oasis child

These are more photos taken during our stay in Batangas. We went during rainy season so we basically had the entire resort to ourselves and only ever saw other guests at the restaurants. It barely rained during our stay but when the rain was coming in, I decided to whip out the ae-1 and take a couple snaps. I think it was only after the rain that distorted the horizon and hid the landscapes I was really able to appreciate how beautiful our surroundings were. Maybe I need to work on learning to appreciate how beautiful things can be before it "rains". It's something I've been struggling with, especially recently.

It's been a while since I've posted photos on here, not that anybody has noticed because this blog literally has no audience, but I'm going to keep it up because I enjoy it. Haven't really wanted to touch a camera for a while now and when I found out I was going overseas I knew it was a prime opportunity to force myself to take photos again. It's been severely difficult the past couple months but I think I've had several breakthroughs while overseas and being able to take photos and enjoy the process of it was so cathartic and healing. I also had an epiphany about my photography. I've been trying for so long to emulate the photographers I admire who take beautiful photos of beautiful models which end up in magazines. I can admire it all I want but that's just not me. I like the candidness of my photography and the softness of it and I like vulnerability and not the kind you can ask of your models. I like that my photography wont ever be in magazines and I like how personal my photos can be to me and sometimes to others. I think the whole purpose of why I started taking photos in the first place was to try and invoke some sort of nostalgia through my images. I want them to tell stories or have people attach their own stories to them and sometimes I think I succeed in that and I feel like through practice and time I can improve on that a lot. I'm probably sounding like a massive wanker so let's move on.

While we were at the Philippines we went to this beautiful place about 2 and a half hours south from Manila. I spent most of the time in the water, floating and swimming and dealing with leg cramps every other minute. It was so beautiful and the second night we were there, we witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets imaginable. The sky turned beautiful shades of pink and yellow and I drunkenly took several shots of Riz while she was admiring the skies. I wouldn't call myself a spiritual person, at least not in the religious or supernatural sense, but this was by far the most spiritual I've been, literally in awe of how beautiful the world can be, which I guess I'd forgotten for a while.

Caught a ferry to Cockatoo Island for the biennale with Riz a week ago. It was... interesting. We had a pretty good time laughing at ourselves because to be completely honest, we were really underwhelmed with what we saw because we expected... more art? We left cackling and joking because we were thrown mad shade by some of the staff saying we wouldn't have been able to see everything in the time left until closing and we sure proved them wrong. I mean we did skip a lot of the video installations (???) after a few seconds of watching because some were just absurd (eg. a man running around a field throwing rocks and making guttural noises). At the end of the day we were left confused because we weren't sure if we just saw some "bad" art or if we just don't understand contemporary art. Aw well at least I took some cute shots of Rizelle.

At the end of last month I promised Will we'd go to the blue mountains and I'd buy him an ice cream. When we decided to make our spontaneous Katoomba trip earlier this month, we had no idea it was during the coldest day of the year. Before we left I checked the weather on my phone and we both scoffed at the 4 degrees it was showing and thought it was just a mistake and Will decided to stick to his decision to wear shorts. The trip down was fairly quick and very scenic (once we passed the west). As soon as we stepped off the train it became clear the 4 degrees my phone was showing probably wasn't a mistake. It. Was. Cold. It was a really really lovely day though. Shivering, huddling, runny noses and beautiful landscapes. Funnily enough, none of the shots of the landscapes are any good (curse of the expired film strikes again) but there are several photos (of will) that I really really love. Can't wait to go again, and this time actually buy this guy an ice cream.

Was a huge pleasure taking pictures of the sweet and super talented Bec Sandridge. Still super sorry about using expired film and the super grainy discoloured photographs. Check out Bec's music here.

Earlier in the year, I brought my smena with me during a couple days we spent down the coast. I had no idea I left the camera set to a lower ISO than the film I was using so they came out really overexposed. I played around with em on photoshop this morning and tried to fix the colours.

