Oh my...

Just occasionally I find something on the internet that I love so much, I HAVE to share it on here. Today is one of these days!

I actually discovered Joep Gottemaker's Flickr stream as part of Polaroid Week this year* and I honestly have no idea how I hadn't see it before! My heart skipped a beat, my breath caught in my throat - and I have no shame in admitting - it was love at first sight. Just look at those colours! And the flowers! If you're after my artistic appreciation - colourful, flower details with polaroid film is obviously the way to win me over because I just can't stop looking at these photos.

I particularly love Joep's collections of polaroids like Yellow Paradise (obviously) and Beauty of Colour.

If you love colour - like me - you will love Joep's Flickr page - so definitely check it out! I need to go find some beautiful flowers and my cameras! He also has an Instagram account where he shares his beautiful photos as well.

 *You all love Polaroid Week right? I adore it! Even if I don't take any photos myself... I'm still going through the groups photos now. It's awesome! 

View From This Side

Every so often I stumble across a project that I wish I had thought of and Martin’s View From This Side project is definitely one of them!

Martin discovers and shares slides – scanning them himself and then sharing them on Flickr and the View From This Side website. Isn't that wonderful, I’m totally loving all the photos so far – I practically favourite everyone on Flickr and I’ve browsed through the albums a few times just to see the snapshots of everyday lives from the past.

Here’s a little from the websites about page to explain a bit more.

“View From This Side was born out of a personal passion and fascination with analogue photography and photographs. In a world of Instagram and Facebook, long gone are the days of viewing photographs on a slide projector or thumbing through photo albums of package holidays in Europe. In this age of digital delivery and consumption, many personal memories are being discarded like yesterday’s newspapers, but we want to save them, share them, and maybe reconnect them with the original owners or their family. There are two distinct types of 35mm slide photography – amateur and professional. This project’s primary focus is on amateur slide photography”

Does this make your heart skip a beat too? What a brilliant idea and such great sentiment too!

I've shared some of my favourite slide finds in this post but you can find more on the View From This Side website and Martin’s Flickr page. There is also a Facebook and Twitter page as well.

All photos scanned by Martin and shared here with his permission. Please do not reuse them with asking for Martin's permission first.

29. My smile...

This is probably the oddest thing to say but the thing I felt I lost when I was suffering through depression at its worst was my smile. I love smiling (it's my favourite!) and even though the action was there - the love,  the happy, the twinkle in the eye - the je ne sais quoi... it was all missing. When I felt my first smile properly again this year I cried, through happiness, through sadness that it was lost and relief that it actually came back - I was worried it was gone for good.

This is the most recent photo of me  properly smiling (that wasn't a selfie haha) and I love it because it was such a beautiful day with our friends and the beautiful bride and groom and also, rather vainly because my hair looks rather awesome without hair dye now its finally grown out!

Photo taken by Tamin Jones - thanks Tamin!