Montly archives
The difference between adolescence and adulthood, is that as an adult you have the means to actually follow through with all the crazy shit you dream up
Via a long a twisted path over land and sea, today a homemade card found its way to my mailbox from France. Apparently an English woman living in the French countryside made this card with her own pressed flowers and fragments from photographs, drawings, or whatever else inspires her for each piece. I have no idea what kind of flower (or bean?) is pressed on the front of this card, but it's the small photo of the door to Narnia that caught my eye. Ugh, BEAUTIFUL! Seriously, it's these small things that totally make my month.
God I'm the biggest sap ever, truly.
Stranger yet is that for the past 7 months I've been contemplating a trip to France... and this is another one of those things that makes me want to get on a plane tomorrow. My perfect day would consist of kicking it in the French countryside with a bottle of red, a pair of sunglasses, a warm breeze, a lovely french brie, and some farm kittens sprinkled in there, too. You know... to keep me company after a dip in the freshwater lake.
Yeah, who am I kidding. If there's a lake I'll probably be in there all day just so long as the fish don't confuse my moles with bits of food.
That's it. My camera and I are going before the year is out.
My grand adventure through... Minnetonka!
I'd love to talk more tonight, but it turns out that when I got in my car to drive home after work the car, in fact, drove itself right on out of the city and in to one of them there mysterious and elusive suburbs everyone talks about. And you know what I found in the suburbs besides poor driving and tapered pants?
SHOPPING.
Have you guys heard about this things called shopping? Cuz it's fucking *awesome*. Honestly, you're lucky I came home at all tonight. The next time my friends call me up and suggest we go get drunk and laugh ourselves right under a table at some snobby bar downtown, I'm gonna say something like, "Dudes, shopping in the suburbs is way more fun. Trust me."
And they'll be all, "Intriguing. What is this 'suburban shopping experience' you speak of?"
And I'll be all, "It's shopping, but, like, you do it in person. You know, like in the old days."
And they'll be all, "You mean, like, not on the internet?"
And I'll be all, "Yeah! Apparently people still walk in and out of stores. Like, for real. WHO KNEW?!"
And then we'll all have a good laugh about how cute old people are.
Sadly my bank account now knows all about the repercussions of shopping, the suburban housewife's crack. So does my closet, but to be fair my closet is quite thrilled about the whole thing and thinks we should have a party to celebrate. But not one of those snobby, downtown restaurant kind of parties - A SUBURBAN MALL PARTY WITH THE GAP, EXPRESS, MARSHALL FIELDS, AND EVERY OTHER STORE IN THE UNIVERSE INVITED!
There were new shirts... and more new shirts. And cute pants! Pants that really fit and aren't 5 sizes too big or 2 sizes too small and shrunk in weird places so that I look like I should be tightrolling them at the ankle. Best news of all - I didn't buy a single pair of khakis. That whole conservative, dressing like I work in a hospital look is soooo last year. Tonight I reclaimed my style.
All hail style.
I have officially been reborn and shall remember this day, always.
It's time to finish off dinner (suburban malls also have Big Bowl - isn't that the weirdest coincidence, like, ever?) and then think of ways I can convince all my flickr photowalk buddies that our next photowalk should be at Ridgedale. Or Southdale. Or the Mall of America. And that maybe they should just leave their cameras at home and instead bring their SUV-like vehicles so they can each and every one of them help me take home all the IKEA stuff I purchase. Because honestly, you just can't lightrail home with a new system of bookcases.
Minty fresh goodness
Excuse me while I geek out for a moment, but I'm compelled to share the Mint love. Like most bloggers I've used a (free!) stat-counter for years A) to see what kind of traffic my sites generated, B) to see how people are getting around, and C) so the psycho-stalker types and I could share conversations on a more 1-to-1 level.
Because, ya'know, I'm just that kind of gal.
When Shaun Inman released his own stat-collector called Mint I must confess I was ready to purchase in those first few hours (alright fine, I wanted to love on its prettiness, okay? sue me...). But then I dug a little deeper and found the software actually lacked a few of the key tools necessary for my sanity... like, uh, the psycho-stalker live-chat plugin. A girl's gotta have her priorities in check, yo! To make a long story short I passed on the software but kept it in my sights (again, sooooo so pretty) so that maybe one day it would be mine. Turns out there's a fair number of decent plugins, peppers, as it were, now available and whispering sweet nothings to my dear, sweet, naive little sopheava. Last week I finally put down the money, installed the software, sprinkled in some peppers, had a glass of wine, and whoala! Mint and I are now in love and we might be getting serious (we're thinking of having kittens! ... okay fine, *I'm* thinking of having kittens...)
