For the easily distracted…

28 February 2013

My photoswap photos from our holiday

I’ve been really unorganised with the photoswap this year and a lot of people taking part have also been really busy, so its been coming along slowly… I don’t really mind to much, as its not an urgent project and its the sharing of photos process that I enjoy the best rather than the speed of it.

I used my holga camera, as I haven’t used it for a while and I sent my film to Dianna to get developed and I’m really thrilled with the results, I love how soft they look.

I’m also really thrilled that the photo of the goats head around its shed worked out, it was only there for a minute and I thought I’d missed it.

These photos are also making me excited about our holidays this year, hurray!

Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Lomography CN400
Location: Whitby, Yorkshire

19 February 2013

Why I love this photo

I’ve been wondering what to post today – some days I just have nothing to share, and I rarely schedules posts very far ahead, but then Twitter saved me (hurray). Adam Bronkhorst tweeted a link to a post that described why he loved one photo so much and I absolutely loved reading it.

I’ve been trying not to get too sappy whilst I’ve been writing my Ecourse (I know I keep mentioning it, I’m sorry, its pretty much all I think about in my spare time right now…) but I’ve come to realise that taking photos for me is an emotional process, and Dawn even described my photos as ‘emotive’ yesterday in her LC-A test roll post (which you should read…) so this post is really a progression from that and something that I wanted to share with everyone who reads this.

So here we are, photo number one in my new ‘”Why I love this photo” series.

I tried to start this off with a photo from my first rolls of film in 2009, but looking back at these photos, I realised that even though I loved the process of using a film camera again, it wasn’t until I was in Wales, in September 2009, using my 7th roll of film with my Holga 135bc, that I fell back in love with photography but also in love with light.

That probably sounds a little odd, but its true. And this photo reminds of how I felt on that beach, on our first night in Wales. Of how beautiful the beach looked, of how the light bounced off the thin layer of water and hazily reflected across the sand. Of how relaxed I felt, just soaking that beautiful golden light in and how happy I was to just be taking photos, walking along the beach with some of my favourite people in the world…

It took me 7 rolls of film to begin to understand that a wonderful photo isn’t just about composition or the camera or the film, but its the light, its looking for that perfect light that expresses exactly how you feel in that moment. Even now, nearly 4 years later, I’m still learning how I want to take photos and how to look for that moment of light that expresses me so well, and honestly, I don’t think I’ve even fully realised these things yet… I may never fully realise them.

This photo however, marks the unrealised beginning of that journey for me – none of the photos I had taken before, although I love them for being a part of my journey, have sung to me, have made me gasp, or look at my photos in wonder. None of the photos before this made me think ‘I’ve found it…’ that missing whatever it is that I’m looking for.

I think the best thing now, looking back at this photo, is knowing that I had no clue about what was ahead of me… about where I would go with my photography, the photos I would take, how much it would really mean to me later. Though I guess really, I could say the same thing about any of my photos. But this photo especially, means that much to me now because without even realising it, it was that first photo that really made my heart sing, not just in taking it, but looking at it afterwards as well.

4 December 2012

Our Christmas tree…

These photos are actually from last year but our tree always looks pretty much the same if I’m honest (you can see photos from last year here) I’m a stickler for tradition at Christmas. Although we do have my parents fancy, flashy LED lights on the tree after I accidentally stole them earlier this year. (Thanks Dad and Mum, oops).

I took these last year with my Holga 135bc as I knew I needed to finish the film off. I didn’t expect them to work to be honest, so the fact that I got some fun (if a bit silly) results always makes me smile. Sometimes I take things way to seriously so these were a nice reminder to enjoy myself, to stop comparing myself to other people and to enjoy the process, even if I am waving a camera around in front of a christmas tree haha.

Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Lomo CN 80

12 November 2012

Out of my comfort zone…

I wasn’t originally going to share these photos as overall, I’m really disappointed in them, the colours are dull and most of the results are a little blurry (wrong camera and film choice I think. Bother). However I mentioned before about ‘keeping it real’ and sometimes I think that the process of working towards a great photo is just as important as getting that great photo and these photos are definitely part of the process.

I took all these photos in an attempt to populate my photos, to document the people around me as well as the landscape. This is a challenge for me and something I struggle with when I go somewhere new. I studied Interior Design at university so I am automatically drawn to architecture and perspective photos, so training myself to look for interesting human moments is really quite difficult when I’m constantly distracted by interesting designs, shapes and lines.

{a moment alone and a pop of red}

{Ok, I was more interested in the dogs, but look at the middle ones happy face… so cute}

{I so wish this one wasn’t blurry… I was quite taken with these two ladies.}

{Ok, this last photo, I am actually happy with – I loved the idea of the seagulls being just like the couple on the bench, having a moment to look around, enjoy the view – perhaps they are even all looking at the same thing.}

I think its so easy to fall into habits with your chosen hobby, to know what you’re good at and just stick with it but film (and toy camera) photography to me has always been about the challenge, and I’m hoping that when I look back at these in the future, I’ll see these photos as the beginning of a new, tougher challenge and hopefully I’ll be able to see some progression too (fingers crossed).

I’d love to hear about how you push yourself in the comments – either with photography or elsewhere, sometimes even a small push is all we need to improve, so lets encourage each other!

Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Lomography ISO 400 (usually a winning combo but not this time)
Location: Whitby, England.

p.s. if anyone tells me how great these photos are, I won’t believe you lol, I’m just saying!

