Snowy Aber

Ok, it might not be snowing or have snowed here yet so I thought I'd look back and share some photos of when it has snowed here in the past. I always thought snow didn't settle on the beach but I was proved wrong back in 2006 during my first year, we even made a snow being of sorts on North beach one night but it was the following morning I took these shots after I ventured out onto a very slippery and cold prom.

 



2007 saw another snowfall as did 2009, here you can see the castle and grounds with a light sprinkling.

It actually snowed twice in 2009, the above are from the February but it also snowed in December but that didn't last long unlike in 2010 just before we moved from town out to where we are now, the snow was on the ground for weeks because it was so cold. I hated having to walk down the hill when it was so icy but glad I live close to work so didn't have to risk taking the car out. Here is the snow from 2010

We didn't have any last year, at least not that I can remember, and I would like some this year, if only a little perhaps.

365 Explored

This week has gone quite quickly, only another five to go and we've got a two week holiday! It hasn't been the greatest week in work but I won't dwell on that but look on the positive side as this week two of my 365 photos have appeared in Flickr's Explore and I'm absolutely thrilled. The first one is piggy, he was a Christmas present for my husband, he loves little novelty presents although his favourite would be the potato shaped scrubby brush I once bought him. Here is piggy in all his pink glory

Wednesday was a terrible day so to cheer me up we headed into town for lunch and a spot of seafront photography. The one thing I really miss about living in town is being a two minute walk away from the seafront, it has to be my favourite place in Aberystwyth and the one I would miss the most if/when we move. When I lived in halls I was lucky enough to have rooms with a sea view so I have many beautiful sunset photos and sunset is still my favourite time to go out. My second Explore is a typical Aberystwyth winter afternoon

I wish I had more opportunity to get out and take photos in day light but at the moment time isn't on my side, sometimes I start work in the dark and by the time I finish the sun has already set and darkness and cold has crept in. Hence looking forward to two weeks off soon and the thought of lighter days ahead. We are going to visit Manchester again as we were both too ill to actually enjoy the places we went to last year.  

I'm currently bidding on a few film cameras on eBay, I fancy a new film challenge in the summer and want to try out some different cameras to include in my 365 as I haven't shot any film since almost this time last year. As of yet I have no plans for the summer except to take lots of photos and visit places I find inspiring like St Fagans which is an open air museum not far from Cardiff, I've lost count of the number of times I've been but always find something new to take pictures of.  

Putting a stamp on it

So far I've spoken about my love for photography and shared a couple of poems but have yet to go into more detail about my passion for postcards. I've always been someone who likes having real post, not just everyday letters and bills but correspondence. When I went to university my Grandma used to write to me several times a week and I used to send her and other members of my family postcards from the seaside. When my now husband and I first got together in 2007 we spent our first three months together apart, as frustrating as it was at the time I enjoyed sending him cards and letters with beautiful stamps on nearly everyday of the week and he has a box of lovely letters to show for it. We moved into our first flat in the summer of 2008 and although I did and still do, leave little notes and things for him to find when I'm not here, I missed sending him post. Of course I still sent cards to my family but I missed picking out things I know he would appreciate. I was designing some postcards to send home on Moo and I came across a piece about Postcrossing and with a tag line “send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person in the world!”. I carried on reading and knew immediately it was something I had to have a go at. I signed up in September 2008 and requested five addresses, five being the maximum at first, and went about picking cards to send to these five strangers that I now had a connection with. My first card was registered in Germany after a short three day journey and then the wait began for my first card. Just over a week later and my first cards arrived, I had three! My first one was from Norway and the second and third from the Netherlands. Below is my first card, NO-14234.

Looking back, I was hooked from there. I sent more official cards over the weeks and then ventured into the world of private swaps and trades. Four years later I've got boxes and albums full of cards from all over the world, I've seen places and read the words of people I would have never otherwise and I'm really glad to be a part of the project. Work commitments have slowed me down over the last year and I have thought about calling it a day at times but then I receive a card or a story that makes me want to continue for the curiosity of what might still be to come. I love the sense of anticipation in the morning waiting for the post to see what treasures come through the letterbox. I've made a few lovely friends though this project, one of them is Anu from Finland who lives in the West Midlands, in the same city where my husband is from and we've met up a few times. I did a private swap with a girl called Szilvi from Budapest back in 2009 and I'm happy to say we've been corresponding ever since, some of the cards I've received from Szilvi are my favourite ones and I'm planning on writing a longer post to show some cards from her at a later date. I have a few themes I like to collect, my favourite being Black and White cards and those by the publisher Nouvelles Images as well as Hello Kitty cards. I thought I'd share just a very very small selection of my favourite cards I've received either through official Postcrossing or through swaps and trades. 

 

  

Have a go, send a few cards and I promise you will find it very hard to stop.

Friday

Another crappy old day in work so I have been reading old poetry since I came home, this is one from a Friday back in January 2004. I miss those days, nostalgia aside, I really do. I think you do too, maybe we all do.  

 

 

 

 

‘Love’

 

I gather stems, of elder flowers,

Crush them, ornately, with my fingertips.

Relish the delights of their

Flowery juice.

 

In my garden, on the riverbank,

We drink,

Tenderly.

