Our Mini Moon - Hebden Bridge

Don't you love the phrase mini-moon? I'm glad we had one just so that I can keep saying mini-moon haha.

After a week in Norfolk with our family at Piggyback Barns (I have photos of that week too but I'm still editing those after scanning - its taking much longer to do this myself that's for sure) we decided to have a couple of days away to ourselves and luckily my family were so kind as to pay for it as our wedding gift too. We wanted somewhere in Yorkshire that we hadn't been to before, somewhere just far enough away that it felt like a holiday but close enough that we didn't have to travel for hours and most importantly we wanted somewhere we could do lots of walking. Thomas found a lovely little place in Hebden Bridge just outside the town near Hardcastle Craggs and it was perfect - everything that we wanted, hurray!

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As you can see, Hebden Bridge was just lovely - the canal was wonderful to walk along (and the pub The Stubbing Wharf was perfect for a drink after walking too), the shops were delightful and the cafes and bars were great too!

Even though we were only really in the town for a little while we got a really great feel for Hebden Bridge and I definitely think we'll go back again. 

Camera: Canon EOS 750
Film: Agfa Vista 200
Location: Hebden Bridge

Wedding Aftermath

I was really hoping to be the bride who had time to take photos of the event room we decorated as we went along - but decorating a room for the wedding is hard work and stressful - and when I wasn't busy hanging ribbons, fairy lights and putting pom poms everywhere - I was drinking tea (thanks Mums) to keep me going and sane. I did however manage to get some photos of the event room after the wedding just before we cleaned everything out properly and I'm actually really happy about that.

(I made 127 doilies in total and these lovely letters from card and wool. Wool everywhere!)

Gosh I loved that room! I was just so pleased that all our ideas worked and everything came together so perfectly. It took us a whole day to string the ribbons and fairy lights and then another day to move everything else in and sort it all out but once it was up I couldn't stop staring or smiling at how perfect it was - better than I even imagined (and I studied Interior Design peeps and drew it all up in 3D before hand). 

So having that time alone in the space, to remember, to cherish it and to fix it in my memory with photos was really important to me. I couldn't believe then that it had happened, that it went so well and just like that it was over - and I still can't really believe it now.

These photos are also making me super excited about getting our professional photographers photos back as well, woohoo!

p.s. These are some of the first colour negatives I've scanned - it was tougher than I imagined compared to the black and white but I think I'm happy with most of the results -   enough to share them here at least! (Some are a bit yellow? I don't know why they but were worse before I edited them but thats probably another post in itself!)

Camera: Canon EOS 750
Film: Agfa Vista 200
Location: Piggyback Barns, Sculthorpe (such a wonderful venue for a wedding and accomodation!)
 

On scanning photos...

I'm currently scanning my 3rd film out of 12 that I've taken over the past 2 weeks (yeay!) and I wanted to quickly write about how I'm finding scanning the films myself rather than getting them scanned elsewhere.

(Camera: Canon EOS 750  Film: Kodak BW400CN  Location: Hardcastle Craggs, Hebden Bridge)

It's been a joy and I am loving it.

I just shared a post last Friday about using the scanner but I actually wrote that about 3 weeks ago and since then I've had time to think about my photo process (in between all the other exciting things going on ha) and all of a sudden I feel in a much more relaxed place compared to the last few months of taking photos before having my scanner.

I thought that I would be impatient to see my photos and annoyed that I'd have to wait for each roll to scan - that I would hate the prolonged process and just want to have the results already. But then I started scanning and the excitement wasn't in getting a whole CD of photos that I quickly rushed through. The excitement was having the time with each individual photo and getting to look at them all as single items rather than part of a collection of photos and that has been SO exciting! Some photos aren't quite in focus (grr Rhianne) and some aren't the best photos I've taken but having that small amount of time to look at the photo, remember where I was and how I felt when I took it has almost been meditative for me.

I'm still quite surprised that I feel this way as I am usually so impatient about things - but adding another step to the photo process has only made the journey feel more like its mine rather than detract from it in any way and I'm so relieved about that. I can't wait to see what the next 9 rolls of film bring me and I definitely can't wait to share more photos!

p.s. A sneak peak of the photos coming up with the image above - scanned by myself, woop!

More black and white photos I scanned myself!

Oh yeah baby! I love that these photos are all close to where I work in Leeds too - I've been working in the city for nearly a year now (what?!) but this was my first time actively going out in my lunch break taking photos. I need to rectify that situation!

(I think its meant to say "All that I know is that I know nothing" - the fact they couldn't finish it made me chuckle)

I think for my first scanned negatives I'm pretty pleased with the final results - its quite hard to know when to edit, how to edit and when to stop editing - I could very easily get carried away with Photoshop haha  - so I tried to keep the tweaks quite simple with these. I think they look pretty good!

I've been chatting with my friends about film  vs digital  and feeling overwhelmed with having another part of my photography process that could change everything - but ultimately, this is just another way for me to learn what I like with my photos and to learn to trust my instincts and gut with how I think my photos should look. In fact my first ever 'Searching for Something' post was about editing and finding that image I was looking for in my results.

I wrote this is 2011 - but it seems just as relevant to me right now.

"To me, each photo I take is like falling in love - you're constantly search for it - everywhere you go - even if you aren't aware that you are... sometimes you can't see it, sometimes you find it in one step, sometimes you have to work a bit harder, perhaps challenge your preconceptions and break some of your own rules... but just like love - no one can tell you when you've found that perfect photo, you just know it... through and through!"

Camera: Canon EOS 750
Film: West Yorkshire Cameras B&W Film
Location: Leeds
Scanner:  Epson V370 scanner