35mm Gold

I just can't understand people who don't dig the sensation of sand between their toes... you know the type - always with the "Oh I love the beach I just hate sand" I've got news for you people they are one and the same. Embrace.

I shot the above on my new pride and joy - a Olympus Trip

My grandmothers house

None of the Polaroids above are particularly ground breaking but words can not begin to describe how much they mean to me. Having moved a lot as a kid my Nonna & Nonno's house was a rare constant in our lives. As a child it was this big dusty mansion with a dining room that appeared (to the 4 year old version of me) to be the size of a grand ballroom in Napoleon III's apartment at the Louvre. In my teens it was a place to avoid, I mean really who wants to hang out with their grandparents at 16.

As I reached my early 20's I truly began to appreciate them for not only the wonderful grandparents they were but for the amazing lives they had lead. Every time I had money to spare I would fly from Sydney to Torquay just to spend the weekend with them, hearing their stories and just generally breathing it all in.

It was one of those trips in my late 20s when I took these photos. I read somewhere that a grandparent is a child's first best friend and when my Nonno died when I was 25 it made me realise how little time we actually have on this earth with the people we love and while digital files get lost or accidentally deleted, and technology changes with time a Polaroid lasts for ever and these are very dear to me... the grand ballroom, the crazy gold embossed wallpaper, my Nonno's 'dunny' in the garage, the scary door of the back shed all little pieces of them captured beautifully in a 3¼" × 4¼ inch frame.

Olympus trip 35 - first roll

I shot this roll of film about 3 or 4 months ago and only just had it developed this week. I cant even remember what slide film I used (fujichrome perhaps as it has a tendency to come out all red like) It was the first roll i burned through with my Olympus trip so I was sure to mix shit up a bit just to see how she handled. I shot outside, inside, up and down... with flash and with out and the results of course are mixed... this is in large part to the film I was using but the burnt edges are all her (and when I say her i mean the camera) and I was pretty stoked with most of the shots.

A sample above for you, check out more here

where did all the time go?

Life has gotten away from me this year... I have so much to do and so little time to do it in. I am constantly surrounded by amazing creative's making things happen for themselves...

In the past 2 years I have started and now run two successful businesses (and when I say successful I mean I no longer have to work full time logging 8 hours a day behind someon elses desk making someone else's money) I created and have written for this blog for pushing three years now, I have developed (and pulled off) global reaching photographic projects (all for the love of film mind you) and production designed not 1, not 2, not even 3 but 4 Australian films and am about to embark on my 5th and 6th but I still find myself sitting here, alone in my office at 1am with a glass of red wine feeling like I need to do more....One thing is for sure, the social commentators were right... us Gen Y'ers are really fucked up - you know in a overachieving totally endearing kinda way.... I swear we'll all be burnt out by the time we are 35 (and that's not that far away)

I miss my Polaroid camera... you feel like you can conquer the world with that thing in your hand... So with that in mind here is one of my all time favourite photos... Enjoy...

I'm miles from where you are...

I find the map and draw a straight line, over rivers, farms and state lines. The distance from here to where you''d be is only finger-lengths that I see....

secure the cat

I love nice people, especially really tall ones like Big Dav here who has a sneaky little blog called Secure The Cat (and I've met this cat he speaks of, 'securing' it ain't easy - Archie don't like people much) Regardless this here blog is filled with pretty bloody beautiful double exposure photos immortalised forever on the glory that is 35mm film.

Check em out above and see more here.

Shameless cross promoting...

What can I say I'm the devil... Only one of the two projects I am about to mention has anything to do with the fine art of analogue photography however I have my fingers in many pies and I thought I might give 2 of them a quick mention.

First up I just got some new designs back from my printer and posted them to daisyandjack.com.au ( a little stationary boutique I call my own) They are inspired by the beautiful typography of a 1950s bus roll and can be found here.

Next up I am making some changes to the course I was developing to teach kids photography at a mission in Mexico this year.... Keep your eyes peeled here for more details.

The bright lights of summer

We are only 1 day into day light savings and already I miss the sunshine and happy days that were summer. I am going to start carrying around my Golden Half camera again just to keep me happy.

I have been shooting a lot of 35mm film recently... It aint cheap but it aint as pricey as polaroid film either. To check out more of my photos click here

kodachrome toronto

Kodachrome toronto 1935 - 2010 is a nifty little research project. It invites photographers to add their Kodachrome slides to this flickr pool help create a shared composite of the city.

This project’s mandate is to identify and locate all known archives — both public and private — of photos and home movies made using Kodachrome film media.

To find out more about the project please click here

Development Vs developing?

Man I have a shit load of film I need to developed, I just spent a week in spain for my dear old dads funeral and while I cant remember half of it I know I had a camera in my hand most of the time...

3 weeks and 3 days goes by so fast... R.I.P dad

Ok so big apologies for the lack of blogging this month (ok ok this year) March 1 rolled around and I had a good long look at myself in the mirror and muttered something along the lines of 'Sophie your blogging efforts have been nothing short of hopeless - Sought your shit out' and for 4 days I did just that, I blogged every evening for 4 days straight I was back on a roll again people and life was good...

Then on March 10 my dad died. It was very unexpected. He was happy and healthy and living in spain... I was due to visit him in July, something we have both been looking fwd to for a long time.

Its now been 3 weeks and 3 days since I got the phone call that literally changed my life, shifted my entire centre and while its been tough I know my dad more than anyone would want me to get back on the writing band wagon. He was right into all things tech. We had a Mac computer in 1985, long before they became all trendy and cool. The screen was black the writing was green and at age 3 I would sit on his lap and he would let me press the enter button. We were the first family on our street to get the internet and my dad had me on the waiting list for a ipod 9 months before the first one hit australian stores.

He is the one who made me get facebook, then google chat and skpe, hell he even tweeted 9 minutes (yes minutes) before he died and if it wasnt for him I wouldnt know half of what I do about computers (and life for that matter)

So with that in mind, dad - this ones for you. All my love. Soph x