I've gotta say, I've been a little disappointed in the Sam's Club photo department as of late.
With the 15 Days in May photo contest coming up, I was getting my images ready. I wanted to get as many 5x7's as I could to make a better decision as to which one to enter, so this past week, here's how the schedule went...
Saturday: take the pictures (4 rolls)
Sunday: take film into Sam's
Sunday: pick up photos ($30), turn in several for 5x7 enlargements
Monday: pick up 5x7's ($6), turn in two for 8x10 enlargements
Tuesday: go to pick up enlargements ($10), notice one enlargement was done wrong, the other had specks of lint, ask for a redo
So this past week I spent $46. When I asked for the redo, I was treated like a lower-class citizen! When I pointed out the problems, the woman wouldn't even look me in the eye any longer, then threw the negatives onto the table in a huff.
I'm certainly not a customer service expert, but why is this happening? $46 a week isn't my average, it's more like $10 a week, but even still. Nowadays I go in there maybe 2-3 times a week, and they know my name. I'm at the point now where all I say is "Picking up 3 enlargements" and they just go get them. My point is, per month lately I've been spending maybe $75 in their department.
So why the bad attitude? I had this happen at Wal-Mart, and I stopped going there. But let's get real for a minute, at Sam's Club the 8x10's are $1.99, at Wal-Mart they're $4.99. The 5x7's at Sam's are $.69 apiece, while at Walgreen's they're $2.49. Sam's has the best price, and with the volume I've been doing lately, I can't really afford to spend much more. I could take them into Elliot's, but they charge $12 per 24-exposure roll SINGLE PRINTS. The 8x10's are $6.95.
I'll be picking up my 8x10's tomorrow... well, 8x12's. 8x10 the machine cut off the fireworks from the previous diary entry, so I had them redo it at 8x12. Hopefully they'll be done right, because tomorrow night is the Camera Club.
Monday, May 12, 2003
This Saturday, I decided to spend the day taking pictures for a photo contest that the West Sacramento is having. They call it "extraordinary images of ordinary life", and the pictures have to taken within the city.
I started out at the riverbank, which always seems to be a good place. At least, it is on any other day! Apparently there was some blues concert going on, and the entire area was closed to the "public"! It was $15 to get in, and I was more in the mood to take pictures, not pay to take pictures.
At any rate, I decided to walk across the bridge and see if there was at least a view of the city from that side. NO! While Sacramento has a skyline, West Sacramento does not, other than the old Money Store building, and that's where the concert was being held.
I walked back across the bridge and decided to drive around. Close to where I was at, they've been building these odd condos that remind me of San Francisco in a way, and I saw a guy taking pictures. Ah yes, the competition.
I drove down by the high school and walked around a bit. There were some flowers down there with some pollenating bees, so I took a few pictures... once again, my poor lens doesn't do macro very well so that was a washout. No big deal, I guess.
I walked down the road a bit to the soccer field, where a city team was playing. Now this, I could work with!
After they finished playing, I talked to them about permission to use the images. Not only were they all for it, but the referee said, "Listen, what you should do is come back with the pictures and sell them to the guys for $5 apiece." I told him it was a good idea, but of course I'm not going to do it. :)
When their game was over, I went back down by the high school, which is directly across from the levee that protects the town from the river. I decided to take a walk over there to see what I could find.
I heard blues music coming from the north, but the blues concert I had run into earlier was the south. When I got to the river, there was some private party going on on some marina across from me. I wasn't able to take pictures because of the amount of trees and lack of riverbed.
I walked back and there was a large tree stump. I thought it'd be perfect for a backlit shot.
I'm not entirely happy with it, though, since the ground is so much darker than the upper portion. I probably won't use it for NYIP Unit 3.
I noticed some birds that kept flying back and forth, so I decided to wait it out for a little while. This was a good idea.
The bird's beak is obvious in the second shot, but in this small scan it's hard to see. I also wish I had either a longer lens or an extension tube! Oh well.
With my light quickly disappearing, and the opportunity for a nighttime Sacramento cityscape quickly approching, I took one last picture in this location... a silly self-portrait.
After leaving the levee, I headed to the other side of town, and quite a ways downstream, where Sacramento is visible. I was hoping for a nice shot from the West Sacramento side of the river, looking downstream at the city, reflected into the river. I spent a good 2 hours walking alongside the river, but realized that with the water being high after the recent rains, there's no riverbed any longer! It's all underwater, including the bottoms of the trees. The closest I was able to get to the water was still behind the trees, so there was virtually no view of Sacramento to take pictures of.
