Showing posts with label sea. Show all posts

Diana Mini: Seaside Rush


So six months ago Bene and I went to the seaside. Which was absolutely great as it meant spending some time with one of my favorite people while doing some of the things I love the most in life. Like driving my car in the desert highway, eating out at my favorite grill restaurant, drinking some of the finest beers on my windy balcony while staring at a huge red moon reflecting on the dark sea at night, and then watching Clerks for the nth time and drinking some more icy Bud or Viru. And smoking too many cigarettes in between. As you can see from my shadow on her shoulderblade in the picture above. 


As I mentioned in this post, we only spent 20 hours there. Getting there at around 10pm, we could only go to the beach the next morning. The weather was just perfect for testing out some of my [then] newest toys, the Diana Mini and the Russia Day. So we hanged out a bit snapping some pics, bought some food and then went chilling out at the beach. 



I didn't take many pictures as I wished as it was such a fleeting visit, but I think you get the idea of how nice a place it is! Also, I've spent so much time here that I'm sort of used to its beauty.


I used Lomography x-pro slide 200 and [obviously] cross processed it. I really liked the film, even if my 1hour lab must use the oldest chemicals ever, as these pictures don't look cross-processed at all.


Wait a second: did they really cross-process it? I guess they did, I don't think they even know the difference between C-41 and E6!


I'm not much of a fan of the Diana, I guess it depends on the impossibility to process 120 around here,  and I now have mixed feelings about the Diana Mini.


I really love its size, its look, its weight, and the half frame format really comes in handy when you want to "pack light" and get 72 frames out of a 36 exposures roll. I would love to try the square format too, but my camera seems to be stuck on the half frame mode. 


The half frame mode can be quite tricky too. This picture above wasn't meant to be vertical at all, but I forgot about the hf-thing, so here it is, a sliced graffiti. My bad '-_-


It took me so long to get this roll processed because 72 shots can be too much sometimes. I guess I'm more of a 12 exposures-girl. That's the main reason to such a useless picture.


Occasionally this camera yelds strong vignetting... which I love!


Ok, maybe this is a bit too hardcore a vignette, but I like it anyway!


Bene aka my favorite model. This picture makes me wonder why we don't go there more often. I mean, that's some nice chilling out... gotta go back there asap, I guess. Weekends in the city: screw you.
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Lomo LC-A+ "Russia Day": Seaside Rush

Last September 21st Bene and I stopped at the supermarket, bought some beer and junk food, and left for a less-than-24-hour seaside rush. I've had my LC-A+ RL "Russia Day" for a month or so and still had to test it. I thought it would be the perfect companion. Well, Bene aside! We got on my car at around 8pm and arrived at about 10pm. We didn't go straight home: we decided to have dinner at one of my favorite place to eat meat. 'Cause eating seafood at the seaside is so cliché. Let's have kangaroo meat instead!


When I say kangaroo meat I actually mean it. And I know that sounds mean, but I wanted to have Bene taste it. It actually tastes much like game, it doesn't taste that weird. It tastes much like a donkey. Which we ate too, that same night. We shared gnocchetti all'asina [mare gnocchi] and ravioli di canguro [kangaroo ravioli]. Then I had some rostelle d'agnello [like bbw lamb, click through to see this mouth-watering delicacy], I can't remember what did Bene get as her second course, but I can tell you for sure that we could barely speak after so much food! We had some coffee and got back to my car. Man, were those 10kms to my seaside house hard to come by! I was so fed up it felt like years.
We got home around midnight, the weather was perfect, so we put two armchairs on the balcony and talked while enjoying some fine estonian lager with just the seaside and a huge red moon right in front of us. I honestly have no idea why I didn't take any pictures that night. Shame on me.


I tried to make Bene watch Clerks II, one of my all-time favorite movies, but she fell asleep well before the first quarter of it. I turned it off around 3am feeling more dizzy than tired, but surely happy.
I got up around 9, and while waiting for Bene to wake up I chilled out a bit on the balcony. It was so sunny that the light reflecting on the sea burnt all of the pictures I took out there that morning.


When Bene finally got up, I waited for her to get ready in our bedroom. Which isn't my bedroom but my mom's, but mine's much smaller and we were the only ones in the house anyway. I loved the light in the attic, so I just couldn't help it. Snap snap.


While I was going back downstairs, I stopped and asked Bene to pose like a pin-up. People tend to get either so uneasy or truly silly when a camera comes around. I'm glad to say we both belong to the second kind.


The kitchen bar with all the empty beer bottles felt like the best setting to a "we had fun while y'all guys were at work"-shot. We just couldn't blew this chance.


We got [un-]dressed and went out for breakfast. Ice-cream shakes, yum!


We hanged out a bit, it was hot as hell, elderly German tourists everywhere, a few families on belated summer vacation, and absolutely no one our age. Which much like Ligury any other day. 

I guess we toured the whole town twice or more, then we bought some focaccia and went back home to eat it. On the balcony, with some chilled beer and ice tea and other junk food from the previous day.
Focaccia + Beer + Sun + Sea = Man, did that feel good! 



It was idleness at its purest. We just had nothing better to do than take pictures of our feet. 
Specifically, her feet...


...And my feet.


I'm not a big fan of feet anyway, we just thought that would be the best way to remind us of how far better could any workday be if it just wasn't a real workday.
Right after a strong coffee, we went to the beach. We went to the town centre one last time. It felt rather like "California Girls" driving in a convertible with our flip-flops on, mini skirts and bikinis. Too bad we ain't blonde and tanned. And skinny. And rich as fuck. But I guess times like these are enough to feel grateful for.

