quelquefois

Recently, I’ve been denied login access on the RISD computers because it does not recognize my user name. Infuriated, I came up with several different explanations for their denying me access, one of which even went so far as to say the computer was racist.

For some reason, I had the notion that my user name was “achang2.” This is probably because at Brown, my username is “achang1.” (Yes, the “1.” Long story.) Well, it hit me a few minutes ago that my user name is achang02. Moral: I’m an idiot.

I stand by my notion that are too many Amy Changs, and way too many A. Changs in this world, in this state, and even on this damn hill! Perhaps if I had some complicated name like Clementine McPheersonelope, life wouldn’t be as complicated, but I’d probably get a lot of shit for my name. And I’d be Greek? Or maybe an Indian name like Meira Swaminathan (no Google results! Take that, India!). I’d probably also get the e-mail address I actually want, without having to add unnecessary letters or numbers to the end.

to becoming a better photographer? Today I asked my photography professor to take a look at one of my scanned color negatives (negatives from a manual camera) to see if I was on the right track with my editing. He told me that he was really impressed with my work, and that he did not tell people that often.

None of my work was done using any “auto” features. I meticulously tweaked curves, tones, color balances, saturations, hues, noise reducers, and sharpening to get that piece of shit image on the left to the still-in-progress result on the right. Okay, you probably got none of that. Bottom line: made my day.

I am taking a class at RISD–Digital Photography, and I love it so much. It is no doubt one of the most time consuming classes I have ever taken, but seriously one of the most fulfilling. I am learning so much about image and color correction (wow, did I just say I was excited about working with CURVES and HISTOGRAMS?), that I can’t wait to see my *own* images transform from shit to sexy (our professor’s nomenclature).

Note to Canon 5d: I have my eye on you. Just you wait (until I have this thing called “income”). Once Canon updates you, you know I’ll be there, waiting, drooling.