These were taken with my vintage Rolleiflex on Fuji NHG 400. If you’ve never heard of that film, it’s because they stopped making it a decade ago! I love the unexpected color shifts that happen with expired film.

Unplanned, these were all taken at Pike Place Market.  I think we feel extra compelled to go there now that we know we’ll be moving soon.  Before, I took it for granted as a tourist trap (it is insanely busy in the summer):  there’s a farmers market in every neighborhood every weekend in Seattle.  While the different neighborhoods are fun and unique, Pike Place does have a timeless appeal.  I feel these work well in black and white because they convey the overwhelming historical presence felt roaming around the market.

These were taken on Ilford XP2 (color negative black and white) that expired in the 90’s (just like grunge).  Several are double-exposures.  I left in the imperfections on all

(Click to view large!)

My husband Joel and I stopped by Goodwill to pick it up last weekend.  We were surprised that the store seemed so much smaller than it looked from the outside.  Then, we were led by an employee back to the warehouse – that’s where they were hiding what seemed like miles and miles of treasure!!  How cool of a job it would be to see all of those items come in daily

My new toy.

When we got it home, I had to immediately try it out.  Everything seemed to be functioning normally, until I closed it up with the film inside.  Then, suddenly, the film advance lever wouldn’t budge  I thought “that’s kind of a bummer – I won this for $15 and a camera repair place would charge way more than that to fix this.”  So to Google I went — and to my surprise — found instructions someone had posted on how to fix the problem.  Thanks to Joel’s tiny screwdriver set, I was able to fix it within minutes

Feeling pretty proud of myself.

So I re-loaded and was ready to take photos!  Unfortunately, I haven’t had many opportunities to take photos this week though.  Since Christmas season is the busiest time for photo labs, I rarely see daylight!  I had snapped one of Joel outside one of our new favorite restaurants, Rowhouse Cafe, Sunday after brunch with our friends Erica and Natalia (the Cajun frittata rocks, by the way).  I wanted to finish the roll – but because we leave for Michigan Monday, I did the last film run of C-41 this afternoon.  It felt strange wasting a roll just for one shot, but I needed to make sure the camera was working before packing it for our trip!!  To my delight, that one frame turned out great:

Fuji NPZ 800 (Expired 2006)

I kind of want to type “scan straight from lab – no adjustments” because I think it’s so funny when I read that.  Trust me:  your lab is adjusting the scan.  In this case, I decreased the contrast in the highlights so Joel’s right cheek wasn’t blown-out.  But I didn’t change the color, or take it in to Lightroom afterwards, or any of that cheater stuff

Well I can’t wait to be back in the mitten to see everyone!  Hopefully I’ll have a ton of film to share when I return to Emerald City.

Happy Holidays!

Getting our hair & makeup ‘did at Salon:Re.  I remember being sooo tired because I was up all night catching up with Michelle & Adrienne, my friends since middle school!  Totally worth it though – as soon as the ceremony started I was too overwhelmed with activity and happiness to ever notice I was tired

I’m so glad that we booked my former co-worker Amanda to capture our memories:  I can’t tell you how much time I spend re-living our big day through these beautiful images.  We didn’t even think about how well our colors would go with GVSU’s orange buildings — not to mention how lucky we were to get blue skies in autumn!  I couldn’t have asked for more comfortable weather.

I could go on and on about our wedding trip home… it was so great that I’ve been in a bit of a mental funk since returning to WA.  So, to get myself motivated, I decided to start entering photography shows again.  I was fortunate enough to be juried into Glazers Camera’s Holga Competition for the second year in a row!  Last time they had four different categories – but this time it was narrowed down to just portraits.  So when I planned to visit Kelly on our drive between southern & northern MI, I knew I just had to get her to pose for a few frames!  I’m so pleased that I did, because this image got my very first honorable mention:

There was a closing event at Glazers, and I got to meet one of the jurors Michelle Bates, and get an autographed copy of her book!  It felt really good that a few of my newer Seattle friends came out to support me – and even a friend from GVSU who also lives out here!  City of transplants

I was just notified that another photography show I entered, Shadows & Reflections, has accepted three of my entries!  I think that’s a new personal record for me, beating Edmonds Art Fest in 2010, in which I had two entries selected  This show is curated by June Sekiguchi, and will take place in February-June at University House Wallingford.  That’s right – it’s at a senior living center.  I loved reading this article about how retirement community art exhibits are quickly growing in popularity!  I can’t wait to see how other artists interpreted the theme.  Here are the pieces I had accepted:

The first two should look familiar if you follow my blog (I seriously thought I took those a couple months ago, not over a year ago…), and the third one if you follow me on flickr (sorry I’ve been neglecting you).

So there you have it:  how I’ve been occupying my time for the last three months.  Don’t worry – I’ve got plenty of new projects in the works, including:

• Promo shots for Bleeding at Dawn while I’m home for Christmas
• Hanging photos up for sale at Lah Lah’s Pre-Loved Clothing (new store run by three of my favorite Petoskey women)
• Blazing through a refrigerator full of expired film that was so kindly donated!

Those trees were too cute to not post.  Anyway…

This past weekend Joel and I finally got a chance to use our new tent that Michelle, my friend since first grade, got us as a wedding present.  I hadn’t been camping in three years – but it’s one of my favorite things to do!  We went with our MI friends who happen to all live here in Seattle… Erica, Natalia, and Todd.  It was a blast (other than mosquitos)!

It was a nice short drive out to Lake Kachess – I loved getting to see Snoqualmie Pass along the way.  We arrived really early and managed to snag the only available campsite (first come first serve).  We had to wait for the campers to vacate, but luckily, we had a gorgeous beach to wait on.

Also from Rolleiflex

The rest of the story shall be told with images taken with the Fujica; the same expired E6 film as seen in the first half of this blog entry, only scanned as individual half-frames instead of full 35mm.  Again, these were cross-processed in C-41 chemistry.

C’est ma silhouette

Quick run back to the campsite to set up our tent…

Joel sporting a moss’stache

View from the entrance to our site!!

Back at the beach:  some jerks were blasting Rebecca Black on repeat…

…and it got crazy crowded!

After grilling Field Roast sausages on the beach, the five of us returned to the campsite.  We started an early campfire to ward off mosquitoes.

We hiked to a less crowded part of the lake as the sun was setting.

The stars were amazing at night.  No one ever sleeps great while camping; but it’s okay because early mornings are so pretty.

This is my art-piece stating how I feel about Coors

Had to get back to the quiet part of the lake to see it again before we left!

I couldn’t get over how tall the trees are in WA compared to MI (but where are my sand dunes?)

I could spend many an afternoon right here.