I have been waiting to post though and I’ve been waiting because I had to get films developed. Double woop woop! Funny how I spend ages researching a digital camera and finally buying one, to then take a film camera out with me too. I’ll be sharing a mixture of film and digital photos here for a while though and its going to be so fun!

These photos were taken about two years ago on trips to the beach - one visit to Great Yarmouth and one to Skegness - the funny thing is that I actually couldn’t tell you which photo is of which place - they really are very similar. So this post is a little celebration of the British seaside resort.

Although I think its safe to say that the last photo is Great Yarmouth haha, it is ‘great’ there.

These were taken with a new Kodak Ektar H35 half frame camera which I thought would be perfect to carry around with a digital camera - and it was. I can’t decide how I feel about the fuzzy camera focus on some of these photos though - its meant to look like that I imagine but I moved away from the toy camera look a while ago and I haven’t really missed it that much. What do you guys think? Perhaps I’ll dig out my Yashica half frame camera again.

Camera: Kodak Ektar H35 half frame camera
Film: Agfa Vista 200 (with its tell tale green shift ha!)
Locations: Great Yarmouth and Skegness, two classic British seaside locations!

So much dreamy natural light, high ceilings and all the space in the world. I wanted to stay forever!
One day maybe I’ll have my own studio for all my art and photography stuff huh.

Camera: FujiFilm TX-30ii
Location: Leightons House, London

So many luscious details - the textures, colours and overall gorgeousness of the house was a feast for my eyes!

Camera: FujiFilm TX-30ii
Location: Leightons House, London

In the end, London was a super uncomfortable photography experience for me - not necessarily in a bad way. But I was pushed outside of my comfort zone 1. in that my safe outside space with all its light was gone because of the rain and 2. because I had zero experience using my new digital camera inside consistently.

I totally forgot how starting a new skillset feels so awful at the beginning - I think perhaps part of that is my own perfectionism and high expectations - but that feeling of not being good at something is not a feeling I endure well ha. I think the results turned out ok in the end, but not knowing how to fix any issues immediately or how to take the kind of photos I wanted to take straight away is a difficult learning curve.

That being said… I am obsessed with how the peacock blue colours turned out in these photos and I loved, loved, loved this location of Leighton’s House. I’d say that I was happy with 50% of the results that I took and for a new(ish) hobby, thats not too bad. I do have some more photos from here as I’m also hugely jealous of the studio in this house - gosh would I love an art studio like that. I’ll share photos of that soon!

Camera: FujiFilm TX-30ii
Location: Leightons House, London

Its been over 7 years since my Grandad died now - which offends me so much - and I still get those punches in the stomach of devastating loss regularly. More so when we do activities I know he just would have loved doing with my nephews and definitely when both boys get so excited about trains. I know they’re little and kids love trains, but I like the idea that interests like that can be in the blood sometimes.

Camera: Canon EOS 750
Film: Kodak 400 TX
Location: Railway Museum, York

I actually can’t remember when this was now - but meeting Dawn was just the best thing ever!

Camera: Canon EOS 750
Film: Kodak Portra
Location: London, England

Camera: Fujifilm X-T30ii
Film Simulation: Kodak Ektar 100 by Fuji X Weekly
Location: Kirkstall Abbey

Anyway… one thing I did do when it wasnt as cold and I could brave the external air was take my new bestie camera to the local abbey for some experimenting and ‘getting to know you’ photos. If you’ve been hanging around a while, you’ve probably already seen photos of the Abbey on here - but theres always new thing to see right!

Overall I’m pleased with these for a first visit to the abbey - I tried to find new things to spot but I also think I ended up taking very similar shots to ones I’ve taken before, just to see what happened.

Camera: Fujifilm X-T30ii
Film Simulation: Kodak Ektar 100 by Fuji X Weekly
Location: Kirkstall Abbey

Single frame series, as always, inspired by my blog friend Jim Grey.

Camera: Canon EOS 750
Film: Silberra U200
Location: Filey

Its been a while since I looked at these photos (they were taken a few months ago now) and I’m still so relieved to see that I like them. Its been a slow winter for photos, but I can’t wait for the sun to start shining again so I can get out there and find more pink flowers.

Camera: Fujifilm X-T30ii
Film Simulation: Kodak Ektar 100 by Fuji X Weekly
Location: Clumber Park

My only concern with digital photography is that theres no reason for me not to take all the photos of boats when I see them now… no ‘oh I have a photo of a boat, I dont want to waste film’… to hold me back ha! Though in sharing this film photo… I’m not sure that thought ever really held me back haha.

Single frame series, as always, inspired by my blog friend Jim Grey.

