Water, Water everywhere.

I love being by the water, I've spent my life growing up on the South Coast of England. I live 10 minutes from the Thames Estuary, now it isn't the most beautiful beach, but it has its charms and some days when the light hits the river it glitters like a thousands diamonds on those days you feel so incredibly lucky to be in this part of the world. Since I was little I have been in love with the water, any type will do from the great big expanse of ocean to tranquil lakes, from babbling brooks to raging rivers. The following photos are from my trip to Wales, where we found lakes, rivers, brooks, water falls and finally my true water love, the ocean. 

There's a quote I love, it goes something along the lines of The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea" Now, I love all types of water, but the sea, oh the sea, will always hold a special place in my heart. Seriously is there anything better than being by the ocean? From big quiet beaches, loud roaring waves to the hushed 'wooshes' of the tide. I couldn't be too far from the sea, I love it too much.

And let's be honest... who doesn't love a waterfall? This is the falls that we walked behind, after clambering over rocks and walking through the river with little rainbows springing up from it we got to stand behind the curtain of water. It was the most amazing experience, I loved being behind such a great force, the noise was extreme but we couldn't help but laugh and smile as the spray hit us.

Photos taken on my 

Polaroid SX70 and Impossible Project Color Shade COOL film.

And my Rolleiflex and Kodak Ektar film.

Holiday time!

It's no secret to the people that know me best that I love travelling and adventures, I love the planning and the excitement of going somewhere new, experiencing different things and making new memories. It doesn't matter to me if I go to the end of the world (although, one day I will go there) or somewhere closer to home, to me an adventure is an adventure. I'm excited to say that I'm going on a mini adventure tomorrow, I'm off to the Welsh Mountains for 10 days with my boyfriend and my parents; I am so excited, I love being in the mountains. Last year I went to the Scottish Highlands for three weeks, three wonderful weeks I spent exploring mountains, lochs, forests and the ocean, it was the most magical place and I fell in love with it there. I can't wait to go see what Wales has to offer, I hope to love it as much as I loved Scotland. I truly love being out in the middle of nowhere, I love the mountain air, sitting under the night sky with no lights around, surrounded by thousands of stars, under the dark shadow of earth's giants. 

Of course, I have packed a suitcase full of cameras and film. I am itching to get over there and start photographing the amazing sights that I'll see with the people that I love. But, as with my family who are all travel nuts, we have to stay in more than one place, you know, to get the true experience of where ever we visit (everyone does that, right?) before we go to the mountains of the Snowdonia National Park we'll be spending a few days in the beautiful town Hay-on-Wye, a town nestled in the south of Wales on the River Wye where almost every shop is a book shop, I am so incredibly excited! I love books and reading, I love exploring book shops and the smell of old books, the feel of the paper and the creases in the spine of a good book. I'm going to get payback to my boyfriend who has dragged me around more record stores than you could shake a stick at; I'm not sure if he's aware of how much time we will be spending exploring the book shops! Sorry, Ant in advance! Also, sorry to my bank account that I'm sure will get a beating whilst there. I hope I can photograph a couple of them inside, I have a feeling they'd look beautiful on Impossible Project film. 

I'll be back on the 8th of September, with lots of stories and photos. Hopefully with all of my bones and limbs still attached from doing all of the white water rafting, wild swimming, mountain biking and canoeing we'll also be doing. 

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