Spring

Spring is here! Flowers are popping up everywhere, and blue sky is dominating the South East of England. I love spring, I love that after a long winter where the cold cuts through the bones and the tree branches are covered in frost and snow, creating skeletal shapes on horizons making it seem like winter will never end. I love that after what seems like months of dark nights, and freezing mornings the earth comes alive again with a big bang. Over night (or so it seems) flowers spring from the ground and from trees, and blossom guides my way on pavements, instead of ice and rain. This year I'm embracing all of spring, from the wind to the April showers, I'm taking it all in, waiting, patiently for Summer to start.

(The above shots were taken on my Rolleiflex, with Kodak Ektar 120mm 100 film and a close-up filter held in front of the lens).

Plastic Fantastic

Many people think that to be a photographer you need the best equipment, a big snazzy DSLR and a wide variety of lenses. I thought that when I first wanted to get into photography, I got myself a new entry level canon and I set about taking photographs of just about anything.  Of course, I soon realised that it takes a lot more than that to get a decent photo; I took to flickr for inspiration and to learn about aspects of photography. I wasn’t long into my quest when I found some soft focus, high contrast, square images, all tagged with one word ‘Holga’. I went straight online and brought myself a shiny red plastic camera that came equipped with black tape to tape up the edges to stop light leaks (if you wanted to). I looked at the roll of 120 film that came with it strangely as I curiously put it into the back of my new plastic camera. Once the film was in I took to shooting anything I could, it was the simplest camera I could imagine with a few focal distances and a basic flash. Although it was so simple I was hooked, the images were soft and beautiful, as the years went by I started experimenting with different film cameras and films getting more creative as the months went by.  

The above pictures were from my most recent plastic camera (the Diana 151) taken on my recent holiday in Washington and Delaware, the last two photos were accidental long exposures and they happen to be my favourite ones from the roll.  It just goes to show it doesn’t take a big expensive DSLR camera to take photos that make you feel creatively happy, it takes the willingness to experiment with ideas, to learn the tool that you’re using (from DSLR to iphone and everything in-between) and the ability to accept that sometimes things will go wrong, but that’s not a necessarily bad thing.

Some of my favourite creative photographers at the moment, from polaroid to Micro 4 thirds.

Fiery eyed     henebry     j.carons    mia.em     Ant