Ah yes dear, sweet Mint. You now make my life brilliantly complete.
I feel like a shady spokesperson now, but seriously... $30 bucks, a few peppers later, and I promise you'll wonder how you lived without its beautiful, shiny green stat-collecting goodness.
This is all.
Oops, did I forget to add whiskers on kittens?
This weekend I'll be one of the ubergeeks attending Minnebar, which should be a nice collection of idea -sharing and -generating geekiness (clearly). So, you know, if you're in the Minneapolis area and are way in to SEO, building synthetic worlds, ajax, css, agile design, or large groups of people with more gadgetry than you can shake a stick at then try to clear your Saturday for this *outtacontrol* event. Matt'll be there, too, doing his live-action version of every song from Evita.
A capella.
Should be fun!
You know what I haven't done around here in ages? A long time ago in a far away land I used to do a monthly recap of things: I enjoyed / was inspired by / loved / that rearranged my DNA in a good way. There's definitely not a shortage of any of those things in the house of Andrews this month... so, you know, LET'S!!!
This month we've already covered Dansko clogs (so hot), Timbuk2 bags (The Create-A-Bagonator1 compels you!), and Crumpler bags (gear bags this hot oughta be made in Australia... er, wait...), but trust me. There has been enjoyment of pleeeeennnnty of other oddities as well. Shall we begin?
+ The Spectaculars, a Minneapolis-based group is definitely, well, spectacular. Last week I saw them perform at the 7th St. Entry and they totally knocked my high-heeled, sassy, knee high boots off. Unfortunately their album doesn't at all reflect their live kick-assedness, but that totally hasn't stopped me from listening to it a whole lot. If you can catch them live, do it. Hopefully it'll be on a night when the drummer hasn't had one too many burritos cuz the guy fucking flies. Seriously, w.o.w. Also, I'm secretly organizing a covert operation to photograph them both live and in the studio, cuz, well, those shots are gonna kick some serious ass. You just wait and see... I'll figure out a way.
+ Since we're on music, I've been listening to Massive Attack's collection called, er, Collected endlessly. The tune 'Live With Me' repeats on my speakers all. day. long. It's a must-have for your collection (plus, isn't 'Angel' on everyone's best-of list somewhere? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?).
+ Bath and Body Works' Coconut Lime Verbena Purely Silk Body Lotion. Fucking-a man, fucking-a.
+ One more scent for you today (although Philosophy's Falling In Love should totally *NOT* be missed either), is Origins' Ginger Souffle. I seriously want to take a bite out of myself after slathering this stuff on every morning. Mmmmmmmmm, how about a little bicep for breakfast?! The essence spray, roll-on stick, and shower gel are all a little bit of heaven too... but the souffle has the power to make you, your loved ones, or your Friday night date salivate.
+ The movie Amelie is on my short list of Most Beautiful Movies Ever Made™. The cinematography is so breath-taking you could pause it at any moment and take a life-changing photograph truly honestly deeply (the same is also true for En Vogue's Free Your Mind video ... no kidding).
Books and magazines make my world go 'round too. A few notables from the recent weeks...
+ Rules of the Red Rubber Ball, by Kevin Carroll. The entire time this book is in my hands I'm smiling. Plus, you know, it's one of those books I wish I wrote first. Fuck it, I'll write my own anyway. Yay for doing what you love!
+ Wise Women, by Joyce Tenneson. These photographs of older women are *ridiculously* gorgeous, magical, moving, and powerful. As if you needed further proof that I'm the biggest sappy pants ever, the photographs in this book have made me cry in the happy way on more than one occasion. Here's another one of those books I wish I had done first. Fuck it, I'll do one of these photo-collections anyway. Yay!
+ Making and Breaking the Grid is one of my trusty bibles when it comes to design. Not because of all the info on the grid (totally useful, by the way), but because when I'm searching for ideas all I have to do is open this book to, well, any page at all. Tons and tons of idea generators in here and an excellent reminder at how organic design really is.
More good stuff coming next month!
1 I just realized that "Bagonator" sounds an awful lot like "Baconator", which happens to be trademarked by my good pal Joe. The "Baconator", for baconating fries of course. Um, so, yeah. I'll just leave it at that.
