a little old skool ...

So one of my favourite things to do right now is to shoot film ... I love that i have the chance to experiment with my mountain of film cameras (i have getting up towards 100 of them), I love the anticipation of waiting for them to get developed. Right now it's a little hit & miss & since most of my cameras are vintage there are some "individualities" to them. But it's so much fun & i will improve! 

So in taking a break from Scotland here are the results of the 3 rolls i picked up today ... happy viewing. 

camera: Zenit ET

format: 35mm

film: Lomo color 100

camera: LC-A

format: 35mm

film: Kodak Portra 160 

camera: Diana

format: 120

film: Kodak Portra 100

Anyways i hope you enjoyed my experiements ... no editing was done to these images & one day i hope to be able to print myself. I am though added some to my etsy shop "ooh pretty shiny" for purchase. 

Have a great night.

xx

the Isle of Seil ...

After a loooong night ... day two was spent on the Isle of Seil. Part of the Slate Islands, southwest of Oban it is linked to the "mainland" by the Clachen Bridge otherwise known as the "Bridge over the Atlantic" ... & boy did it have a hump! We explored the tiny little town of Ellenabeich (used in the filming of Ring of Bright Water) & had lunch at a lovely pub called the Tigh an Truish otherwise known as the House of Trouser. So today less words & more photos ... enjoy! xx

day one of Scotland ...

Day one in Scotland ... we were lazy! I must add we had a very tired cranky little boy (little did we know just how bad that would get) & the weather wasn't great. It was grey & blaaaaaah ... cold i can handle, rain i can handle ... blah (that's a weather term by the way) i can't handle. It's had to be inspired by blah! 

So we started off by checking out Oban ... it's got a harbor & a main road & not much more to it. & here you can see the very beginning of the boat pictures ... there will be a lot of them. I think they became my "bicycle" of Scotland! 

                                Lensbaby Composer Pro & Edge 80

With nothing else planned for the afternoon we took the Munchkin & headed to The Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary which was a whole 10 minutes from our cottage & a ticket lasted a week (perfect for the munchkin). It was a little slice of Jacob heaven ... & i liked the jelly fishes! 

                                Lensbaby Composer Pro & Sweet 35

                                Lensbaby Composer Pro & Double Glas

So having explored the aquarium with a gradually increasingly grumpy Jacob we found a little haven of tranquility ... the sanctuary was on the shores of Loch Creran & oh my was it beautiful. The kind of beautiful that takes your breath away. It seemed i had officially arrived in Scotland (well the Scotland i pictured in my head). Unfortunately up to this point i had only taken my lensbaby with me but i knew i would be returning!

                 Lensbaby Composer Pro & Double Glass

                                Lensbaby Composer Pro & Edge 80

So after dinner (keeping mind this is Scotland so basically my bed time) i headed out to work on some long exposures, making a return to the shoreline of Loch Creran (i couldn't help myself) with my 24-70mm for company ...

                                Nikon 24-70mm

... & then across the bridge at Connel down to the edge of Loch Etive. Well the skies weren't that pretty (it was overcast) but i have to admit it wasn't colour i was looking for, just practice & learning a new skill. & i am all kinds of happy with the results. 

                                Nikon 24-70mm

                                Lensbaby Composer Pro & Edge 80

I loved being out there, enjoying the peace & quiet ... it sounds stupid but taking a moment for yourself makes all the difference. You focus better, you see clearer & you can simply enjoy being.

Have a wonderful night.

xx

the road to Scotland ...

So it's been a while ... i am a really bad blogger ... but i will try again & get some pretties online for you. I will say in my defense that all kinds of stuff has been going on (great stuff) so blogging went to the way side. But i am back hopefully long term starting with our recent trip to Scotland. 

As you can imagine i shot A LOT ... both digital & film ... & i'm slowly working my way through the images. With this in mine you will get a number of Scotland posts an attempt to keep the number of images per post low. So this is the loooooong journey from my parents house to the cottage we would be staying in close to Oban on the north west coast of Scotland. 

& it wasn't a fun journey 1. because any length of time in a car with a toddler that exceeds 30 minutes is going to go wrong at some point & because the weather was horrendous ... it rained. Not a great start to the vacation. But me being me made the most of it ... reading my book & playing around with my camera. & as a result of my editing i have an idea for a project i hope to start working on next month (i just need to make a small purchase first). 

So here we are ... everything was shot using my Nikon D800 with my Lensbaby Composer pro & either the Edge 80 optic or the Double Glass. 

Hopefully i will be back tomorrow with some more photos ... maybe a Loch! Have a wonderful memorial day or bank holiday or just a happy Monday! 

xx

jacob + sweet 35 = perfectly imperfect portraits

So this is a project i was inspired to do by another photographer ... shot entirely with my Lensbaby Composer & Sweet 35 I wanted to: 

1. get to know my sweet 35 a little more

2. capture my son "in the moment".

As {portrait} photographers I feel as if i focus too much on you know having the image in focus than the moment itself so we loose something in the story telling. I wanted it to be more about him than me. & the sweet 35 was the perfect way of doing that. Manually focusing on a 2 year old boy who refused to sit still is a nightmare {try it ... i dare you} ... but it sums up so much of who he is. 

So on Tuesday ... my son's second birthday ... it seemed like the perfect way of capturing his day. I focused solely on him at home, in the zoo {mama & Jacob's big day out} & then in the evening when Dada came home & we opened presents & ate cake. 

So apologies for my inability to "edit" photos of my son but i hope you enjoy our wonderful day together ...