 

*

 

I’d like to blackmail you.

Cut out red hearts made of sugar-paper,

Sending them to you,

For tease value,

Oh how I love you.

 

The wickedness,

The deception.

 

Our summer memories are in the past,

Our past, the times we have breathed through.

 

 

I will always love you.

My Pentax K1000 and I

For as long as I can remember I have loved photographs, looking back at old family ones as well as taking my own. I wasn't the greatest at holding the camera when I was younger, many a film came back with a rogue thumb in several prints but this didn't deter me.
I had my first digital camera for Christmas in 2005, an Olympus FE-120, it survived many an adventure exploring castles and tearing up the dance floor. I loved that camera and the freedom it gave me to just carry on shooting and the ability to get rid of anything I didn't like without having to spend a fortune on getting a film developed and being unhappy with the results. In 2009 I got a new compact and started my first Project 365, it was about this time I really fancied getting a bit more technical and learning to compose better photographs. After looking at courses in my local area (there wasn't much) I came across one in black and white photography and learning to use the darkroom to make your own prints. As a then digital lover I was a bit hesitant in some respects and decided it wasn't for me at that time. Looking back now I can't remember how I discovered it but this time two years ago I came across Lomography. I was intrigued by the beautiful images and how you would create them, at first I thought it was all done digitally but when I realised it was all film in little plastic cameras I knew I had to give this a try. I took the plunge and bought a Diana mini, I liked the fact it used 35mm film and as I was tight on money at the time it seemed to be a good option.

      
Diana was fun if a little fiddly to start with and I did get the dreamy and vivid images I had expected when I got my first roll back.

I was a little frustrated they weren't as sharp as I would have liked and I now realise that comes with Lomography but I liked the idea of doing more with film so decided to go for the black and white course in the summer of 2010. Of course I needed a suitable camera and had absolutely no idea where to start searching. Reading online I found how popular the Pentax K1000 was with students learning about the basics as it is a fully manual camera, one thing lead to another and before I knew it I had bought one off eBay. I had no idea if it worked or would be able to work. Before I started the course I ran a cheeky colour film through it just to test and hooray, it worked! Here is my favourite one from my first roll -

When I finally started the course the guy running it thought I was a bit mad when he saw my camera for the first time. It didn't take long to show him it still worked and captured beautiful pictures just as well as any other camera. Learning to develop film was interesting, I would need a re-fresher course if I wanted to do it again now! Making prints in the darkroom was great fun, trying different exposure lengths to get shading right and to see a true black and a true white with everything in between is a challenge. I loved being able to pick the ones I wanted to make prints with rather than just ending up with lots I didn't want. The course lasted eight weeks, it was only meant to be two hours for each session but they usually went on much longer and we could go earlier if we wanted to. In the end I only ended up taking a few rolls of film during the course but I still made some prints I liked.

 Apologies for the scans, my scanner isn't the greatest sometimes! I had intended to return to the course in the autumn and booked my place when it became available. Unfortunately they had to change the day from a Wednesday to a Monday and due to work I wasn't able to go, this has been the case ever since and I haven't wanted to spend nearly £80 and not be able to go. Hopefully I will go back at some point as I did really enjoy it and since have taken lots and lots of rolls of both black and white and colour films on my Pentax. I had the misfortune that summer to go to a leaving BBQ for a friend and took my Pentax to get some nice shots in black and white, when I took them to be developed they accidentally processed it as colour and wiped the film. I was quite upset at the time but it was a mistake that hasn't been repeated...yet at least. Below are just a few of my favourite Pentax shots I've taken so far. 

I would definitely recommend to anyone to go to a course like it and to have a play with old film cameras, the results can be so beautiful and I feel it takes you back to getting to really exploring photography. I now have digital SLR and am currently getting to grips with it but the love I have for my Pentax keeps me returning to it for the type of images you can see above that I think are just as good as any digital ones created on a computer. I've also been given numerous film SLRs by good friends and family, some have been used, some not but my first film love will always remain my Pentax K1000.

 

 

Hello 2013

2013 has arrived and now is the time to start the new challenges I have decided upon.

• Complete Project 365 2013. I've done two of these projects before, both can be seen in my flickr but this is the first one to start 1st Jan and run to 31st Dec. I also have another little everyday project, a Q&A journal. In the past I've kept a line a day journal but have always given up when I got frustrated at writing the same old depressing stuff everyday. I hope the question element will change this.
• Send more postcards. I used to be so into Postcrossing but have only sent a handful of cards since Easter last year, I suppose it's the old cliche that if you don't have the money you have the time and when you have the money you have no time! I still love the surprise of what will be waiting when I return from work, especially cards from my card pal, Szilvi.
• Read more. I think I have this resolution every year and normally it fades away but I have re-arranged our bedroom since this time last year and I have got a nice reading light now so fingers crossed. I would like to pose the challenge of reading a book a week.
• Get started on the baby plans, only time will tell.
• Continue to blog and writing new posts about the things I like doing and the places I will go to.
• Start the hunt for our own house.
• Have a good cull in the wardrobe and sell some things I don't need on eBay to make money for things I would like

So just a few things to be getting on with. I'll leave you with my first photo for 2013.