sandal weather

ok, let's be a bit more upbeat, shall we? and a bit shallow maybe.

i want sandal weather because i want to wear these sandals other places than my living room.

how is it looking at your end? what makes you feel summery? any recent purchases or finds in your wardrobe that cheer you up?

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your way

sometimes, comparing oneself to others is a dangerous thing. granted, it is vital for getting ideas, to drive oneself outside one's own comfort zone - i think you can perfectly see that with young kids: if big sister can walk, i should give it a try too; if big cousin zips up his anorak all by himself, so can i. but there's a point when comparison starts giving you that tunnel vision thing. and you lose sight of what you want yourself. it's good to find out what your own way is (easier said that done, i know, i know, i so know).

but you gotta do it your own way.

(picture taken at möbelkombinat, a vintage furniture and design shop in my neighbourhood, with the 'new' nikkormat, on slide film. if you'd like to know more about the shop, take a look at mostlyberlin, my other blog.)

a funny year

we are having such a strange spring this year. at the end of may, it's still very rare to see the sun for longer stretches of time and it's unusually cold, i'm wearing cardigans and scarves all the time, jeans and boots. looking on the bright side, this also means some blossoms are lasting much longer than they otherwise would have. i don't know what these are - some kind of cherry maybe? now they have gone as well. and we are still waiting for the sun.

p.s.: finally got around to posting some places to stay in berlin over on my other blog, mostlyberlin.

tuesday inspiration (and winner)

1. Untitled, 2. Untitled, 3. evening/morning, 4. dorothea dress, 5. Ella, 6. us, 7. Untitled, 8. Untitled, 9. * * *

we had a long bank holiday weekend, and even though it was raining a fair bit, i had a lovely time. lots of lounging around on the sofa, but also some planting of flowers on my little 'terrace', some long overdue window cleaning (there are 32 panes in my living room windows alone!) and even some sorting through of a pile of receipts for my tax return. plus dinner with friends and some card playing. what have you been up to?

anyhow, time for some flickr inspiration: loving portraits this time. isn't it amazing in how many different ways these fellow flickr photographers have managed to capture the essence of a moment, a character, a mood, a relationship, a feeling? goes to show that there are a million ways to use your camera. this truly inspires and encourages me to keep playing and exploring.

as always with my 'inspiration' posts, these images are not my photographs but the work of other photographers. click on the caption links underneath the mosaic to take you to their flickr streams and be inspired! i really highly recommend checking these photographers out - look at their streams and their profiles. you'll find many of them have blogs or shops too, all more than worth a look.

p.s.: and here as promised - tadah! - the winner of my '200' post surprise parcel: it's la ninja. congrats! please email me your address and you shall receive your surprise in due course...

ode to the silent reader

to the silent reader

those of you
who stop by
time and again
to read

without leaving
a comment

i know you are there
i don't know you
as well as i would like

but thank you
anyway

p.s.:
there's no reason
to be shy
it's only me
after all

new lens, new film

these past few days i was waiting for a roll of film, which seemed to take forever. well, maybe i was a bit impatient too. the thing is, i have a new camera. i mean, a 'new' old camera. it's a 1970s nikkormat EL which i've been coveting for months. and now i've been shooting the first roll of slide film with it, using a 'new' old lens with it - a nikkor 50/f 1.4. which basically means i can shoot really close up, even in low light. hooray! i have to work out some of the settings with this particular camera, but i can definitely say i love it.

thank you so much for your wonderful comments on my last post, i was quite touched. stay tuned for the winner of my little surprise, which will be drawn at random and announced early next week.

200: looking out

this is my two-hundredth post. for some bloggers two hundred posts happen in the blink of an eye, but for me it's been quite a journey. when i look back, a lot of things have happened since i started out. sometimes when i go through my archives, like this weekend, i'm puzzled by the fact that the first roll of film i've taken since i was a teenager dates only from march last year. how come i haven't taken analogue photogaphs for such a long time? perhaps for some things the time has to be right.

sometimes i wish i could study photography. i imagine being taught lots of things, but mostly i love the idea of having fellow students with whom to talk about pictures and projects and ways of seeing. about where the journey might lead next. playful and serious conversations about ideas or feelings of being stuck in a rut. then again, i'm sure one would have to deal with feelings of competition and possibly inadequacy, and perhaps i would even feel more confused about where the path is leading than i do now.

in any case, studying photography simply isn't an option right now. and i feel i have feedback from friends, here in berlin, and also online - here and on flickr. which means a lot. there's a lot of freedom in that too. - so, looking out: here's to lots of things to be learned, lots of rolls of film to be shot, to the journey ahead.

and who knows, maybe we could have a real photo-get-together someday. a weekend perhaps on which to share photographs and to talk about them. to give each other feedback, to share questions. i would love that.

