Life: January 2004 Archives

Dave Marquis Zenit ET

 It was a little warmer today. When I mean a little warmer, I mean that is wasn't horribly below zero like it has been for about 4 days now. I hope it is a trend that will continue on into Spring. I bet we have a long road ahead if last year is an indicator. It is tending lately to snow a lot in the last months before Spring, whereas 10-15 years ago the major portion of the snow fall was in the earlier months of winter. This is a picture that I took at the Minnesota Zoo's Dolphin Exhibit. Not to bad, I think for a begianer in photography with a all manunal Zenit ET and $.75 rolls of film bought on E-Bay. I used the Helios 44-4 58MM lens set on infinity and I beleive the aperture was set at F4. I don't remeber the speed, maybe 1/125.

Zenit ET

 Well today was the coldest day yet this winter here in Minnesota. It really was misserable to be outside. My little car really didn't want to work today. It took a long time to warm up and then the heat wasn't really that warm. Now it is snowing and they are predicting that we are going to get about 3 inches. Can you believe snow when it is 5F or -15C if you prefer... Hmmmuff. In other news, the Ice Castle is open finally. I am thinking about going to see it tomorrow night. I want to take some pictures of it at night when the lights are so pretty. Well I will have to scout out a good place to set up my tripod and dress warm because I don't think that it will be much warmer tomorrow and I have to go out to Wisconsin to work on a computer. I am sure that it won't be a very fun drive tomorrow AM.

Dave Marquis - Zenit ET

 Here is a picture of my mom, Carol and Zackary, my nephew. Isn't he cute? Well of Course! Well I love to take baby photos, if you can't tell from the number of them that I have posted here. In other news, I meet with my college advisor about my capstone project and it looks like I will need about 6 months to do all of the research and typing to get it done. I feel the energy as I am nearing my goal of earning a college degree. Oh man, more late nights at the keyboard begging the ideas and thoughts to come and show themselves.

Dave Marquis

 Well we are at the end of another busy weekend. How come weekends are supposed to be relaxing, but why do I feel like I need a weekend from the weekend? Yuko and I dropped off the 7 rolls of film I took yesterday at Walgreens. I am hoping that they turn out. This is a picture that I took at Thanksgiving whith Kodaks 35mm color B&W film. I love this picture, eventhough Yuko is a little washed out. It is from the window that they are sitting by. It is notorious for ruining many photos. I have been trying to get Carol, my mom, to sew some thicker curtains to save me on film costs....

Dave Marquis

 Here is an orchid photo that I took when we attended our friends wedding reception, Ausuko and Jason. What is really interesting to me, is that Jason grew this orchid in his green house. He helps run, Orchid Limited with his parents. I will have to hit Jason up some time to let me take some more photos with better lighting. I have a set of bellows and a Industar 50-2 3.5, lens on the way from Russia to help me take some macro photos. I am excitted to give it a try. In tother news, I went to my second last of this semester and it appears that it is going to be fun, but a lot of reading. We'll see how it goes.

It has been a annoying day today! Well I decided not to go out to take pictures today as the weather was kind of nasty, cloudy and not too bright. Yuko has been wanting a milk shake from Mcdonalds and I thought it would be nice to go out and get her one. Wouldn't you know it, I got a call from work as soon as we entered the Mcdonalds down the street from here. So off to home we went. I am currently reloading my computer so it is going to be a long night.....

Dave Marquis

 We made it to the weekend! I don't know about you, but I am darn tired. It has been a long week for me. Next week is the start of the new semester and and a new round of classes. It should be a busy one again for me. I am trying to finish my degree by next fall. I don't know if it will happen but I am going to give it the o'college try, no pun intended. :-) Well I am thinking about going out to take some photos, but as I am on call this weekend for work, it might be tough to do. If I can, I am going to load up the holga and take it along with me. I took some color shots with it and they are get if there is enough light, that is the secret. Of the 12 shots on the roll, I only got about 2 or 3 that turned out. What a disappointment for waiting 2 weeks for them to come back from Kodak. I ran across a cool site, Pinhole.cz, that has a cool printout camera, here and information on making a Pinhole Enlarger. Now I am off to find some "stong paper".

 Well not a lot is happening tonight. I have been working on the 14 rolls of film that I have sitting here. They are from Thanksgiving and Christmass. This is a picture that my Sister, Katie, gave to Yuko and I of Jillian when she went to visit Santa. I thought it was fitting to put on the site, as we are still in the middle of the deep freeze here in Minnesota. It looks like it will warm up this weekend, just in time for me to get out and take some more pictures. The darned weatherman is also saying that since it is going to warm up that it might as well snow... Will this ever end? Yes they say, 6 months from now. It is the time of year here in Minnesota when people say that they have the gun to their heads. The scary part about this is that they are not joking....

Dave Marquis

It is durning these dark days of winter that our emotions well up. I know that I am not the only one that feels this but many people across this frozen tundra. Tonight it is nearing -10F and the chill runs to my bone.

I took this picture a couple of months ago when the wind wasn't so cold and the snow had yet to cover the ground. So I offer the mourning lady statue, who to me mourns for spring.

I was out a little bit ago and you know what? My nostrils froze shut! Man is it killer out there here in the frozen trundra of Minnesota. Oh when will the spring return and the grass grow green?

Dave Marquis

Boy, is it cold out and they are saying colder tomorrow. I am really wondering what I was thinking when I moved north to the frozen tundra. Well it has been a slow day here. I went out to look at tripods and you know what? I forgot my wallet. Well chalk it up to a sunday.

Dave Marquis

Today was a really cold day, but they are saying that it will be colder tomorrow and colder still on Monday. We froze today when we went to StillWater, MN to do some shopping and picture taking. It really is no fun holding an all metal camera in 15F weather. I need to get some of those gloves with exposed fingers or the ones that the fingers flip up to allow finger operation.

Yuko got her birthday present early! A cat clock!

Tonight we went to a Chinese resturant called Yummy. We haven't been there before and we were adventurous and gave it a try. Let me tell you, it is excellent! I can't believe that it was that good. We have been to a resturnat called Seafood Palace and it is pretty good, but Yummy blows it out of the water. Watch out Seafood Palace, Yummy is going to shut you down!

We started our dinner off with the steamed dumplings. They were very tasty and I know that I will want them again the next time I visit. Then I ordered the seafood and tofu hot pot... Tasty was the words heard around our table. Everything was so soft and juicy!

Yuko ordered the fried tofu and it was very soft and tasty also. I would really recomend this resturant to anyone in Minneapolis MN.

In other news, I spent 4 hours in my darkroom. I am so behind!