cold candy

ID

The new identity at work has me doing some experimenting with identity-kinds-of-things for myself. I'm finally working on doing something with my photos, and figure I might as well make some kind of identity. This is a rough sketch. I was thinking that the bird and and concrete should look drawn, with only bluebird blue as the color. Comments? Thoughts?

Chaika camera shutter not working?

I found a Chaika 3 half-frame camera at the little camera shop on Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg for about 20 bucks. It takes photos that work really well with my sense of composition. Imagine my disappointment upon breaking it before I got to the second roll. What follows is for the random person who buys one and experiences shutter failure, as I did.
It turns out that the film advance/shutter release mechanism is rather finicky. If you don't pull the film advance lever all the way back, the entire mechanism will jam. You will then fully depress the shutter release button and nothing will happen, nor will you be able to advance the film. Here is what to do:

1. Turn on a really bright light and grab a magnifying glass or loupe; you may need it.
2. Unscrew and remove the lens.
3. Look at the very top into the body just below where the lens screws in. You'll see a peg and a little triangular tab. If you don't, use your magnifying tool.
4. Use an unfolded paper clip to move the peg, you should see the shutter release. The tab is supposed to move the peg when you release the shutter. The tab is jammed. Simply move it toward the peg, it should push the peg, release the shutter, and un-jam.
5. Put the lens back on, and make sure that when you advance the film, you pull the lever as far back as it will go, so that it doesn't jam again.

Published!

Well, I've finally been published. I've been interning at the St. Petersburg Times, and I wrote a couple of pieces for the paper. The first is a restaurant review. I'm not entirely happy about the edits that were made, as I think that a few unnecessary commas were added and my voice was toned down more than I would have liked. The second was fun to write and research. I've probably spent more time at markets than at museums here in St. Petersburg.

names & numbers

For michael the blind's CD names & numbers, as a gift to our friend David.

If wishes were zebras...

One of the pieces I did for my black and white design class a while back...

Key of 8

Cover for a mix CD 'Key of 8' made of elements of the original CD's covers. If that makes sense.

Le Printemps

Every once in a while, I like to make little things like this. I'll post more in the future. This one was an ode to springtime which I folded into a CD cover of a mix CD and sent to some pals.