Minnebar hotness
I know everyone's been anxiously checking in for the weekend Minnebar Geekcamp round-up, so huge apologies for the delay. It turns out that after all that testosterone, internety goodness I had to get my girl on yesterday by photographing a local florist wrapped in a lilac boa of her own creation. Don't get me wrong, Saturday was more fun than I've had in a really long time but I'm just not sure the "Roll Around in a Bed of Lilacs But Don't Forget to Get Your Sexy On™" -session would've gone down all that well with the Ruby guys. Plus I just really want to get invited back to the next Minnebar meetup, yo!
Still, I'll bring up the boa idea with Ben to see what he thinks.
So yeah, Saturday's Minnebar Barcamp meetup was an overwhelming success. I went in to the conference expecting it to be, you know, "good" but left with A) a head exploding with ideas, B) almost more photographs than my computer can handle, C) more kick ass, creative, developer-type contacts than one girl should ever be allowed to have, and D) almost one entire platter of taco dip. Because curiosity compels you to know how it all went down, I passed on the dip because Rysavy's fork assaulted the big meaty feast after everyone left (I have photographic proof!). Basically I decided it was safer for my constitution, and not to mention mental health, to just let the whole thing go.
Trust me, you would've too.
On top of extreme sessiony-goodness, I was fortunate enough to be stuck in a studio with some of the most incredibly talented, creative, genius designers and programmers I've had the pleasure of meeting in quite a long time. They were also incredibly normal, showered, well-dressed, and I didn't catch sight of even *one* pocket-protector the entire day. Ha ha ha, kidding. KIDDING! (... mostly)
A few other things...
+ Turns out that lots of technology and design people are in to, get this, CAMERAS! I saw at least 6 Nikon D70s throughout the day (but not one Canon DSLR), which made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Getting to talk about programming, design, the internet, and media was fucking hot... but getting to talk about photography on top of that made a tear well up in my right eye. The event, it was well documented. Check out the flickr Minnebar group for photographic evidence (my contributions are buried in there somewhere, too).
+ It also turns out that... I HAVE A SOUL!!! YAY!
+ In what has to be one of the weirdest coincidences of the day, I met fabulous Norm during a session. As we got to talking we discovered that A) we're both web designers, B) we went to the same college, C) we graduated in the same class, D) we lived, quite literally, a few doors down from each other in the same dorm... on the same floor, and E) we both have a peculiar affinity for pink. WTF?! How could I have not come in to contact with this person before? It was like meeting a parallel universe me, only he used to walk The Hill. Anyone that's been to UW-Eau Claire knows how fucking mentally irresponsible you have to be to be one of those people who walked The Hill. A) You either drove your ass to class or B) You went sledding down the thing on a cafeteria food tray. Seriously.
(I might've been *slightly* paraphrasing when it came to the bit about the pink, you know, just in case your name is Norm and you're reading this.)
+ Ben's already drunk with power and apparently has the beginnings of the next un-conference in motion. Sign me up!!
+ Many thanks to Peter for the pre-camp warmup at the Acadia. No BARcamp is complete without, well, a BAR if ya'know what I'm sayin'.
+ All those people who didn't stay till the end will be so disappointed when they find out they could've had an alttext.com t-shirt. Then again, clearly *I* won the Nikon dual and earmed me some schwag.
Again, many thanks to Benwards for orchestrating the entire thing and Catalyst Studios for putting up with us for a full Saturday. Let's do this again sometime, eh?
Anyone down for a flickralk? How about a flickreetup? Maybe a flalkabout is more your flavor.
It's time for another meetup, this time Flickr Fotowalk Forces uniting in St. Paul! Ha ha ha, just kidding. I think I just gave Polaschek a heart attack.
Naw, this one is scheduled for this weekend - Saturday, May 13th @ 11 a.m. - and will be full of Uptownie goodness. We'll be congregating at the Panera Bread in Uptown [map] located at 3024 Hennepin Avenue before embarking on a great and worthy adventure that will include, but not be limited to, Calhoun Square, Lake Calhoun, and... well... um... hey there's other stuff around there right? Ha ha ha, only kidding again (mostly). If you don't like the location, feel free to launch a photographic assault on Black Java with as many embarrassing photographs as your camera can handle come Saturday. In his words, *ah hem*, "I know this isn't a typical coffee shop, but it gets my vote and here's why. The coffee is $1.50 for all you can drink."
