30 January 2016

14. develop all my films - roll 1

For those that know me, you may recall my interest in film photography and my collection of cameras. Photography has been in and out of my life since I was a kid. My stepdad likes to take credit for this, claiming he would hand me the family camera as a child and bought me my first 35mm camera as well as my first digital. I guess he's allowed that credit but the love I developed for film photography a few years ago is entirely my own.

I briefly studied photography at college back in 2010 but dropped out in my 2nd year. I get pretty sad that I didn't feel I could continue. But the course wasn't what I wanted. And my depression made it hard for me to stick it out. Funnily enough I bought my first proper 35mm film camera, an Olympus OM10 shortly before dropping out. And for two years I carried a film camera everywhere.

So here's my confession. As much as I still love film photography, as much as I still love the feel of a camera in my hands, the sound of the shutter clicking, and the eventual return of a developed film, I've become incredibly lazy with my photography.

Writing on this blog and messing with film photography have both taken a back seat to my job. Which is pathetic right? It's not even like my job is particularly engaging or interesting. I work in a contact centre. I used to love my job. Now I'm pretty indifferent.

I realised a few months back that I didn't have a good work/life balance. And that realisation led me to something of a mental breakdown. It drove me to reassess some things. That breakdown and my 29th birthday created the '30 before 30' list.

So on my list went the notion of getting all the undeveloped films that have been hanging around for these past couple of years developed. If you're not doing it yourself, getting films developed can be costly depending on where you go. So I took some time to find somewhere reasonable who would develop and put my images on a CD.

I found Photo Express, packaged up 3 films with an order form, posted it on Monday and got them back on Thursday. It was really exciting to look through the little contact sheet of my images and see photos from so long ago. The majority of them are from 2013!

So this is roll 1, from May 2013 when me and Andy went to Crosby Beach for the day. We wanted to see Anthony Gormley's 'Another Place'. It was a nice day.


This is just a selection of course. I'm not tech savvy enough to find a way to put masses of photos on a post without making it the world's biggest post. Maybe that can be something for me to look into as this goes on.

So for now I hope you enjoy the first of my developed rolls. Rolls 2 and 3 happened to have been from the same event so there'll be a bigger post about those later. And I've got 3 more films packaged up ready to send off. Wonder what else I've photographed in the past?

27 January 2016

4. revive my blog - sorta - again - if I try really hard

Well I've done a really good job of reviving my blog haven't I? I have to question whether blogging is really the thing for me since life just continually gets in the ruddy way. Weirdly I don't feel like I'm ever actually doing anything with my life. One thing I'm definitely not doing is working on my blog. But how else am I spending my time that means I'm not able to sit down and write posts for my blog?

Truthfully it's laziness. I spend my whole day at work staring at a computer. When I get home I just want to go into mindless zone. Totally switch off from having to engage with anything. It's fine to do such things but I think I need to keep it in moderation from now on.

So the initial idea of reviving my blog was part of my 30 before 30 list. All those ideas of things I wanted to achieve before I turn 30 this coming October. How am I doing? Well...

Since October, I've achieved precisely 4 of those things. Now admittedly one of those things is especially big and utterly life changing (I'll post about that later) but c'mon, I could be doing better. We all know it.

A few weeks I sat down and looked at that list and I thought to myself, how am I going to do this? How do I get back on track? So I gave myself loose deadlines for when I hoped to achieve certain things by. I identified things I could give a definite time for and singled these out. Things that require continual work...well you've got to start something in order to continue with it.

Now let me tell you what I have definitely planned. 3 things from my list that I am definitely going to achieve before I turn 30.

1. go to Edinburgh zoo and see the pandas
This is mere weeks away. We've booked a hotel, we've booked train tickets, we've booked a late Valentines' day meal. Ok so we still need to book our actual zoo tickets and panda tickets. But oh my we're finally going to Edinburgh and I'm really excited! Will it be terribly tacky of me to wear my tartan scarf at all times?

2. go to Harry Potter studio tour again
Like many others, I'm a big Harry Potter fan. Back in August 2014 (so long ago!) I took my nephew to the Harry Potter studio tour because I had been promising him for ages and he finally pulled me up on it. He was 8 at the time. It was amazing and magical of course. But I tell you what, doing something like that for the first time wasn't as amazing and as magical as it could have been if I'd gone with my peers. So I asked my mate if she wanted to go for her birthday. And I finally pinned her down on a date. So at the beginning of May, we're off to cry about Harry Potter together and drink a butterbeer.

27. go on a trip to Aberystwyth
This one might have seemed a little random when I included it on my list. But my other half's family (on his dad's side) are from Wales originally. So we talked a while back about going on a trip to Wales at some point. Since there's a cousin in Aberystwyth, we're going to see her and her family. We've booked a nice hotel on the coast for a few days over my boyfriend's birthday in June. We're mostly going to see family, enjoy some nice walks, and spend quite a bit of time in pubs. Sounds perfect to me.

How's that? 3 adventures planned before October. In the grand scheme of my 30 before 30 list, it might not seem much. I guess planning trips is pretty easy really. But I'm trying. Really I am!

I have a couple of other things I need to post about and hopefully I'll find some time over the coming weekend to work on those. But stick with me, I will pick this blogging lark back up again.