I tagged along with Will and Bec while they were filming a video clip for one of her songs. We went to the stunning Botany Bay national park. We set up on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and braved the chilly winds and the rain. The overcast weather made for ideal lighting for photos but I was an idiot and didn't listen to Will and the little voice in my head telling me to get some regular film. The only film I brought with me was expired film, one roll from this batch ruined Will's photos earlier on in the year and I should've known not to use em. The photos came back so grainy and very blue (which I had to fix using the very basic photoshop skills I have). I was able to salvage a few of em which I'm pretty happy about! Such a shame because it was such a beautiful location and great conditions for some beautiful photos.

These photos I've gotten back from the roll I shot last weekend, which was really lovely! The photos from this roll are far from perfect. The focus is all over the place, they're either way too overexposed or underexposed and because I was shooting in really low light many of 'em are very blurry. But even after all the mistakes I've made with this roll, I still really really like a lot of the photos. It was also the first time I've used a flash on my Canon AE-1 and that is also another reason why these turned out so "weird". I also brought along one of my old lomo cameras, but I still have a couple more exposures on that roll. Fingers crossed those turn out well!

These birds were flying around Will's backyard and they were beautiful and the butterfly was flying around when Juanita and I reached the top of the little mountain/bike track? (still unsure what it was)

Took photos of Juanita towards the end of last month. Still trying to figure out how to direct people while taking photos, something that doesn't come naturally to me at all, but I think we got some really good shots! Giant thank you to Juanita for putting up with my indecisiveness and vague directions.

Shots taken with a Canon AE-1 with expired ISO 400 film.

Rizelle turned 22 this week and I took some photos of her before celebrating and things got messy. I was really nervous about this roll of film because it was really really old and another roll from the same pack messed up Will's photos. Really happy with the results though!  Happy 22nd birthday to Riz <3 <3 <3 

I've been practicing shooting portraits and people and I'm finding it difficult and a little uncomfortable telling people what I want them to do because I don't want my photos to look posed. A huge thank you to Riz for putting up with my indecisiveness when taking portraits and photos of her! The first two were just candid shots of her and bottom two weren't. Yaaassss Riz! I think these are the last I'll post from this roll of film. If all goes well I'll have more photos up by the end of the month. Fingers crossed that the very old film I've used to shoot the other day don't mess up those shots.

Additional photos taken from my 2nd roll of film from February. Riz and Will had both finished rolls of film and were ready to get them processed and I still had 2 exposures left and was determined to finish my roll as well. We walked by a party store before the photo lab and Riz suggested we see if we could do any photos in there and I was able to get two spontaneous and candid shots of both Riz and Will. Fun photos, nice grain, pretty bokeh!

So I've set the goal to go out with a camera more often and take at least a roll of film per month and this month I have developed two rolls of film, with another roll on its way. This time trading in the beaches, headlands, fields and greenery for the city. I've also started getting my photos scanned onto a CD at the photo lab (will's suggestion) so the new images on the blog are going to be way better quality than the photos I've scanned using my shitty 3-in-1 printer/scanner. Still trying to figure out how to photograph portraits and people, a lot of my photos look a little awkward, oops. I'm really really really happy with this roll though, not many I didn't like. These are photos taken in an alley where we were able to escape the hoards of businesspeople on their peak hour rush home and to eat a $1 punnet of strawberries some very vocal shopkeepers were selling in peace.

I bought a couple rolls of expired 35mm film earlier this year and ran the first of those rolls through my ae-1 recently. I had a really good feeling about this roll and thought I'd have some photos that I'd be very proud of but I was very disappointed when I picked up the photos from the photo lab. A few of the shots I took in low light, which I thought would have normally turned out fine, were unusable. Others didn't show up at all, and some of the photos have weird black lines through them and I'm not sure if it's a result of the very old film, the camera not advancing film properly (which hasn't happened before) or the photo lab accidentally processing my film incorrectly (probably something with the film though).  I did have a few photos that I really liked though. The first, which is of Rizelle, was taken just before Laneway and the others during a day I spent with Will. We went for a little walk and I think I was probably wearing the wrong shoes because I found myself slipping on every rock. Really liked the tones and colours I got with this roll of film!