JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY

Me, by Geoff, with my LC-A+. Taken at Red Tongue, Brunswick street, Fitzroy. Again, note the incredible hat.

JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAYJAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY JAMIE IS LEAVING TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so excited, I have had to change my pants four times today already. I can also remember when there were 180 days to go, and retrospectively the time has flown.

Grainy goodness

Complete with finger blur. I’m awesome.

Brownies!

My friend Geoff has very recently become rampantly passionate about Box Brownies. These were taken with a Six-20 Bullseye. To convert 120 to be compatible with a 620 camera, he shaves around the edges of the 120 spool.

This is the backyard of my cottage, featuring me and Kerry. I believe in the second shot I was attempting not to fall off the little wall of bricks. I like the light leaks. I also like my cottage.

In other news, we just realised that the mulled wine we made in the slow cooker a week ago, is in fact still in the slow cooker today. We are reheating, mulling, consuming. Is that disgusting?

Jamie leaves England tomorrow, and will be with me by Tuesday night. Completion.

UPDATE: To drink mulled wine that has been fermenting for a week is an error.

Oh hallo, Mr ghost.

True ghost. I swear. Just floatin’ around in the house. Smenaaaaa.

I am horrendously irritable. It’s lasted a week. I’m hoping it goes away soon. Tonight I’m getting my hair done, which may help. It’s a month until my exhibition and I’m sooooo disorganised. I want so many things I can’t afford. I have 5 kilos too many on me at any given time. I’m sick of rude people. I’m sick of people talking mindless shit. I can’t tolerate it. I am a cynical semi-hermit.

I’m also going through a massive “I have no talent whatsoever” phase, which depresses me and makes me entirely unmotivated, and makes me feel like anyone could pick up a camera and take photos of similar or better quality and character.

BUT.  I don’t do this to impress people. I like the photos I take. No one else can take photos like I can, because they reflect me. They’re different, imperfect, and I have complete ownership over every one of them. (I have to keep telling myself that)

Sex pistols

This is a photo of my mum and dad back before I existed. If you look carefully you can see that it says “Sex Pistols” on the wall behind them. This will always be my favourite photo. It sits in a frame in my lounge room.

6 days until I drive to pick up Jamie from the airport. Still not feeling real. He has some new photos up he took with his Diana Mini, you should go look!

I bought a pair of denim shorts off ebay, and they arrived with a free “versace” white vintage singlet. It was odd, but no complaints

Yet another end of roll image.

I like.

I have had an interesting week, to say the least. Work has been hectic, reports for the kids are due and I’ve had to write around 50. This is one of the main reasons I’ve been such an infrequent blogger. That, and I have a few films needing developing that I just haven’t gotten to yet.

Jamie gets here in 12 days. I’m excited, but it still doesn’t feel real.

It’s been reinforced to me this week that you can’t take people at face value. Someone who has been very nice to my face, was the opposite behind my back and it really hurt not only me, but other people. Trust factor 0. Bit of a rollercoaster week, really.

All I want for christmas

Is an LC-A Instant Back+. Pleaseeeeeee?

Our time will come.

My first Diana Mini roll was entirely overexposed, due to my error. I still got a couple of shots I liked though.

Also, go check out Anwa‘s blog. I do.

Negative scanners.

I just bought a negative scanner.

Print.

Scanned Negative

Print

Scanned Negative

I am not particularly happy.

Exhibition.

I am having an exhibition in July  It is being held at a gorgeous vintage store/gallery space on Sturt street, Ballarat, Dear Prudence Vintage, and will run for a month.

I have a 2X2 metre white wall space,  a bench and if I need it, a 1X2 black piece of wall/board. The next couple of weeks are going to be spent scrapping idea after idea until I can appease my perfectionist self.

Photos of photos.

I took these of digital photos on my computer screen. I freaking love them.

It’s a month until I pick Jamie up from Tullamarine Airport. It’s starting to feel more real.

Another end of roll image..

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As I have previously blogged, I adore finding a gorgeous end of roll image. I think this is a beautiful example of the mysterious nature of  incompletion. You just can’t get this with digital.

Ballarat.

Ballarat.

People jump on your car when it is parked outside your house.
People steal your mail from your mail box.
You get kept awake by people cutting fully sick laps.
People wear slippers in the supermarket.
Haggard men follow you making cat noises;
and the girl with the slicked back pony tail who works in the shop always wants to talk to you that tiny bit too long.

