Renewed love

Over the holidays I had a wonderful time playing with my new d-SLR and managed to take well over 500 photos (though I was pretty good at weeding them down as I went, I still have at least 300 left on my computer). And it served the exact purpose that I wanted it to, instant photos that I could share with my family immediately. Everyone went home from the holidays with a usb or laptop full of my photos - since I seemed to be taking so many, everyone else felt less obliged to capture them with their own (which is fine by me). And I really did get some good shots of my family and all the excitement with them (without ever having to reload or scrutinize too much over the shot since I could simply erase any I didn't like and try again).
But I also managed to take 2 1/2 rolls of film (which isn't bad considering how much time I spent with my digital and how much time we spent just lounging about inside and doing nothing particularly photo-worthy). One roll was with my trusty Pentax K1000 and the other with my still experimental Canonet 28. The other half roll is still waiting to be finished in my Olympus Pen F.
The beautiful thing was that as soon as I finished those rolls and got them developed I couldn't wait to see them! And when I did, I spent so much time just looking through them again and again deciding how to post and organize them for my blog... I just couldn't wait to share them! And there my friends... was my renewed love with film. That is why I love those cameras and why I will never abandon them. My digital is wonderful and it serves a very practical purpose (which is also great!)... but my film cameras are completely impracticable and fantastic because of that! The pictures are special, carefully calculated... there is so much more invested in each shot and yet the results are always a surprise!
So for now, since I still can't decide how to organize my next post... I will give you my absolute favourite shot of the whole trip (film & digital alike)... taken with my Pentax K1000 and expired Polaroid 200 film.

My mom & baby niece - Pentax K1000

Love.

My new d-SLR

Wait! What?? Did she say d-SLR, as in digital SLR?! *Gasp!* But I thought she was a film lover! This blog is supposed to be about Old Technologies! Has she gone to the dark side forever?

No, no, no.. fret not my film loving friends, I still adore my film cameras and plan to continue my love affair with them. But I have always wanted a good digital camera for all that practical stuff, like family dinners, Christmas morning with my little nieces, birthday parties with my friends. The kind of stuff that I don't want to miss out on because I am too busy fussing with shutter speed and aperture settings. When I want to capture a moment in a picture, but I don't want to let the moment slip by without enjoying it in the present. This is what I love about a digital. My new digital is a Canon Rebel XS that has a ton of choices in terms of settings in that it can be fully manual or fully automatic so it is extremely versatile for whatever I need. For just an anytime quick shot or a more complex artistic shot. (Thanks Mom & Dad for the birthday present!)

An added bonus to my new digital camera is the increased learning curve about general photography stuff (like depth of field, aperture, etc.) because I have instant feedback and can compare pictures with different settings immediately. As a beginner photographer, this has been wonderful for learning quickly.

So I will mostly stick to film photos being posted here, but may include some digitals if I get any really great shots. I find in general, very little is gained from exclusivity... so why not apply this rule to my blog as well?

Looks like I am going to need a bigger bag for all my cameras this holiday!!

My first experimental shots from the Vancouver Christmas Market this past weekend.

Take me Home, Country Roads...

Every time I go back to Alberta to visit Jeffrey's family, I can't help but sing that song. They live in a rural prairie area where golden tones rule and the sky seems to go on forever. When we first started dating, we always had the debate: Mountains vs. Prairies (me being from the Rockies, him being from the Flatlands). I could never understand how flat could be beautiful... that is until I visited his hometown. There was a point when we were riding our bikes out of town into the farmlands and I was literally stopped dead in my tracks by the vastness of the sky! I never understood just how small the sky could make you feel and how awe inspiring that openness could be.
Now don't get me wrong, I will still choose mountains over prairies any day of the week, but I certainly have a new found appreciation for the beauty of those prairie skies. These photos were taken on a hike over the Thanksgiving long weekend. Although there aren't any sky shots, they certainly captured those lovely yellow tones. All photos taken with my Olympus Pen F.

Happy Birthday to a wonderful man!

Happy Birthday to my best friend, my future husband, and my favourite photo subject...

I love you! 

P.S. Why are you so darn photogenic?!

Ol' Jack Frost

The snow has long since been washed away by the typical winter rains here in Vancouver, and with it, my Christmas spirit. That one weekend of fresh snow really put me in the Christmas mood, but somewhere between all of my different "to do lists", the mood has faded. But luckily the pictures remain!! (And the to do lists have at least gotten shorter).
These shots were from later in the day on that first snowfall, when the sun came out and began to melt away my winter wonderland. All shots taken with my Olympus Pen F.

P.S. I got a very exciting birthday present yesterday, which I will share more about soon :)

Whimsical Winter

A few weekends ago, I happen to wake up very early on Saturday morning to see that overnight, the first snowfall had covered the city. Now, in Vancouver we don't often get snow this early in the year, and if we do, it doesn't stick around for long. The untouched fresh snow got me all giddy like a kid on Christmas morning... so of course, instead of crawling quietly back into my cozy bed and enjoying a much needed and deserved "gros matin" (sleep-in), I sprang into bed, waking up poor snoozing Jeffrey, chattering all the while about the snow and how I just had the impulse to grab my camera and go for a walk in it before the world woke up and disturbed it. To my surprise, Jeffrey simply laughed and responded "Actually I saw the snow a few hours ago and thought about waking you up to do exactly that" (This is why I love this man!!).
So that is what we did. Threw on some warm clothes, snapped up our cameras (me with my Olympus Pen F and him with his Pentax K1000) and set off to wander this winter wonderland in the darkness of the early morning. It felt so whimsical and magical to be out enjoying the quiet, snow covered streets, while everyone else was warm in their beds.

Eventually our fingers got cold and our bellies began to grumble, so we stopped into a cozy retro 24-hour diner in our neighborhood to warm up and grab some grub (and to snap a few pictures of course).

By the time we left the diner, the sun was coming up and the rest of the world was waking up. Our little secret rendez-vous in the wee hours of the morning had come to an end, and it was our little secret. :)

Sorry about the quality of the interior and early morning shots, I am still figuring out shutter speeds in low lighting.

Look Up!

Amongst my other photographic tendencies (such as berries, reflections and cars), I am also drawn to towers and steeples. I am not sure if it stems from my romantic image of the princess high above in the turret or from growing up in the mountains surrounded by majestic peaks. Or maybe I have taken advice to "keep your chin up" a little too far. Regardless, I find a strange contentment in looking up at those towers.
Do you ever have those things in your life that you just love to look at for no explicable reason?