DIANA F+ / AMSTERDAM

Now it seems like forever ago since I was in Amsterdam, but it's not been until recently I got my photos back from the photo developers. Having to wait so long is part of the charm of shooting with analog film, right? Graeme got me a fisheye lens for my birthday, so I played around with that a little too and I'm really excited about how the fisheye photos turned out. I will definitely be using this lens a lot going forward!

We had an awesome time! Went on a boat ride in the canals, visited the zoo, and drank plenty of dutch beer. I love Amsterdam, and it's totally on my list of places I'd love to live. It's just got such a lovely vibe to it, plus I can't help swooning over all those beautiful brick houses lined up against the canals. Will definitely need to go back soon!

ADVENTURES IN KOREA

Why hello there, long time no speak! I am back from my holiday in Korea and have finally stopped feeling like a zombie, so thought I’d get my act together and do a little post with some photos from my trip! I probably took about a million photos while I was there, but don't worry, I'm only posting a few! :) 

My sister is currently living in South Korea, so I decided to go visit her and see what Korea was all about. I spent the first week on Geoje Island where my sister lives, which is Korea’s second biggest island and is located at the south of South Korea. It was pretty relaxing, and I ate tons of good food, spent a lot of time walking around and exploring and managed to get in a day of biking and exploring the mountains too. We also took a day where my sister and I went further south on the island and took a ferry to see Haegumgang ("Korean National Scenic Site no.2") and Oedo Botanical island. I did however manage to leave the battery for my camera in the charger that day though (facepalm!), which was such a shame as both were such cool and beautiful islands.

Seoul was pretty awesome. My sister and I went up for the weekend with a couple of people from her work. We stayed at a hotel in Itaewon, and spent the first day on the DMZ tour and went up to Panmunjom and the North Korean border. It was a bit bizarre, but very interesting. I decided I wasn’t quite ready to leave once the weekend was finished though, so while the rest went back south I checked into a hostel in Hongdae and stayed a few more days. I did a bit more sightseeing and visited Gyeongbokgung Palace, Namsangong Hanok Village and went up Namsan to N Seoul Tower. I also managed to meet up with an old friend from when I lived in Doha, as well as a friend from Glasgow University who now teaches English at a school just outside of Seoul. Was great seeing them both! The latter was celebrating her one year anniversary in Korea, and we celebrated with good food and some noraebang (karaoke). When in Korea, right?

I then went down to Busan on the coast and spent a couple of nights there in a hostel on Haeundae beach. I explored Dongbaek and went to the Jagalchi fish market and Shinsegae, the world’s biggest department store. Unfortunately, I also had grand plans of visiting Haedong Yonggungsa temple, but had to cancel due to bad weather. I had also been toying with the idea of doing a temple stay, so will have to save that for another time!

I ate so much good food on the trip, too. I had lots of kimchi, bungeoppang, dak galbi, and bibimbap, as well as Korean soju andmakgeolli. Korean BBQ became an absolute favorite, and the day before I left I went to the supermarket and bought tons of ssamjang, garaetteok and kim nori to take home. I definitely plan on trying out some Korean recipes at home (though I totally regret not getting a Korean cookbook while I was there)!

35 MM AND SPROCKET HOLES

I love my Diana F+. And while I love using 120 film for it (like here and here), it can be both pricy and difficult to buy in Stavanger, never mind getting it developed. This was the argument I used to justify buying a 35 mm back. I'd get much better use out of my dear Diana F+, right? Not only would it be cheaper and easier with 35 mm film, I would also be able to take more then 10-12 pictures before my film was finished.

The Diana F+ 35 mm back kit also comes with four different frames, which means you can choose between four different photo formats, including square and panoramic, and with or without sprocket holes. Exciting! For my first attempt at using the 35 mm back, I went for the 33x48 mm "Panoramic with perforations" frame. Here's a couple of the photos I took:

These were all taken on mine and Graeme's road trip through Europe earlier this summer, more specifically from Bruges, Antwerp and Dunkirk. One thing I realized after I had started the film though, was that a lot of photo developers aren't actually able to develop the photos with the sprocket holes, as not all scanners pick them up. Luckily, the photo place I went to managed all right!

Also, like my new blog design? It's a lot neater than my old one, which I like. I've even got a bio photo now!

THAT TIME WE DROVE FROM GLASGOW TO STAVANGER

If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen a series of pictures from our recent journey from Scotland to Norway. In order to move our dog Bo from the UK to Norway, we decided it would be easiest/cheapest/best for Bo to drive her over. She’s a nervous dog and transporting her by plane ended up seeming a lot more hassle then what it was worth. And if we were driving over, we figured we’d be able to load up the car and take a chunk of our stuff over too. So we got Bo a passport, filled the car with as much stuff as we could, and embarked on our journey. Graeme was the driver, I was the DJ/documentary maker/dog watcher/navigator (in that order). In order to make the trip more of a holiday and less of a drive for hours and hours on end, we stopped in quite a few cities throughout Europe. Bo has now become quite the worldly dog, having gone for walks and sniffed butts all over Europe (check out the hashtags #botravels or #boview on instagram).

We ended up travelling a total of 1,580 miles (over 2,540 km) starting off in Scotland and going through England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark before we boarded the ferry to Norway. You’d think going through a total of 8 countries in 5 days would have left us feeling a bit travelled out, but I think if anything it just gave us a taste for more!

12 MONTHS IN 12 PHOTOS

I know I'm a few days late with the whole New Years post, but I was visiting Glasgow over the holidays and  I only got back last night. I had a lovely time and it was great seeing these two, but it went past far too quickly and there were far too many things I didn't end up having time to do and far too many people I didn't end up getting time to see. I will definitely have to prioritize better next time!

Now that I'm back I've already managed to get myself sick with sinusitis and so I haven't exactly been overly active. I thought it'd be fun to do a little post with a recap of 2012 though, so without further ado, here are 12 photographs I've taken in the past 12 months.

Ringing in the New Year in (December/)JANUARY:

A coffee break in FEBRUARY:

A photo adventure to a trampoline in MARCH (Diana mini):

APRIL's weekend trip to Dublin, Ireland:

A sunny day in MAY (Diana mini):

The Glasgow School of Art's street party in JUNE (Fisheye):

JULY'S trip around Spain in Cadiz, Sevilla and Bilbao (Diana mini):

That day in AUGUST when I caught a big fish and Graeme proposed to me in Hausvik, Norway:

A photo adventure in SEPTEMBER to Irvine Beach, Scotland (Diana F+):

A fishing trip to Loch Long, Scotland in OCTOBER:

Moving to Sandnes, Norway in NOVEMBER:

A failed snowboard trip to Cairngorms, Scotland in DECEMBER:

2013 is gonna be a great!