Good enough for me!
I'll probably be there around 10 a.m. treating myself to hot latte (they have lattes there, right? RIGHT?!) if anyone feels compelled to join me and have a chat about photography, the old post-process debate, or Julian McMahon (preferrably the latter if you know what I'm sayin'). I'll be the one with the brownish-reddish wavy hair and... well, you guys know what I look like.
See you on Saturday!
Slave to the gods of media
In this, the latest edition of Margaret Becomes Increasingly Co-dependent On Her Electronic Hardware, let me introduce you to the newest member of my (ever expanding) hardware family: LaCie.
You guys might not know this and it may come as a shock, but I do a little dabbling in digital photography. CD-backups have always been the way I maintain an archive of work - for my digital photography, web design work, and hardly there, completely legal collection music of course - but I'm pretty sure it was the Windows Service Pack 2 that pushed my little Dell laptop over the edge. After installing SP2 the burning became a little... off. Backups started being corrupted, reading and writing started running with scissors, cats and dogs started living together... basically your bog standard mass hysteria sort of thing. So, you know, THANKS MICROSOFT! I did in fact find a way around the cd-burning twitch which involved a regular schedule sucking up massive amounts of weekend time and a sacrificial goat, but if you've tried to find goat herders around these parts it ain't easy. Last night, after consulting my, um, consultants I officially coughed up the big bucks and went with the external hard drive solution.
There was the DVD-rom solution, but that would only lead to more cat and dog co-habitation hysteria. I need more cds lying around my house like I need more fucking threadless t-shirts.
There was also the NAS route... but then I would've paid $100 more dollars so I could basically access the drive wirelessly. In my world $100 is a new kitten - NOT a cable connecting a freagin' storage device to my wireless router.
So far I'm happy with the device - it's 250 gigs of silvery, storage goodness. It's also fairly quiet and does a great job of sitting there, looking pretty, and protecting my assets. Kinda like my boyfriends! Ha ha ha, only kidding.
I have to confess I'm curious as to how you guys are storing your media - anyone have any good info?
Minneapolis flalkabout... now with live-action, life-size, walking, talking figurines!
Because time's a little on the sparse side today I'm going to plagarize my own writing and post here what I posted over on the Twin Cities flickr forum. In case you forgot or are still trying to make up your mind, there's a photowalk tomorrow. Uptown. Panera. Hot Latte. Julian McMahon. 11 o'clock a.m. It'll be just like the geek prom, only we'll have a plethora of photography related success-ories on hand and a noticable absence of hipsters from the crowd.
YAY!
Everyone's invited, even the hipsters, and we should have a great mix of people. I think we might even have a few underage, budding photographers on our hands to school our asses on both form and function as well. Should be fun.
Anyway. On tomorrow...
---
Despite all the no-responses getting posted, it appears we'll actually have a great group of people to passive-aggressively harrass the unsuspecting Uptown shoppers with our many and varied equipment. Chuck's bringing his super mega lightning 20D macro lens to get right up in their face like a pro, too, so it should be a fun time!
Black Java also brought up a great point - after reminding me he's gonna bring a sari for covering up his photogenic mug from all the Uptown haters, he said there's currently a 20% chance of rain.
I will be there (as will Steve, because he's gonna be my ride) rain or shine with bells on. If it happens to rain I'm sure we can find some public space (Calhoun Square) to invade. I'll put together a super-secret squirrel cooperative plan of attack in the event of impeding weather.
---
If anyone has any other questions or emotional issues they just want to get off their chest feel free to email me. See you guys tomorrow!
Just a little guy
It only took 28 years but I've finally succumbed to my kitty-mom instincts and rescued this little guy from the humane society this afternoon.
I am, officially, a cat owner and miracles, officially, do happen.
I started this entry about 3 hours ago but his bounding energy, teeth, and little baby claws have been keeping me busy and following me around the house. And why shouldn't they? I got *THE* cutest little cat carrier *ev-er*. If I was a cat I'd certainly want to be carried around all hot and styling in my black and pink Sopheava purse. I'd follow me around too, yo!
So... he still doesn't have a name and I figured you guys might have some suggestions. Well, I mean, here's his picture so you can see he's a brown and grey tabby, has medium-length hair all maine coon style, and the cutest little tufts coming out of his ears. Oh my... the incredible 8 week old kitteny cuteness now living in my house is a very, very serious thing indeed!!
