Dutch flowers on film

When we were away this summer I decided to not bring my DSLR and only shoot on film. On my birthday we were in Amsterdam with no real plan, but after breakfast I remembered that I’ve always wanted to go to Museum Voorlinden, which is near the Hague. I hadn’t realised that the gardens were designed by Piet Oudolf, so this is where these are from. I was holding back on them with the intention of posting them in the middle of winter, for a little colour boost, but with our world so bleak at the moment, why wait?

Roll 2

More film pictures, but this time from my little Olympus XA2. Here’s Oomoo walking through Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Your blind passenger’ installation at Tate Modern last year. I took many many more pictures in there with my DSLR on our previous visit - still need to post those!

Walking across Waterloo Bridge, back in May, after seeing a classical concert at the Royal Festival Hall. It was our first, and I hope to go again one day. When I saw that the London Philharmonic Orchestra were playing Shubert’s Unfinished Symphony I quickly got us tickets to see it, as it’s one of my favourite pieces of music ever. I remember there was an older woman sitting in the seats behind the orchestra, and during the first movement she had her hands clasped under her chin with the lovely smile on her face. She was clearly enjoying it, and maybe hearing it live for the first time too. I could hardly believe it myself, I mean to be able to sit and watch an orchestra play a piece of music almost 200 years old, that’s bloody terrific that is!

Walking home from the overground back in the summer. This section is usually a part of my runs, but I rolled my ankle back in November, and it still doesn’t feel right. Being middle aged sucks when it comes to recovering from injuries :0(

Found a playground halo.

Walking along Fournier St in Spitalfields and travelling in time. It’s lined with beautiful Georgian houses, and I’d love to see the interior in one of them. Positively dreamy. Found this blogpost where you can see what the houses looked like in the 1970’s, compared to now. Back in those days the houses were not the highly desirable ones they are now, and could be bought relatively cheaply.

My mum came to visit back in June, and we went in under this huge tree in Hyde Park. We were not the only ones.

My sister H, taking a pic of these bill posters further down on Fournier St. Isn’t the contrast between the past and the modern day great here?

That’s it for film pics this time round, as my third roll is full of personal pics, and none of them of the ‘taking pictures of loved ones from the back’ type. This was also the roll that had pictures on it from 2016 - Oomoo was tiny in comparison to now! Crazy.

4 more

Last ones from the Pentax MX roll. I think I pushed the camera too hard on this particular roll; pretty much all of the indoor shots came out of focus and too warm. All three rolls where Fuji films, which in the old days of only shooting film, used to come out quite green and contrasty, but these came out really warm and a bit washed out. It’s a shame that most developers now use modern machines and print from the scans, rather than from the negatives. Maybe I just need to try out different films and see how they come out…

Time is slower on film

Finally developed three rolls of film that had been parked on a shelf since last summer. I was surprised to see that some pictures from one of the rolls was from 2016, and looking at them was like travelling in time. Love that in this day of instant gratification! This one is from almost exactly a year ago to the day; sunny mornings in the dining room like this one are the best.

What do we reckon happened here? Pavel probably didn't have someone’s number and waited for them for ages, and then had to leave? Or is it just really funny and polite (it’s written in pencil after all) graffiti? We’ll never know.

My girl Z, in the loos at Frenchie. She came over from Amsterdam for a few days in the summer, and it was frickin’ awesome - as usual. So happy we managed to meet up three times last year <3

Here she is walking through a very slim alley in Covent Garden.

Kudos to the lady with the unusually shaped straw hat. I got to a point in my cynical old age where I inwardly eyerolled when I saw people wearing “look at me!”-outfits, and now I’ve come out the other side, and think “Yeah!!! Why the hell not?!”. Still, you wouldn’t see me in a hat like that :)

At the Royal Academy. Pull his leg! Might need to explain the expression “you’re pulling my leg” here. It means “you’re lying to me” in insider English.

Yaas queen. The shade is where it’s at. Have a great weekend yo! I’ll be playing the new Tame Impala album to death - it’s been a very long four and half year wait, but by the sounds of it, totally worth it!