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.

Jimmy Eat World: Movielike

This example, although not literal in that I didn’t move to NY, I believe universally describes why so many of my friends and I moved away from the Midwest. It doesn’t matter how many people told me I grew up in the most beautiful town: if I didn’t go out into the world to compare it, I couldn’t appreciate it.

“Waiting to see a sign that they’ve seen the best already”

The Head and the Heart: Ghosts (Live on KEXP)

This song works on a couple levels: the first being that the band is made up of Seattle transplants, and most of their songs are based on that experience. Secondly, this clip was recorded at KEXP. My first job in Seattle was driving to schools up to an hour away each morning to do portraits. I tuned into John in the Morning on KEXP every trip and the quality of music programming helped make me feel like I made the right choice in moving out here.

My favorite lyrics from this song are:
“Is it any wonder why we all leave home?
People say, “I knew you when you were six years old”
And you say, “But I’ve changed, I’ve changed, I’ve changed, I’ve changed.”

It puzzles me that people often point out how different I am than I used to be: why wouldn’t I be? I don’t want to remain stagnent: I want to always improve. That’s why I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to change locations a few times in my life already.

Great Lakes Myth Society: Across The Bridge (live)

And lastly, I had to include a song showing that I am quite excited to return back to my home state. The snow is cold, but the people are warm. I could have chosen any number of their songs; but this one brings back childhood memories of living near Mackinaw. I look forward to seeing some of the national & state parks that I took for granted and never got around to visiting!

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!)

As you may have heard, Seattle is getting a lot of snow this week.  I decided to spend some time working on photos from the last wedding I second-shot in Washington (back in the fall)!  I’m going to miss working with Chris, but I hear he’s a big fan of the Upper Peninsula – so perhaps he’ll get a gig there sometime

Elliot and Serena were married at Tracy Castle in Buckley, WA.  The venue is nice because it’s tucked away from the busy city life, and had everything they needed for their big day:  dressing rooms upstairs, a great room (with awesomely tall windows) for the ceremony, scenic outdoor spots for formals, downstairs space with kitchen for the dinner reception, and even a gymnasium for the dance-floor & slideshow.  Some of my favorite details were the tabletop trees with ornaments (which served as a guestbook), luggage cake (they both travel around the world on missions trips) & the bridesmaids dresses.  The girls’ dresses stood out to me because they were each unique in style & color, but all coordinated together so well.  As the second shooter I tend to follow the girls around during the morning:  I thought it was amazing how much work they put into the floral arrangements, especially the cross!

As a current Seattle resident, I have to start out with the Starbucks shot.  Enjoy!

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!