So far the name Pierre is out, as he's certainly not a French nor is he bilingual... but I'm still tossing around Indigo (Indie for short). Anyone got anything better?
Indigo
I've been wanting to give an update on the photowalk, but instead have transformed in to one of those cat owners that talks endlessly about her kitten and how he's the cutest one ever (which he totally is). At least I'm conscious of this completely normal and healthy behavior so let's just get the details out of the way up front, shall we?
Thanks to everyone for the name suggestions. In the end he'd come running across my apartment with his little fuzzy kitten butt all up in the air every time I'd call him by Indigo, so the name stuck. Indie it is, but it's Indigo with alternating surnames. Alternating surnames as in... yesterday morning he was "Indigo Sassypants". Today he's "Doctor Jones". And tomorrow he'll probably be "Indigo Stryper", of big hair fame.
That's all the update I'll subject you to for now (unless you want to email me privately in which case I could probably talk about him for the length of an entire novel), but it just wouldn't be fair to give you an update without any updated, kittenie photos of his scrumptious, fluffy cuteness. Oh the cuteness!
Behold!, Sir Indigo weighing in at a whopping 1.9 pounds and the tender age of 8 weeks. Already, he's a natural in front of the camera.
In other news, Saturday's photowalk turned out to be a fabulous success! Even with the threat of rain, still over a dozen people showed and proceeded to flash mob Uptown with their many and varied camera devices. It must be sadistic, the amount of pleasure I get out of making people uncomfortable with a camera. Ha ha ha, funnest game ever! The yummy firemen didn't seem to mind when their parked truck got mobbed by our group, but that was either because A) the truck had just been washed and there was some serious flexing of man muslces going on, or B) because Jaime and I were busy running interference with our casual, engaging, intellectual, witty banter while the rest of the group got down and dirty with macro goodness. Hey, it was a dirty job but someone had to thank the nice, cute, accomodating, friendly, buldging biceped firemen.
There was also a funny moment when we hit up Lake Calhoun and saw a couple of guys in a canoe changing their course and paddling directly towards us. I'm sorry but the sheer size of a set of kahunas that it takes for someone to go *towards* an army of photographers all armed with flashing devices perfect for blinding and then stealing your lunch money was remarkable. But there they were... still paddling right on towards us before yelling out, "HEY!, are you guys from the twin cities flickr photowalk group?!". Ha ha ha, we've got people showing up by canoe which, and I'm just guessing here, might be a flickr first. Totally fun and made for some great photos which were taken, once again, pretty much by everyone else as I was busy running interference by talking to them. Well? ... Someone had to!
Feel free to check out lots of the day's spoils here. Thanks to everyone who joined us!
Hypnotized by the curve of my ... ?
This is your friendly neighborhood blogger making a special Thursday afternoon appearance to let all the single guys in town know that telling a girl - or, you know, ME! - that she looks like the dude from Soul Asylum *probably* isn't gonna get you in her pants.
No really. I can't believe someone told me I looked like a dude.
Down one more Andrews sister
This weekend my big sis is getting married. The happiness, it doth bubble-forth and bubble-over. I'm seriously so proud of her, and so excited for the official officiality of tomorrow to transpire in all its transpiration. I wish I had something really profound to say (other than using words like 'excited' and 'officiality'), but no matter what comes out of my mouth it won't be nearly as sweet as what my dad wrote this morning.
Awwww... *sniff*
The ceremony will be small and intimate in the middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin with only the bride and groom's parents, grandparents, and children present. I will be the special non-guest tomorrow afternoon doing my very best impression of a real, live photographer who looks like she knows what she's doing. Ha ha ha ha, at least I came cheap!
Anyway, I'll be back on Monday with all kinds of pics of rural Wisconsin, happy couple schmoopiness. Oh man... I'm getting all emotional just thinking about it... *tear*.
Congratulations Debbie and Tom!
Just like moving pictures!
Okay fine, just one more thing before I leave (for real this time). Super secret video of my baby kitten was recorded while I played with him at the Humane Society on Sunday.
Hop on over to youtube to see it ... but only if you think you can handle the extreme fluffy cuteness.
Playdate rules
To whom it may concern:
The next time you take care of my cat there will be a few ground rules firmly in place, signed upon, handshake-agreed, and blood-oath sworm before care gets underway.
