Internet findings (2) + 1 Off-topic

Mai Quynh on 6. July 2024

📖 A visit to Books on the Hill and a mini Daphne du Maurier exhibit
Michelle from the blog Daisybutter likes to visit places with books. This isn't the first post I've read from her where she visits one of these wonderful book places. But it's the first time I took the note to visit more bookshops and lose myself in these wonderful places. Especially in the small bookshops. Of course libraries are included in the wonderful book places!

📷 Each negative holds a thousand photographs
Jim Grey writes on his blog Down The Road about how one (1) film negative can bring out thousand positives (this is quite the blog post title). What Jim Grey writes is as simple as true. I can't even really describe what this post has done with me. But something revelatory, in a positive way. Especially his statement in response to the question of what is the truth in photography has touched a soft spot in my personal photographic development.

📷 Sean Tucker (YouTube channel)
I stumbled across the YouTube channel by Sean Tucker . He talks about photography, with focus on the "how". And even though I have only seen two (2) of his videos so far, they made me wanting see more of his videos. His style and his videos are pleasantly calm and slowing down. His content has an effect. I've already seen other videos' thumbnails that sound interesting but I want to take the time to watch each one.
The first video I watched was the following one: Making Candid Portraits in Street Photography (feat. Dawn Eagleton). Dawn Eagleton is a street photographer I haven't known before and it was very interesting to see how she works. Even though street photography is not my cup of tea, I really enjoy listening to others on this subject.

Only english content today but that's how it is. (This sentence obviously makes more sense in the german version of this post.)

🐧 Off-topic: I feel a bit uneasy as I haven't brought any blog post to an end recently. A number of posts have been drafted already and most of the post is finished. But I just haven't got round to finishing them. Mainly because the finalization must be done on the laptop/computer and on a lot of days, I didn't have the energy or just didn't want to have more screen time. A small disadvantage of blogging... 😫

May 2023

Mai Quynh on 8. June 2023

Bad news: Soon it will be the longest day of the year and then we will be closer to the next Christmas than the last. Good news: summer has just begun. Summer with its hot-warm temperatures annoys me at some point, too, but I’m still very happy to get the light and warmth.

A lot of free days

But now let’s talk about May. The fifth month with its many long weekends lud zu vielem ein. Meine langen Wochenenden, aber auch die restlichen Maitage, waren gespickt mit Menschen treffen, unterwegs sein und miteinander Zeit verbringen. Die hessische Landeshauptstadt Wiesbaden habe ich erstmalig besucht und in Hamburg tanzten wir bis tief in die Nacht. Freund:innen  habe ich im neuen Zuhause willkommen geheißen.

The vines in this region are happily greening up and I have already discovered the first fruits. But I wonder when the plants exploded. The vines were only branches not too long ago?

Besides a little bike ride between the vines and the river, in May I also learned why every few row of vines has a rose planted in front of it: roses serve as an early warning system since they need similar conditions to vines but are more susceptible. If the rose is doing badly then you still have some time to react for the vines, so to speak.

Something with Photo

My battery compartment is intact, again so I was able to get the film completed in May after all *yeah*. In the end, most importantly I wanted to get the film full, so I didn’t want to wait for the subjects to come to me. But finding motifs ad hoc is not yet my strength. I photographed a gummi bear box and my scrunchy; while the gummi bears seem very random, my scrunchy was quite interesting. I was particularly excited about the portrait photos I took of my friends.

I sent off the film and got the scans within a week (I was so happy that the owner of the photo lab had developed and scanned the film before he went on holiday!). I was quite content with the portrait photos, hihi. But I haven’t yet decided (and accordingly haven’t asked) whether I want to show them on the blog.

The next film is already in and I will definitely continue with portrait photos. I’m also thinking about giving my films names so I can tell them apart (haha).

Scanner focus

The dino was finished on time and the friend who the present was for was very happy, which in turn made me very happy. I even got the next order but I have to recover from all the small parts of the dino first (e.g., prongs and such).

There was one spontaneous, intense sock-darning-day (again, I want to give the projects names for identification!) but that’s it, nothing more.

At the end of the month, I was very interested in another topic: Making my own elderflower syrup!I started putting the flowers in the water in May but bottling didn’t happen in June. Therefore: Stay tuned!

April 2023

Mai Quynh on 12. May 2023

In fact, there was not only little, but zero going on on the blog. On the other hand, I’ve made good progress with the furnishing of the new four walls *yey*.

Memorable first times

  • Culinary beginning of the month: I already toldyou that I took the train from Mainz to Düsseldorf on the last day of March. Düsseldorf was eventually the destination as we tried out a few Japanese restaurants, on the spot. We were very happy afterwards 😀
  • For the first time I visited the Palmengarten in Frankfurt/Main. When I was researching botanical gardens in Germany, this garden in particular was commented on several times and described as very beautiful. Did the Palmengarten convince me? Yes, as a matter of fact it did. There wasn’t much going on in the outdoor area yet but the Palmengarten in Frankfurt has a lot to offer, so it was easy to have a good time there. By the way, the Palmengarten is not the botanical garden of the city of Frankfurt. They are two different gardens, as I just learned on my research 😀 (Note to self: visit the Botanical Garden in Frankfurt, too).
  • A friend took me to a cabaret event where we laughed heartily.

Something with Photo

The black and white film has become fuller: Friends posed for portrait photos which I really appreciate. Still, it felt a bit awkward to shoot people officially and also consciously. Actually, I already knew that it would be awkward and I could have prepared myself a bit for the situation but that’s not what happened. So I jumped in at the deep end and practiced learning by doing.

Unfortunately, I can’t get the film full at the moment because I managed to break the battery compartment of the camera so badly that it won’t hold anymore. So it’s hard to use the camera at the moment and I’m really sad about that. But I haven’t found an adequate solution yet 🙁

Scanner focus: handicraft

Although I put a lot of things on hold I couldn’t keep my fingers off the handicraft. It felt like compensation work for planning and thinking about the interior for the new home.

Very trendy handicraft this month: Darning socks socks socks! I’ll spare us the photos of darned socks today. Which doesn’t mean they won’t come because I do think my darned socks are pretty cool and I’m always super proud when I can wear socks (more) carefree

I also had a special project: I fulfilled a friend’s wish and started crocheting her a dino (first time I did something like this).

In summary, it was very interesting to see what happens when I prioritise a project/activity so highly in my private life: I’ve managed to get a lot done by my standards. With all my other ongoing (micro)projects as a scanner, it wouldn’t have been as effective. But I also notice that it has somehow … „drained“ me. I couldn’t really resist and did other things on the side eventually. Just not as many as usual höhö

I’m just recovering from the very busy month of April and wish you a wonderful rest of May!