Mary Jo Richards
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mjrichards.bsky.social
Mary Jo Richards
@mjrichards.bsky.social
570 followers 620 following 2.4K posts
Teacher, reader, observer of people and the natural world, wife, cat mom, unapologetic liberal, feminist, queerdo, antiracist, neurodivergent who masquerades as a normie. Obsessed with the analog, particularly film cameras, typewriters & fountain pens.
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mjrichards.bsky.social
@rockstarballet.bsky.social didn’t feel well, but he came to school with me today and helped me get the exhibit ready and helped me move two dozen typewriters into storage. Ain’t easy being a teacher’s partner sometimes (mind you, he’s a teacher himself), but I am so grateful for his support.
November 9, 2025 at 10:54 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
Fun with thermal prints
#toycameras
#photography
November 9, 2025 at 10:28 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
The students’ photos are up. I had to hang them on the glass because our campus art gallery is occupied through next summer with exhibits that are not focused on student work. This outrages me, but more people will see the images here in the student lounge anyway even if they aren’t well lit.
Photo of a glass wall with student photos posted on it and interpetive signage off to the side. Closer shot of the students’ photos hanging on the glass Opposite wall of student photos hanging on the glass with interpretive signage to one side. Closer shot of the student images hanging on the glass.
November 9, 2025 at 5:13 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
My mission for the day is to drag my poor husband to school with me so he can help me hang my students’ photos for the exhibit and help me pack up my office in advance of renovations that are set to begin over the holidays — which means moving 23 typewriters and lots of other things to storage.
November 9, 2025 at 12:46 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
Well, it’s pictures…of a sort. Very #Holga, I think. I taped everything with gaff tape EXCEPT the frame count window. Apparently, I should have taped that, too. Light leaks everywhere!
📷 Holga 120N
🎞️ Fujifilm Neopan 400 (ex. 2010)
🧪 Caffenol (Delta STD)
📷 📲 Epson V600
#toycameras
#filmphotography
Bare trees against the clear sky. There is partially exposed film and a bleed through from the backing paper appearing ghostly in the sky reading “16). Vignetting at the corners and light leaks at the borders. Photo of a field with a wooden fence enclosing a runoff pond surrounded by trees. There are areas of light leaks at the borders of the photo. The center of the photo is sharp but the edges are soft. Looking down the sidewalk behind my building, most of which is in shadow, though the grass and trees are in the sun. Strong pattern of light leaks across the photo. Front of my building with a bare tree to the left of the frame. Also a strong light leaks at the lower left of the image. Vignetting at the corners.
November 8, 2025 at 8:01 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
I excitedly revealed last night to @rockstarballet.bsky.social that I was about to win a replacement #Yashica Samurai at auction, and he said sheepishly, “It’d be okay if you didn’t win that auction maybe.” Come to find out, he bought me a Samurai for my birthday. Now it looks like I will have 2.
November 8, 2025 at 1:57 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
Those of you following my students #analog learning experiences this semester, here is an update. Their #photo exhibit opens on Monday, & I picked up their mounted prints on Thursday & sorted through them yesterday. Tomorrow I will go into school to hang the photos & put up the interpretive signage.
November 8, 2025 at 11:02 AM
mjrichards.bsky.social
Welp…I’ve got a #Holga 120N. Now what?
#filmphotography
#toycameras
#lomography
November 7, 2025 at 10:34 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
Taken with the #Kodak #Charmera using the gray pixel filter at what used to be a payphone outside my local post office.
#photography
#toycameras
A monochrome image of a payphone stripped of its phone and covered in band stickers. The bare handset wire protrudes from the middle of the kiosk.
November 6, 2025 at 6:01 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
Writerly friends: do any of you use a software package that is NOT MS Word that you like? Preferably something that can be used offline? Something AI-free.
