Much Love Monday: Paris

This week is going to be dedicated to Thomas's photos in Paris here on For the easily distracted... I've said it before but he does take amazing photos and he managed to take over 1000 in Paris (which is about 300 more than me I might add...)

I love our little photography dates - Thomas with his digital camera and me with (one of my) film cameras and Paris was like a giant week long photography date. It was so much fun!

I actually got a bit carried away watching Thomas take photos this time - he sees the world differently to how I do (for one he's a lot taller than me) and a lot of the time he captured things that I didn't even see or things that I didn't want to photograph but kind of wish I had after seeing his photos... a lot of the things he noticed that I didn't was the amazing and varied grafitti around the city.

We could both see how so many amazing artists have been inspired by Paris in the past, there was creativity and art everywhere (and hearts!) and it was so easy to take photos all day long...

So today I love Thomas, I love his photos, I love Paris, I love how different cameras suit different people, I love seeing things from different points of view and I love art and inspiration being everywhere around us.

Photographer: Thomas
Camera: Sony H7
Location: Paris, France

p.s. this post is for Anna's Much Love Monday series, read more about it here to take part.

Along the canal with my Sardina...

Our apartment was just a short walk away from the St Martin Canal in Paris... the area was perfect - exciting, bustling and it offered a different side of the city away from the tourism and the distractions of the centre.

On the Sunday morning we decided to walk along the canal and I'm so glad we did - there was so much happening around it in comparison to the canal here in Leeds... people playing ping pong, working out, walking their dogs... It was active yet strangely relaxing at the same time.

Although I had been to Paris before when I was 14, this trip was completely different and although I knew I would love our visit, I didn't expect to love Paris as much as I did... especially the area around the apartment. I'm so glad I took so many photos because everytime I start to feel like I'm forgetting what it felt like to be there, I just look at them (which is fairly often) and I remember so much more.

Location: St Martin Canal, Paris
Camera: La Sardina Sea Pride
Film: Lomography Colour Negative iso 400

p.s. you can see a few of my favourite photos from along the canal on Everything Reminds Me of You as part of Elle's La Sardina review posts - theres even pink in one photo and I like it a lot!

p.p.s. I had a little layout upgrade, what do you think?

Rock en Seine...

One of the reasons we chose to go to Paris over the August Bank holiday was due to the music festival Rock en Seine, held just outside Paris. (We also went to a music festival whilst we were in Krakow, we are well travelled music lovers! Barcelona next I believe... haha) Neither of us took many photos but I managed to get some with my yashica samuria with my first try of Lomography Xpro film.

I'm still undecided on this film, its very green, though some others from the two rolls I used did turn out quite well, so I guess this is a limited selection to judge it on.

I also took some photos with my Sardina too and I love the results, the wide lens is perfect for the setting...

Highlights from the festival include the Foo Fighters - Dave Grohl is amazing, the Artic Monkeys, Anna Calvi, Lykke Li and Austra, who I just love!

Cameras: Yashica Samurai and Sea Pride Sardina
Films: Lomo Xpro and Colour Negative 400
Location: Rock en Seine, Paris.

A birthday weekend...

I've been a bit anxious about my birthday this year, it's been hard celebrating my life for the last ten years on a date when so many people lost theirs and I knew this year would be particularly poignant and upsetting. Luckily my parents and Thomas were amazing, they took me away for the weekend to the beach and I got lots of hugs and licks from Harry* (in fact he came and sat next to me that birthday morning just to lick my face, I couldn't believe it) so here are a few of my phone photos from the weekend.

I took a few fuji's on the beach too but it was kind of nice to be camera free for the weekend after carrying around 6 in Paris.

Every year on my birthday for the past ten years, I've taken a moment to remember the terrible events that happened in 2001 and then another moment to appreciate everything and everyone in my life, I am truly glad to be alive and to have such amazing people in my life (friends included, how wonderful was yesterday's post?) and all I really wanted this year was to be with the people that I love and to go on the beach... and that's what I got.

*Harry is the dog btw, its totally acceptable for him to lick my face, haha, I thought I better clarify that...