Madrid in technicolor

A trip by myself to Madrid. The idea was no digital cameras! So, I brought along 3 friends: my Canon A1, my apple juice pinhole (which I will be dedicating some time to latter on) and Diana F+, and just have some fun taking pictures.

I had only taken two rolls of film with her since June, so I’m still getting the hang of it. Diana works much better in sunny conditions when it brings out the best colours. So these aren’t exactly the most fantastic pictures. I have to spend some more time with her by my side....

Slide film is definitely one of the best options. I got these pictures cross processed, which plays around with the colours and makes them look old school. I mean, my dad has a whole bunch of photos from the 70’s that today have the same effect!

Even Arantxa, one of my hosts got hooked on Diana so fast that duing my 3 day passage through Madrid, she went off and bought her very own Diana and flash! I felt like a preacher from some religious "Diana cult" spreading the holy word!

Autumn

Today is very much an autumn day. Planeta Tangerina

One photo a day

In September I started a photography course at NAF. It began with the basics: how to load a camera, how it works and a few simple procedures into aperture, film speed, light, etc. After developing our own film negatives, now comes the fun part: darkroom photo development. My fingertips are still entrenched with the smell of fixer!

Here is the latest result: it only took me about 45 min to get this photo printed out, after testing with gray scales and trying out exposures, but it is worth the wait. This may seem anachronic to many but I enjoy every minute of it! Tomorrow I’ll have another photo.

Getting started

The hardest part of any project is getting started.

I had been searching for a black paper photo album for some time now. The type of album my dad has from his time in Guiné Bissau and when he and my mom were dating. I got lucky last Saturday when visiting the Feira da Ladra and bought a small black paper photo album with corner stickers still in it, a bit worn, just as I like it! I want it to be a unique place where I can hold the very best of my memories.

So the first page is a remembrance of the day I bought the album: a black and white photograph, bought by Pedro on the same day, of a tree that reminded me of Mondrian’s apple trees. And thus accomplishing the second pending thing on my list: finding a name for this blog…