Just stumbled across the sweetest site of old photographs – Dear Photograph. Well worth a look.
Archive for Photography
My new time wasting obsession
I can happily while away hours just pottering about on the Internet and have found a new way to waste even more time. Pinterest was recommended to me by one of my oldest friends. Like me, she loves all things vintage and loves to look at all things lovely and has actually turned her love of beautiful things into a full time career – lucky woman! Pinterest puts a new spin on social networking and hoarding virtual ‘stuff’. It lets you organize and share any of the interesting and appealing things you find on the web like a pinboard (but much neater!). It is very much like a mood/inspiration board and I can imagine it being really useful if you are planning a wedding or decorating you home. There is even an iPhone app so you can snap up inspiration on the move. All in all, I’m in love. Looking at other people’s boards is an absolute joy and you encounter some really fantastic things. One of my boards can be found here.
To join you either request an invite and join the waiting list (I received my invite in under a week) or find someone that you know who is on it to ‘invite’ you. I found a great guide to getting started here.
Speaking of great finds, one of my good friends is moving on to pastures new at the end of the month and I have found her the perfect gift.
I would be tempted to keep this for myself…if only my name was different…deed poll?!
If you have a nerdy girl/guy in your life, I’d take a look at ShopGibberish on Etsy. I am quite taken with the ‘A Geek For All Seasons‘ card collections myself.
‘Very flat, Norfolk.’
Noël Coward’s observation neatly sums up Norfolk – they are not kidding when they describe it as a ‘low-lying county’. The tiniest sprinkling of rain that fell through the cracks of a gloriously sunny April weekend led to dusk swirls of mist and brake bothering puddles during our recent long weekend British road trip around East Anglia.
Horsey Windpipe using Hipstamatic...I made the Handyman drive us here purely because the name tickled me. Turns out it was maintained by a highly knowledgeable National Trust bloke who directed us to some seals.
I thought that this trip would be a perfect opportunity to try out Instagram – an iPhone app similar to Hipstamatic which is love dearly, but with more of an emphasis on sharing. It did a great job of capturing the colours of the flowers in the grounds of the abbey at Bury St. Edmunds. I might just be converted, although now I suffer from photo envy whenever I look at Instagram. Some photos are absolutely stunning.
We visited one of the calmest, humane zoos ever during our trip. It was called ‘Africa Alive!’ – yes, it has the cheesiest name ever – and it was a quiet revelation. No pacing Felidae, no cramped excrement throwing chimps, just content animals with loads of space to roam and a focus on conservation rather than tacky novelties. We had a genuinely lovely day and it reminded me of childhood visits to Penscynor Wildlife Park – the true 1980s retro field trip.
Lazy rhinos and elegant zebra roam the fake British Savannah...
Halloween Horrors
All this talk of demons has got me in the mood for a bit of Halloween mischief. We have unwittingly spent the month building up to Halloween starting off with ‘Ghost Stories‘ at the Duke of York Theatre for my birthday treat followed with several enjoyable viewings of Mark Gatiss‘ ‘A History of Horror’ that reminded me of all the films that I loved as a child who was allowed to watch far too much late night tv. ‘Ghost Stories’ was fun but I did leave feeling a little disappointed. I think we just got so caught up in the hype of it that we were expecting it to be terrifying. We spent most of the evening thinking that the lone woman sitting next to my brother’s girlfriend was a plant so kept sneaking looks at her to see what she was doing. As it turns out, she was just a solitary woman visiting the theatre who we probably unnerved with all our staring…
To add to the sense of the macabre, yesterday we strolled along to Primrose Hill to visit Walter Potter‘s Museum of Curiosity, a bizarre Victorian recreation of different scenarios using stuffed animals at The Museum of Everything. The athletic toads are an absolute joy! The exhibition was curated by Peter Blake and really does have that distinct air of British eccentricity that one comes to expect. Photos are forbidden on pain of death but it really is worth a visit. From the moment you enter and see the tiny postcards showing carnival folk (I was particularly taken with the moss-haired girl as my hair was particularly unruly yesterday) you get caught up in a tide of the macabre. Highly recommended for a wet Autumn afternoon.
“The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality, and eventually in one’s own.”
Am having the most fun taking photographs at the moment. Have just purchased the Hipstamatic iPhone App. Oh my God, it is the most inspiring photo app that I’ve used for a while. I bought the Handyman a Diana camera a few Christmases back and was incredibly jealous of the vintage style photographs that he was able to produce.
The colours were so vibrant and a welcome change from the usual lifelike digital shots that have their place but are sorely lacking in the fun department. Stumbling on Hipstamatic was a joy! You can buy lenses, compete in competitions…basically, it injects the most everyday shots with a dash of Steve McQueen cool. Love, love, love it. 
Retro Geek Girl 