Photograpy Fix

Now I'm not pretending to be any sort of photography whizz or David Bailey here, but I really enjoy getting snap happy! My Dad lent me his old Pentax ME SLR a few years ago, but as exciting as shooting film is, it has its negatives (pun-intended). The romantic and annoying feature of using film is that you basically have no idea what the image will turn out like until you've got it developed. With this in mind, I decided to invest in a Nikon D3100 DSLR to ensure I at least took some semi-decent shots. If you were thinking of investing in a DSLR, you can pick these up for around 200 quid now, and I think they're pretty great!

My ever-so-talented uncle is a photographer and film producer, and a few years back spent an afternoon blacking out his garden shed and setting up a make-shift darkroom so that he could teach me how to develop film. It's an incredibly interesting process (science geek) and a lot of fun, albeit time consuming. If anyone out there has some kit they don't want, please please please send it my way as I'd absolutely love to set up my own darkroom.

As well as having the Pentax and Nikon, the same fabulous uncle bought me a Polaroid as my eighteenth birthday present, and I've loved it ever since. It used to be that you could only buy out-of-date film as it was no longer being made, however The Impossible Project launched in 2008 and you can get your hands on Polaroid film now no problem.They even have super cool black, gold, silver, colour and animal print film, which is great! I recently stumbled across an Impossible Project shop in Barcelona which housed rows upon rows of vintage Polaroid cameras, unfortunately I was already over my baggage allowance otherwise I'd have snapped some of those up (pun-intended)!

Me looking a bit grumpy at Palau Guell, Barcelona

Plaza de Ayuntamiento, Valencia

My beautiful sister being anti-social in Valencia

I've wanted to buy a negative scanner for ages, so a few weeks ago I picked up a pretty cheap one off ebay and have been fairly happy with the images I've got from it. The following three snaps are from Fujifilm Velvia 50 negatives I scanned.

Obviously I spent a lot of time photographing kitties

Parc Guell, Barcelona

My sister having a go with the Nikon D3100

Some of the negatives didn't work brilliantly, so I just scanned in the prints I had made from getting the films developed. The results can be seen in the following five images - I love Fujifilm Vevia 50, the colours are amazing! I haven't used Photoshop on any of the images on this blog post!

Plaza de Ayuntamiento, Valencia

Stealth mode photography

Chinese restaurant on Calle de Pelayo, Valencia

My sister outside La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Two ladies buying ham at Mercat Central de Valencia

DO: 

• go out and enjoy this unusually glorious summer we are having - experiment with taking photos, even if you're just using your phone camera! 
• get yourself on Instagram - there are some people out there who take the coolest photos! If you like what ya see, give me a follow using the button on my profile!

DON'T:

• spend crazy money buying things you don't need - you can pick up film from Poundland, so if you're just wanting to start experimenting get yourself down there and pick up a six-pack of Cadbury Freddos whilst you're at it.

Hope you've enjoyed browsing my photos. Any comments always appreciated!

- Beth

Your friendly neighbourhood cat-lady

Yes, okay, you may be fed up of cats on the internet. Well, I'm sorry, but I'm new to this blogging game and I'm cat mad so you're just going to have to stick it for another few minutes (only if you choose to read this of course, no pressure).

I love cats. I love their warm, fluffy coats, and their cold, aloof manner. I love their blunt attitude towards you; the only time you're not 100% sure what they're thinking is when they roll over. It's a 50/50 toss up between a friendship-bonding tummy rub or sudden, immediate and incredibly painful arm-death. It's endearing. I just love cats.

I have two black cats, Daisy and Scout. Daisy is the oldest and fattest. She's grumpy and sassy, but then I would be too if I was middle-aged, deprived of gin and tonics and surrounded by younger females. Which brings me onto Scout, the younger and much, much more stupid of the two. She has a habit of meowing for recognition as she comes in, meows right at your feet and the proceeds to slink all around the house meowing until you finally meow back at the very place she started. Four or so years on and I still find it hilarious.

Daisy, the grumpiest of kitties.

Scout, following recent trends, wearing a bucket hat. Kittycat has got some style!  

Now I don't just love my cats. There's plenty of cat-appreciation to go around. I have recently made friends with some neighbourhood cats, which are meowvellous. We have Mr. Beautiful, who lives a few doors down, and then Phoebe, the timid little Siamese from next door. I recently visited the BioParc in Valencia, a huge zoo, and the first animal I saw was a little, teeny-tiny baby kitten curled up in a crack between two rocks. Safe to say I was the most excited about this precious little thing than any other animal I saw all day. Including a baby giraffe.

