Today was not as productive as I had hoped it would be. Any of you who might follow me on Twitter, happen to be one of my daily chat buddies, or happen to be there to answer a slightly crazed and desperate text message from me today, you know this is because my printer went Kaput today. After a brilliant display of flashing lights and error messages of needing service, it just simply wouldn't print, and no amount of restarting or swearing was going to make it. So here is a printer I bought about 6 years ago, brand new, and have used to death since day one. My BFA show was printed on it, my Waiting Ribbons show was printed on it, not to mention many other images and portraits in between. I recently found that the print drivers wouldn't work in the latest Mac operating system upgrade, and heard more rumors that Epson wasn't going to support it anymore. I thought for awhile I was royally screwed, and on the path to shelling out $$$$ for a new printer.
Thankfully a wonderful friend was on the other end of the phone this afternoon and assured me I could most likely get it fixed and pointed me in the direction of a repair shop. One phone call to them later, and I was on my way out to Computer Labs in Mendota Heights to drop it off. The guy who checked it in today assured me my printer wasn't junk, was still fixable, and was still a great model to have. Digital equipment goes the way of being obsolete so fast, so this was a really awesome thing to hear.
Since I can't possibly work on printing anything digitally tomorrow, I decided to take this as a sign that I need to get back into my darkroom and work. So that is what I will be doing tomorrow. Cameras are packed, rolls of film are ready to be developed, and hopefully there will be enough coffee to get my brain cells functioning enough to mix up some photo chemicals. Back to analog.
I updated the Holiday Sale post. I'll be working hard this week and next to get prints ready and framed for Bloomington Art Center's sale and for Dabble's next Holiday shopping day. (That same friend who pointed me to where I could get my printer fixed, also kindly offered to let me have some time on her printer if mine isn't fixed in time!) At least there will be no worries about if I can get things done in time. Who knows – maybe things will work tomorrow and there will be some traditional black and white prints in some of those sales too!
Last, I tweaked this compilation just a bit tonight. The changes are subtle, but I feel like it is closer to being finished now.
Until tomorrow
~Peace~