27 August 2012

Remembering Paris: Holga 135bc

Location: Paris, France
Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Kodak Portra NC 160

4 August 2012

I like taking photos of dogs

Location: Bolton Abben, Yorkshire
Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Kodak 200

2 February 2012

Forgotten Photo: Llanddwyn Island (Part III)

This year it will be 3 years since we visited Wales and I’m a little bit sad about that…

I have blogged about Llandwyn Island before, but it was definitely the highlight of our week in Wales for me and looking at these photos reminds me of how peaceful it was, how sunny it was and how much I loved being there.

You want to go there too now I bet…

I can’t actually believe some of these weren’t on here before!

Camera: Helga the Holga 135bc :)
Film: Kodak ISO 200
Location: Llanddwyn Island, Wales.

27 January 2012

Already too excited…

After the excitement of Paris and Krakow over the last two years and even more excitement coming up this year with my lickle sisters wedding (eep) Thomas and I decided that rather than a city break abroad, this year we really wanted a relaxing week by the beach. So later this year we are going to Whitby for a week and staying in a little cottage with beams. I already can’t wait to go and I have months to wait!

We’ve only been to Whitby the once and that was back in 2009 where I took photos for my first ever photoswap with my little holga (and also some digital photos for my dear friend Nicole too). I don’t think I’ve ever shared them all here though, so I thought now was the perfect time!

Some of you may recognise a couple of the photos from my shop (you know, back in the day, haha) I was really pleased with how these turned out and I can’t wait to go back with more than one camera to take photos. Hurray! It’s nice having things to look forward too.

Have a great weekend!

Location: Whitby, England
Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Kodak ISO 200.

23 January 2012

My favourite holga photos… Part 2!

In 2010 as part of my Holga Week I posted my favourite photos from my little holga’s first 14 rolls of film… and I only just remembered that I was going to keep continuing with this!

So here are my favourite holga photos from rolls 15 – 21.

Roll 15 – Breakfast in Krakow :)

Roll 16 – Winter Moon – one of my all time favourite photos that I’ve taken.

Roll 17 – This was one of those photos I just knew was going to look exactly as I wanted it too.

Roll 18 – The pop of red just makes this photo!

Roll 19 – This was a tough decision, but I took this spontaneously in the car and really it shouldn’t have turned out this well… so I love it just because it did.
(And I love photos of horses… I need to take more.)

Roll 20 – J’adore Paris!

Roll 21 – I just love the colours…

Like in my last post, it was harder to choose just the one photo from a roll than I thought…
but gosh I still really love this camera!

ALSO
I finally figured out how to edit my template to incorporate the threaded comments (using this guide) and
I AM EXCITED!!!
I can’t wait to reply to you all properly (finally!) through them, so please check back if you leave a comment, I will be replying to them!

19 January 2012

Forgotten Holga photos… (again)

I took these last April when my dear friend Adele came to visit (Can you believe that’s nearly a year ago?!) and I completely forgot about them, in fact I’ve only just put them onto Flickr as I sorted through last years photos.

Looking at these, I’m starting to get really excited about Spring!

In fact, now that we’re starting to make plans and the year is progressing,
I’m incredible excited about 2012 as a whole!

Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Kodak ISO 200
Location: Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds.

18 January 2012

Diana Mini or Holga 135bc..?

I get a lot of Google searches finding my blog with this question and recently I’ve had a few people email to ask me which I would suggest so I’ve decided it’s time I have somewhere that people can actually find some information on here to help them decide.

Although I’m not going to answer this question for you – just help you decide – I’m not actually sure I could decide between them if I had to pick. Luckily when I decided to get my Holga 135bc (way back in June 2009) that was the only 35mm camera option, the Diana Mini didn’t exist, so I didn’t need to choose.

The good news is that they are both great little cameras

so which ever decision you make, I don’t think it will be the wrong one and to be honest, if you love them as much as I do, you’ll probably end up getting both anyway…

So, how are these cameras similar?

~ Price ~

When I got my Holga 135bc, it was much cheaper but due to the popularity of Lomography recently, I can safely say that there isn’t much difference in the price of these two cameras anymore, even on Ebay. I don’t think that’s a bad thing though as it makes having to decide on price alone irrelevant.

The Diana Mini can be a bit more expensive if you want the flash included, so if you do want a flash, that is worth considering however I don’t think it’s completely necessary for either camera to have one as they both work better in natural light anyway.

~ Mechanics ~

Essentially these cameras are very similar – they are both plastic, they can both do multiple exposures, they both have a bulb setting, distance focusing, two aperture settings (sunny or cloudy) and take 35mm film. So if you want to get experimental with your photos, both of these cameras are perfect for that.

What are the differences?

~ Size ~

Though I wouldn’t say that this is a deciding factor – it’s worth mentioning that the Diana Mini really is indeed mini and that it can be quite fiddly at times whilst the Holga 135 in comparison feels much chunkier and sturdier.

~ Formatting ~

The Diana Mini offers two formats – the half frame and the square format. Whilst the Holga just offers the one, the regular rectangular format to fit the 35mm negative.

This can be a deciding factor between these cameras and I can personally say that one of the reasons that I love my Diana Mini is the square format – it really suits the camera and its results. So if you’re looking for the square format in particular then the Diana Mini might be for you.

