DIANA MINI / STAVANGER

It's starting to feel like spring here, and on that occasion I wanted to share some analog photos I took a while ago at Easter. And while I was sifting through my photos, I realized I actually haven't posted any analog photos since last September? How did that happen? It appears I've just been so consumed in photo books and photo albums. I actually have several rolls of film that need to get developed as well (including all the disposable cameras from our wedding!), so I've officially put it on my to do list for this weekend. Other than the wedding disposables, I pretty much have no idea what's on these films. And mystery films are the best!

These were all taken in Stavanger with my Diana mini on 35 mm film. My poor Diana mini has since retired as heavy use has sadly left her a bit worse for wear, but this was my favorite camera for years. The fact that it takes 35 mm film made it so easy going. The photos would come out in such a dreamy and vivid colors, and I loved the double exposures. Hopefully we'll have an Easter just like it this year!

DIANA F+ / BLACK & WHITE

I love black and white film. There's just something so classic about them. Graeme got me some rolls of black and white film for Christmas last year, and I recently got a couple of them developed. These were all taken with my trusty Diana F+, on Kodak Professional Black and White 120 film. Some were taken in Stavanger on a sunny day this spring, and some were taken in our closest dog park in winter, right after it had snowed. You'll notice Bo's wearing her GoPro harness in one of them, as it's from the time we made this film.

The quality isn't the best though, as I had to scan them myself after a bit of an argument at the photo developer's. After nine weeks in the lab (and me calling several times to find out what was happening with my photos), they let me know that scanning my photos and putting them on a disc was too much extra labor to them due to the format and the fact that I'd used a toy camera. So I ended up taking the prints and scanning them myself at home. I really need to find a photo developer that still handles analog film and not just digital. I currently have several exposed films in the fridge that I'm a bit hesitant to go get developed!

DIANA F+ & OLYMPUS TRIP: GLASTONBURY

Oh man, I have been neglecting this blog recently. I was expecting to have plenty of spare time this summer, but in between applying for jobs, remodelling the kitchen, planning our wedding, travelling and other engagements, it's been ridiculously busy. But I'm getting there. The kitchen is SO close to being done, and Graeme and I are now getting married in less than a month. This week we managed to secure someone to actually carry out the ceremony (just a minor detail!), so that seems to be coming together too. We're also pretty much done with all our travelling this summer, so I figured I'd share a couple of the photos Graeme and I took from Glastonbury a few weeks ago! Oh, how I love analog film. These were all shot on Lomography Diana F+ with a 35 mm back and the Olympus Trip.

We had a pretty awesome weekend (as seen in the last photo!). It's such a huge festival, and it was so amazing to just wander around and explore and take it all in. Florence + the Machine was probably my favorite show, but there were so many other amazing acts, and such a good vibe throughout the festival in general. Would definitely recommend if festivals are your thing!

DIANA F+ / SCOTLAND

We are still in the middle of our kitchen renovation process over here. Currently, we've just finished doing the walls and flooring, and the kitchen itself was delivered a few days ago and is sitting in boxes in the living room, ready to be installed. We cook our meals outside on the bbq, and have to do our dishes in the bathroom. Our fridge sits in the middle of the living room. In other words, the whole house is a tip. To distract ourselves from the situation, we've been accepting every dinner invite thrown our way, and travelling whenever we get the chance. We went to Oslo to meet with the British Embassy to get some wedding-related paperwork done. Some friends of ours from the UK were running the Copenhagen Marathon, so we jumped on the ferry, drove through Denmark and cheered them on (I still have blisters from trying to keep up with them, stomping all over Copenhagen's cobbles in my wedges--not the best choice of footwear, I'll admit). Then we also went away for our stag and hen parties. Graeme went to Scotland for a week, and I had a long weekend in Bristol. I had the best time, and I'm now convinced it's some tropical paradise where everyone stays in beautiful houses and the sun shines every day (we stayed in the most gorgeous Victorian townhouse through airbnb and I got a tan). Today we're contemplating taking a few days at my parents cabin before the kitchen finally gets installed and we can return to normality. I'm planning on spending pretty much all of next weekend in the kitchen, cooking and baking and making a mess.

As we've been keeping pretty busy staying out of the house, I haven't really had much to blog about. So while we're still living in this kitchenless limbo and travelling a lot, I figured it'd be appropriate to share some shots I took while travelling over to Scotland this easter break. Graeme and I went to Glasgow for a week to visit friends and family, and then had a couple of sunny days in Edinburgh to finish the trip off. These were all taken with the Diana F+ with the 35 mm back. We're heading to the Glastonbury Festival in a couple of weeks, and think I'll be taking this camera with me!

LA SARDINA / BENICASSIM, CARTAGENA, MURCIA

I think my favorite thing about using analog film might be the anticipation and excitement of getting it developed. I tend to save them up and go and get a whole bunch of films developed at the same time, so quite often I have no idea when the films are even from.

