A clean house?

My house smells very clean, in fact, PineSol clean.  I noticed a few sticky fingerprints on the coffee table last night and went to grab what I thought was the Old English furniture polish.  The bottles look similar at least in color, although the PineSol is much larger.  I opened the bottle and started pouring a little out - wow!  I had Pine Sol running all over.  I quickly dabbed it up and then went over the table with the real Old English.  No matter what, the house has a strong Pine Sol aroma.  That was a pretty dumb mistake for me to make!

I enlarged some photos taken in Alaska at Costco this morning, to a 9 x 12 size.  They are some that I might like to use as something to match in acrylic paint eventually.  I have the canvas I worked on last night sitting on the table, and every time I walk past it and don't focus completely on it, I find it looks pretty good.  Not really good, mind you, but in an out-of-focus sort of way I can see the potential.  Every time I look at it though I have questions to ask, and the list will be long by next Wednesday evening!

The woman who printed the Alaskan enlargements at Costco was unhappy because a slight line was showing up in the pictures.  I couldn't see it and told her what I was going to use them for - as potential models for a painting class, but she felt like she owed me as perfect a product as she could get.  She cleaned the printer but the line remained, so she told me to take the photos with me and come back when I can, and in the meantime she will do a deep cleaning on the printer and make me some perfect copies.  I really am awestruck at some of the views enlarged to that degree, especially of the glacier, as well as some seals on the rocks, birds, and other shots.  I also enlarged some animal photos just in case I want to try painting them some time - I want to stay away from trying to do people for now.

I described in a comment on yesterday's post, that I am going to attend the class once a week for at least 10-12 weeks, which should give me a pretty good idea of the direction in which I want to go.  The classes are $25 each, pretty much standard for anywhere, according to Pam in Alaska.  Michael's is having a sale soon where you can pay for classes in advance at 1/2 price, but the catch is that you have to assign a date to each, which I hope can be changed if necessary.  I'm going to buy 10 classes for $125, so I've decided to forego the idea of getting a new camera yet.  I can still use the old one that doesn't have a good battery cover, and I've found an old Olympus Styles film camera that I want to try again.  That thing is heavy though!  The first thing I found out is that the battery was dead, and the stores I checked this afternoon don't sell that battery.  I found it on Amazon and ordered two of them although they won't get here for a couple of weeks, but I can use the other camera in the meantime.  It's not as though I take that many pictures.  Walmart carries film but I was disappointed to find that it is for 27 photos.  I would rather try it out at 8 or 12, or something less than 27.  I'll look around some more and maybe even find a camera store at the mall.  

It is pretty disheartening when I see the difference in pictures I take now as compared to those of 20 or 25 years ago.  I truly believe the film photos have a warmth and depth to them that digital does not, although digital is probably more technically accurate.  I noticed that when I began to go through my old pictures with the intent of sorting and categorizing them all.  I haven't done much on them lately, but I'll get back to it one of these days.  I was surprised to see how good many of them are, and how well I set up some of the best shots.  Those days are gone forever!