~ Ease of Use ~

I’ve written before that it took a lot longer for my Diana Mini to win me over than my Holga 135bc and the Diana Mini is temperamental, it has to be said – I’ve had issues with loading it, the bulb setting and the advance mechanism, especially in the half frame mode. However, I wouldn’t let this put you off – all this requires is practice, patience and research – the Diana Mini micro site has lots of useful videos which I highly recommend looking at and once you’ve got used to your Diana Mini the results can be constant and glorious.

The Holga 135bc in comparison is much easier to pick up – the loading is quite simple, the buttons aren’t as fiddly and the advance mechanism is study. If you’re looking for a camera that you can pick up and learn quickly to get the results that you want, then perhaps the Holga 135bc is the camera for you.

~ The Results ~

If you’re going to base your decision on anything, then it should really be on this.

Someone once said to me that each camera I use is like a different side of my personality and I think they were right. I use different cameras when I’m in different moods, when I want to share different things and despite being very similar cameras, the results are where these two cameras differ the most.

First we’ll look at the Holga 135bc…

The Holga 135bc has an added mask inside the camera that creates the gorgeous vignetting (the 135 doesn’t have this but I don’t have that camera to compare). The colours and contrasts with the Holga 135bc I’ve always found to be strong and vibrant, even with softer films like Kodak Portra NC or expired film. The focus is sharper than the Diana Mini with clear lines which create great depth whether the subject is close or further away.

Now the Diana Mini…

In comparison to the Holga 135bc, the Diana Mini results are much softer and dreamier… with subtle contrasts and grain and less vignetting. Yet the Diana Mini is also capable of beautiful colours and focusing, everything just seems more subtle in comparison. With the half frame option you can take double the amount of photos per roll, but I think this camera produces it’s best results with the square format.

~ To Summarise ~

The Holga 135bc is a sturdy, reliable camera that is easy to learn and produces images with strong contrasts, gorgeous colours, beautiful vignetting and clear focusing. I always think that this camera captures things almost exactly as I see them.

The Diana Mini is a small, delicate camera which is temperamental, yet with patience and practice can produce dreamy images with soft contrasts, lovely lighting and colours with an almost magical, vintage quality.

It’s evident from all the photos above that both of these cameras can produce beautiful photos, especially in bright, natural light. Although the mechanics of the cameras are very similar the lenses in both cameras are different, and it’s these differences that will influence your decision on which camera to get and how you take your photos.

~ Other 35mm Cameras to consider ~

Of course, if this is your first 35mm camera then there are other choices to consider as well as these two cameras….

The LC-A+

Lomography is very quick to suggest this as a first camera for Lomographers, and it is an amazing camera – it has extra features to the Diana and Holga including more aperture settings and a light meter which allows for the correct exposure in each photo (though no bulb setting). The contrasts and balance of it’s photos are always spot on and the focus is clear – however, this camera is a hefty price. One that I do think is worth it but perhaps not for your first venture into 35mm cameras or if you have a limited budget.

Superheadz Wide and Slim

This camera is simple. It has one shutter button, a fixed wide angle lens and that is it.
The colours are vivid with great vignetting and the results can be fun as well are artistic.
If you’re worried about all the settings on the Diana Mini or Holga 135bc then perhaps this is the camera for you, although you can’t do multiple exposures. This camera is cheap and also comes in a fun variety of colours.

La Sardina

Again, similar to the Holga 135bc and Diana Mini in mechanics, it’s plastic, it can take multiple exposures, it has a bulb setting, distance focusing, a fixed aperture and takes 35mm film. However, this camera has a wide angle lens which produces great vignetting and interesting results. Another contender if you are looking for something a bit more artistic and varied.

~ See Also ~

This Flickr thread has a great description and more information on the cameras I’ve talked about above.

15 December 2011

Fireworks and Sparklers!!

I’m normally very wary of the blub switch on my cameras – it usually causes frustrating results that feel like I’ve wasted the film.

However, after reading Lomo Lovers Vol 4, I decided that Bonfire night was the perfect reason to experiment with it more, especially in taking photos of the fireworks and sparklers!

Aren’t they amazing?! I LOVE fireworks, so the whole thing was far too much fun for me!

I did originally plan to double expose the roll as in the Lomo Lover’s guide but I was impatient to get it developed, so I didn’t. Next year I think I will though now that I know the blub setting works wonderfully with the fireworks. I’m excited about it already.

Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Lomography CN 800
Location: Leeds

14 December 2011

More walking to work…

I actually can’t remember the last time that I had to finish off so many rolls of film on my way to work – I didn’t realise that I had taken so many photos recently but I must have done… hurray!

These first two were taken with my refurbished LC-A and kodak 200 film, I love the definition…

But, the following photos were taken with my holga 135bc using Lomography’s CN 800 film
… can you believe those colours?! I’m blown away!

It’s funny as before Photo Meditations I used to be quite reluctant of taking photos of the same thing but now I could take photos on my walk to work everyday if I’m honest, it’s mostly the one time of the day where I’m completely on my own and although its only 10 minutes tops, its just what I need to start my day, especially if I have a camera with me and the sky looks like these!

Cameras: Refurbished LC-A and holga 135bc
Film: Kodak ISO 200 and Lomography CN 800
Location: Leeds.

5 October 2011

Paris in Film: my little Helga the Holga…

Today has been hectic and I miss Paris, especially as we were both so relaxed there…

I only used one film in my little holga whilst we were in Paris, I’m pretty sure she is feeling unloved right now, but the photos I did take I’m thrilled with.

