loving film part 2 – black and white

In between all those colourful, bright digital shots I just have to throw in these black and white photos from my Olympus OM-2N. Not only because they are different but because I am thrilled by how they turned out. It was love at second sight I’ll admit but I am starting to see the huge potential of this small and amazing SLR.


Not to mention that I just get a thrill out of using it…pressing that shutter and especially advancing the film manually is pure joy for me…I’m weird like that 😉


I am pretty suprised at just how contrasty and grainy this 125 ASA film turned out. I shot black and white film with a point and shoot as a teenager and don’t remember them turning out so ‘retro’. But then again I wasn’t using a 30-year old manual SLR so maybe that’s the difference.


I will definitely take the time to get to know this camera better though the prices to develop film are really steep and I’ll have to restrain myself from taking too many pictures.
Don’t worry about the digital photos though, I’ll keep them coming 😉 I have three photoshoots with adorable kids scheduled in the next 2-3 weeks, starting this weekend with 4 toddlers under the age of three!

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Lisa & Jonas, Nika & Sunny

Some pictures from yesterdays shoot with Lisa and Jonas and their beautiful dogs, 12-year-old Sunny and 9 weeks old Weimaraner puppy Nika!


How anyone could abandon such an adorable puppy at 8 weeks in front of a supermarket is beyond me, but Nika hit the jackpot when Lisa and Jonas decided to take her home with them!




I can’t help but love the black and whites more (as always) but I am trying to throw enough colour in here too 🙂



Hope you like these, enjoy!

ameland – part 2

Ok, here’s the second installment of Ameland photos. These are from our second day here, enjoy!
We went to the village Nes and booked a tour to see the seals which live between the Wadden Sea and the North Sea.
These little dutch villages are full of pretty old houses and typical dutch decor.


Onboard the boat

On our way to see the seals we saw many small fishing boats like these. They were being followed by hundreds of sea-gulls, hoping for fish.

The seals live in the water near the islands. At high tide they swim and hunt but at low tide sand banks appear where they lie down in the sun and rest.

There are lots of sheep on the island as well and at every turn you can see the cutest little lambs jumping and running about.

I’ll close with another beach shot. We’re leaving for home tomorrow but there’ll be at least 2 more installments with pretty pictures over the next few days. We had an amazing sunset yesterday and shot some pretty awesome photos, but hey, gotta save the best for last right?

ameland – part 1

Hi everyone! Just a short hello from Ameland, a beautiful little island in the Netherlands, which separates the Wadden Sea from the North Sea.
We (my friend Dana and I) left on Monday at 5am and arrived at the harbour in time to catch the 9.30am ferry. The ferry takes about 30-45mins to Ameland and then another 15min bus ride to the little village where we are staying.
We’ve had lots of sunshine, great food and lots to see so far and are enjoying every minute of our stay!
Here are some impressions of our first day:

The lighthouse, the islands most impressive landmark. We will be trying to get a good night shot of this (Dana brought a tripod, yay).

The beach at low tide (this is the North Sea side. We haven’t yet been to the Wadden Sea on foot but it’s on the agenda today). I have until now resisted the temptation of buying a pair of brighty chequered wellis, though I did splurge on some souvenirs.

I just like the colors in this one. See the amazing blue sky we had the first day!

Say cheese! We visited a cheesemaker and asked if we could see their workrooms. We are here out of season, so there is literally no one on the island except the inhabitants and so they allowed it!

I can’t even begin to describe how delicious these homemade cheeses are! We bought different types and are feasting like kings!

We left the car on the mainland and are getting around on bikes here (everyone in Holland owns a bike). Lots of fun, but we rode around so much that first day that we were really sore and had to take a break from the bikes yesterday. ‘Fietspad’ means bike path and in the background you can see the grass dunes which lie before the sand dunes on the beach.

Enjoying the evening light at the beach.

Sunset at the beach. We had originally planned to photograph until the sun really went down, but with the wind picking up and the sun losing its strength it was just freezing and we had to head home earlier. We’re hoping for another beautiful clear sunset tonight.
Hope you enjoyed these and stay tuned for pictures of quaint dutch houses, fishing boats and seals coming soon!

loving film

I never got around to posting them, but I got my first test roll of film from my Olympus OM-2N scanned a couple of days ago. They’re only a couple of test shots I did when I was hanging out at the barn, but I am so in love with these lovely retro colors. Also I had forgotten how soft film is. We’re so used to tack sharp digital photos that these seem sort of dreamy in comparison.
Sweet baby at the barn:

Don’t even know what I love about this picture but somehow this draws me again and again!


Taking full advantage of the Zuiko 50mm 1.4 lens. Very interesting bokeh I think, definitely different than with my Canon (though my lens there is also 50mm 1.4).

And of course my cats, what would a post on this blog be without them?

I will be going on holiday next week (yay!) so don’t be surprised if things are a bit quiet around here. I hope to be coming home with lots and lots of new pictures for y’all, both film and digital (keeping fingers crossed for good weather!!) 🙂
Also I have been thinking of starting a series of tutorials on how to use a vintage treadle (or how I use my treadle to be specific), very basic things like threading, oiling, changing needles, adjusting tension and stitch length etc. Might be handy if someone buys a treadle without a manual and wonders how to use it. Would anybody actually be interested in that? Let me know!

scandinavia quilt

My dad’s birthday was on Sunday, so I can finally blog the quilt I made him. Last year I wasn’t home for his birthday and then my sewing machine got broken and he only got something small for christmas, so really this quilt covers two birthdays and one christmas 😉
While I love bright, sunshiny colors and the look of patchwork I know my dad definitely likes a more subdued look and scandinavian colours. So when I found this red pinstriped linen blend I knew it was perfect. The backing is a plain dark blue and the plaid binding connects the two colours and livens it all up a bit (I think).

