RTFM

« Dancing, glowing sperm made with white ropes hanging from a wire illuminated by a black light on the Night of the Arts. (colour picture) I quite like the photo in spite of my disappointment of not finding people in sperm costumes dancing around an elusive, yet flirtatious, egg. »

I finally got around to developing some B&W film over the weekend that I've been meaning to deal with for about a month. I got a macro lens for the Leica for my birthday (Thanks to my recently deceased Great Aunt Alice who must be thanked from beyond the grave. After all those years of brown polyester socks at Christmas, it was an unexpected surprise.) which I took a few test shots with weeks ago and it was only slightly amusing to look at the negatives and wonder what part of the tiny 4-page manual I had missed reading since they were framed properly but with a lack of focus. After looking through the tiny little manual, it would appear that I completely overlooked the section that explains that the lens must not only be extended, but locked into position by rotating it until it clicks.

It is in those moments in life where you thought the object simple enough and the manual short enough that you smugly dispense with anything more than a fleeting glance at the documentation that life tends to remind you that assumption is the fast track to being shown your own limitations. I'm sure whomever develops the roll of colour film with about 15 pictures of test shots of the tyrni cake will wonder what in the hell the multitude of blurry orange blobs are about and think it's just some wanker trying to be artistic. Go me. In reading the manual though, I noticed just what a clever bit of engineering the macro kit is given that the 90mm lens by itself works as a regular lens but, when attached to the adapter, it is rotated by 180° which reveals a different set of focal lengths for macro work and the adapters' "eyes" compensate for the change in parallax for the rangefinder.

I've got a number of upcoming cookery bits this week since I did a bit of cooking, not baking, over the weekend so those who sulk about these things have been warned. :) Cook's Illustrated also just published what I presume is their answer to the classic Betty Crocker and Better Homes and Gardens classic 3-ring binder cookbooks containing wholesome family recipes: The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. It will be interesting to see if they redefine the genre as they go more mainstream into the homemaker/family market. I'd love to see them take on all the freakish 1970s Betty Crocker recipe cards and remake them.