Camera love

A few of my cameras, clockwise from the top left: Polaroid sx70, Diana mini, Polaroid 350 land camera, Canon Canonet QL17, Holga 120N, Holga 120 GN. The camera taking the photo? Its pretty new (to me): a Polaroid sx70 SONAR OneStep. I received it from an amazing woman/friend of mine as a gift out of the blue. How wonderful is that? The film is from The Impossible Project, the px70 PUSH! variety.

I'm loving how this photo turned out, how the center is the sharpest spot, and how the colors all turned out dreamy. (My Holga 120N is in real life black and pistachio.) And aren't the crackles so lovely? You can see it cropped and more up and personal by clicking here.

All of the cameras pictured above have been getting a lot of love lately, with the Diana mini being the exception. Not because of anything she's done. She's just brand new. As in, I got her in the post today and barely loaded her up with her inaugural roll of film. A fresh batch of Lucky brand film, 200 iso. I'm so looking forward to snapping away. If you don't yet know about the Diana mini, she's a special kind of camera that can take either square format photos or half frames. That means that if I wanted, I could get 72 photos out of one 36 exposure roll of film. I can also switch between square and half frame during one roll of film, and still do double exposures like I can with my regular-sized Diana (or Holga). Besides, she's ridiculously tiny and cute. And my only white camera. What's not to love about this camera? I'm taking her out of a test drive this weekend. I'll let you know how that all goes real soon. By the way, I bought this baby on clearance, which always feels nice.

Lawai International Center

As photographed with my Holga 120N camera.

Last August I spent a good portion of my afternoon wandering around this place. There is so much history attached to this tiny plot of land. So many memories, dreams, hopes, and prayers are attached to this location. My husband and I were the only two people on the tour so it was very peaceful and somewhat mysterious. (I called to schedule a tour only to find that they were closed for the remainder of my stay on Kauai. They graciously offered to give us a tour, anyway. Amazing people there at the Center.) This place has been a sacred ground for many generations and cultures, and you can feel it as you climb up and down the hill that's dotted with Japanese shrines.

The Gift of Spring

Thank you for bursting into life in my absence, for being so abundant, and for being so fragrant and happy in the face of the duration of winter.

lots of developing

So, since moving to southern Utah, I have found it quite difficult to get my medium format film developed and to get my 35mm film developed well. No one around here seems to be into film anymore. So I can get my frames cut in half at Walgreens, or just sit on my film and wait for the day I can get them developed.
Well, after two unsuccessful ventures to Walgreens for my 35mm film, I decided to just hold onto all of my film and develop it when I have the chance.
My first opportunity in a while came this past week. I was visiting the Cincinnati area with my hubby, and we went to a place in town that still develops film of all sorts. Hurray! I dropped off about 10 rolls of film to get developed and scanned. Yikes! I normally like developing my film as I go, so that I'm only paying for a roll or two at a time. But I'm in a tough spot what with no one around me doing a decent job developing. I'm so excited to get my film back. And I'm a bit nervous. I'm not a fan of mailing stuff as precious as my negatives. But I'm hopeful that they'll do a good job and I'm glad that they choose to send stuff UPS. (Tracking packages gives me peace of mind.)
What a wonderful Christmas present, and one that I can share with Jon and friends. There are lots of photos that I'm looking forward to seeing how they turned out, and still others that I'm sure will be a surprise.

Also, changes are a comin'-- consider yourself warned.