Grey and Gloom

It is that time of year when it feels like we live in a giant rain cloud here on the west coast. We get a few sunny days here and there that fool us into thinking that spring has arrived, then the rain clouds roll in again and we all go back to our gloomy day.
I wonder if my grey and gloom has been emphasised by my experimenting with more black & white film lately? It certainly doesn't seem to capture the mood of this time of year quite well.

Above photos taken with my Pentax K1000 and Kodak 400CN Film.

 
To black & white film's defense, it also captures those few sunny, happy moments pretty well too....

Above 2 photos taken with my new Nikon FE and Ilford Delta 3200 film (more on this film and camera to follow).

Au naturel

I sometimes wonder if trees feel naked and rather embarrassed when they go from this...

to this...

You know... like those poor cats that get shaved in the summer to keep cool. They always look so shy and humiliated. Poor kitties... poor trees.

All photos taken with my Pentax K1000 and Fujifilm RHPIII (color slide film)

Lingering remnants of Christmas

I am a firm believer that holidays should have a set start and end time. Christmas should last for the month of December and that is it. It should not start in November and end in March. Sticking to shorter holiday times makes them feel more special and exciting. Christmas lights, even in February just look sad. They lose that warm and cheerful feeling that they give in those magical few weeks leading up to Christmas.

That being said, I have a few Christmas themed pictures that need to be posted before it gets too far away. And doesn't it already seem like the holidays happened a lifetime ago? January was possibly the longest month ever!

What are your thoughts about Christmas decorations? What is your prefered dates for set-up and take down?

Though it doesn't look like it, these Christmas balls were actually the size of my head!

Christmas lights on the bare, snowless trees of Vancouver always look funny to me

I always think Christmas decorations in the day time look kind of sad, they lose their magic.

All photos taken with my Pentax K1000 and Fujifilm RHPIII (color slide film)

"B" - Film26 Project #2

The last two weeks of January were dedicated to the letter "B" for the Film26 Project that I am participating in this year. Here are the two pictures that I chose to submit to the group.

Bird

Bearded man in Bowler Hat

All photos taken with my Pentax K1000 and Kodak 400CN Film.

"A" - Film26 Project #1

The incessant rain and sometimes wet, soggy, slush that has opened itself onto our fair city has kept me from getting out and shooting film! I am really lucky that there was some breathing room in the first month of the Film26 project, but now the excuses are over. I need to get shooting and developing film a lot more quickly.

So with out further ado... the first 2 entries I submitted to the Film26 photogroup.

"A" is for "Adorable Animals"

Our friend's puppy - Chopper. Spring loaded and ready to catch that ball!

Random puppy waiting outside in the rain. At least he's got his rain coat on!

The colour photo was taken with our new Kodak Retinette IA and Kodak ultracolor 100 film. The black and white was taken with my Pentax K1000 and Kodak 400CN Film.

New babies, New Year, New Project!

Over the Christmas holidays, our sister-in-law surprised us with a big box of old analogue cameras which had accumulated at her house from past relatives, etc. She told us to go through them and take whatever we wanted. We were like kids in a candy store!! We were so happy!

These are all the new babies that we brought home with us:

The two cameras on the far left are both Kodak Instamatic. The blue one is a Hawkeye R4 (1965-1971) and the brown on is a X15F (1976-1988). Both take 126mm film cartridges, which are very difficult to find. They both had old, partially used rolls in them already. We just finished them off  but still need to get them developed. We are going to try to get the developers to keep the cartridges for us so that we can try to reload them with regular 35mm film using this awesome tutorial from lomography.com.
The super awesome looking camera in the center is a Zeiss Ikon Nettar 515 (I think), made in Germany between 1934-1958. It also takes an unusual but slightly easier to find film size - 120mm, which can be bought at a few specialty shops around town, or ordered online. I am most excited and anxious to try this one out. I really hope that it works!
Next, is a pretty high tech Nikon FE (1978-1983) which has even more manual settings than our Pentax K1000 cameras, and a lovely 43-86mm lens. This one is going to take some reading and experimenting to master, but at least it take regular 35mm film!
Finally, the beautiful silver camera on the left with the lovely brown leather case (we both actually "oooh-ed" when we pulled it out), is a Kodak Retinette IA which was produced from 1963-1967. I already shot a 35mm roll with this one, and though it looks very pretty, it is not particularily practical. There are limited settings and the focusing uses a "distance focus" system which I find slightly frusterating (I had a lot of blurry photos in my first roll). I am not giving up on it just yet. I'll definitely come back to it in a little while.

As a very important side note - those two beautiful photo albums in the background were gifts from one of my dearest friends Erin. She sent them to Jeffrey and I for Christmas. I can't wait to fill them up!

And with all these new cameras and a brand new year beginning, I was inspired to join a new photo project for 2012. I am still going to pop into the Weekly Assignment Group (which has also been revamped), but will remain focused on shooting more film. The film26 project is organized by the lovely ladies over at Girl's Guide to Gear, and is a challenge to shoot a year in film. The year is divided into 2-week long projects, every project representing a letter of the alphabet. So for January, I took pictures inspired by the letter A for 2 weeks, then by the letter B for the next two weeks. In February I will start C, and so on and so forth. I am really excited for this project and to get to know all of my cameras a little better, and to hopefully improve my photography skills.
I am also thinking of ordering some (pricey!) polaroid film from the Impossible Film Project, since we have 4 different polaroid type cameras all lying around with nothing to do.

Expanding my horizons in 2012!!

Keep Calm and Macaron

We dropped off a few rolls of film to be developed last weekend and when I got back this roll, I was surprised to find pictures that spanned from August to December! It seems that the fall was such a busy time for me that I couldn't even get through a roll of film before the end of 2011. But, things seem a little calmer now, and with the motivation of the new Film26 project that I am trying out this year, I hope to be getting through a lot more film and posting a lot more frequently here.

These photos were taken last summer when a post I wrote about the macarons at La Duree in Paris, sparked a conversation between some friends about finding the best macarons in Vancouver. Thus beginning the "Great Vancouver Macaron Crawl". My friend Michelle took some beautiful digital photos and wrote about it on her blog here.
Since this outing, we have actually added two more places to our list of places to try and will soon organize another Macaron Crawl. Any suggestions for places to add to the list?

The Urban Tea Merchant - Best Overall Macarons & Most Expensive

Thierry's - Not even a contender

Thierry's - skip the macarons here, and head straight for the croissants, very tasty indeed!

Ganache Bakery - Most dissapointing overall

 We also tried Chopain on Davie, and must have had day old macarons because they were awful! We actually threw one of them out! I have heard though, that their fresh macarons are a little better.

Thomas Haas - Best Bang for your Buck: tasty but not as expensive as The Urban Tea Merhant

My beautiful and always hilarious "dessert companions" - Michelle & Sarah

All photos taken with my Pentax K1000 and Fujifilm RHPIII (which we picked as part of a whole bundle of film at a garage sale and is apparently a slide film. Despite having to send it away to be developped and paying a little more, I have to say the colour is actually very impressive!)