So this was my first time with my Lomo LC-A+ "Russia Day" [from now on just LC-A+*; I'll use the asterisk 'cause I just can't bother to type LC-A+ RL "Russia Day" everytime], and I loved it. This obviously ain't a review, but in case you were wondering if it's time to save up for one, my answer is definitely yes. Vignetting, saturation, pocket size, wide lens, sexy red leather. Need I say more? I'm even quite pleased with the results. These pictures are quite good for a test roll, I think. Blame the heavy grain on a roll of 2009 expired Fuji Superia 1600. But grain is good, right?
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Polaroid: Once Upon A Time

Today my Dad turn 45, so here's a picture of him with my Mom, my sister [well, her back] and my dog Toaz [I miss you, buddy] to celebrate.
I took this picture in 1999/2000 with my first camera, a Polaroid 600 I used to bring along all the time [even when there was no film in it, I've been a photo-maniac since I was 9, you see]. We were in Laigueglia, a nice village in Ligury where I've spent most of my childhood and where I still go for summer vacation and on weekends throughout the year, occasionally. The frame is blue-ish 'cause I painted it as a child. This was my first family shot ever, and most likely my favorite.
Happy Birthday, Dad.
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Holga 135BC: (Vertical) Summer 2010




Some pictures I took in Summer 2010 with my Holga 135BC, the film is Fuji Velvia 100 expired cross processed. I'd love to live in a world with such colors, it would feel so much better.

I've managed to finish some rolls with my Konica Pop and Olympus XA. I've been using the SuperSampler every now and then too, and it's quite fun, especially if you have dog puppies all around, but I'm far from finishing my first roll [which has been sitting in that camera since Summer 2010 as well]. I still have three rolls from old cameras I inherited [Eos 100 from dad, Nikon FM from grandpa, Olympus µ from mom] to get processed. It's a tough time and I guess it would bring some comfort to look at some "new" old pictures, if something ever comes out from these rolls.
I still haven't tested my green Konica Pop, I love the red one too much! And I've taken many funny pictures with it - ikea, old friends and pub, and that's just a tiny hint.

Next week I'll be off to Milan and I really can't decide which cameras to bring along, sure thing my brand new Lomo LC-A+ Russia Day is coming, then I was considering the Fisheye for some cool self-portrait of me and my best friend with the Duomo di Milano in the background. We're both kinda lazy ladies, so a multilensed camera is not even an option!
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Holga 135BC: Last Summer








Last summer in July Marti and I packed up our stuff and went to the seaside. We spent there three weeks or so and had the greatest time. We always were at the bathouse, sunbathing, photo-snapping and joking with the guys. Nights were filled with friends, laughs and alcohol. A tablecloth-theft also occurred, and the same night we also accidentally stole a violet plant. But having no vase to put it in, we decided to plant it into a plastic cup. We didn't notice there was still some Negroni in it. We found the poor thing dead the morning after in our bedroom.

Going home was always quite adventurous, being wasted most of the time. We've spent whole nights chatting in the bedroom we shared in the attic, once safe and sound-ly at home. Dirty laundry and shoes on the floor, smeared make-up on our faces and sand all over the mattress. I've never seen a room that messy ever before.

Gine came for some days, John came for some days too, and we had lots of fun, met amazing people, and we both lost it all in the end. Everyone did loose a lot, and I guess we're all to blame. But time goes by, and I don't care anymore. 

I don't regret a thing, I never do, it was fun back then, now it's gone. Oh well.

All pictures taken by me on Holga 135BC on Fuji Velvia 100 cross-processed
[except photo #3 taken by Marti]
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Holga 135 BC: Summer 2010, A Strip


Last summer M and I went to the seaside and stayed there for three week. Our friends J and then G came for a visit too. I only shot one roll of film, an expired Velvia 100, but took a lot of pictures with my Diana F+ with the instant back. I'm quite fond of the pictures produced by my Holga 135BC... though I had to wait 'till December to get them developed [and I also had the usual fight with the guy at the photolab to get my roll cross-processed in C-41 chemicals].

As usual, they didn't print all my negatives [don't you ever get me started on that], and I couldn't quite figure out what shot #22 was all about. Tonight, after finishing my last batch of Lomography.com microsites translation, I finally managed to find a free online tool to reverse negatives. Nothing too professional, I had to do some iPhoto editing as the picture could barely be seen, but there he was in shot #22, J. I haven't seen him since last summer. We no longer talk, it's a pretty long and sad story. So glad to find him in that shot. It's kinda hard not to miss our long, random, drunk loose talks. Our days were utterly surreal, I can't think of a single lazy sunday afternoon that didn't eventually turned out in something crazy, risky, and possibly illegal too. I could write a book about it. I might do that someday.

Now, back to the now. Last Sunday we went downtown and after a yummi brunch we went to visit a Baroque exposition. Not being much of a fan of 17th century art, I was lucky enough to find some medieval German glassworks. And some illuminated manuscripts. And a series of paintings that really inspired me. I snapped a few pictures with my beloved red Konica Pop, mostly architecture and us having brunch, but that was just a simple 400 ISO colour negative, nothing too exciting.

I forgot to mention that I acquired a new marvel box some time ago: a green Konica Pop! It's so lovely and everything seems to work fine, I still haven't tested it yet as I'm saving it for a Fuji Provia to cross process. A green camera deserves some "green film", doesn't it?
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