down by the tracks

more from the yashica. i like finding areas that look old school or a little run down and shooting them with my yashica. it just feels right, like the 1970s camera was made to take pictures of old cars (which are current in the cameras eye), rusted buildings and train tracks. i thought these photos would make a good series. the top one is the first shot i took on the yashica and i'm really happy with how it turned out. i don't mind the light leak at all. the last two are from down near leary way, which is an industrial part of ballard. we had dinner at the hale's brewery and then walked around behind it. this is what i found!

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tonight i am going to try to go to a movie at the seattle international film festival. seattle is so lucky to have an amazing organization like siff, which for 20 days brings tons of films from all over the world and bombards the indie theatres in town with them. the problem is is that i never make the most of this 20 day festival in may. i get overwhelmed by the options, or by my own time. last year i even had a few friends working for siff so i got in for free. i still only went to one movie. it was chinese and beautiful and i fell asleep for most of it. so, anyway i am trying my best to go tonight. there is a french film playing, made by the director of monsieur ibrahim. it's called with a little help from my friends. i hope i make it.

have a wonderful friday!

yashica electro

poppy season! shots from my new yashica. i love these papery, light flowers. there are some in our yard that are just barely opening...they'll get there. i did have a recipe for recipe swap wednesday, but i'm too excited to show you these photos to pull out my recipe. sorry. maybe this evening?

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i have other exciting news: on monday, june 1st matthew amster-burton, seattle food writer/creator of roots and grubs blog will be at university book store for his newest book hungry monkey!! i just finished hungry monkey and could not stop smiling or laughing. he is hilarious! and so is his cute little daughter, iris. so i am very excited to host them on monday. if you are around, please come to hear him. i know it will be really fun (two extra incentives: there may be food + he's friends with molly wizenberg!)

sale rack

hello this week. did you have a good weekend? i did.

i almost forgot that i had to go back to work again. in fact, i almost forgot i had a full time job. now, that's a nice weekend. i don't have much time this morning to write, but i wanted to introduce my new inspired photo and this week's new camera theme. over there on the right is a wonderful, textured film shot by abby powell thompson from the infamous blog, abbytryagain. go check it out. abby's photogrpahy is one of the many reasons i wanted to explore old film cameras (lea bolvig's film explorations helped, too.) and when i saw a camera sale rack outside of jim's camera near my work, i picked up the nicest looking thing i found.



it turned out to be a yashica electro 35 G, of the 1970 vintage. it's that one on the top right.

i have to admit to you that i am still totally exploring and trying to figure this camera out, but it is so much fun!! i will be back with shots from this guy (disclaimer: they aren't all in focus) and some nice words about abby's shop (where you can even buy that photo over there on the right).
have a great start to your week!

hope your weekend has been wonderful and long. i wanted to post this photo because i love love love it. these daisies were just calling to be photographed and i am so happy with the way it turned out. this is the last of my holga shots for a while and i will be back on tuesday for a new inspired photo and some photos from yet another new camera. i can't wait to share, there are so many inspiring things going on!

second roll

second roll, lilac shots. this time i found that the focus on the holga's plastic lens does funny things. most of my pictures were really sharp on the outside and blurry in the middle. but check out that second lilac picture, the focus is on some random leaf. i wish i remembered what i had it set to. these are what my options look like. more to come and more on flickr.

i just remembered! a year ago today: i drove home in a new car and got offered a new job (the job i have now)! that day was a big day and really catapulted me into this new 'grown up' life i have. i was a few weeks away from college graduation and had been months into worrying about my next steps. the car signified growing up and moving on and the job secured what i would be doing for the next few years. i can't believe i've come a year from that exciting day. i feel so settled and comfortable in my job and my big girl life and i've also learned so much from it. i can't wait for the next steps.

more holga-time.
i'm reading plastic cameras, by michelle bates. michelle is local to seattle! yay! (which means, maybe the book should come from here, to keep it all in one city.) but anyway, i like the book a lot! and you can visit michelle's site here.

my dad also gave me a bunch of his past issues of light leaks, a magazine about plastic cameras. very cool.

and, lastly, i got my holga from holga mods. it's a one man show with a funky website, but he does an amazing job fixing up holgas to make them a little more reliable (i.e. so the back doesn't fly open while your shooting). and apparently he is super respected in the professional world. also, my order came in about two days! now that's service! (for an online ordering system where i do't actually get to talk to a realy person, that is.)

just turned in roll numero deux and can't wait to get those back!
hope you enjoy...

how it sees the world

i'm showing you the best first. this is my favorite of my first 12 holga shots. the vignetting came out perfectly and i'm really happy with the composition. i am especially happy with the content because now this same iris has matured much, having bloomed into a beautiful yellow, papery flower sunday morning.

if you didn't have time to visit the lomography site on holgas, i will give you a little more information on these cool plastic cameras. holgas came about in the 1980s in Hong Kong. they were intended to be a toy camera, with its plastic lens and plastic, lightweight body. there are about 6 options on the entire camera. you can choose cloudy or sunny; you can choose your focus distance, symbolized by flower, three people, many people and mountain; and you can choose to hold down the shutter as long as you want. holga's take 120 film, but if you want to use 35mm, you can add sponges to hold the film in place. i haven't yet gotten that far. with the 120 film you get a beautiful square shaped image that i'm really enjoying working with.

saturated colors, vignetting, easy double exposure (as done so well by tifanie), and the square image are token holga features. i love the way this thing sees the world! it is not the camera i would use for every setting, but when it is appropriate (so far, i have found it is appropriate with simple subjects), it really gives a different perspective on the world and on photography!

i have a few more shots to share with you throughout the week, but i'd like to hear what you have to say about plastic cameras. any users? any lovers? anyone not into them? why?

holga time

hi! i just got back my first roll of 120 film from my new holga and to celebrate, i've decided this week to feature tifanie's beautiful holga work in my inspired photo section. tifanie has so many beautiful holga shots and many more beautiful lomo shots, that i had a hard time choosing which to feature. ultimately, i chose the photo on the right there because of her technique.

if you click her link it will take you to her fabulous and inspiring blog, noddyboom. from the link you can read about when she took this photo. you can also be inspired by her other posts. but if you go to the photo on her flickr she tells you how she took this photo. that's what really grabbed me. here's what she said "shot with a holga. twice. once right side up, once upside down. love that."

i love that, too. i am a beginner at these funky, plastic cameras and tifanie's relaxed and experimental approach is really motivating. i've already shot two images twice on the same piece of film! thanks for the inspiration, tifanie.

soon, i will show you the photos i took and talk a bit more about what holga is. to hold you over, though, this site gives you all the info you'd want to know.

i hope you go visit tifanie's blog or flickr and check out all of her gorgeous photos.

see you soon!!

extremes

night time at my house has been really beautiful. i thought you'd like to see it.
it seems that the craziness in my life and job have been really up and down. it will be relaxed and slow for a bit, then really hectic and crazy for a bit. right now i'm in the hectic and crazy extreme. it's funny, though, because those crazy times is also when a lot of my creative ideas and energy comes out. maybe i can learn to hold onto those ideas until it is slow and then i can put them into action. hopefully.
it helps when i com home and the sky looks like it does in the shots above. that helps a lot.

tulip fields

pictures from my tulip trip a while back.

these red and orange variety were my favorite because they look so unique.
they are called miranda tulips.
down below is my favorite photo. it was on a wall of wood seperating the port-a-potties
from the tulip display.

now, most of the tulips in my 'hood have lost their petals to the turning season. ours are in their peak because they live in mostly shade. we have red ones that bloomed and then, a week later, deep deep purple bloomed. i love those colors.