I also reached an impasse about a mile downstream from the Tower Bridge, so I headed back. When I was almost at the bridge, someone stopped me, asking me if I was aware of the fact that it was a high explosive area. NO, I was not! He asked me where I was headed, and I said well, back where I came from, and pointed. He said no, because they were about to light off a fireworks display for the Rivercats game, and could I please leave a different way. He pointed out that different way, and I went on my merry way.
Still... fireworks. Yeah, fireworks!!! I spent another 30 to 40 minutes trying to get a good spot to get both the Tower Bridge and the fireworks in the same shot. I didn't think I could get a picture of the stadium, since the lights were so bright. Later, I found out they turn off all those lights when the fireworks go off, but that's neither here nor there.
At 10:30pm, the stadium crowd counted down for the fireworks to go off.
Not the greatest location, to be sure, I had to zoom out to 28mm in order to get both in the shot. I did, however, get the shot, and that's the important thing, right? I'm going to try and get a better vantage point again sometime, now that I know they have these displays for the games.
My Saturday came to a close and I headed home. I'm still going to take some more pictures of West Sacramento, since the deadline for the contest is 5pm on May 15th. Still, out of these pictures, I think the second soccer image will be the one I enter. I'd love to say I was going to enter the fireworks, but they're just too far from the bridge. The next time, I'm going to try and get the bridge larger in the frame and the fireworks visible BEHIND it. We'll see.
I started out at the riverbank, which always seems to be a good place. At least, it is on any other day! Apparently there was some blues concert going on, and the entire area was closed to the "public"! It was $15 to get in, and I was more in the mood to take pictures, not pay to take pictures.
At any rate, I decided to walk across the bridge and see if there was at least a view of the city from that side. NO! While Sacramento has a skyline, West Sacramento does not, other than the old Money Store building, and that's where the concert was being held.
I walked back across the bridge and decided to drive around. Close to where I was at, they've been building these odd condos that remind me of San Francisco in a way, and I saw a guy taking pictures. Ah yes, the competition.
I drove down by the high school and walked around a bit. There were some flowers down there with some pollenating bees, so I took a few pictures... once again, my poor lens doesn't do macro very well so that was a washout. No big deal, I guess.
I walked down the road a bit to the soccer field, where a city team was playing. Now this, I could work with!
After they finished playing, I talked to them about permission to use the images. Not only were they all for it, but the referee said, "Listen, what you should do is come back with the pictures and sell them to the guys for $5 apiece." I told him it was a good idea, but of course I'm not going to do it. :)
When their game was over, I went back down by the high school, which is directly across from the levee that protects the town from the river. I decided to take a walk over there to see what I could find.
I heard blues music coming from the north, but the blues concert I had run into earlier was the south. When I got to the river, there was some private party going on on some marina across from me. I wasn't able to take pictures because of the amount of trees and lack of riverbed.
I walked back and there was a large tree stump. I thought it'd be perfect for a backlit shot.
I'm not entirely happy with it, though, since the ground is so much darker than the upper portion. I probably won't use it for NYIP Unit 3.
I noticed some birds that kept flying back and forth, so I decided to wait it out for a little while. This was a good idea.
The bird's beak is obvious in the second shot, but in this small scan it's hard to see. I also wish I had either a longer lens or an extension tube! Oh well.
With my light quickly disappearing, and the opportunity for a nighttime Sacramento cityscape quickly approching, I took one last picture in this location... a silly self-portrait.
After leaving the levee, I headed to the other side of town, and quite a ways downstream, where Sacramento is visible. I was hoping for a nice shot from the West Sacramento side of the river, looking downstream at the city, reflected into the river. I spent a good 2 hours walking alongside the river, but realized that with the water being high after the recent rains, there's no riverbed any longer! It's all underwater, including the bottoms of the trees. The closest I was able to get to the water was still behind the trees, so there was virtually no view of Sacramento to take pictures of.
I also reached an impasse about a mile downstream from the Tower Bridge, so I headed back. When I was almost at the bridge, someone stopped me, asking me if I was aware of the fact that it was a high explosive area. NO, I was not! He asked me where I was headed, and I said well, back where I came from, and pointed. He said no, because they were about to light off a fireworks display for the Rivercats game, and could I please leave a different way. He pointed out that different way, and I went on my merry way.
Still... fireworks. Yeah, fireworks!!! I spent another 30 to 40 minutes trying to get a good spot to get both the Tower Bridge and the fireworks in the same shot. I didn't think I could get a picture of the stadium, since the lights were so bright. Later, I found out they turn off all those lights when the fireworks go off, but that's neither here nor there.