I even tried a new film: Kodak Portra 160… these were taken with the Natural Colour (NC) film and I’m kind of smitten with it. It’s a shame it’s so expensive but from what I’ve seen with these its definitely worth the cost.

You can see the entire film on Flickr here.

Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Kodak Portra 160 NC
Location: Paris :)

p.s. After using my yashica samurai so much in Paris, I may have got a bit carried away with the fact I could do multiple exposures with both my holga and diana – I don’t think that’s a bad thing though…

21 August 2011

Winter trees

Location: Leeds
Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Kodak ISO 200 (I think…)

20 August 2011

Sunset at Kirkstall Abbey

Location: Kirstall Abbey, Leeds
Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Kodak ISO 200 (I think…)

15 August 2011

Walking home…

Every day I walk the same way home from the bus stop. This one time I took my camera with me…

Location: Leeds, England
Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Lomography Xpro Chrome

14 August 2011

Daffodils in the sunshine

Location: Kirstall Abbey, Leeds
Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Kodak ISO 200 (I think…)

13 August 2011

Kirkstall Abbey double exposure

Location: Kirstall Abbey, Leeds
Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Kodak ISO 200 (I think…)

12 August 2011

Seeing Harry tomorrow…

Hurray! And today I’m going to the beach!

11 August 2011

Words and Pictures…

I can’t get over the colours from this film… swoon!

Location: Yorkshire Sculpture Park, England
Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Lomography XPro Chrome

9 August 2011

A few random holgas from Wales

I can’t really believe it’s been nearly two years since we visited Wales and I took my little holga on its first holiday… we took 83 photos together in total!

Location: Beaumaris and Llanddwyn Island, Wales
Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Kodak ISO 200

1 August 2011

Let’s kick the August Break off with something exciting…

Crossprocessed film! I’ve always wanted to try it – but I was honestly a bit scared, it seemed so advanced for me but then I used some Lomography slide film in my borrowed LC-A in Manchester and I was sold - the colours, the contrasts, the extremes… I love it!

{note- I have no idea who they are, I just thought it looked good}

I’m in love with the colours and I couldn’t be more happier with these photos taken at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park last month. I’ve also really enjoyed taking my holga out more this year too. We’ve missed each other.

Location: Yorkshire Sculpture Park, England
Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Lomography XPro Chrome
(E-6 slide film developed with C-41 chemicals)

12 July 2011

More Knaresborough…

So I took a lot of photos in Knaresborough – it’s just so photogenic, these are the last though don’t worry… though I still have two rolls of film to share yet from other places we visited that weekend… In fact I still have some from April but those will have to wait I guess.

{I love his face!}

{My Mum and Me – taken by Thomas}

I’m really glad that I’ve picked up my little holga again… I think I’ve missed her.

Location: Knaresborough , North Yorkshire, England
Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: Expired ISO 400 Boots Film

8 July 2011

Knaresborough – Capturing the details with my holga…

Since experimenting with expired film with my Ricoh (which I need to take out again) I’ve been dying to try it out in other cameras – last weekend was the perfect opportunity to try it with my wee Helga the Holga.

The fun of taking two cameras around with you all the time is trying to balance what to take photos of – it’s easy to take the same picture twice but I think I’ve finally craked it – one to capture to details, one to capture the ‘feel’… The redscale in my superheadz captured the feel of Knaresborough wonderfully and it left me free to capture the details of Knaresborough and to experiment with the focus a little more with my holga.

I’m really beginning to enjoy capturing the details that perhaps others might not see – the beautiful letter box, the battered old signs, the lovely colours in the windows… they take my breath away. And I just love the cat…

Happy weekend!
I’m going to try not to take too many photos, I still have too many to share :)

p.s. G – did you see the name of the road in one of the pictures? You’ll like it…

p.p.s. I just noticed that Harry snuck into the last photo, this makes me happy.

9 June 2011

Today…

I’d quite like to be back in Rhosneigr, Wales in the sunshine, relaxing and forgetting about everything…

p.s. taken with my holga 135bc in 2009

6 June 2011

Experimenting with double exposures…

Sometimes I take things too seriously ~~alot~~, especially taking photos and I tend to avoid double exposures… I always worry that I’ll ruin a perfectly good photo by covering it with something rubbish. However I really needed to finish the film off in my Holga – it was in the camera for about 5 months I think – so I decided to play around with it a bit whilst I finished the roll around Leeds. What I didn’t realise was that I’d put a 36 exposure film in, not the 24 I thought I was using – so I got more double exposures than I expected. Oops.

Location: Leeds
Camera: Holga 135bc
Film: I think it was a lomography colour negative iso 100.

23 February 2011

First roll fail…

I had no idea what to post today (I’m putting together future posts but totally forgot about day to day… oops) then I saw Elle’s post about her first roll of film from her Diana Mini on Diana Mini Love – so I thought I would share my some of my shocking first photos from my diana mini and holga 135bc – you know – the ones that you wouldn’t normally share…

I shared some of the most acceptable ones from my first diana mini roll around Cromer here - but here are some of the truly bad ones

You can see the whole set on my flickr here.

The main issue I had with my diana first film was that really – I should have known better – I took 10 (maybe more…) films with my holga before I got my mini… at least with my holga I had a good excuse lol.