First) you *will* get addicted to my kitten. He can't help that he's so cute and perfect in every way, or that he runs with his fuzzy little kitten butt up in the air, or that he's a bundle of soft, luxurious, fluffy long hair you won't be able to keep yourself from petting or sniffing, or that when he meows little squeaks come out instead of menacing, manly roars. The responsibility is on your, and only your, shoulders to control your Indigo-dependency without a weaning cycle upon completion of care. (Except at 3 in the morning when he's waking me up to play. You can have him then.)
Second) hands are for petting, not playing.... even when your hands are covered in Cheeto residue. I won't have a biter living in this house.
Third) just because he can't see what you're doing on the counter and whines with the cutest, most pathetic little meows you've ever heard in your life does NOT mean you can put him on the countertops, and then ON TOP OF MY CABINETS, and proceed to take pictures of him breaking all Sophie's rules. Bad, bad babysitter.
Fourth) Hot dates with your girl kitty encouraged.
Tell her to get her temper under control before the next date, tho.
Fifth) you're welcome to come visit my kitten any time you like. Just so long as you bring him presents. And some for me too.
A new contract will be available for you to sign and date shortly before the next care cycle begins. Thank you for your cooperation.
~The Kitten's Management
PS - One more thing. NO CRAWLING ON THE CURTAINS.
Visual junk in the trunk
Just a few links to worthy time-wasters I've come across this month (technically they're not time-wasters though, since my boss sent me 1 of them... it's called research yo!).
- Metaman, because curiosity compels you to keep clicking... and clicking... and clicking...
- Love Lines, because the world is filled with so much love (okay fine, IT'S PINK! and beautiful)
- We Feel Fine, because it must be what looking in to the mind of god would be like
Last night I made the trek to some suburb or another (correction, I was *taken* there since clearly I would never just go to Brooklyn Park out of my own volition) to see Mission Impossible 3. And while the movie was entertaining it just didn't have the *spark* the first two did.
My point, however, is that there was this huge great scene towards the end where Cruise has to fly solo and pull off this totally incomprehensible, impossible kind of thing (don't want to spoil anything here). So of course he does this crazy stunt, but just before falling to his certain death, at the last moment possible, he catches himself as one would expect him to do. It was at this moment when I decided I might have a serious problem... because all I could think was, "That look on his face is the saaaame one my kitten gets when he's just saved himself from falling off the couch or bed."
Clearly I'm in need strong medication, less kitten, or more human contact. Adult interaction would be a *good* thing ... right?
What will you do with such mighty power?
Look at me and all my bad blogging this week. Hi, my name is Margaret and I'd like to introduce you to my time suck. Sure he's a little shorter than the guys I normally date, but he cuddles better than any of my ex's and he's much quieter.
Mmmm... quiet.
In the interest of holding up the week's non-blogging tradition, I'm just gonna open things up today. Anything you've been dying to ask me? photos you want to request? diatribes you need to get off your chest? or announcements for the world at large? Because this weekend, my dear readers, it's all about you.
Allllllll about you.
So?, let's have it. My inbox is fortified and ready for whatever you've got to ask/request/announce.
Totally worth it
In lieu of the post I had planned tonight, head on over to the photoblog and read about my brush with the law. Clearly I've got all the right friends. Friends that will probably get me arrested for the Lamest. Reason. Ever. one of these days. Lamezor... like trespassing abandoned factory ruins.
*yawn*
I mean, if I'm gonna get arrested it better be for something good. Good like, driving the getaway car @ 120mph down I94. Or getting caught skinny dipping at that one lake in Uptown. Ha ha ha, funny.
Anyway. I did come out of my excursion yesterday with a newfound revelation. The kind of revelation that makes itself known on THREE HUNDRED FREAGIN' PHOTOGRAPHS. The kind of revelation that makes one sad instead of happy. So sad because now I know there's a big ol' smudge inside the body of my camera.
So, like, this one goes out to all my geeky photograhper friends because I can't imagine anyone else is gonna have an answer or have any notable advice. There is now a big ol' mark living inside my camera body and making a guest appearance in the upper left corner of all my photographs (no matter which lens I use). This makes me depressed for several reasons, the most important being that I don't want to pay $200 bucks to have some "authorized Nikon dealer" blow in to it to clear the darn thing up. Never fear, I'm not gonna go blowing anything in to my camera any time soon... but I've never cleaned camera innards before and could definitely use a few pointers from someone who's already been down that road and fucked all their shit up (so I don't have to).
Help? Anyone? Pretty please with photographs of abandoned ammunitions facilities on top?