Showing posts with label seaside. 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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