boss_kitty

A Day in Space

Been thinking about Ballboy (the band) today, because had a bit of post holiday blues now the workoad becomes pretty much solid to Christmas and they (he) do melancholy better than anyone. These are the last pics from my break. 1 from France, some from Viraaj and my trip to Liverpool, some from a coffee date with mates from the college I work at very occasionally and finally some of Sean. I enjoyed my two weeks. Click individual pictures for larger versions.

Starts off with last picture from France from our last full day there. None. More. French. Also such a great holiday and again means more to me than I can say.

So once back and I'd unpacked, Viraaj and I went to the Keith Haring exhibition at Tate Liverpool. not many pics, and all shot with the Diana fisheye, but it was a lovely day in a lovely city

Then to finish the break off, coffee meet up with top people. How and why do they put up with my shit? Anyway I appreciate them and owe them so much, but above all love being with them.

And then to finish the film off, some pics of my main squeeze DaSean. Meow meow meow

Thanks for the snuggles, less so for the claws.

Cheesecake Truck

^ My favourite King Missile track. So have been ruminating on these. Firstly I'm saying these pictures document one of the best holidays I have had in a very long time, with three friends sitting on rocks, in the sea, on the beach, in the car, in the house (thanks Eugene and Madeleine [and Thierry and Koryn]), walking and sheltering, chatting, climbing, exploring. Secondly, two of us were in swimming costumes. We both got photographed. There are some pictures of Emma here. They will be taken down if any discomfort is expressed by the subjects (despite my "I post everything on this blog" rule, friends supercede that). It is also Ok to say how amazing everyone looks. I am very positive about my own body, but find it less than comfortable appreciating a friend's beauty, and photographing that on merit (the reason for the jokey title), celebrating it. My own feelings of creepyness are a legacy of a weird childhood and some adulthood stuff too that I don't want to go into here, but might share if you buy me a drink and I trust you. It also follows that my persistent nudeness is a reaction to this and a challenge to it. Click individual pictures for bigger versions.

White Vannes Man

^ Yeah, some of these pictures were taken in Vannes. Humour. These pictures were taken before the previous post, and are very jumbled up. I've reordered them from memory, but their order on the negatives don't match that. Not sure what's going on, but bear with me. They were shot on the Practika TL1 again using Kentmere 400 film. Usually I'm fine with cheap and cheerful Kentmere but these images have some fearsome drop out where the emulsion has just come away, and it's a bit intrusive here I think. Still, memories eh? Maybe I'm becoming a film snob. Anyway, click individual images for bigger versions.

Starting on our drizzly first morning in Damgan.

^ Really like that font, reminds me of the font used in The Prisoner

^ Vacant hotel property. Hmm.

Anyway as the weather didn't look too promising we decided to head to the largest nearby town of Vannes. Where obviously the weather improved hugely, and we had a lovely meal and a nice gentle wander around the beautiful walled town centre and harbour.

^ Really cute yarn-bombing

^ Spectacularly repurposed old warehouse, now an art gallery/cafe, with the guy below guarding the entrance

^ Really hoped this would've come out sharper as was pleased to catch Emma when she was distracted. S'ok though.

^ You can tell this is France as the mime guy is treated as unremarkable. If this was Nottingham someone would be throwing a burning envelope full of human shit at him.

^ Nice flying buttresses

So the next day was beautifully sunny so we found (after Emma and my failure to find it last year) the shrine/pilgramage site/statue to St Gildas de Rhuys. It was superb.

^ This was our beach for the day (along with about 10-15 other folk)

Statue of St Gildas. I mean how did they get it there? Was it carved on site or transported? Mind boggling...

^ The statue is hidden down and to the left of Emma and Sammy here. I mean pretty inaccessible...

That cross up on the headland is the one from a few photos ago.

^ Think this is Sammy and Matt? I have history for getting it very wrong though...

^ Old guy perving over young bathers sanctimoneously snapped by me. Given some of the photos I took during the week, I'm not really on solid ground here.

The next day was a little breezy and cloudy so we went to La Tour des Anglaises, more pictures of this are on the previous post.

And that's shallot for this roll. More tomorrow probably...

Flock of Pissing Seagulls

That title has nothing to do with these pictures, just got that "Photograph" song in my head now (that isn't even called "Photograph") so you can have it too (you're welcome).

Anyway, more holiday photos from earlier this month in La Golfe de Morbihan, Southern Brittany. These were shot on the Practika TL1 using XP2 film, which is a c41 process film that I developed as conventional black and white for "affect". I have done this before (here) but this time had no real plan as to how to use it. As a result (I think, other opinions/thoughts welcomed) they are overexposed and required some work in scanning. Worked though, so there is a record which is largely the point?

So on to the content. I DO like some of these shots, they are good, but am realising that I am better at shots of people than I am at landscapes. Seeing as there are a LOT of landscape shots here, that makes the overall feel somewhat disappointing. I can be kinder to myself and think "if you only get one nice shot on a roll, that's fine" though so do know that showing all my photos has this downside. It's "honest" (in my head anyway) but also shows failure which you don't usually get to see with "proper" photographers (moreso with the advent of digital?). Maybe there's a link to the Facebook life pimping (i.e. only seeing the "amazing" bits) that depress many people and ARE NOT REALISTIC. Anyway, do you want to see some pictures? Click individual photos for bigger versions.

So it starts at La Tour des Anglaises (a place I photographed last year). It was a lovely afternoon sitting around in the partial sun (partial cloud) talking. Lovely. Photos a bit meh compared to the memory.

^ Emma channelling Aki Kaurismaki's Leningrad Cowboys Go America (great film, go see).

^ Nice shot, grainy as had to work to get something useable as it was very overexposed.

Emma took these 2 ^

On to the next day (I think) and La Plage de la Mine d'Or. It was vereh windeh duckeh.

OK next day we decided to go to La Plage des Amoureuxes (sp?). The beach of the lovers with three lovely companions. It's a sandy beach sheltered by rocks with a chateau (now a hotel) right down to the water. So what could go wrong, right? Well there was something. Now read on...

Nice right?? ^ Here comes the problem (below)

Yeah. There was a large dead porpoise(?) washed up on the beach. It's head was largely eaten, and it... STANK. So we moved... (and yes I am aware of the irony or parallel to my love life).

...to the beach next door which was less windy, more populated, but lovely.

Yeah. I'm shutting up.

Bottletop to finish the film.

Brittany 2019 #1

Ok so first lot of my film shots from Brittany earlier this month. All shot on HP5 at 400 asa on a Diana camera. It's a cute and loveable camera capable of lovely shots, I need to get into the habit of rechecking focus before each shot because it's not thru lens viewfinder and I forget, especially when using a thru lens as the other camera (a Practika TL1 in this case). That means the last 3 or 4 here are soft or unfocussed and that's a shame. Some nice ones though that I'm v pleased with. It's also an outdoor camera, needs lots of natural light, the one indoor shot is a bust here. But for a very light piece of plastic it's beautiful and may be on the way to replacing the Holga in my arsenal??

Indoor shot fail ^

Overall I'm pretty pleased.