more holga photos

Everyone I show the Holga to looks at it curiously, picks it up (it weighs nothing) and then either laughs out loud or gives me the “Really? WTF?” look.
And they’re right, of course. But oh, aren’t they so wrong too! Because what could possibly be laughable or wrong about a camera that produces this:

and this:

and this:

?
The Holga is small and lightweight and quirky and it will be the one camera that will always fit in my bag, no matter where I go (I have been known to squeeze up to 3 cameras in a handbag, so that will definitely be an improvement). It makes me look and think and see differently than any other camera I have had. Laugh at that if you will. I’ll be too busy taking pictures and remembering to take the lens cap off and adjusting the vague focus points and advancing the film click by click per hand to notice 😉

By the way, I have now got a scanner for the negatives and I can highly recommend going that route of self-developing and self-scanning. It is more time consuming but definitely a lot less expensive and yields a much better result than letting a lab process and scan/print the images. Just saying this because I was hesitant of buying a scanner, but I am very happy now that I did!

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fashion friday

I haven’t been blogging as frequently lately because there never seem to be enough hours to the day to do all I want to. Between finishing the thesis and applying for jobs and working for my dad and working on my Etsy shop the days just fly by.
This weekend I am working on the biggest shoe fair in Germany, which lasts 3 days and takes place twice a year. My dad’s been doing this trade show for about 30 years and I seriously have videos from the 1980s of me as a five-year-old crawling through the corridors and playing under display tables.
Since I started helping him out about 7 years ago I have always been looking forward to this despite the hard work and long hours, because our colleagues/boss from Italy come over and I get to talk italian for three days.
This time I caught a bad cold the day before the show so it all started off badly. It got even worse when the bus I was meaning to take didn’t show up and, after I’d made it to the train station, trains weren’t going due to an accident at another station…great. When I finally arrived at the fair 45mins late I was 100% sure the day was going to suck…badly.
Well, I should know by now I can always count on my italian friends. The minute I arrived they presented me not only with a pair of my favourite sandals from our last collection but also with a huge italian leather designer bag which they’d brought me….’just because, and your current bag’s too small for all your stuff anyway’. Need I add these are also the friends who invite me stay at their house in Italy every summer for two weeks, feed me the best italian food and make sure I have the most amazing beach vacation? Seriously, guys, you do waaay to much and I can never ever even attempt to repay you all your kindness!!!
That’s not to say I’m not in love with my gorgeous super soft new Avorio bag because I am…totally, completely in love 🙂 It easily fits my camera, a bottle of water and all the other completely necessary stuff I carry around with me all the time.

Another reason I look forward to this event is that I get to dress up for it. I have been working/studying from home for about 3 years now and I’m ashamed to admit there frequently are days I never change out of my pj’s…I know I’m not going to leave the house anyway and my cats couldn’t care less. But for those three days the fashion world turns to Duesseldorf and selling a high-end fashion label you are expected to look the part. Really good reason for shopping if you ask me!

That was the least awkward picture I could find (I am so bad in front of the camera).
And while we’re talking fashion, I did say I avoid going to the city center because it makes me spend money, right? Well, I went the other day and I just couldn’t leave those shoes be, they were calling me…

They’re off-white leather, brushed to give them a greyish-yellowish tint. The first thing my boyfriend said when I presented them proudly in the evening was: “Why would you buy dirty shoes?” to which I replied rather hysterically “they’re brushed leather, it’s called fashion!”. Duh.
While yesterday was crazy busy today it’s quieter and I even found time to write this post in between clients (yay for wi-fi).
Here’s to my wonderful friends and my dad, I’m loving you guys to bits and having a blast with you!

city life

Street photography is one of the most fascinating fields in photography for me. Gritty, black and white city images always get me, and I don’t even like the city much! Even though I live in one of the biggest cities in Germany I am not too keen on a city lifestyle. I prefer the country.
I don’t often make a trip to the city center, because it inevitably makes me spend money I don’t have (as a compulsory online fabric buyer I spend too much as it is) and the whole athmosphere of ‘I know this dress is hideous, but it’s expensive Brand XY, so look at me and admire how rich and chic I am’ feels alien to me.
I went to do some window-shopping (aka market research) last week with the boss of the italian shoe company I work for and this was my shot of the day:

It almost looks like Paris, doesn’t it? I love the trees and their shadows and the girl in the middle, alone in a crowd.

Back to the 1970s

While my dad’s in hospital I do some business appointments for him, along with the italian boss of the company we’re selling shoes for. I picked him up at the airport yesterday morning and after paying a little hospital visit we set out to drive to the client. Thankfully he has no problem driving my dad’s big Audi…if I had to do that in german traffic I’d die…or cry. German people are mean when they’re driving and they have no patience for someone trying to figure out a vehicle three times as big as the one they’re used to and so crammed with shoe cases that you can’t see a thing behind you. And automatic…I’ve never even driven automatic before.
We got to the client’s office and it was a big villa. Once we stepped inside we were literally taken back to the 70’s. Dark wood paneled walls, brown plush armchairs, brown stained glass coffee tables and on the walls pictures from the client’s shops as they were in the late 70s/early 80s. It was all in good condition but I could totally picture my dad starting out business as a young guy in these very rooms 30 years earlier. It was quite fascinating.

Heck, even the coffee cups and milk trays were totally still stuck in the 70s!

It’s actually a bunch of really important clients who do this appointment together and there were about 10 of them. I’d previously thought they would just cram around the shoes on the shelves and poke them and discuss them.
But no, they filed into the room quietly, made a big circle around the first group of shelves, looked at me expectantly and said “You may start”. Gulp. I’ve presented a collection before, but usually that is a one-on-one interaction with one client. Also this collection is brand new and I am not really familiar with it yet. Still, I dove in and made an impromptu presentation of the whole collection and I think it went pretty well. Phew.
To leave you with another picture, this was our way back at dusk in awful weather and bad traffic…so glad I wasn’t driving 🙂

and another high-waisted skirt

I am really loving these and had to make another one. This time I made the skirt a full circle and added pleated pockets (tutorial by Rae). Of course I messed up a little again and it came out too big, so I had to add two pleats each at the front and the back. I didn’t have a zipper foot for my old treadle machine (though I’m getting one now!), so I stitched the zipper in by hand. Next time I think I’ll try an A-line shape.
I’m not too fond of these pictures, but it’s freezing and dark outside and I didn’t want to wait till the weekend to take new ones. Those gorgeous shoes are Dino Bigioni by the way (friends of mine).

(click to see these slightly larger)