BUT

It has incredible op shops.
The local art scene is doing alright for itself.
You can afford a wonderful place for the price of a shanty in Melbourne.
There is a place that does incredibly good pizza.
When you go out, you are usually dressed better than 98% of people;
and the entire town is a lomographers dream.

Graf Toffwaffle Von Liechtenstein.

How splendidly peculiar.

I now have a deviantART account.
I will be putting images on said account, some of which will be available to buy as prints. Prints on deviantART are wickedly cheap, so I suggest you go and buy some of mine. There is very little on there at the moment, but over the next couple of weeks there will be.

Also, if you have a deviantART account, be my friend!!!

One of my favourite portraits

Of one of my favourite people.

It has been said

Life is better when you’re pompous.

I get very upset sometimes.

I blame things from the past; people, environments, situations, myself.

I believe that some demons and insecurities, you  live with your whole life. If they can’t be eliminated, it’s best to ignore them, look after yourself  and just get on with it.

It’s time for a demon cleanse, and I have a lot of the little bastards.

I want a bike.

With a basket and sweet vintage step-through style. LC-A+, AGFA 200.

I just played truth or dare with Jamie for an hour. The bastard just kept saying “truth”. I think he may have been scared of what my dare would be.
It may have involved nudity.
It’s late, and I’m tired. I bought 9 pairs of underwear today, all exactly the same.

I am sick of hearing about/ seeing “fixies”.  Apparently this is becoming a subculture of its own in Melbourne? With a hierarchy of fixie enthusiast stature?

I have become obsessed with Waterfords Apple Berry Natural Mineral Water.

I’m really not making a lot of sense.

Goodnight.

The end of the roll.

I always get excited to see the final image on a roll of film. There’s something magical about half a frame seemingly emerging from a blur of colour. This one is cut off sharp by strong primaries, contrasting the serene and natural colours of the tree. I love this contrast.

This image (which I’ve posted before here) is another example of an end of roll image. It fades. Just gorgeous.

Don’t throw end of roll photos out, because what is there might be just beautiful, especially as it’s incomplete.

The most exciting things in this world are incomplete.

And the Lord said;

Come on, come on, come on,

Now touch me, baby.

Jager chaos

I have always loved this image, as it captures the manic atmosphere of that night. Sometimes, I miss these days. It’s funny how things change.

Today I learnt how to put a dislocated hip  back in its socket. I’m hardcore to the max.

Anyway, main purpose of this blog-

Can people give me a theme, or a quote, or a lyric, that they would like to see represented in an image? I’d like to be given some projects, to see how imaginative I can be. It can be ANYTHING. Even just a word.
I gave Jamie this project today, his theme was “Teacup”, suggested by Geoff. I will post his result, if he succeeds in his mission! I’m in Melbourne the next few days, doing a course in St Kilda. Lots of photos will ensue in the next couple of weeks.

Cage

Study sciences. Study specialist math. Study languages. Dux your highschool. Get into a course that requires a 96. Get high enough grades to be accepted into the academic society. Don’t do drugs. Don’t smoke. Don’t have sex. Graduate. Get a good job. Mingle. Don’t get tattoos in places that show. Smile at patronising people. Go to clubs. Wear colours. Eat 3 meals. Take out your piercings. Don’t waste your time on things people don’t understand. Date guys who don’t waste their time on art and music or smoke or look weird. Work full time. Hide your dreams because they are ridiculous and make people look at you with disappointment and confusion. Become a grade 2, a grade 3. Do a masters. Do a PhD. Open a clinic. Get married to someone with a successful career who doesn’t waste their time on art or music or smoke or look weird. Have children. Own a house. Get an investment property. Go to SE Asia for holidays. Read Twilight. Read Harry Potter. Read the Bible. Watch current affairs shows about neighbours from hell. Listen to Fox. Listen to NOVA. Believe in God. Don’t get angry. Don’t criticise. Be organised. Be tolerant.  Be a success. Choose reason over love.

Be what you SHOULD be.

I just re-read this, and realised it’s sort of like the opening to “trainspotting”. It’s not. It’s my frustration. I hate society, and its expectations. I want to escape.

Back home.