#writing
November 6, 2025 at 3:51 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
Thanks to @baroncalamity.bsky.social I am now the owner of this Vivitar 300Z. He came across it in a thrift store for $9.99. And it happens to contain my favorite thing: a partially-exposed roll of mystery #film! Will it be pictures?? Also came in this groovy old MGM bag. From Vegas maybe?
A Vivitar 300Z, a 1980’s 35mm point-and-shoot autofocus film camera. A black vinyl camera/shoulder bag with the old MGM lion logo sewn onto it Film window on the back of the camera showing a 24-exposure roll of Kodak 200 film — but from when?
November 5, 2025 at 12:06 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
Today would have been my parents’ 51st anniversary, but they have both been gone a long time now. Tonight I went to the thrift store where I just so happened to find this album which has their song on it, “You Needed Me,” a song I learned to play on guitar and sing for them when I was a kid.
Photo of the album cover of Anne Murray’s Let’s Keep It That Way.
November 5, 2025 at 12:33 AM
mjrichards.bsky.social
Put new leatherette on this pair of old beaters. They both could use a CLA, and one could use new light seals. The other has a frame counter that has stopped working. And yet, they take lovely photos, and I have a great set of lenses for them.
#filmphotography
#Yashica
A photo of a Yashica FX-7 SLR film camera on the left with new black leatherette and a Yashica FX-3 SLR film camera on the right with new red leatherette.
November 4, 2025 at 6:53 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
Just bid on a camera because the lens was sexy even if the body was meh.
November 4, 2025 at 12:05 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
The video quality on the #Charmera is surprisingly good. Obviously, I was quite mistaken. It DOES record audio. Rather clearly, too. LOL!
#photography
#videography
#toycameras
#Kodak
November 3, 2025 at 10:44 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
First few shots out of the #Charmera. Playing with filters and frames.
#photography
#toycameras
Photo of my cat Nicky shot with the red pixel filter Shot of some utility meters in the grey pixel filter A close-up of some leaves with the Charmera frame around it This is a no-filter photo of some trees sporting autumn colors
November 3, 2025 at 10:25 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
Now my husband and I each own a Kodak #Charmera. They are so ridiculously tiny! Mine is the one on the right with his finger resting on it for scale.
#photography
#toycameras
Two Kodak Charmera blind boxes Two Kodak Charmeras unboxed. One has a man’s finger resting on top of it for scale. These are Type 3 and Type 4 from the 7 possible designs.
November 3, 2025 at 10:20 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
Less than 24 hours after I placed my online order, Melissa from @carpelibrum.bsky.social delivered my carefully wrapped order of books in person along with a handwritten note of thanks. Now that is what I call service! Do patronize her shop if you are in Baltimore City/Baltimore County.
Carpe Librum Baltimore
Carpe Librum Baltimore
carpelibrumbaltimore.com
November 2, 2025 at 5:56 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
Any of my #filmphotography people located in the US in the market for a vintage Nikor stainless daylight developing tank with a 120 reel and/or a Honeywell Nikor 35mm reel? Would gladly give you first dibs before I list them on eBay. DM me to talk price/shipping.
Stainless steel 120 film developing reel and stainless steel daylight developing tank, both by Nikor. Manufacturer’s stamp on the bottom of the Nikor daylight development tank indicating it was made in Springfield, Mass. A 36-exposure 35mm stainless steel developing film reel by Honeywell Nikor with original box.
November 2, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Mary Jo Richards
carpelibrum.bsky.social
Hey Baltimore City and County peeps! We're offering free delivery if you order off our website. People who order off our website are also eligible to get 20% off their order if they use promo code Baltimore at checkout. Pictured are some of the new books we have in stock.
