July

 

birthday eve

morning

playing peekbo (not crying!)

opening an early present - her first baking set!

what a difference a year makes

Our second Christmas with Hesper was a completely different experience to her first one. Last year, she was still in her bouncer, not walking and not really aware of what was going on... plus I just remember feeling so exhausted on Christmas day! This year, she it felt more like her first "proper" Christmas  as she sat on our bed in the morning opening her stocking presents to shrieks of "Wow!" and dragged any visitor by the hand to the advent calender in the hope of more chocolate! With the feeling now that Christmas is done for another year and a new year approaching, I am well aware that our third Christmas with her will be so different again, not that I am wishing the year away already, but I just love seeing the changes in her each day.

Toy Cameras

I was lucky enough to be featured in a lovely photography book called "Toy Cameras". As the name suggests, the book is a guide to using toy and some old film cameras to achieve interesting visual results.

Although I only have one tiny image included (it took me ages to find it!) I'm happy to be a part of such a delightful book. Especially considering the photos I took were nothing more than an experiment. I found two Box Brownies in my parents loft last year which had been in their cases for about 30 years. I loaded one with a roll of 120 film left over from my darkroom days and took it to Holkham, Norfolk the next day, just to see what came out. Once processed, I put these images onto Flickr, which resulted in the publishers contacting me to ask if they could be used in the book.

I used to spend ages in the darkroom labouring over images and printing techniques, which I eventually had to give up as the world went digital and I felt I couldn't compete. Now there is a real return to old film cameras and an affection for the fogging, light leaks, colour casts and scratches that pre-digital, we were all trying to perfect. There is definitely something liberating about using such a basic camera that you have little control over, knowing that any "mistakes" are part of the fun. With the warmer weather approaching, I am looking forward to packing up my Box Brownie again and just seeing what happens.

I used to spend ages in the darkroom labouring over images and printing techniques, which I eventually had to give up as the world went digital and I felt I couldn't compete. Now there is a real return to old film cameras and an affection for the fogging, light leaks, colour casts and scratches that pre-digital, we were all trying to perfect. There is definitely something liberating about using such a basic camera that you have little control over, knowing that any "mistakes" are part of the fun. With the warmer weather approaching, I am looking forward to packing up my Box Brownie again and just seeing what happens.

"Toy Cameras" is by Kevin Meredith, published by Rotovision and can be bought here on Amazon.