Wild mix and a suprise bag

Mai Quynh on 10. July 2024

Most of the time I write about "Something with Photo": Either about photos I took; learning stations that I passed intentionally or unintentionally; and thoughts about an image being captured.

A little piece of the blog is always left for my other hobbies and interests. At the moment it's all about needlework, especially darning and repairing clothes. And every now and then there are a few thoughts from life sprinkled in.

maipenquynh is not intended to be a photo blog - even if it is the biggest topic. As mentioned above, there's a lot more to it. But if it's not a photo blog, what else is it? How would I describe my blog?

All of a sudden, I felt the urge to label my blog. But doing so was difficult because a short and crisp description of my blog was not possible. In the course of this thought, I couldn't let go of another question: Is the overlap of my topics too small? Or to put it in other words: Are the topics too far apart and is there a lack of connection between the topics? Does my blog feel like a wild mix to others?

As I looked to the left and right of me in the blogosphere, I found many blogs to have a "wild mix" - just as life is, I suppose. Different topics are touched on, exactly those topics that bother the blogger. That doesn't bother me as a reader. The wild mix of others is interesting because it allows me to think outside the box from time to time. Of course, not everything on multi-topic blogs always catches my attention and I do skip posts sometimes. But having a possible point of contact is actually awesome. The most important intersection of topics is the person behind the blog: the blogger. On maipenquynh, that is me.

I got confused by the idea of having one focus and not doing too much at the same time. Talking again about being a diver versus being a scanner and how much the thought of having many interests at the same time but having limited capacities has bothered me.

Eventually, I am at the spot where I started: it stays as it is. A large portion of "Something with Photo", sometimes a few thoughts "thought out loud" and then there's the surprise bag. It contains everything else I do and want to show on my blog. The category used to be called "Scanner Focus" but that's too cryptic. The term "Wundertüte" (surprise bag) describes it better: it can be just about anything (except anything to do with photo).

With this I say goodbye to the previous name "Scanner Focus" - it was a good start to make up with "Being a Scanner".

While this text is still in draft status, I happen to come across posts by other bloggers who have already discussed this question. Such a relief. Also their conclusion that it's just right having a multi-topic blog, is a relief. Here are the links to the posts (german):

How do you feel as a blogger - have you ever had the feeling that your choice of topics is too broad and could seem "random" to the audience? Or even the other way round and you wished to expand your range of topics? Or has this question never bothered you and you it was clear to you that you would cover exactly your topics (be it a mono-topic blog or a multi-topic blog)? If you've already written about it, leave me a link to your text!

Picture was first posted here: Inside and outside, buildings | Sunny 16 #2 (Set 1/6)

not quite up-to-date

Mai Quynh on 23. May 2024

Over the last few weeks, I've discovered some photo blogs that have some very nice photo projects going on. They take and post a new photo once a week. I'm interested in these projects but I'm hesitant because I don't know how I can do my photos justice. On the one hand the analogue photos, on the other hand the new photos that I would like to post promptly.

I have never officially and consciously imposed this on myself but I have started to work through my analogue photo backlog which has already been digitized (there are also many analogue photos that have not yet been digitized; and there are also digital photos...). Many of the photos I post on the blog are therefore not quite up-to-date. Some are up to several years old. For example, when I will finally share my impressions of Japan (which I plan to do), it might already be autumn and the memories would be a year old. I'm really not suitable as a travel blog 🙈.

It bothers me that I'm mainly posting photos that are already a few months or years old and current photos are left out. I wonder if that's one of the reasons why I'm taking so few photos at the moment because I know that the new ones would just get in line.

I have this dilemma: Do I want to stay closer to the present? And therefore put more contemporary photos on the blog. At the same time, I want to show my analogue photos, even if they've been lying around for a while. Both need time. Perhaps the digital photos a little more because first, I have to familiarize myself with photo editing. The lack of a workflow puts me off. Posting both the backlog and current photos might be quite a lot. ... right? Oh, it's about the time, the time again.

What's in the analogue photo backlog? These photos are still waiting to make their grand entrance: Denmark and a short trip to Malmo, Japan, Madeira and Lisbon. I also have a few photos from everyday life, but the ones I'm particularly looking forward to show on the blog are the photos from my travels. One reason could be that I take more photos when I travel (because I have more time?) and these photos are more likely to be assigned with the attribute "worth showing"/"special". I want to change that, but that is another story.

There is no solution yet that I am happy with and that gives me the feeling that I do justice to both worlds - the photos that are still in my (virtual) drawers and the potential new photos. Am I making things unnecessarily complicated for myself? Hmm, possibly.

Harz on rainy and sunny days

Mai Quynh on 5. October 2023

Aurelie. Meant Harz in summer. And yet, it rained for a whole day. We walked with umbrellas to the viewpoint of Wernigerode Castle, only to not be allowed to see the castle because of the fog. But Harz in summer meant also a day of hiking full of sun with little shade. Field after field littered with purple foxgloves, surrounded by fine silver hairgrass. I haven’t had enough of them.

~

The purple colour got lost through the black white film, named Aurelie, and I was also unable to capture the foxgloves and silver hairgrass (determined by an app). The more I like the images from the rainy day. In fact, they are my favourite images in the whole film.

Flashback to my mini-teaser in the last logbook post. The note from the photo lab scared me; it read „Unfortunately, your film was not complete and predominantly strongly underexposed. The underexposure makes a dust-free scanning of the film quite difficult“.

It wasn’t until I was writing about the film and this post that I realised I hadn’t continued reading from „strongly underexposed“ onwards and was instead dramatic and disappointed. Indeed, a few motifs/pictures are missing and haven’t made it to anything after development, that’s the „not complete“ part then. A lot of pictures were strongly underexposed (not shown), round about the half of the film, nevertheless they weren’t just black spots. That’s what I assumed when I read the note and had quite much black-and-white-thinking – literally speaking. Instead, the pictures were rather a mix of dark grey hues with few contrast.

The fact that I worked with ISO 50 film for the first time most probably plays a role as well. First conclusion: tendency to underexposure. Thus, for the next time I will use an ISO 50 film, I should provide my film a little more light.

Camera + lens: Minolta Dynax 7000i + Minolta AF 50 mm
Film: ILFORD PAN F+ 50
Development + scan: Urbanfilmlab