Jeffrey should post more photos...

Don't you think?

He took this one on my Canonet 28 while we were at the Richmond Night Market with my parents. I think it has great colour and lovely contrast. He has a keen eye and takes fantastic pictures, but he never shares them with other people. They just sit on his computer and get forgotten. I wish he would post more often.

Photo by Jeffrey, taken with my Canonet 28 and Kodak Max 400 colour film.

A la plage

I know that Vancouver has a ton of beautiful beaches, and a gorgeous coastline... I am slightly embarrassed to say that I don't make it down there very often. I guess I'm not really a beach person (unless it is at my family's cabin on the lake). This summer I made 2 trips to Vancouver beaches, but neither was a beach destined outing, the beach was simply a place to stop to take a break during a bike ride - the first around Stanley Park on tandem, the second a ride out to Kitsilano in search of pie.
Luckily I was equiped with my cameras to capture the beach dwellers.

Above photos taken with my Canonet 28 and Kodak Max 400 film.
Below photos taken with my Olympus Pen F and Kodak Max 400 film.

The water was so low this day, it seemed you could walk out forever!

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Opposite view from the first photo - that is Stanley Park at the right of this shot

Does anyone else find it odd that while on a beach it is perfectly accepted, and in fact normal to stand half naked and talk to someone? Can you imagine being in another location, standing and talking to someone in a bikini? Social norms are such a funny thing.

Port Moody

A long, long time ago, before the beginning of summer holidays and the madness of back-to-school anxiety, Jeffrey and I took a walk with a few great friends and their puppies. I brought along my Canonet 28, we stopped for fish n' chips and ice cream. The school year was ending and the summer months were just about to begin. Though I have had a very restful and enjoyable summer vacation - I'm not really sure that I am ready to go back just yet.
So instead I will live in this moment for just a little longer.

All photos taken with my Canonet 28 and Kodak Max 400 film.

The Visitors

After the hectic move at the beginning of the summer, we were very lucky to have one of my very best friends and her lovely husband come to visit us all the way from Montreal. It was such a great time and I was super sad to see them leave... fortunately we had a week long vacation to Montreal planned just a few weeks later (more on that later).

Jeffrey looked as handsome as ever

We ate and talked and ate and talked...

*I swear we were having an interesting conversation and those are looks of intent listening and not sheer boredom. Also to their defense I was trying just to get a shot of the epic "Canadian Stand Off" on that Charcuterie platter (when no one will take the last bit of food on a plate for fear of being impolite) but couldn't get focused closer up - they had no idea they were in the picture.

 

Jeffrey climed into a giant tree

We rode tandem bikes around the seawall (random lady posed in the background)

We enjoyed the beautiful Vancouver coast

Took pictures of birds sitting on a mermaid's head

Rode under the Lion's Gate bridge

Took lots of photos - tourist style

Took a break on the beach

 *Doesn't this look like a postcard from the 70's or something? I love the grainy texture I get on my Canonet sometimes.

And Jeffrey still looked handsome.

It was a great visit full of laughter, wine, bbqs and great conversation. If only they could live here all the time.

All photos taken with my Canonet 28 and Kodak Max 400 colour film.

P is for Passage Way, Perched, & Pie!

Since we are leaving tomorrow for a week vacation to Montreal (Yay!), I am getting my Film26 Project done and posted earlier than usual. I am hoping to bring back plenty of rolls of film from the trip and will have enough photos to keep me posting well into the fall (I'm sure!).

P is for:

Passage Way

 I love the old texture and tones that my Canonet seems to randomly give to some photos (but not all) - though it is a pain to try to focus, it is turning into one of my favourite film cameras.

Perched - on a rock and on a head

This seagull found a great resting spot on this well known statue in Stanley Park. I was not the only one stopped to capture this. 

Above photos taken with my Canonet 28 and Kodak Max 400 Film

Pie! (Strawberry rhubarb if I remember correctly)

At one of the best places in Vancouver for pie: Aphrodite's. Since I was sharing this piece with a friend, they gave us two scoops of ice cream and two cinnamon hearts on the plate. It was as delicious as it looks.

This photo taken with my Olympus Pen F and Kodak Max 400 film.
 

M is for Medley & Mariana

 I can't believe I am already halfway through the Film26 Project! Which also means that 2012 is half over! Is this not crazy?? Well I am super proud that I have kept up and made it this far, and hopefully with summer vacation now in full swing (yay!) I'll be able to get out and snap more photos.

M is for...

A Medley of flowers

Taken with my Pentax K1000 and Kodak Max 400 film. 

Mariana! My dear friend Alisa's dog who has the kindest, gentlest soul.

Taken with my Canonet 28 and Kodak Max 400 film.

p.s. This post is just a little late - though the pictures were submitted to the group on time, I completely forgot to post them here! Today is actually the last day for our N submissions, so my N photos will be posted shortly.

