Avon calling

Avon
Originally uploaded by Hilary (curioush)

As I type this I can see some neighbor kids wheeling a basketball hoop out into the alley for a little pick-up game. I don't think I've seen them do that yet this year. It must really be Spring!

===============
I've signed up for the black and white film development classes that I mentioned in this entry. Yay! Thanks again to my friend Darren for inspiring me to finally take action.

Classes start this Tuesday. I get all nervous when I think school, so I'm hoping that this isn't going to be as school-y as regular school.

Not sure how quickly we're going to be getting into the darkroom -- this is a five-week class -- but I thought I'd better get a couple of rolls of black and white film shot first before class starts in case we are supposed to be developing right away.

I haven't had occasion to really get out of St. Louis much lately, so I decided to take a drive on US-50 in Illinois yesterday. I take US-50 in Missouri every chance I get, because it is way more pleasant than the the major highways, and it's got a lot of charm. But I haven't been on it on Illinois much, if ever.

Yesterday seemed like the perfect day to get in the car and do some exploring in Illinois. Fill up a roll or two of film. Win-win. I saw some neat places! Got a whole roll of film filled! Snapped a few digitals and Holgaroids too, but my main focus (haha) was on getting some black and white photos.

Except. When I got home last night, all happy to have gotten some shots that I felt pretty good about, I went to rewind the film and. Nothing. It wouldn't rewind. Because as far as I can tell I must have done something wrong in the first place when loading the film and I actually took no photos. Doh!

I guess I'll wait and see what happens when I try to develop the film in class, but I'm not too hopeful on this one.

This is one of the digital photos I took (haven't scanned the Holgaroids yet) of the Avon Theater in Breese, Illinois. Breese is a really cute town -- as were the others I passed through along the way. Will definitely have to make another trip there. And practice my film-loading technique.