carpelibrumbaltimore.com
There are stories that matter. There are stories that shape the world. There are writers who long to tell them. And, disillusioned and bereft, there is a place they go to write them. But the Library Beneath the Streets will not allow just anyone to enter its halls and learn the art. D’shall the story thief thinks he has all he needs to plunder the library for the tales that will make him famous, but there are forces at work deep in the stacks of abandoned manuscripts that will all come together at the command of the ancient and crafty Librarian. Along the way, D’shall will pick up such tales as: • The Snowflake Collector, in which a father collects the messages in snowflakes dropped by his departed child; • The Black Squirrel, a suicide note and a confession by a troubled young student influenced by forces more real yet greater than he; • The Miasmatist, which shows a whole new use for the dead; • More Full of Weeping, in which well-meaning parents imprison their daughter to prevent her from entering the place all children must inevitably go; • For Love of the Dreadful Night, which takes place in a future where the maudlin and desperate are demonized as exhibiting perverted behavior; And others. Everyone knows how Dorothy and Toto save Oz from the Wicked Witch of West...or do they? How will Dorothy survive in a land filled with haunted bags of straw, hollow metal men and giant smelly cats? How will she fight off killer bees, mad wolves and really annoying monkeys? How will she defeat a witch with mind control and an all-seeing eye? And how will Dorothy ever find the way home? The simple truth is that she won't, at least not alone. Of course, she's not alone - she has Toto, her best friend. That is, Toto used to be her best friend. But in Oz, Dorothy spends more time talking to a cat than to her. And Toto finds new friends, too. Maybe, he should just bring his wolf friends back to Kansas instead. Becca Thornton, divorced, middle-aged and trying to embrace a quiet life, discovers that there are still plenty of surprises to be had when her menopause kicks in with bonus lycanthropy. And she’s not the only one. The seemingly peaceful and dull town of Wolf’s Point has its own all-female werewolf pack and Becca has just become its newest member. But it’s not all protecting Wolf’s Point, midnight meetings at the Women’s Club and monthly runs through the woods. There are werewolf hunters in town and now they've got Becca and the Wolf’s Point Pack in their sights. As if that wasn’t enough, Becca’s cute lesbian werewolf neighbor, Erin, is starting to haunt her dreams as well as her doorstep. What’s a newbie werewolf to do, between the hot flashes and the unexpected physical transformations? Can Becca overcome her fears and help the werewolves defeat their greatest enemy?
November 1, 2025 at 3:32 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
The images I got out of the second development with the #caffenol. Whole lotta contrast going on.
📷 Yashica D
🎞️ Arista Edu Ultra 200
📷 📲 Epson V600
#filmphotography
#mediumformat
#filmisnotdead
#believeinfilm
A fallen leaf on the forest floor A tangle of dried vines A shot upwards at a utility pole strung with power lines with trees behind it Looking down the hill through the woods
November 1, 2025 at 9:34 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
Close-up work with the #PentaxAuto110
#110film
#macro
#filmphotography
#believeinfilm
#filmisnotdead
#caffenol
Backlit leaf Cross section of a tree stump Close-up of a fire hydrant. The word “hydrant” is prominent. Close-up of a fallen leaf.
November 1, 2025 at 9:26 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
Found: one mystery disc film negative in an old camera case that came in an auction I won a while back of ShopGoodwill.com. I couldn’t really figure out how to scan the images individually because of the angles, so I just scanned the whole thing to see what was on it. Let’s play Date that Film!
A scanned disc film negative containing images of family life. It is clearly decades old, but the question is which decade?
November 1, 2025 at 7:12 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
I did a purportedly Bad Thing. I used half a batch of #caffenol on two rolls of #110film then poured it back in with the unused caffenol. Within half an hour, I shot a roll of 120 film & developed it with the half-new/half-used caffenol, extending dev time by 2 mins. It worked! Scans to come.
November 1, 2025 at 6:43 PM
mjrichards.bsky.social
I have a #PentaxAuto110 that has a shutter glitch. One or two frames every roll, the shutter will hang open. Eventually, it closes on its own. If it doesn’t, I pop out the film cassette, pop it back in, and that usually does the trick. I lose the frame, of course, but that one is lost anyway.
November 1, 2025 at 3:34 PM