so ambitious as a reductive color print.

The raffle is accepting donations (for tickets for the raffle) until the 27th. All monies go to the Canadian Red Cross. The Red Cross donations are to be routed through Chapters (think of it as Canada’s Barnes & Noble) who with match the donation, as with the Canadian government - thereby effectively tripling the donation.

Facebook link to the Art Raffle

An 18″x12″ print inspired by a post on PZ Myers’ blog about Sperm whales killer poor, sweet, innocent cephalopods.

Despite its size, it didn’t take as long as I thought it would compared to my other larger piece (it was only an 8×10) but this required far less geometric patterns, and far less areas to clear.

It’s been a while since I’ve made an entry here at Former Airline. The truth is I haven’t been doing much photography lately outside of work - in which I’m doing a whole lot of photography. I really must make an entry on my actual professional photography.

One other thing that’s been occupying my time is my impending wedding. We’ve finally set a date for May 30 2010. I’ll have just turned 30 years old. I can’t be 30 already can I?

The wedding will be at a charming little place called the Café Mozart in San Juan Capistrano. It has a nice little European flavor, a beautiful little courtyard to get married, plus it’s great for couples who value frugality.

Last night we got into gear and dressed in our casual best in order to make some save the date cards that would include a photo of the both of us. I almost wanted to hire a professional to do this because taking a photo of yourself, let alone two people, can be difficult. It would have to be posed, no spur of the moment chance, or split second windows of time in which our love would explode on the sensor. But the results were pretty good regardless (plus we saved a few hundred dollars by doing it this way…. seriously some photographers charge $600 for engagement photos).

At first we went to a regional park, but I wasn’t feeling the location. Plus it was still a bit too bright out for Kelly’s sensitive eyes. But later on we went to another park closer to home where things started clicking.

I tried using my strobe but, again, it’s difficult to use (I should really REALLY take a workshop on artificial lighting). The natural light at the time was just about perfect luckily, although I had to use a higher ISO. Plus, because I was setting the timer and rushing to the camera, I had no idea how we appeared in the frame so I had to crop a fair bit as a result. But it should all be fine in a 4×6 or even a 5×7. The real question now is which one to send out?

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It’s been a stressful couple of weeks. I’ve moved into a new apartment, bought a new Cal-King-sized bed. I’m anticipating further expenses down the road with the whole getting married thing, as wonderful as that is.

But the good news is that I think I’ve finally pinned down a film camera kit I’ll be sticking with for a while. No more swapping, trading and buying for a while. I’m just waiting on a new Domke bag, and the elusive Olympus 35sp (which is to be my dedicated B&W shooter) to come back from repairs.

Last week was my 29th birthday, possibly the first of many 29th birthdays I shall have. I dragged my fiance to the Chino Planes of Fame air museum with my Autocord and 35RC in tow. Enjoy.

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It’s been a dull weekend. Disappointing one too. I was so enthused from last week’s slides that I hopped on eBay to find some more. I saw a huge lot of 1800 slides described as being of the eastern seaboard from  “1950-Now”. The seller was close so I just picked them up.

However the oldest slides were no older than 1971, the vast majority were boring… very boring slides from, predominantly, October of 1983, and there were next to no people in them. I was hoping for sea captains, fishermen and all sorts of coastal culture. Nope. I was supremely bummed.

What I liked about last week’s slides were their very amateur and dated nature. The fashions obviously placed the time frame, and lack of composition or context added an air of mystery and interest to them.

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