Mr. Beautiful

Baby kitty from the BioParc

You can show your cat appreciation in many different ways. Cat memorabilia is the way in which I mainly choose to display it, and I will share some of these items with you. A cat tapestry pocket tshirt from The Pocket Company, a cat tapestry rucksack I purchased off eBay, and a cat-face watch from New Look, so you can count down the time until you can come home to ya lil' kittycat/bestfriend/only person who truly knows the real you.

Don't worry. If you don't actually own a cat, then you can use this purrfect cat-print hipflash from Urban Outfitters to while away those sad, empty nights alone. Just look at its little face!

DO:

• use cat puns. It's still funny whatever other people are telling you. I'd be lion if I said I could think of any right meow, but let me just paws and get my catalogue out. I can't imeowgine that you didn't find any of those punny, although some were a catastrophe. 

• watch Disney classic Oliver & Company. The story of Oliver Twist but with a lil' ginger kitty playing Oliver, so a million times better. There are some pretty darn catchy songs in there too!

Oliver & Company, wuhoo!

DON'T:

• be tempted to steal a cat, no matter how cute they are and how much they love you better than anyone else. It is against the law. 
• cosmetically alter your face to look like a cat. It isn't the ultimate cat appreciation, it's just plain creepy. 

Ta-rah, 

- Beth

Adventures in Spain

Hola! This is in fact my very first blog post ever, so if it's a bit rubbish then I can only get better! Right?! I recently visited Barcelona and Valencia, where I got a bit snap happy, so am wanting to share some of the photos I took, places I went to and experiences I had. I took three cameras with me (I've become a bit of an eager beaver when it comes down to photography!), these being a Nikon D3100 DSLR, my Dad's vintage Pentax ME SLR and a cheeky little Polaroid Sun600, well, because they're pretty. 

Fujifilm Velvia 50 is yet to be developed but will post pictures once they're done!

Our first stop was Barcelona, which basically meant that for four days we got lost in Gaudi and then a bit more Gaudi and then a little bit of Picasso and then some more Gaudi. We visited Parc Guell, the fabulous park that Gaudi designed for his bezzie mate and bazillionaire Eusebi Guell, the Picasso museum and La Sagrada Familia, which has to be one of the most beautiful buildings forever and ever. And will probably be being built forever and ever! If you're planning on visiting Barcelona in the near future, I can strongly recommend purchasing tickets for the main attractions in advance to avoid spending time queuing when you could be eating paella and drinking sangria!

La Sagrada Familia, although construction first commenced in 1882 it is still being built!

Intricate ceiling of deliciousness

Stained glass windows in La Sagrada Familia

My favourite, the mosaic lizard, who I fell in love with the very first time I visited Parc Guell when I was just a wee gal!

We then spent four days in Valencia, where we visited the BioParc, a massive urban zoo emulating the different terrains of Africa and home to giraffe, elephants, lions, and warthogs. My sister was particularly unimpressed by my renditions of songs from The Lion King and shouting "I killed Mufasa!" every time we saw a lion - a gal's gotta have her fun though! Valencia has a very chilled out atmosphere, which was a bit lacking in Barcelona, and there are lovely buildings scattered all around the city so you don't really have to plan anything in particular. 

Lemur having a chill

Cute little elephant snogging a wall

Plaza de Ayuntamiento, Valencia

DO: 

• order an Agua de Valencia, a delicious beverage containing champagne, vodka and orange juice (or zumo de naranja, if you've got your phrasebook out).
• get yourself a pair of Dr. Martens sandals and a Fjallraven Kanken rucksack - I'm a huge Dr. Martens fan and my trusty holiday shoes are the Flash sandal.

DON'T:

• be so shocked/mesmerised that a lady has pulled a weave out of a cardboard box in Valencia airport that you focus all your attention on that bizarre sight and collide into a poor Spanish lady. 

I will end with a photo of some graffiti I saw in Valencia. If you're headed to Spain make sure that you check out the amazing graffiti there - it's a lot better than the 'REEM' and 'VOMIT' nonsense you get spraypainted on the way into Nottingham train station.

I thought there was something so funny about a cat saying LOOL and a banana peel. Maybe there isn't and I'm just weird.

Adios,

-Beth