A common mistake I keep seeing with metering for backlit subjects

I've been developing my own black and white film for about a year now, and I keep noticing people's shots where a person in front of a window is just a silhouette. They meter for the bright background and the subject goes dark. I learned the hard way after ruining a roll from a family visit in Chicago by doing the same thing. You need to take a reading directly off your subject's face, or even overexpose by a stop or two from your camera's suggested setting. Has anyone else found a reliable way to handle this without a dedicated spot meter?

Warning: Tried a new pump setup on the old Erie Canal job last month.

We swapped our standard 8-inch pump for a 10-inch with a wider impeller. The bigger pump moved 30% more slurry per hour. Less clogging in the intake too. Anyone else seen gains from just upsizing the pump?

Finally got a decent shot of the Orion Nebula from my backyard in Tucson after switching to a 2-inch light pollution filter.

Rant: My entire week's worth of meringue buttercream split on a Friday morning for a 200-person wedding...

Vent: Saw a stack of vintage Polaroids at a flea market in Asheville, all with the same shutter fault.

The guy selling them said he just 'cleaned the rollers' and called it good, but every single one had that classic, telltale light leak pattern from a worn bellows. Anyone know a good source for those specific bellows material, or are we all just cutting up old ones?

I finally learned to spot the 80s design clues in dead malls.

Took some time, but now I can guess a mall's era from the tiles. Feels awesome to have this new eye for detail.

TIL my kid's playtime convinced me to double-check my home cable runs

Seeing how she tugged at them made me add extra clips everywhere.