Camera: Minolta X-500
Film: Lomo 400 Colour Negative
Location: I’m pretty sure Scarborough…

Camera: Fujifilm X-T30ii
Film Simulation: Kodak Ektar 100 by Fuji X Weekly
Location: Clumber Park

A positive of digital is that you can take more than 36 photos in one go without having to worry about the cost or effort of developing more rolls of film - and until this week of taking photos I didn’t realise those two things were holding me back from taking as many photos as I could. So this is Clumber Park - part one of a few I imagine.

Camera: Fujifilm X-T30ii
Film Simulation: Kodak Ektar 100 by Fuji X Weekly
Location: Clumber Park

… though don’t pick these ones up, they were the size of plates as part of am art installation at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Camera: Canon EOS 750
Film: Fuji Superia 200
Location: Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The fun thing about taking a full break from my photos is coming back to my archives and seeing what photos I didnt want to share here before. So heres a mixture of photos I actually quite like. I had totally forgotten about the selfies though - how fun!

I haven’t found a FujiFilm recipe simulation for this film yet - which I’m sad about as its my all time favourite B&W - but I’m thinking of learning how to make them myself to create one. How fun would that be.

Camera: Canon EOS 750
Film: Kodak BW400CN

The best thing about this swap for me is that photography is photography - I watched some videos on manual settings before taking this camera out, but the basics are the same, aperture, shutter speed and ISO. So mainly, this little jaunt was figuring out how much flexibility, tolerance and depth of field this camera/lens combo can produce.

Camera: Fujifilm X-T30ii
Film Recipe: Fujifilm Provia Standard
Location: Leeds City Centre

Let me tell you, I have been resisting that final conclusion for a looong time.

I tried getting a new to me LC-A, I tried taking my Superheadz camera around with me, I tried a Kodak half frame camera… But despite having smaller, lighter film cameras, I just didn’t love the results as much as I love the photos from my film SLR cameras. So although I was using film cameras, it just wasn’t the film photography I loved anymore. And once I accepted that, everything changed. Because the one thing I did know, was that I still very much wanted to take photos of lovely light and little details.

So… I started to look at other photography options. I didn’t love the results from my mobile phone straight out of the box (other than photos of my cats obviously) and I didn’t want to have to spend ages editing photos once I had taken them. Eventually we settled on FujFilm cameras purely for their film recipe simulations and of the range of FujiFilm cameras, the X-T30ii is the smallest and lightest option - and well, that was that. I have a new camera and three months in I love it. Its easy to carry around, its light and user friendly, and most importantly, I love the photos I’ve taken with it so far.

I’m still hoping to pick up my film cameras when I have the energy and I still have many film photos I havent shared here too, so this isn’t going to be a fully digital photography blog - just more of a hybrid one. And if it means I’m taking photos again, I'm happy with that.

Camera: FujiFilm X-T30ii
Film recipe: FujiFilm Provia Standard

So these have been sitting in my scans folder waiting for Winter to come around again so I wasn’t posting snow photos in August haha. These were taken on a gloriously snowy day - I want to say last year but it was likely 2020 to be honest - where the snow (and ice) was crisp, the air was fresh and my feet were cold!

I’m just about to go on ou Christmas break, so just wanted to pop on and say happy holidays to everyone and wish you all a wonderful new year. I will be back in the new year this time - I’m about to schedule some posts right now haha.

Camera: Olympus OM-10
Film:Fuji Superia 200
Location: Leeds

During these last weeks, I got some photos developed by Take it Easy Lab (hence my return) and I’d forgotten that I’d taken photos of the flowers that my Nanna sent me last year for my birthday - my first ever flowers in the post. I was delighted. And I wanted to remember them - at all stages of their time with me, not just when they were fresh and pretty looking. The sychronicity of these photos and the relationship I had with my Nanna is not lost on me.

I’d forgotten how sharp and heavy new grief can be. And also that each grieving process is unique to the specific loss. I’m glad I have these photos through - I love flowers and even in this state, the colours were so pretty and the petals so soft!

Camera: Olympus OM-10
Film: Fuji Superia 200

A funny (funny unexpected, not funny haha) side effect of CFS/ME and learning how to pace and rest is that you are forced to let go of the idea of perfectionism. Done and OK is always better than not done - and most of the time done and ok is more than good enough. Done and perfect has gone out of the window - which for a chronic perfectionist is a tough lesson to learn! Two years ago I didn’t feel confident sharing these because after however many years of blogging, taking film photos, sharing film photos etc, these ‘should’ have been perfectly developed, blemish, bubble and dust free and definitely not grainy as f*ck haha. Today instead I notice the appealing image framing, the details of the walls, the two birds overlooking Scarborough, the gorgeous views and I take a deep breath and imagine the sound and smell of the sea.

Film photography - the never end lesson in accepting what is - rather than what you think should be.

Camera: Canon EOS 750
Film: Silberra 200
Location: Scarborough Castle