I had originally planned to machine quilt it but it just didn’t work at all with my treadle…no chance without a walking foot. So I sat down to cried a bit and then I picked myself back up and started handquilting. Inspired by Anna Maria Horners new post I did big stitches with embroidery floss (3 strands if anyone wants to know the particulars).
And then I looked at it and the bold, rough quilting looked just perfect for the overall look I wanted to achieve. I think I will do handquilting with embroidery floss from now on on all of my quilts…I love the look of it and it is nice and quick work.

Not that quick though…so when I found out I only had two and a half days to complete it (due to my dad being away on business the whole week until his birthday) I went into panic mode and spend those days quilting and sewing. I never would have believed it but in those two days I got it basted, quilted, bound, washed and dried (though I had to drive over to my mom’s to use her dryer).

Except for sewing the binding on on one side the whole quilt is entirely handsewn and I am pretty darn proud of it. Thankfully my dad loves it so it was definitely worth it.

Want to know one of my guilty sewing-secrets? I never use a hoop for embroidery or quilting…when I learned it I didn’t have one and when I finally bought one it drove me crazy and didn’t work for me at all. So I just stretch the fabric tight with my hands while quilting.
This picture actually has the truest colours for the lovely red fabric (and it was at the beginning of the handquilting…a few hours on my fingers looked considerably more covered in band aid).

easter bonfire

Happy Easter to all of you! I hope you are all having a good time with your families! My boyfriend and I are all alone this year, our parents are off holidaying.
We went to the Easter bonfire at the barn yesterday evening. Last year I missed it because I was in Canada and the year before it was rainy and cold so I didn’t go but this year it was nice and the fire burned really well.


It was so hot and windy that you couldn’t actually get very near, pretty toasty.
Doesn’t this look magical?


After the fire came the party…at the barn there’s always a party attached, cowboys take any reason to party 😉 Even after the rodeos when they’ve been riding all day and must be dead on their feet (I know I would be) they’ll still party until 6 in the morning. Unforgotten remains the rodeo party two years ago, when we had a counter the length of the arena and at one point (after quite a few whiskeys) everyone started dancing and stripping on the counters and splashing themselves with whiskey and water…oh I have those pics but I won’t share them here, sorry 😉
Wasn’t quite as wild yesterday though there was lots of dancing…one reason I love the barn parties is the great music. I’m not into most music played at clubs right now but I’ll dance to this any time!

lazy sunday morning

Sorry Melli, I never leave the house without my camera, not even for sunday morning breakfast at my mom’s 😉 Taking pictures is compulsory for me and you’ve got such pretty blue eyes…I couldn’t help myself!

Impromptu portrait sessions are the best! And in case anyone wants to know the data: indoor in front of window, ISO 1600, 50mm, f2.3.

snap-on macro lenses – go get that shallow depth-of-field!

I am working like crazy to finish that d*** thesis and because I have nothing else to talk about I thought I’d to a very ‘technical’ photography post for once. I hope I’m not boring y’all too much, but I will put some pretty pictures in here for compensation 🙂

I just love shallow depth-of-field and bokeh. It’s not easy to achieve without a DSLR though.
Before I got my 50mm 1.4 lens I used to always shoot wide open, that is, opening up the aperture to its biggest opening/smallest number. With my Canon 450D that depended on the lens I was using (f4.5 on the kit lens 18-55mm and the 70-300mm and I think f3.5 on my dad’s 28-135mm). Before I got my DSLR however, I had a Fuji S5600 (a bridge camera) and even though the smallest f-stop was 2.8 it wasn’t easy getting that lovely bokeh.

There are a couple of tricks of course but for those great macro shots of flowers and such I opted to buy a snap-on macro lens, the Raynox DCR-250. Wow, that opened up a whole new world!
This shot was taken on my balcony, it shows raindrops in a spider web:

Those macro lenses reduce your area in focus to nearly a pinpoint so they take a LOT of practice. Your first 100 or so images will be blurry, trust me. But when you get to know that lens a little, boy, will you have fun!
This one was taken on the same rainy day, on the bamboo which since has not survived my gardening skills (seriously who manages to kill bamboo? they’re like the most undemanding plants ever):

I have a lovely close-up of ladybugs somewhere on another harddrive but since I am too lazy busy to search for it (and dying to get back to my thesis…kidding here) I will safe that for another day and leave you with a picture of my sweet kitty’s nose…it kind of sparkles in the sun…vampire kitty anyone??

Sorry, feeling silly this morning, the nearly-finished-my-university-education giddiness is already setting in 😉

diptychs

You may not have noticed, but I love, love, love dipytchs (2 photos in 1). I am trying to refrain from making too many of them and instead try to take pictures that stand out on their own. But every now and then I can’t help myself and once I start there’s no stopping me.
This pink watering can resides at the barn and was my shot of the day four days ago. It’s an ok shot on its own I think, but I love it along with the lead ropes.

Yesterday was another long business day full of hauling shoe cases and waiting around for clients. It was grey and rainy and foggy outside the whole day, but these little flower vases inside the building totally made up for that! And the upside of sitting around waiting is that you can get lots of handsewing done in between…perfect for little take-along projects (oh, I’m so excited to show my latest, but it’s not quite ready yet).

And here it is only 8am and I already have my shot of the day, my lazy cat Finn doing his daily birdwatch by the window.

Now off to do some much-needed work on my thesis. Have a lovely day!