i'd love to hear how you feel about the process of finding one's way in photography and the things you think about, the things that are your issues in photography at the moment. if you like, drop me an email.

oh, and before i forget, if you leave a comment on this post, i'll happily include you in a draw for a little surprise. i'll let you know early next week who won. have a good week!

evening walk

oh, dear, she's still going on about that weekend in the cotswolds... hope you'll bear with me. just a couple more.

one evening, we set off for a little walk through the village. so much to see. the chickens were not shy at all. and i loved that vintage car and the stout, norman tower of the church. the lichen on the old stonework was so colourful, i just had to take a picture.

have a good start to your week.

p.s.: last weekend was beautiful. even though silly old me forgot to pack the little black dress, so i ended up buying the exact same dress the morning before my cousin's wedding (i only had jeans in my bag, no other back-up clothes. duh). now i've got to figure out what to do with two of them.

friday inspiration

1. gingham dress, 2. Corner of the House, 3. 114:365, 4. Untitled, 5. Untitled, 6. Poires..., 7. ..., 8. Untitled, 9. Untitled

well hello again. i haven't posted flickr faves in a while. as you know, these are not my photos, but pictures taken by other flickr friends who do stunning stuff. click on the caption underneath to see their photostream. and thanks so much to all those amazing people on flickr for sharing their images - it makes me very happy indeed.

so. is it just me, or do you also wonder sometimes why you fave certain photos? clearly, quite often my subconscious is pressing the fave button. or why else is there always some theme running through my faves that i didn't consciously have in mind? what strikes me with this mosaic for example, is that the colours are more or less the colours i like to wear at the moment. perhaps these are my personal spring colours? oh, and there are doubtlessly more things you could read into this selection, a bit scary actually.

some of these faves have to do with my search for simple patterns for kids' clothes. i'm looking for tutorials, and have already found some. my next project will be summer skirts for my nieces. but if you have more pointers, do leave me a comment, i'd love that! oh, and do any of you have experience with those lovely japanese pattern books (the stylish dress book 2 or similar, say for kids)? are they manageable when you have zero japanese?

finally, to round up my random friday ramblings: yesterday was a funny day. it started out pretty glum and then steadily got better. i even went along with a friend to present a book project - his concept, my photographs. and seeing those draft layouts with my photos on them was quite something else. oh wow. scary. and wonderful. we'll see how it goes.

have a good weekend! i'm off to spend it with k and to wear my new little black dress.

corner view: garden

i wish i had a garden, but i don't. so instead i'm showing you some photos from the cottage garden in the cotswolds where i recently spend a weekend with a friend. (and if you can still take it, there are more to come over the next couple of days - it was a place i got rather snap-happy.)

for more links to corner views around the world, check out the sidebar at jane's spain daily!

the cottage

see why i love this place? who couldn't with that kind of light flooding in.

lots of light

a weekend in the countryside is hard to beat, even for a city flower like me. i went a bit wild with the aperture, it seems, the film caught a lot of light. but in a way that's quite apt. it was such a sunny day when i took these, we even got a little sunburnt, sitting in the garden all day.

oh, and does anyone know what that green plant is? i've got no idea, but i liked it. it seemed a bit tropical in the middle of the cotswolds.

p.s.: spot edward, the cat. she's (yes, it's a girl) in two of the shots.
p.p.s.: yay for floh! she's right, the mysterious plant is "wolfsmilch", english spurge (or euphorbia). there are tons of different species - i think this one is euphorbia venata.

more london

walking around soho.

i'd really like one on those brooks saddles for my bike one day. oh, and that facade is by future systems - i really liked the reflections. some more info on that project here (as an aside, i was surprised how fiercely negative some of the comments on that site were, so far i had always thought designers and architects to be rather civilised people. well, i think they are, in fact. but how come there are so many people out there taking the time to trash other people's creative work on the internet? doesn't sound like constructive criticism to me.)

so, london. this time, i only had an afternoon and evening in town, the next morning we went to the countryside. it was what i needed, i was so tired when i went. you should have seen the shadows under my eyes. next time though, i really want to have more time to meet people and see more shows.

one of my favourite places

every time i am in london, i have to go to the photographers' gallery. it's one of my favourite places. the gallery has now moved to a small sidestreet off oxford street. to be quite honest, i liked the old space near covent garden better. that being said, i was quite impressed by their range of analogue cameras and films stocked at the bookshop. holgas, lomos and polaroid cameras as well as digital harinezumis, you find them all.

the shows i've seen there cover a wide range of contemporary photography. some of them i liked, some of them i found so-so. the ones i liked best were probably shows on annelies strba and rinko kawauchi. by the way, the other day i read a really interesting interview with kawauchi - you might want to take a look too: here. she mostly shoots with a rolleiflex, really beautiful light in her works.