I posted the best photos from my holga first roll here and honestly, they were the only photos that I scanned in from that roll – none of the others seemed worth sharing – they were shocking. However I do have the index photo… try not to laugh too much, it is nearly two years ago now.

So there are my Lomography woes… if you want to see more links to first film woes check out the comments Elle’s post again on Diana Mini Love.

p.s. Adele has done a lomography love post today too… I love her photos!!

15 December 2010

Feeling alive in Malham…

I mentioned yesterday that the time I felt most alive this year was on the top of Malham Cove and I realised I had only shared about half of the photos in the first post I wrote about it.

Looking up…

Looking down…

Feeling alive!
{Thomas always takes the best photos of me…}

24 November 2010

A cold winter’s morning…

Walking to work with Helga the Holga is my new favourite hobby!

p.s. the lovely Eadaoin is a featured guest on Pugly Pixel! Its the best of both worlds!

Check it out!

p.p.s. If you want a christmas card from me – today is the last day to email me your address!

22 November 2010

Krakow: Holga photos!

16 July 2010

Hurray, it’s Friday!

{a couple of double exposures from Bolton Abbey I never got round to posting}

This week has been so exciting, I have absolutely loved celebrating my holga and I’m still incredibly excited about the giveaway, the response has been amazing! There’s still a week to enter as well, hurray!

We have so many busy weekends coming up but this weekend I plan to take some photos for the swap (with helga of course), go for lunch on saturday, breakfast on sunday and hopefully start some premature packing for our impending move. It should be a busy weekend I think, I can’t wait.

To finish off celebrating my holga week, here are some amazing holga related links for the weekend!

1. An amazing featured photographer on HolgaJen

(an amazing holga blog, check out her links page for more holga resources)

2. Holgas from Brighton

3. Holga Summer Love

4. A digital Holga?

(I’m not sure – I would want a small viewfinder)

5. Holga wedding photography

Have a wonderful weekend!!

15 July 2010

Alphabet Walk Blog Hop!

I’ll be honest, I’ve been totally caught up in finding a house (eep!) and focusing on my holga that I completely forgot that this week was the Alphabet Walk Blog Hop on One Sydney Road.

However, after seeing Cassie’s lovely post about N yesterday, I got excited about this project again and I saw it as another opportunity to share some more Holga photos that I may have not posted already…

Can you guess what letter I’m focusing on today??

If you guessed ‘T’ for trees then you are absolutely right! I honestly didn’t realise that I liked taking photos of trees so much until I looked through all my films on Tuesday, but there you go.

Oh and here’s a Tractor as well, just for fun.

Do have a look at the rest of the bloggers photos that participated in Piper’s Blog Hop, I can’t wait to check them all out!

13 July 2010

My favourite Holga photos… Part 1!

*warning – this is a long photo post*

Can you believe that since I’ve had my holga I’ve taken 14 rolls of film – thats more than one a month and I don’t care to think how much money. It’s been completely worth it though!

Each film has been a joy and I constantly find myself looking back through my photos, remembering exactly how I felt when I heard the shutter snap and I am always changing which photo is my favourite in each film…

So here is are my current favourites from each film that you may not have seen before.

Roll 1: I heart Kirkstall Abbey!

Roll 2: Our first holga shadow photos, I love the colours!

Roll 3: Hurray for Scarborough and double exposures!

Roll 4: A different side of Birmingham…

Roll 5: Me taking a picture of C taking a picture of G, taking a picture… haha, love it.
Oh and theres another gorgeous Abbey in the background…

Roll 6: I had to include Harry of course!

Roll 7: I love the mountains in the background.

Roll 8: The gorgeous beach at Llandwynn Island

Roll 9: Some pretty bikes in Caernarfon

Roll 10: I’m spotting a trend of bright colours and high contrast!

Roll 11: Playing with my fish eyes lens. I should really use it more…

Roll 12: One of my photoswap photos I sent

Roll 13: A beautiful stream in Malham.

Roll 14: Kirkstall Abbey again, I love it.

Eee, I think I’m going to have to do a similar post again next year, this has been so much fun (though harder to pick just one from each roll than I thought) I love my holga!!

p.s. you guys are amazing, such a fantastic response to the giveaway, I’m happily overwhelmed.

7 July 2010

Happy birthday little Holga…

So its been a year and a couple of days since my little Helga the Holga arrived in the post from Hong Kong.

Needless to say, this camera has changed my life.

Its funny how a few pieces of plastic can have such a dramatic affect on your life but its true. Without this camera my love for 35mm film would not have been reignited, I wouldn’t have started a rather large collection of cameras, I never would have opened my shop and I definitely wouldn’t have had so many people interested in reading about my camera adventures.

(thanks you guys, you are amazing!)

My little holga is my go to camera, I love the colours, I love the sound of the shutter, I love waiting for the photos to be developed, I love its accidents and its surprises and I honestly can’t imagine travelling anywhere without it.

I was planning on celebrating my little holga this week but I have so many posts to catch up on and I’m still recovering from the evil wisdom tooth… so my holga week is going to be next week!

I’m hugely excited about it and you definitely should be too!

p.s. If you havent been around long, you should definitely have a look at my holga posts, you’ll fall in love too!

9 June 2010

Holgas from Malham…

Can you believe that other than Kay’s wedding this was the first time I have taken Helga the Holga out to play this year? I feel so bad… I think I need to set up a camera rotation system…

We were so incredibly lucky to go to Malham on a gorgeous day (which is rare, the rain here today is awful!) so pretty much all of the photos turned out lovely, I always forget how much Holga’s like the sunshine.