What is right in the world - Part 2

 Last week, I started a series of posts entitled - "What is right in the world". Last week's post featured pictures of babies (babies that are not mine - which for the moment is just perfect for me).

Here is part 2 of 3: What is right in the world: Puppies!
(Puppies that are also not mine, which is NOT entirely perfect for me right now, but since we have so many loving and adorable puppy friends in our lives, it is alright. We'll have one of our own someday).

The ever adorable Friday

Taken with my Pentax K1000 & Kodak Max 400 colour film.

Playful and loving Mariana

She is the gentle giant

An adorable pug we came across in the park - doesn't he look so serious?

Taken with my Canonet 28 & Kodak Max 400 colour film.

My buddy Chopper

My first attempts with the Impossible Film Project - Taken with our Polaroid Sun 660

A little help from my friends...

... friends meaning my digital photo enhancing programs. I know, I know! First a digital camera and now photoshop?! (Well photofiltre actually, it's free and it's all I really need). What is this blog coming to?
Well the truth of the matter is, as I learn more about photography, the more my photos have become precious to me. When they don't work out, I have a hard time just letting them go... especially when they are so close to being good. This is where photofiltre comes in. Every once in awhile, some shots just need a little help... a simple "enhance colour" here or "increase contrast" there. Nothing major, just a touch-up. My friend Mandy once reckoned it to being "my digital darkroom". And since (for the time being anyway) I have to leave my developing up to the sometimes-not-so-professionals at the local Drugstore, this gives me back a little bit of control over my creations. And to me, they are just that... my mini pieces of art. I always wished I was better at painting or drawing, well, this has become that outlet for me, and I need that extra creative license sometimes.
These pictures were taken with my Canonet 28, using expired Fuji 200ISO film. I have been experimenting taking indoor shots with the Canonet because it has an attachable flash that syncs properly with the shutter. My lack of luck with being able to properly focus my Canonet gave these shots a sort of eerie feeling, and the expired film left the colour extremely washed out. But with a simple convert to greyscale with photofiltre -voila! Eerie, yet interesting photos - who probably never would have seen the light of the internet had it not been for photo software. Maybe some consider it cheating, I don't care... I consider it another tool in my art belt (and I am determined to stop feeling guilty or like a fraud for it!).
I am most certainly not saying that these are great shots... I just really like them for some reason.

Shiver me timbers!

Can't you just feel the cold in these winter park shots? My family and I spent a lot of times lounging indoors over the holidays and decided one day to get the kids and the dogs out to the park for some fresh air and exercise. Well, by the time we all got bundled up, the various strollers, leashes and what-not figured out, the sun had gone away and small flurries had started to blow. But, since we had already put so much effort into getting ready, we persevered.
We did have a good time and laughed about it all when we came home frozen to the bones and covered in snow, but I also got a chance to take some shots in a not-so-favourable lighting... dim and grey. I often shy away from taking photos in this lighting as I find they sometimes come out looking flat. But as with the other challenges I have faced in this photo-adventure, I think I am finally figuring things out!
These shots were taken with my Pentax K1000 and with my Canonet. I was pleasantly surprised to find that several of the shots turned out really great! I am still partial to the Pentax shots over the Canonet, but I figured I would post both anyways. Enjoy :)

Pentax Shots

Canonet Shots 

(I got pretty frustrated out in the cold trying to focus the Canonet - it's not an easy feat, so there are only a few of these)

P.S. I am trying out a new photo size on this post. What do you think? Better size or too big? It's so hard for me to tell on my tiny laptop.

Throwing caution to the proverbial wind...

So I was about to give up on my Canonet 28 because of it's lack of manual controls, difficulty in focusing, limited lens, and general unpredictability, until... I got back this roll of film that changed my mind. The ironic thing is that actually by today's photography standards not a single shot in the roll would be considered a "good photograph". But thanks to two of my favourite, inspiring film photography blogs - Dream Camera and Black Eyed Angel, as well as my new found addiction to flickr (with such amazing groups as Grainy, Blurry, Yet Good), I have come to appreciate and love the glitches that come with shooting film; not in spite of the "faults", but rather because of them. This roll from my Canonet 28 is case in point.
Sometime ago, my mother unloaded a whole bag full of film from the fridge at her work because it was simply not going to get used up. It was a mish-mash of film that I am sure had been sitting there for at least 10 years. A few of them were in boxes with expiry dates (averaging around 2007), but others were just rolls in their canisters with no expiration dates to be found. Well, I figured... one of the reasons I love shooting film is because of the element of surprise, expired film is like walking on the wild side, throwing caution to the wind, dancing with the devil! ... ok, maybe I have gone too far there, none the less, I figured... why the hell not.
These are a few of my favourites from that fateful roll. I think the expired film gives them such an "old" feeling. Like I had found a box of long lost photos in the attic that didn't quite make the cut to be put in the family photo albums.

And I am actually kinda proud of my little Canonet 28, she did alright in the end. More from this roll and the holidays to come soon enough...