Lazy Sunday

A perfect Sunday morning perusing the book 'Rolling Homes' which has been on my list to buy for at least 5 years, playing with my new (old!) camera and drinking the elixir of life.

PX70 Color Shade from The Impossible Project

A Very Special Camera...

A few months ago my best friend's dad came through Denver and stayed with us for a couple of nights.  We got to talking about cameras and shooting film and he said he was going to send me an old SLR that he had that he had used for all the family photos while K and her brothers were growing up.

Unbelievably, and generously, he did send it to me!  A fun Asahi Pentax SP500, along with a slew of accessories and lenses.  I was shocked and more than a bit honored that he would entrust this bit of his family's history to me and I actually feel a bit guilty about using it, not being an official part of the family.  But for now it resides with me and I aim to make good use of it.

I've just gotten around to cleaning it up and taking the first few test shots with it.  It seems to be in working order, though I am having a bit of trouble with the focus in some cases but I assume that this is simply operator error and practice will alleviate the problem.  

This camera means a lot to me.  It's special and I hope I can do it justice by putting it to good use. I'm guessing it will take more pictures of K, and who knows, maybe even some of her family again.

K as a kid taken by her dad.
A few of my test shots from this morning.  

My cruiser

It really is this yellow...

It's one of my favorite subjects to photograph.

Hubdude is growing hops in the backyard.

I don't drink beer, but I do love these pretty hops.

The hardiest geraniums on the planet I think.

Somehow have managed not to kill these in this heat.

Pepper that survived the huge hail a few weeks ago.

Garden Survivors

We had some pretty substantial hail earlier this week, the largest of which were the size of large cherry tomatoes.  The sound of these ice chunks crashing against the window, roof and car was enough to make anyone cringe, but to watch them pummeling flowers & plants was enough to make any gardener cry.  We're not too happy about the roof leaks but we're even more sad about the devastation to our hops plants. 

It was the first year we've ever grown hops and they were starting to look really gorgeous- filling the 'sky' of our backyard with luscious green leaves as they wound their way across our continually expanding network of strings high above people and plants.  The tomato plants were happy to have a bit of partial shading by the hops, the bees were having fun flitting and flirting with the newly formed flowers on the hops and thus everyone in the garden was happy.  Sadly, the hail severed a number of major 'limbs' on the hops, shredded their beautiful leaves and left them in a critical state.  It's a little too early to tell if they're all going to survive.  It was a sad day in the backyard garden and we haven't even checked in our community garden plot yet... 

This morning I was out cleaning up some of the mess in the back and found that our little peanut plant, another first year growing experiment, has happily survived and even has its first bright, sunny flowers spreading a little cheer amongst the destruction.  A single geranium survived, a handful of pansies and our favorite sweet smelling miniature flowers.  Enough to still enjoy a little patio time on a Saturday morning in the city. 

Have a great weekend!
Andrea

'Roid Week- Day 3

There is so much talent in the flickr pool for 'Roid Week 2011!  There's something about a Polaroid photo when the light is just right that makes it better than any other kind of film photo- it's magic through and through...  I hope one day I can capture that magic in my Polaroids too.  See what all the fuss is about here.


Happy Polaroiding...
Andrea

What's Happening?

Hops in the City

Polaroid Love- 'Roid Week 2011

I may have mentioned this one or a dozen times already but it's 'Roid Week on flickr and you should definitely check out the fantastically talented Polaroid photographers that are posting some of their beautiful instant love bests this week.  You can find them all here.  Photographers can each post 2 Polaroids a day and there are now hundreds and hundreds of gorgeous photos to peruse with more uploaded by the minute.  Check back often.

These are a few of mine from the first couple of days.  Check back later this week for more.  I'm hoping to get a few color shots in as well.

Polaroid love,
Andrea

I Walk the Line  

Neighborhood Sentinel

Runaway Garden

The Only Tree Above Treeline...

BioFlex- What's Not to Love?

I got this BioFlex a few months ago and promptly turned it into a linocut.  It's one of my favorite prints and maybe just the start of a series of linocuts of all my favorite vintage cameras.  It's a large camera- much bigger than an Argus Seventy-Five so it looks a lot like a toy.  

The unfortunate thing about this particular camera (mine) is that the winding knob was broken when I got it so I very carefully super glued it back in place but apparently not careful enough because now it's solidly locked in place and doesn't wind at all!  So I have yet to actually be able to shoot this camera.  Lesson learned... I'm still trying to find a way to undo the glue without ruining the camera but in the meantime I just enjoy looking at it.

In other news... less than 24 hours to go till 'Roid Week 2011 begins!

Cheers,
Andrea

52 Saturdays 2011- 'Roid Week Anticipation!

'Roid Week 2011 is almost here and as usual, I'm pretty excited about it so my Saturday photo had to Polaroid related this week.  
My last minute film order just arrived from The Impossible Project and my cameras are ready to go.  If you've never joined in 'Roid Week but you have a Polaroid camera, pull it out and start shooting.  You can join all the fun here!
Have a great Saturday!
Andrea

Seville- Oranges, Horses & Stripes Oh My

I'm heading back to Spain and Portugal at the end of September and looking forward to taking a lot more photos.  Until then, I'm still enjoying working through the loads of photos I took on my trip last month.


Happy Friday and have a great weekend!
Andrea

Oranges- Seville, Spain

Horse & Carriages- Seville, Spain

Dance Dresses- Seville Spain

Seville, Spain

Seville, Spain

Hubdude in Tapas Bar- Seville, Spain

52 Saturdays 2011- Casa Verde Community Garden

The first thing I generally see on Saturdays is my community garden.  A colorful, quirky little corner of the city that's a block away from our row house.  It's finally starting to fill in with greenery and we finally have a tomato turning orange.  Perhaps the best part of the garden, besides my plants, is the fun mural on the back wall and faux graffiti painted benches.  Next door is  a tiny little 'Tiendita' that has continual traffic and numerous pay phone users that stand next to the garden giving away their life story at top volume while we water & weed.  

The garden tends to collect a lot of trash- thrown in & blown in.  Today my plot had a bunch of cigarette butts in it.  It's annoying & really frustrating, but I like that I have a very small corner of the world where I can grown things in the ground and there is a working hose for watering.  The one in our micro-mini backyard has never worked and it's all patio- no dirt.  The community garden is a small luxury in my life.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Andrea

Casa Verde Garden, Baker Neighborhood, Denver

Happy Friday!

Columbine, Colorado Rockies

Today I'm at a writing seminar by Gayla Trail of You Grow Girl fame.  Super excited! 

Have a great weekend and I'll be back next week with new photos and new projects to show you.

Cheers,

Andrea