I'm Still Here :)

Yep, I am still here. Here as in occupying life, but definitely not here as in blogging. I am super busy with photographing weddings, engagements and life, so when I am not photographing one of the three, or editing said photos,  I like to stay as far away as possible from my computer. It is summer in Wisconsin and it only comes around once a year, so I must take full advantage. Here are a few photos that I have taken lately. Since life is busy, I haven't been using my Holga much. But I have been using Instagram!

End of Summer Holgas from Central Wisconsin

Some end of Summer Holgas....

Kayaking at Lake Eau Claire on Labor Day

Yes, it was rainy, but we managed to get in a picnic on a sandbar before it really started to rain.

I love boardwalks through the woods. This is from the Ice Age Trail near Mondeaux Dam.

 I have been really into yellow lately. As a flower and pretty much any color except sweaters circa 2001.... :) I also enjoy that final yellow burst of summer and sun before fall in winter. Fall yellow is such a different yellow than summer yellow.... to me anyway!

Birds on a wire along the road. Holgas don't pick up that much detail....

Holga at the Fair

I took my Holga to the Central Wisconsin State Fair in Marshfield a few weeks ago. I wasn't quite sure how the photos would turn out... I usually don't shoot my Holga at night. Last time I tried the film quality was just really degraded, but it was also inside. But with a general idea and a few double exposures and a few long exposures, a few of the photos turned out! Actually, I only took three.

This is my favorite. There actually is more detail in the shadows on the original print, but the scanner did a cruddy job and there was a ton of scan marks, so I just darkened it all out. I like hand-holding long exposures, especially with a Holga. The images from a Holga tend to be more "memory" quality for me, so the light motion blur is more forgiving than with the crisp tangibility and immediacy of digital cameras.  

Fair rides. I didn't ride any, but I ate a lot of fair food.

The Ferris Wheel. This is a double exposure. I like how it looks carnival-esque as an image, not just because it is a carnival.

Here is an interesting link about the end of Kodachrome: http://www.stltoday.com/news/multimedia/vmix_4e9f782a-aca0-11df-806f-00127992bc8b.html

I love the colors and those old family slides. Family photos never will look the same....

Shifting Seasons

It is that time of year where the seasons are beginning to shift. Summer is slowly (I wish it would go slower!) shifting into fall.  Here are a couple late summer photos from the past week.

Some flowers for you...

Photos of end of summer flowers that I saw on my morning run. No, I don't run with my camera, but I drove somewhere to run and had my camera in my trunk. Normally I don't have enough time to take photos after running, but it was Sunday and my only plans were laying out at the lake, which was accomplished!

I have developed a strong interest in taking photos of flowers from below. I like the way the sun shines through the petals and illuminates tiny details that from the top I would never notice.

And some summer grass!

Summer light

The weekend is winding down and it was a busy one. So here is a quick post and one photo, my favorite  from the weekend. I shot it at Grand Rapids Music Fest on Friday night.

Two boys were playing catch while their parents hung out at the music fest. I don't think this will run in the paper because they only needed two photos and it isn't specific to the fest. I love the light on a mid-summer's evening, it congers up a lot of memories for me. 

Last weekend...

Last weekend I had a chance to do a little bit of this.....

 

Relaxing in the hammock and reading.

Canoeing in the marsh

Exploring through inlets until we were forced back to the shore for more eating and hammock-ing by the swarms of horse flies. I was surprised that no large spiders fell into the canoe, which is a fear for me when going under low branches.

But at least we got to see lots of lily pads, which I have been wanting to take pictures of for awhile.

But I didn't quite get the right shot

Still not quite right. Oh well, there will be more summer weekends to try.

I am off for the next five days and am heading up to Duluth this weekend to shoot Tim and Jill's wedding. Should be a fun wedding in a beautiful setting!

Black and White Holga

Things have been pretty busy here, but I did get a chance to scan a few Holga pictures. Once again I used the Illford Super XP-2 black and white film, which you can process in the same chemicals as color film.

Rainy trees in Marshfield. The black and white film fits the grayness of  June, especially the past two weeks. Luckily the sun has come out again and the rain has stopped!

A double exposure of Dan trout fishing. I really like the way this turned out, and how the photo isn't so sharp, it makes even fishing seem dreamy.

We had to walk through all this wet grass to get to the fishing hole. I feel like this photo looks like I am walking through the jungle, although it is really just weeds. I like this photo in black and white, it gives it more of an abstract feel. If it were color, you would right away know this is just grass and not the jungle. I did order more color film though, and it is loaded and ready to go!

That is all the photos for now. Hopefully I will get some nice photos from quality time in "America's Hometown" this week and from the central Wisconsin Fourth of July festivities! Enjoy the long weekend!

First Day of Summer

Today is the first day of summer! I celebrated the end of spring by mountain biking at Nine Mile and Levis this weekend, as well as taking my whitewater kayak out for the first time (ever!) on the Black River. I didn't flip and the rapids were much more manageable than I was imagined. Since I was busy with bikes and boats this weekend, I didn't get to take a lot of photos. I don't bring my camera into situations where it will most likely be damaged by water or by running into a tree.

Here are a few photos that say summer to me. They are from our trip last year to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota.

Sunset at our campsite on Knife Lake.

Paddling through the Boundary Waters. Dan made this paddle for my mom and I borrowed it for the trip. This could be pretty much any season, but it says summer to me because of the colors and the gold-ish light of the sun setting,

Summer time and the livin' is easy

 Summer time and the livin' is easy!

 

I know, I know..... a total cliche photo of me somewhere,  but not really a photo of me, just evidence of what I was doing and that I was actually there. That is all I was up for this weekend. This was the first Memorial Day weekend in four years that I didn't have to work. I spent it on the lake relaxing and learning to eskimo roll my new-to-me whitewater kayak. The eskimo roll was accomplished and so was the relaxing in the sun. It was pretty much my  perfect summer weekend.