28 May 2010

Hurray, its friday!

{Thomas always takes the best photos of me… from last weekend in Malham!}

It’s another long weekend
(I love May purely for bank holidays!)
and we’ve got some fun things planned, I’m so excited!!

And… this time next week I’m see my family and Harry.

double excited!!

Yellow is for sun
and farmhouses…
(I put a couple of these on my tumblr, I love!)
I need these plates.
and this book.
Butterflies are so pretty!

Happy weekend everyone!

and don’t miss out on my camera giveaway

I’ll be deciding the winner on Monday so only a few days!

29 April 2010

Wedding holgas…

First I will say that I didn’t take these photos… I didn’t have the time to be honest, so I gave my camera to one of my friends who has a Holga 120 – I think he enjoyed that he got to have more than 10 photos to take with my holga 135bc.

{double exposure of the gorgeous bride}

Unfortunately Helga (the holga, not the friend – bit of an odd name for a boy, ha) let me down – out of the whole roll only 4 photos were on the film… I have no idea why – maybe because some were taken inside? or maybe the film was a dud? I don’t know and its frustrating!

{One handsome little page boy, I’m in love!}

Luckily for my friend I love these two from the roll and there is still half a roll in the camera waiting to be finished… I’m just really hoping that those turn out so I can give the bride and groom something…

8 April 2010

Another long weekend!

(photo from Scarborough - we’re going to visit again!)

Tomorrow we’re going on holiday to Filey with our parents!!
I am sooo excited!!

So I’ll be back on Monday with some excited sponsor news
and hopefully with lots of photos!
(even though I haven’t actually decided which camera’s to take yet…)

I hope everyone has a great weekend, I can’t wait to relax, go for a swim

(in a pool, not the sea… its a bit cold for that yet…)

and walk on some sand… hurray!

6 January 2010

Snooooow!

Over the past two days we have had 6 inches of snow – it looks so pretty!

I just wish I had more time to go play in it with different cameras!

22 December 2009

Fisheye Lens + Snow!!

This was the fastest roll of film that I’ve taken with Helga (the Holga) and it was so much fun – I was definitely snap happy.

I think the best part about the lens is that it is so easy to put on and take off – half the film I took without using it and the other half I just popped it back on! Also you can take one exposure with it on and one without – check out the difference in my feet!

Best gift I’ve brought for myself ever!!

(Oh and I can use it in front of my phone camera and my friends could use it in front of their little digi cameras too – needless to say we all had too much fun!)

13 December 2009

My photoswap photos!

I’m super excited to tell you that my photos are now on my photo swap partner Helen’s blog and have been uploading onto the Photoswap Flickr page – I’m so glad that they turned out well, yeay!

20 November 2009

A few things…

So I feel like this week has been a bit of a non week on my blog but I have been busy, I promise – here are a few things I’ve been up too and a couple of reminders :)

~Check out my Dear 16 year old me letter on Red Boots today – I love this idea and think you should definitely send a letter to Wendy as well~

~I am guest posting today at A Simple New Something! I love Shokoofeh’s blog so I was so excited to share some of my holga photos celebrating Autumn in Leeds~

~Nicole’s giveaway of my prints finishes on Monday,
so if you haven’t entered yet, head on over and do so ~

~Don’t forget about my giveaway of a Lola’s Room print as well ~

~Today is the last day to email me if you want a christmas card from me
I can’t wait to start writing them!~

~The Photo Swap deadline is Monday so hopefully everyone’s films/cameras will be in the post soon, yeay! I can’t wait to see the results~

~oh and thank you to everyone who has voted for my little blog here,
I love you guys~

18 November 2009

Just what I needed…

It’s past 6pm in England, which means I haven’t blogged all day…

I was actually busy at work – really busy. So busy I lost track of time, too busy to even think about posts let alone write one… and it was nice.

It was nice to be reminded that I do like my job. It was nice to be reminded that I don’t just write my blog to stop myself from being bored at work… and it’s really nice to be sitting on the bed writing a post at home listening to Boyfriend mess around on his guitar.
Surely thats what its all about right?

p.s. the holga picture is of the kitten down the road – I know it’s not related but it is cute :)

p.p.s. Megan got some photos developed from her Kodak duaflex, they are so pretty I had to share!

12 November 2009

I love Wales: Llanberis Part Two

It has been nearly two months since we were on holiday and over a month since I posted Llanberis Part 1 but I have finally developed the last Holga roll of film from Wales! I was so excited picking the photos up yesterday especially as I couldn’t remember exactly what photos I had taken… and I wasn’t dissapointed.

I wish I was there now enjoying another picnic in the sunshine… it really was stunning!

27 October 2009

Through my window series…

The lovely Amy at No. 15 is featuring one of my holga pictures today as part of her new series!

Have a look and maybe even send her a photo??

20 October 2009

I love Wales: A few random holgas

Here some of the random holgas that I took from various places in Wales – I love how they all turned out.

I still have half a roll from Wales to develop as well! How exciting!

15 October 2009

I love Wales: Llanddwyn Island Part II

The great thing about Llanddywn Island was that
Helga (the holga) loved it as much as I did!

(Some of you may have seen these on flickr… but they are so pretty I had to share!)

How beautiful do the clouds, sea and sky look? At one point I completely forgot that we were in Wales! Just looking at these pictures makes me feel better.