Tonight I am at Geoff and Kerry’s. Kerry is cleaning, I’m drinking a green apple UDL and trying to decide whether or not I have enough energy to go and get pizza. Geoff is watching “Teen cribs” and Chani is trying to dye her hair without turning her neck black. I finished “Slaughterhouse 5″ today by Vonnegut.

In other news, I fell in love all over again last night. Although, that happens most days. Jamie.

Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.

Sweet shot

Taken at Daniel’s 21st. Lomo Fisheye 2

Chrome.

The presence of scaffolding is disappointing.

View.

These are taken from my Dad’s back door. The view is over 180 degrees. I’m going to get married in that little gazebo. Lomo LC-A+, fuji superia 400

Perhaps if I stop thinking, it will stop counting.

 

 

I feel somewhat like a zombie today. I speak to people, and look them in the eye, but I’m not really looking. I look beyond their faces, through distance, and through them. My mind is somewhere entirely different. I don’t exist here. Maybe I don’t care. Maybe I like it. Maybe I’m just talking shit.

I’ve started to read again. Today I wandered around Hobart and bought the works of Oscar Wilde, Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut, A Short History of the World by H.G Wells and the poems of T.S Eliot. Yesterday I read Cat’s Cradle by Vonnegut. I can’t stop, and I haven’t felt like this since I was about 13, and had to go to the optometrist because I was “over-reading.” I’d read all of Dickens by the age of 12.

I didn’t read, at all, my entire way through university. I guess this is because I would read about the anatomy of the cerebrum, then about the cause of Parkinson’s disease, then about research methods, then about what ever who-gives-a-fuck topic they gave me next. I hated reading, and I hated books.

I’m excited by this newfound love I have. Let’s hope it lasts, because I’d love to regain my vocabulary.

I also nabbed four (1 year)  expired Agfa 200 films for $4 each, a 200 fuji slide expired by a year, and 6 month out-of-date fuji chrome 100. I’m going to save them for the new Diana mini I’ll be picking up as soon as I get back to Melbourne.

I got an LC-A+ film developed today, but I can’t scan any until I get back from Tassie. It was a 400, and the photos aren’t particularly interesting, but there are a couple of good ones of friends.

I’m sitting in a Library, and there is a timer in the corner. I have 14 minutes. Perhaps if I stop thinking, it will stop counting.

Lucky Coq

This is one of my favourite portraits. It helps that she’s stunning.

I want my holidays!!

While we’re on the topic of soft grain, I think that’s what gives this image something. This is Daniel. Lomo Smena Symbol.

Work is manic this week. It’s the last week of term, which means there are deadlines for reports, everyone is tired and my most used phrase today was “I’ll organise it next term”.

Sit with me

This is one of my favourite images, and I’m not sure why. Taken with the Minolta X300 that used to be my Pop’s.

Shot tower

This would be one of the most-taken photographs in Melbourne- but that is because it’s a cool photo. (For those who don’t know, this is the “shot tower”. They didn’t want to knock it down, so they built the shopping complex over the top). Lomo LC-A+

Carnaby

I MISS THIS!!! Lomo LC-A+, slide film

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!

I’m currently sitting waiting near my front door, as Jamie has informed me that someone will soon be knocking on it with a present. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!! And he is freaking out, because if they’re late, and I have to leave for work, the plan will be foiled. But I AM SO EXCITED!!!!! This photo is of Gianna. Lomo LC-A+, first roll I ever took. I was a little drunk, and every single photo came out moderately blurry.

A walk with Oscar

These are from my gorgeous english gentleman’s first ever roll from a Diana Mini, using Redscale film. They make me ridiculously excited about getting my own Diana… post from ebay takes too long!!! I love these photos. And his face.  Click this to see some of Jamie’s digital photography.

Cheap Monday

Cheap Monday. Lomo Smena Symbol. Dressing room courtesy of American Apparel, Jeans courtesy of Cheap Monday and  Daniel. He may have even taken this photo, I can’t really remember. So possible credit where credit is possibly due.

It’s a gorgeous day, and I’m ignoring the fact that my house is a dump and I’m going to the Ballarat Mill Markets to spend money on vintage clothing that I shouldn’t really be spending. I’ll clean the house tonight.

I’ve become obsessed with Etsy. Will post some favourite stores up later, but the sun is so shiny I can’t possibly stay inside. Today is going to be better than yesterday, which resulted in me coming to a few realisations about myself and ended in tears.

I’m really excited that after only a week, people are reading my blog! Thanks guys!