Scenes from the Back Yard

More shots with my Holga, this time scenes from our back yard. I was just exploring the late afternoon sunlight coming through the trees.

forsythia in bloom before the blossoms dropped

some of the fruits of our woodchopping labor

hand-me down from a neighbor whose daughter is now in college
(grass just starting to green up)

I Heart My Holga

I shot these photos in the past few weeks with my Holga, which is considered a toy medium format camera which'll set you back a whopping $25 or so. (The link at the bottom of the page has a photo of it... minus the rubber bands that *ahem* some people use to hold the back on.) I swear that I haven't had this much fun with a cheap, plastic, "Made in China" toy since I was, oh, seven years old. Each Holga has it's own personality (read: defects) thus their unique "quirks". Aside from the vignetting which is one of the normal beauties of the cheap, plastic joy that is a Holga (note the black in the corners of the shots), I'm noticing that mine tends to do a double exposure of sorts in the lower right corner. But enough of my enthusiastic blather (did I mention that I love playing with this thing?).

Below is a picture of the magnolia tree in our front yard (see my other blog for a photo of the tree in color and in the context of the front yard).

This is at a park down the street from our house.

For any camera/photo buffs who haven't been introduced to the Holga yet, take a few minutes to read the Holga link above... it's funny and it might just make you want to hop online and order one. If you do, happy shooting! Oh, and though most of the modifications are no longer necessary to make it photoworthy (the Chinese were actually paying attention to the online modification sites) some of the tips are handy to know.

Snaps from Shanghai

Several years ago, we took a trip to China with my husband's family and my mother. I'm going to throw a few handfuls of photos from that trip up here for fun and I'm going to start with a few snaps from Shanghai. The first three photos are from one of the gardens (or just outside the entrance in the case of the first photo).

These next photos are both from the same temple.

London in Black & White

Again, here are some shots I took in London, only this time in b&w.

Again, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. I like this one better than the one in the previous post.

Iron fence with gilded finials... I don't remember where this was.

Horse fountain at Picadilly Circus

Same fountain at Picadilly

Juggler at Covent Garden

Ruins of a Christopher Wren church

This photo is generally unremarkable, but I thought it was funny when a Mallard Duck came swimming into the frame. I don't remember ever seeing a duck in a fountain anywhere else. Ever.

So, there we are for a while. There are more London photos, but it'll be good to take a break for a while and do something else. Another location, perhaps, say France or China? We'll have to see.

More of London

Here are a few more photos from the London photos that I wanted to share. Here again is, of course, the ever photogenic Parliament.

At sunset...

... and forty minutes later.

Crown Imperials in Hyde Park

This is Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a very long operating pub/restaurant that several fairly famous figures in history used to frequent and which was rebuilt after the Great London Fire of 1666. I couldn't resist and actually did eat lunch here.

This room was in the outer perimeter wall of the Tower of London.

I saw these vines during one of my meandering walks through one of the neighborhoods near our hotel. I thought they were pretty neat.

That's it for this round. More to come some other time.

Just... Grass

Just a light post and a light photo. This one's a little over 3 years old. I forgot about taking this picture until the film came back (there's that "film" stuff again). When I got the prints back, I was interested to see how the texture translated in B&W.

A Boy and His Frog

This wasn't a staged shot... he really fell asleep just like that. This photo reminds me that I really need some sleep. Have a good weekend, everyone!