14 October 2009

Here’s to happiness…

Can you believe it’s been month’s since mine and Boyfriend’s last Here’s to Happiness list (inspired by the lovely Naomi of course) it doesn’t feel like it was that long ago.

Anyway, I’ll be honest – I feel awful – sore throat, temperature, cough… you name it – I have it (and so does Boyfriend now – I made him ill too, oops)

So how do you feel better on days like this?

Think happy thoughts… and make a list of them!

Aero hot chocolate – it is amazing, I am obssessed.
Daily emails from new, old and best friends!
Knitted blankets
Writing letters
Making christmas lists
Fairy lights and candles
Paw prints in cement
Vintage cameras (possibly a permenant addition to this list)
Big wooly jumpers
Pictures of Harry (my current favourite is above!)

There, I feel a bit better already!

p.s. Hi to my latest followers: Maddy, Rose Red, Heidi, Jenni, Nicole (and Luffy), Beth, Sylvia and Emily - You guys are number 11!

p.p.s. Don’t forget about the giveaway!

9 October 2009

I love Wales: Caernarfon

I know I promised the photos from the Island today but my scanner is not cooperating, so I’ll post these today and hopefully win the next round with my scanner over the weekend.

We only stopped in Caernarfon for about an hour but it was enough to walk around the beautiful castle and to gaze across the river for a while.

If we went back to Wales I would love to go look around the Castle properly – apparently you can go to the top of the towers which would be amazing!

8 October 2009

I love Wales: Newborough Forest and beach…

Considering how many photos that I took, I haven’t done that many posts about Wales – I’ll try and post some more soon!

The day we spent around Newborough was my favourite day of the holiday – the weather was beautiful, the sea was sparkling and I felt incredibly happy.

(even if my feet didnt after 4 hours walking…)

Here are my favourite Holgas from the forest and beach!

Can you see the speck of white in the middle of the last photo? That is a lighthouse on Llanddwyn Island which is where we walked too and was really the highlight of my day…

I’ll post pictures of the island tomorrow, it was wonderful!

p.s. Thank you for all your lovely comments yesterday, they made my day :)

2 October 2009

I still love red…

…especially bright red post boxes!

Bolton Abbey

Norwich
(don’t you love the glimspe of the market stalls behind the wall?)

29 September 2009

I love Wales: Rhosneigr

These panorama and holga photos are from our first evening in Wales – wasn’t it a great start to the holiday? Just walking along the beautiful beach watching the sunset I felt all our worries and stresses blow away in the breeze…

I think it’s as close to perfect as you could ever get…

Also the driver of the tractor gave me a smile and a wave which made my evening!

p.s. Hi to my newest followers xxxJackie, Courtney Hope, Helen, Cassandra Marie and OceanDreams – so excited to have you here :)

10 September 2009

A long weekend in Norfolk: Wells-Next-The-Sea Part 3

Some Holga photos from the lovely Wells-Next-The-Sea – Its officially my favourite beach!

I can not wait to take Helga to Wales!!!

9 September 2009

Wish I may…

I love Susannah’s blog Ink on my Fingers and when I saw this beautiful wishlist I knew I had to make one too…

{Holga photo taken by Me at Wells beach}

Here are a few of my wishes on 09-09-09 -”a day for wishing.”

I wish for mine, my family and my Boyfriend’s happiness. I wish to travel the world. I wish to continously love. I wish to be unafraid of change. I wish to find the perfect job for me – even if it is not what I expect or think it will be. I wish to have a vintage camera and the mini diana camera. I wish I had more self control when it comes to chocolate. I wish that I will have a garden sooner rather than later. I wish for a home near the beach. I wish for macaroons in Paris. I wish for jeans that never rip at the thighs. I wish I was brave enough to commit to one thing that I love doing completely and go with it, where ever it may take me…

8 September 2009

A long weekend in Norfolk: Cromer Part 3

I finally found a scanner that works, yeay! So here are the Holga photos from Cromer - I didn’t take that many as I got distracted by chips on the pier and paddling in the sea, oops!

The only thing we didn’t get was a Cromer Crab, which is a shame – Cromer crab’s are the best! (In fact they sell them in the Morrison’s near me which is weird as its about a 4 hour drive away…)

28 August 2009

The last of the Holga’s from Birmingham…

I can’t believe that it has been over a month since we were there, it really was a great weekend. I can’t wait for Supersonic next year now!

I don’t know if you can tell in the middle row of photos but it had just started to rain as I was taking these – I was pretty insistant I wanted to take the photos anyway and dragged poor Boyfriend around with me (thank you boyfriend) but as the light was pretty dull the colours didn’t turn out as great as the other photos. So I edited them in photoshop again – I love how they look in black and white though – who knew rain could look so good!

I also love the photo of the The Old Crown Inn which has been there since 1639, it was just as lovely inside too (fourth photo down…)

I am so excited about taking Helga to Norfolk this weekend to see the beach and my friends and family – I might have packed a roll of film for each day…. oops!

26 August 2009

I love Helga the Holga…

and she loves me…

Can you see the clusters of hearts on the left hand side? I nearly died when I saw them…

I have no idea why or how but I love her surprises!

p.s. This is the roof of a warehouse that we saw some bands in at Supersonic - I didn’t think it was as dark as it actually was…

24 August 2009

A few holgas to cheer me up….

