I haven’t been taking loads of pictures, so imagine how gravely disappointed I was when I found out that the black-and-white roll I tried came out of the developers as a long, black strip. Apparently, the ‘X’ meant that it was “exposed” and not “expired.” Lesson learned, I guess.

What I’m about to share with you right now is a chronicling of my first foray into Lomography. My cousin, Nicole, was the first person I knew who had a really cool camera that shot multi-framed stories instead of capturing single stills.

I was intensely attracted to the idea and so I got my own—a Supersampler! I loved pulling the string and hearing the four clicks when I pressed the button. The results were always surprising and fun, too.

I brought that thing with me everywhere. And it was nice how my dad indulged this obviously non-cerebral, anti-art—at least in the way that it’s supposed to evoke deep meanings and underlying themes—kind of photography. I mean, it was really nice of him, because look at what I have now! A bunch of memories from a really fun time in my life. I had no idea how expensive film and lab fees were. Now, I do, so I appreciate it all the more.

It’s just funny how photos from this camera represent to me things that I miss, as well as some of my oldest dreams. I miss being silly, and I miss feeling big enough to actually maybe live in New York City someday. In high school, I always thought I would be there by the time I was in my mid-twenties. Now that the date is nearing, I kind of doubt anything will come of that dream, but it’s still nice to have a reminder of who I was, precisely, when I fell in love with that city.

Here are some more photos of New York and me coercing my classmates to make silly faces.

There has been an influx of babies in my family for the last year or so. I’ve had only one nephew, Jaime Alfonso, for five years before the other babies started pouring in. There was Iniko Matteo born last April, Summer Madeline born at the very end of December, and Ethan Joseph just this February. I had my last full roll developed, and in between random photos at the grocery, I found pictures of some of my favorite people to see these days.

Most are blurry—my estimation has regressed once again—but I think I’d like to keep these special moments, anyway. All photos taken with Lomography CN 100, which I imagine would look better with a lot of light.

Iniko Matteo in his new Audi~

When I got to my brother’s room, I found Jaime reclining on the bed—a usual spot for him when he’s not in school. We got him to be still enough for a few shots.

Summer Madeline with blur!Papa.

I was gifted with an Olympus Pen EE and, along with my Sprocket Rocket and LC-A+, it came with me on a recent trip to Buenavista, Marinduque, home to the (pretty) famed Bellarocca Resort and Spa. We were there for three days and actually left right before the Moriones Festival. Without saying much, here is a post with mostly photographs. As I mentioned, these were taken with an Olympus Pen EE—great mileage in terms of film—loaded with Kodak Kodacolor 200.

There wasn’t much of a beach to speak of so the main point of that getaway was for rest and relaxation. We swam all day or napped or slept for real. The beds were so soft, I didn’t want to leave.

The rest of the photos under this cut

The trouble with shooting with film is that it has enormous room for error. I haven’t touched a digital camera in months (I’m looking to buy a Canon S100 in May, though) so I’ve been shooting mainly in film. Funny how that sounds so uppity and snobby—it only means that I have been taking photos in film. Anyway, before I get to my gigantic (probably series-ed) Marinduque posts, a.k.a. the reason why I have been away, here are some examples of my photo fumbles.

I loaded my camera with Fuji Reala 100 and accidentally set the ASA to 400, so the photos came out darker than they are supposed to—and they are blurrier than usual. Sad. I like taking photos of everyday life and seeing them “come to life,” though. For some reason, it’s almost a foreign thing when I see photoshoots up online.

Sarie & me, waiting for our cheese steaks. This was on a lunch break during an Aaron Thomas workshop. On this day, we learned the difference between a character-driven and procedural television show.

Here’s Jaime’s face. He’s my godson (although I don’t think he actually knows that) and he’s six. We live in a compound and he’s up in our “house” a lot.

