My Only Chance

On the way back to my dorm in Simmons Hall, I noticed a breeze.

Why is this so odd?  Let me explain.  There aren't that many windows in my particular hallway in Simmons.  But there is a balcony.  Once you exit the door leading to the elevator, a small alcove with desks, lamps, chairs, and a doorway to said balcony become apparent.  So why haven't I felt a breeze there more often?

It's always locked.  Always.  The perfect study space—outside, yet safe from the elements, super close by, while still offering a great view of campus—is non-accessible to us 99.99% of the time.  Today was different.  I was there at that .01%.

There were a couple kids studying already, taking advantage of the warmer-than-average temperatures we'll soon be longing.  I went outside and joined them, half-forgetting to say hello from my disbelief.  I was on the forbidden balcony.

I rushed to get my camera, which was only a few rooms away, and the doors were still open (I wasn't dreaming!).  I stepped outside again, feeling like those kids from Bridge to Terabithia crossing into some other world.  Anyway, I saw my chance to take some photos I could only shoot from out on the balcony.  

Out pops the photo at the top of this post.  In all of my excitement, I forgot to change my exposure settings and the photo turned out 80% blank.  Great.  Even better, a (not-so-happy-looking) custodian soon came outside to shoo us meddling kids from the terrace.  I had my chance, and I blew it.

While I waited for the first image to develop, I managed to capture this atrocity of a photo:

Technically, it's what used to be a photo.  In short, I tried a tricky double exposure using indoor and outdoor elements in conjunction.  It didn't quite work out.  So, I channeled my inner engineer (and maybe some frustration) and pulled the film apart after cutting the top and bottom with some scissors.  Frankly, I say this wasn't what I expected.  The back layer is a thin layer of magenta plastic, to protect the chemicals from coming in contact to the user.  After removing this back layer, you can actually carve out dried developer (see the bottom of the left image above).  The front layer is really just the image on another piece of plastic.  Pretty simple, but not exactly what I was expecting.

Clearly, it wasn't my day.  But that's exactly what I wanted to emphasize.  Like students or athletes, photographers prove to have ups and downs.  Not all of my photos are picture perfect, and some... let's just say I don't hang them up on my wall.

I know this hasn't been my most elegant post, but hey, I still may not know what the inside of instax film looks like had I not tried something new.  In the meantime, enjoy this more picturesque photo of some flowers by Redifer.  I got the exposure right on this one.