Its going to be one of those days – I can feel it. My hair looks awful, my bus was incredibly late and I forgot my phone cable so I can’t upload my photos from the weekend… sob

On the plus side I did get another roll from my Holga developed and I used the new laptop (eee) to scan them in… yeay for the laptop! These are only half of the holga photos from a couple of weekends ago, the other film is still waiting to be finished…

I don’t know why the ones with people in them are so cropped but I still love how they turned out… each roll has been so different! I can not wait to take Helga the Holga to the beach at the weekend, yeay!!

p.s. I also developed a mini girl crush on Kristen Stewart (and reinforced my crush on Ryan Reynolds) at the weekend after watching Adventureland - Have you seen it? I loved it!

p.p.s. How small do my shoes look next to Boyfriend’s, hehe!

12 August 2009

Black and White Holga Love…

I’ll admit, I wasn’t very happy with some of the holga photos that I got back from Birmingham.

The weather wasn’t great and the colours looked a little dull and lifeless. I toyed with the idea of playing with them in Photoshop {I heart photoshop} but it wasn’t until I saw these that I decided to just do it!

The contrast of the tones look so much better in black and white complimenting the dull weather! I really should just buy some black and white film…

5 August 2009

Holga vs Digital

It wasn’t until I got the roll of film processed with the Scarborough photos on that I remembered that I took a photo with each camera in order to do a comparison…

I’m really amazed by how much brighter the colours in the holga are and how much wider the digital photo is.

Even though the focus is slightly off on the holga (and theres an annoying person in the photo!) I think that it captured the moment much better than the digital camera – it was a gorgeous day and the sky and sea were stunning!

Though of course I still love them both!

4 August 2009

A few holgas to make me smile…

Here are the rest of the holga photos from Scarborough - I seriously love my new camera!

Thank you so much for your lovely comments yesterday they really made me feel better.

Also a quick hello to my newest follower Claradevi - I insist that you look at her absolutely darling blog :) the sun flares will melt your heart…

p.s. Thank you so much to Alissa for this postcard (Alicia’s photos are lovelier then mine would be…) I love it and it now lives happily on our fridge!

31 July 2009

Little surprises…

Everytime I have got back a film from my Holga I have had little delightful surprises where photos have not turned out like I expected… I laughed when I got the packet back at the counter yesterday, as written on the front was:

The double exposures were meant to be there – but the 2 miss framed prints were not. Heres how they turned out…

The funny thing is if you take the one half of one and the other half of the other, it does make a complete photo – I love little holga surprises!!

20 July 2009

The last of Roll 2…

Here are the final pretty pictures from the second roll of film that I took with Helga… I love the contrast of the shadows in the top photo. In the other two photos I was experimenting with the double exposure again – its far too much fun!!

I managed to find some 35mm film in Poundland at the weekend so I now have 5 rolls to use up – I can’t wait to use them next weekend!

p.s. Big Hello to my new followers Onic, Carlene and Urban LifeStyle Decor – check out their amazing blogs… especially the puppies - awwww!

17 July 2009

When Harry met Helga…

Eeee!! I don’t know how I held out not posting these until today… I think it was worth the wait though!

Poor Puppy – I do tend to camera stalk him but its totally worth it!

I adore the last photo of him – I wish I could see him more.

p.s. Yup Puppy’s name is Harry – I’m pretty sure my lil sis named him after Harry Potter but she would never admit it :)

16 July 2009

Great news…

My first Holga film arrived in the post yesterday… I am so relieved!

The not so great news… only 1/4 of them turned out really well and I didn’t get the free film… boo!!

Here’s the best of the bunch from the first roll, I still love them :)

My first double exposure looking out of our bedroom window!

Kirkstall Abbey at twilight…

I think the last one is my favourite :)

I didn’t really expect the photos to turn out that well with it being the first experimental roll and I know I forgot to set the shutter speed back to N after messing around with the B setting – oops. I didn’t use the B shutter setting at all with the second roll which is why I think the pictures turned out so well!

14 July 2009

When Helga went to Scarborough…

After waiting for what felt like ages (though really its only been a week) I decided to check my bank and see if the money had been processed for my first holga film that I sent off… It hadn’t
:( So I tried ringing the company and all I got was an answer machine and a worrying message about how the company had changed hands… So my first holga film may be lost to me… sob.

On the plus side, I took another film at the weekend and rather impulsively decided to take it to the shop to get processed yesterday… it cost double the price but only took 20 minutes! Huzzah. I think my new toy may be an expensive hobby…

How great have they turned out? I was so excited when I opened the packet!! I still have 16 photos from Scarborough in the camera – I’m a little surprised I didn’t finish the roll to be honest but those will have to wait until I do… I’ll post some more of this roll over the next few days though, yeay!!

p.s. I really hope that first roll does turn up – we had so much fun taking the pictures…

6 July 2009

Yeayyyy!!!

My Holga 135BC finally arrived on Saturday – I dragged myself out of bed early and waited downstairs eagerly… for three hours!

After what felt like days the Postman knocked on the door and there it was in all its glory – how cute is the packaging? I love the Hong Kong stamps as well though I’m not impressed that Royal Mail stuck a sticker straight over two of them (I tried to peel it off but no luck, boo).

Here’s me with my new Camera :) I think I might call her Helga…

We took her out for a play in Kirkstall Abbey yesterday, so hopefully I should have some photos to share soon, how exciting!!