travels with my holga

If you follow me on Instagram then you'd know that I was lucky enough to spend five weeks in Paris and Italy. I probably over posted slightly ;) but I was so excited and overwhelmed to be there I just couldn't help myself! It was total visual overload!

I decided to take a few cameras thinking each one would serve a different purpose. I quickly discovered I had over indexed here! Next time I travel (and plans are being made right now!) it will be with one 35mm camera and my beloved Holga (and of course an iPhone). The Canon Mark II was just too big and heavy and ended up driving me crazy!

I love travelling with a Holga because you just never know what you'll end up with. Its usually a huge surprise or big disappointment! Here are some of my favourite surprises - just the way I remember  - slightly dreamy and a little bit magical...

christenings, tears and lightroom - in that order

I recently photographed a friend's baby's Greek Orthodox Christening and have just finished working my way through editing them in Lightroom. I've finally wrapped my head around using the software, however I think its time for some advanced lessons. I know what I'm trying to achieve but I'm not quite there yet and its really time consuming process! In the interim here are some of my faves of this divine (and slightly traumatised) little cutie!

holga in hakone

My super amazing trip to Tokyo in April was made even more amazing when we visited the Hakone Open Air Museum - or as I like to call it 'the most magical place on earth!'

Just an hour out of Tokyo on the very fast 'Romance Car' this open air gallery is nestled in the most incredible Hakone landscape. It is filled with sculpture and has one of the largest Henry Moore collections in the world as well as an entire pavilion dedicated to Picasso - suffice to say we were a little bit excited!

The plan was to stay at the museum for a couple of hours then head off to explore the rest of Hakone in the hope of seeing Mt Fuji... 5 hours later we were still there! If you ever get to Tokyo this must go on your itinerary - I can't wait to go back!

I had my Holga as well as my DSLR - I wish I shot more with the Holga as it was a perfect day for it...

the last of the impossible

I have been working my way through the last couple of packs of Impossible Project PX Cool & PX Silver Shade Cool. Its a little bit expired in my 'I don't want to waste film' paranoia so I thought I should just suck it up and use the film! Its still really hit and miss - (more miss I think!) and I'm in constant awe and wonder as to how people are actually getting successful results with this very unstable film! The Impossible Project stopped production in August to reassess film production and have now just released a new family of film that I'm very much looking forward to getting my hands on. Successful images or not - I really do love that camera - check out this most awesome little film over here!

 

love open house melbourne

Last weekend was the Open House Melbourne event (where iconic buildings and unusual spaces are made open to the public). Its one of those things I plan to do every year but for whatever reason I've never made it - which is ridiculous since most of these buildings are literally on my door step!

So armed with a camera and my very own archi-nerd partner we finally did some exploring! It was a great way to spend the weekend and there is a simple joy in seeing people get excited about the city. Amongst everything we did I managed to spend time in two of my all time favourite buildings - RMIT Hub and Orica House - oh what archi-heaven!

Definitely put it on your list of things to do next year!

 

i blurbed my book!

I was so excited to receive my very first (and only) copy of a hard cover, bound and printed book filled with my photos! I've been meaning to do this for ages and I finally made the time to take the iPhone Instagram pics of my trip to Tokyo and turn them into a book. For someone that takes photos CONSTANTLY either as a form of story telling or visual diary having hundreds of photos that don't have a home seems like such a waste!

I used Blurb Books which is a super easy and super fast online service. They have great templates and you can download an InDesign extension for full creative control. Blurb allows you to do a direct import from Instagram. However I did this for a book I created for RK (secretly breaking into his account to put a book together of a trip he took a while ago) but because uploaded images are really compressed the quality isn't that great. This time I used the original pics from my iPhone (I generally don't use Insta-filters but do minor edits in Snapseed) so the resolution was much better.

I know this is just a glorified photo album but there is something about seeing my own work in a book that just makes it all a little more exciting! I already have another couple of projects on the go and look forward to creating my own personalised library!

postcards – a little more from tokyo!

Its taken me a while to work through editing these (and there's still more to do!). I'm drowning in learning how to use Lightroom and working out some kind of workflow. I'm slowly getting there I guess but the more time I spend with these photos the more desperate I am to get myself back to Tokyo!