At 10:30pm, the stadium crowd counted down for the fireworks to go off.
Not the greatest location, to be sure, I had to zoom out to 28mm in order to get both in the shot. I did, however, get the shot, and that's the important thing, right? I'm going to try and get a better vantage point again sometime, now that I know they have these displays for the games.
My Saturday came to a close and I headed home. I'm still going to take some more pictures of West Sacramento, since the deadline for the contest is 5pm on May 15th. Still, out of these pictures, I think the second soccer image will be the one I enter. I'd love to say I was going to enter the fireworks, but they're just too far from the bridge. The next time, I'm going to try and get the bridge larger in the frame and the fireworks visible BEHIND it. We'll see.
Sunday, May 04, 2003
I wanted to go out to Beale Falls badly on Saturday, but it had been raining all day Friday and most of the morning Saturday. The forecast had said it would stop raining by afternoon, so at 2pm, I took my wife and headed out.
My idea was to duplicate the shots I had taken a few weeks ago, but this time, with overcast skies. That would have been possible, had it not been for the rain.
My valley mind seemed to forget what happens in the mountains (and in this case, foothills) after a large rain. I got to the locations, but they didn't quite look the same as they had been before. In fact, I couldn't even get to a few of the locations due to so much water.
I thought it'd be neat to do a side-by-side comparison. The images on the left are from 4-19-03, the ones on the right from Saturday, 5-3-03. First up is what was barely a trickle on 4-19, in fact, I didn't post it originally because I thought it was too boring.
What a difference the rain makes! Next is the actual falls themselves. There was so much mist from the falls this past Saturday it was incredible. I had to work fast, and used my skylight filter to minimize the amount of water on my lens. I took pictures for maybe 5 minutes before deciding to finally give it up.
I did have a lot of fun, though, and this time, my wife came along. She didn't want to get as close to the edge of the rocks as I did, so she remained a bit up the trail.
Now, the NEXT time I go, I hope there'll be a bit less water!
My idea was to duplicate the shots I had taken a few weeks ago, but this time, with overcast skies. That would have been possible, had it not been for the rain.
My valley mind seemed to forget what happens in the mountains (and in this case, foothills) after a large rain. I got to the locations, but they didn't quite look the same as they had been before. In fact, I couldn't even get to a few of the locations due to so much water.
I thought it'd be neat to do a side-by-side comparison. The images on the left are from 4-19-03, the ones on the right from Saturday, 5-3-03. First up is what was barely a trickle on 4-19, in fact, I didn't post it originally because I thought it was too boring.
What a difference the rain makes! Next is the actual falls themselves. There was so much mist from the falls this past Saturday it was incredible. I had to work fast, and used my skylight filter to minimize the amount of water on my lens. I took pictures for maybe 5 minutes before deciding to finally give it up.
I did have a lot of fun, though, and this time, my wife came along. She didn't want to get as close to the edge of the rocks as I did, so she remained a bit up the trail.
Now, the NEXT time I go, I hope there'll be a bit less water!
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Sunday was Easter, and Gregory had a blast! He had his first Easter Egg hunt with his cousins, at his Grandma's house.
He really enjoyed himself as he hunted for eggs. Angel put eggs all over the yard (Gregory's Grandma had probably 200 plastic eggs), and he had a hard time at first figuring out which eggs to pick up. Then it took him 3 or 4 tries before he knew to put the eggs in his basket.
Gregory's growing up so fast! It's hard to believe that a little over a year ago he was so small I was afraid I'd break him.
It's events like these that really make it worth being a parent. I shouldn't get too gooshy though, I don't want everyone to squish when they read.
This next picture was taken for the New York Institute of Photography, for my Unit 2 assignment, Converging Lines. Lines have to converge towards a subject, and who do you think the subject was? Of course.
How can you not love our boy?
He really enjoyed himself as he hunted for eggs. Angel put eggs all over the yard (Gregory's Grandma had probably 200 plastic eggs), and he had a hard time at first figuring out which eggs to pick up. Then it took him 3 or 4 tries before he knew to put the eggs in his basket.
Gregory's growing up so fast! It's hard to believe that a little over a year ago he was so small I was afraid I'd break him.
It's events like these that really make it worth being a parent. I shouldn't get too gooshy though, I don't want everyone to squish when they read.
This next picture was taken for the New York Institute of Photography, for my Unit 2 assignment, Converging Lines. Lines have to converge towards a subject, and who do you think the subject was? Of course.
How can you not love our boy?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