Last week, Graeme and I were in Glasgow and in between wedding errands and visiting friends and family, I managed to sneak off and get a couple of 35 mm rolls developed in Snappy Snaps on Byres Road. The two rolls that were mine turned out to be from last summer- one from when Graeme's dad came to visit and the other from our trip to Spain. I've been working on a photo book from our Spain Trip, and didn't even realize I still had undeveloped rolls of film! And as this week's been pretty grey and dreary over here, I thought I'd share a couple shots of sunshine.

These were all taken with the Lomography La Sardina using 35 mm film. They were shot in Spain, namely in Benicassim, Cartagena and Murcia.

OLYMPUS TRIP & LA SARDINA // TJELTA

Yay, another roll of film developed! These were taken earlier this year around Easter, when Graeme and I took the dog for a little trip to the beach. Graeme brought his Olympus Trip and I brought the Lomography La Sardina. I love how the different cameras capture color so differently (the ones further down with the really vibrant water are taken with the Trip).

 

One of the things I love about living where I do, is that we have so many beautiful beaches so close. The coastline is about a 15 minute drive away from my house, and it's just one sandy beach after another. The water gets heated by the gulf stream as well, so it gets pretty warm during summer, considering how far north it is. It's pretty much one of my favorite places to hang out in the summer. Having said that, on this particular day the water was absolutely freezing, as Graeme discovered when he found a half dead fish lying in the sand and tried to save it by getting it back in the water (above). Bo didn't seem to mind though!

PHOTO BOOK: THAT TIME DFA1979 TOOK US TO CALIFORNIA

So I finally organized myself enough to complete a photo book from mine and Graeme's holiday in California a few years ago. Yeah, you read that right, it's actually been 3 years since we went on this holiday, and I haven't gotten around to making the book until now. But alas, it's finally here and I thought I'd share a few pages!

It's a funny story actually, how we ended up going to California in the first place. We were living in Scotland and I was browsing festivals and looking at the Coachella line-up, and was so excited about it that I called up Graeme and suggested we go. The conversation went something along the lines of this:

"Ok, so there's this festival with the most amazing line-up. SO many awesome bands are playing," I say and list half the line-up, and finish with "...and Death From Above." There's a silence on the other end of the line. Graeme and I are both huge DFA fans, and at the time, they were split up and had been for years (he saw them in Edinburgh many years ago, and still rubs it in my face). "Ok, that's actually sounding really good," he finally says, "But I bet it's expensive. How much?" "It's not that bad actually, only 269 dollars," I answer in my most enthusiastic voice. "No, that's not actually that bad... wait, what? Dollars? What do you mean? Hilde, where is this fesival?"

And while he was very skeptical at first, he ended up agreeing to go, with Death From Above 1979 being the winning argument (hence the title of the photo book). We ended up renting a car in LA and driving up to San Fransisco, where we stayed at a friend's house and I got to meet up with some old high school friends, before driving back to LA to pick up my friend from the airport who decided to join us at Coachella as she was flying from Nepal to El Salvador and stopping in LAX anyway. We then headed to the festival and stayed at a 5 star resort in Palm Springs. It was a pretty awesome holiday (especially considering it was a bit of a spontaneous one and very little planning went into it—we bought my friend's ticket on the day of the festival from some Scottish guy we met there, and the only reason we ended up at the resort in Palm Springs was because camping got sold out so quickly and my friend's mom had a hotel time share), so I'm happy to finally have this photo book made. Now, maybe I should go look at other random festival line-ups around the world and book something again? I hear Fuji Rock is supposed to be pretty good...?

On a different note, we're now back from our holiday in Spain! We had a fantastic time, and I took loads of pictures so I'll post a couple of those soon. Have several rolls of film to develop! I also managed to get myself sick though, so I'm currently spending my evening on the couch with my duvet, watching David Attenborough and eating Graeme's homemade chicken soup. It's the best medicine!

LA SARDINA / HAUSVIK

Hi, remember me? I've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus this summer. It wasn't really intentional. It started out with a pretty busy schedule with work and weekends away and other stuff going on, and then with all this amazing weather we've been having, it was nice to not think about trying to fit blogging in as well. Because let's be honest, this whole blogging thing can be pretty time consuming. And who wants to sit inside on their laptop when it's so gorgeous and sunny outside? I live on the west coast of Norway, and we don't really get a whole lot of days like this over here after all. But then after a while it kind of dawned on me that it's been forever since I had any projects on the go. As Graeme's here now (he came and surprised me on my front door a week early... with no return ticket to the UK! :D), so we've been on a few photo adventures recently.

 

The film is currently being developed, so I'm hoping to be able to share of those photos soon. In the meantime, I thought I'd share a few photos from a roll of film that has been sitting in my fridge for a while and I recently got developed. So flashback to last summer, when Graeme's friend came to visit and we headed to my parents' cottage at the south of Norway for a bit of fishing. These were all taken with the Lomography La Sardinia, with regular 35mm film. It's been a while since we've been there now, so we'll have to make a trip down soon!

On a completely different note, Graeme is currently working on a new design for my blog! So stay tuned!