More fumbles and stories

Lunch at Jatujak, Lomography CN 800

March whizzed by so fast, I haven’t even had a chance to get grounded and settled in before April decides to slam into my face. I mean, tomorrow is already the last day of March. Funnily enough, I’ve found time to keep on writing on Nothing Spaces. As of 5 entries ago, March 2012 has seen the most updates from me.

At this point, it’s kind of pointless to even do my monthly goals, seeing as the only things I’ve accomplished this March is not even from my March list. And this is coming from a wholly disappointing February. Still, though, I think I did pretty well for myself this month, in terms of certain life experiences. Possibly silly to evaluate things like that in a public place, but I don’t know; it’s just what I do.

Anyway, here is a bunch of randoms my 2012 Film Diary. I have four to-be-shot rolls in four different cameras—LC-A+, Sprocket Rocket, Olympus Pen EE, Nikon FE—so I decided to post these a little early. March was so busy, that some of them feel like I took them so much longer ago.

Examination of the Self, Lomography CN 800

To humor everyone: TPOBPAH shirt, Uniqlo chinos, handmade necklace, Bag from Singapore, Keds sneakers

I had lunch and coffee with Isa. It was supposed to just be a lunch date, but she offered to drive me to Greenbelt so we can meet up with Tim because I hoarded bought film from him.

Sunday lunch with my mom and dad. My sister met up with a friend and my brother slept in, so it was an opportunity for Thai food, obviously. I missed you so much, crispy catfish salad.

Henry Royales

Henry Royales

Jacob Lindo

A show at West Gallery. Here I am, inside an elevator, with doors closing upon a creepy little scene. While I’m not afraid of the dark, in itself, with nothing to look at, scenarios start playing in my head. Anyway, I don’t know if I’d be more afraid of a real ghost or a real live psychopath. Both are people I don’t want to be stuck in the dark with, equally.

Our stove broke. Mercury retrograde hit our kitchen the hardest. We had to get a new microwave, refrigerator and a stove repair.

The Strangeness

The last Meiday ever! At B-side, where thieves roam free. There were a few incidents of thievery that night, which really just solidifies why I hate going to that place. Funnily enough, the place was brighter than usual/the other times I go there, which gave me a false sense of security, probably.

In any case, what we saw of the show was great! The 80′s theme was thoroughly entertaining, as the bands came up with stuff to cover. Outerhope even covered “More To Lose” by Ricky Gervais’ 80s band, Seona Dancing, a portion of which you can hear here:

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The Strangeness

Purple Chickens

Manuel Ocampo, Finale. Talk on Kippenberger

Poetry on trains

Film used: Kodak Gold 400 and Lomography CN 800.

Finally, I get to somewhat write about Death Cab for Cutie. Being generally unemployed as we are, Sarie and I lined up at around 1:30 p.m. for an 8 o’clock show, and we thought that might have been too much. But when we got there, there were two other groups of people who had already been waiting there since 10 and 11 a.m. Call it crazy, but we’ve been waiting for this show for ten or so years.

A few hours into waiting, we caught part of the sound check. It was spine-tingling hearing Ben Gibbard’s voice float towards us across the room, through the glass. (A melody softly soaring through the atmosphere, hehe.) I felt my heart rise up to my throat, and it was a nice preamble to the show we were about to see. Some of the songs they played weren’t part of their set list but we didn’t know it at the time, so it was like an extra show. These were the songs they played:

• “Different Names for the Same Thing”
• “Meet Me on the Equinox”
• “Death of an Interior Decorator” — this was particularly fun. Everyone we were there with sang, Can you tell me why you have been so-oh-oh-oh sa-ah-aaaaahd?
• what we think might have been a portion of Big Star’s “Thirteen”

In the end, I wasn’t allowed to bring in my SLR—hey, a girl’s gotta try!—so it’s been a painful wait for these photos to be processed, since I took with the only other camera I had with me, an LC-A+. With only one range, four focus points, and a dark room, I’m pretty happy with the results.

Sarie, Belle & Helga. We were front and center. It was glorious.

Thinny Ben! He ran all over the stage like a little critter.

Here be the rest of the photographs, the set list, et al.