Charlie's WorldHasselblad
Posted on March 26, 2011
It’s overdue – the shots from the ‘blad are here and I’m very happy with them 🙂
I’ve said this before, but there seems to be a lightness of touch that film has in the way it renders some light conditions that digital can’t reproduce, or at least I can’t reproduce it!
tripski – final part
Posted on March 10, 2011
We had some other nice days, went out for lunch – actually, there’s a story there all by itself
Never go to Pizza Express in Sevenoaks – they were terrible, forgot our order, lied to cover it up and told us it was ‘just in the oven’ but 1/2 hour later it still hadn’t arrived, stuffed up with the deserts and eventually, after nearly 2 hours (yeah, I know, I was ready to blow) we just walked out. So, Pizza Express – you were terrible, beyond awful and I have no hesitation in not recommending that anyone go there ever, under any circumstances.
And I’m going to tag this post and tweet it too. Customer service is sometimes about recovering from a stuff-up – and they just made it worse.
Anyways, before I get on my high horse too much, back to the week..
Lunch, days out, fun, etc.
Then we decided to go to Hastings Aquarium with my sister.
Having a 7 seater hire car has some benefits – we could fit them all in one car and go together. So, after much palaver getting car seats in, we trotted off in gloomy but clearing conditions.
We arrived in Hastings and it was shrouded in the thick sea fog – couldn’t see the tops of the townhouses it was that thick. There was no way to make out the horizon between ocean and sky. The aquarium was a bit of a disappointment if truth be told, it was small and didn’t have that much in there, but still, the kids had a good time. We had lunch (fish and chips, of course) and then went for a walk on the beach
Good times 🙂
Had a nice day the next day, but then I had to take them back home, which was sad as it had been such a lovely week. I hate to leave them, its horrible. But, time will fly and I’ll be back in the summer.
Tripski – part 3
Posted on March 8, 2011
We went to see some of my close friends mid week.
They live not too far from where I used to live in England. Not too far away from where Ella and Henry were born and grew up.
Ella remembers the place, her old friends, her school and snippets of the old house. She’s sometimes a bit sad about it – I kinda feel bad as I sort of took all that away from her. She only kinda likes where she lives now, but she has the amazing Royal Ballet School opportunity that she would never had had in the old town. I hope that makes up for it. Henry was only tiny at the time – all he knows it where he lives now.
Anyway, it was a filthy day, dreadful weather, and we had an hours drive. So what happens?
Accident on the motorway.
So we’re stuck in the car not moving for 2 hours whilst they do their thing. I don’t know why the police dont clear away accidents faster, its such a dreadful drain on thousands and thousands of people’s time. I mean, once the people are safely out or on their way to hospital – take the scene photos, make the notes and get the road open again asap, rather than dragging it on for 1/2 a day as is the way in England.
Ella was so patient, she’s the easiest going child ever. Henry was asleep for all 2 hours and woke up just as we were getting going again. This is what we had to look at for 2 hours.
So we had some fun with the wide angle 🙂
We eventually got there 3 hours late, but Pat and Nicky were happy to see us, as was Anna, their oldest and craziest daughter. They’d had a new baby since I saw them last time – she was so cute 🙂
Anna didn’t stop moving this time, so no photos at all, plus it was so dark, that even inside it was hard to take photos. Baby M provided lots of wide eyes and big smiles though 🙂 She’s so cute!!!
Was great to catch up with them – Pat came back from work and we had a lovely dinner and chilled out – the kids played beautifully and had a lot of fun. Then, before it was too late, we were heading home again, the kids stocked up on Cadbury’s Mini Eggs for being so well behaved.
Did I say I have awesome kids? LOL!
Tripski, part 1
Posted on March 5, 2011
So, as you know, I went to England to see my beautiful kids. England, land of the village pub, the Darling Buds of May, long summer evenings, rambling footpaths and history going back millenia.
Well, it wasn’t like that. The sun didn’t shine. It rained all the time. It was freezing. The cloudbase was 3 feet above the ground – so much so it didn’t really get light a couple of days. But hey, it was February and it wasn’t entirely unexpected.
More to the point, it wasn’t why I was there.
My kids
I had a lovely time with them – they’re so utterly amazing. But then I’m a little biassed. Their little faces when I knocked on their front door is the best thing ever. Every time. It’s like the biggest light ever comes on. Probably like seeing kids faces at Christmas, but times one hundred.
They’re so cool.
Here’s a few pics from the first few days..
A little fun with the 10-20 wide angle
Now some more normal shots.
Next post – the cousins. Well, a couple of them anyway, there’s a tribe of them we didn’t get to see this time.
this and that
Posted on February 2, 2011
This is post about lots of different things, all unrelated.
Firstly, I just heard that my daughter got invited to audition for the junior year at the Royal Ballet School in London. She attends one of the Royal Ballet School’s regional centres on a scholarship and they’ve asked her and one other student to go to London to audition for a place in the school proper. I am so proud I could burst.
We have clever kids between us – one ballet star, one drummer in the making, a real brainiac who’s is practically top in Australia for junior school spelling and Henry, who at 3 is really too young to prove anything yet apart from his prowess at peeing standing up. I’m not knocking that though, its a useful skill.
Secondly (and I told you this was unrelated) – there’s a house for sale down the end of the cul-de-sac opposite and the real estate agent keeps on putting the home open signs on our front lawn to point in the right direction. As the council owns the first 6 feet or so of land on that strip, I gather we’re not allowed to object to that kind of thing.
Well, actually, I do frickin’ object – they put 5 signs out on Saturday for 5 hours for one estate agent, and 3 for another, just 4 signs on Sunday and 4 out there today, along the length of my whole garden. I had to mow the lawn anyway today, so I just pulled up the signs and piled them up on the side whist I mowed. When I was done, I just left them in a pile on the lawn. It really annoys me – they never ask if its ok and having 8 damn signs on my lawn is just taking the piss.
Lastly – I’m not losing as much weight as I want. My back really wasn’t happy with the morning walks, which was a real shame. I think it was the sand, and I can’t be arsed to spend money on trainers to walk on the pavement. I’m still dieting so hopefully that’ll continue to have the desired effect, it just may take a bit longer.
So thats that.
Brrrr, its a bit chilly
Posted on December 19, 2010
Yes, it’s cold, I might even have to put some jeans on.
All of you in the Northern Hemisphere, up to your necks in white global warming, are probably thinking:
“Ha, yeah right, you’re in Perth, I’ve watched some cricket (ok, it’s pretty unlikely that any Americans would say the last bit as cricket is as foreign to them as baseball is to the rest of the world) – it looks pretty warm down there”
Ok, I’m being a wag, I’ve just had the old crappy useless evaporative air conditioning unit replaced with a new big monster one and it’s a bit efficient. Perhaps a bit too efficient for its own good. Jay is sitting at the desk in a one woman huddle, pretending it’s all fine. Being a hot person (I know, you all want me, right?) like I am, this chill suits me just fine!
We all took the doggy for a little walk along the beach (yup, the one that, I have to remind all of you repeatedly about) at the end of the road. I think the dog actually took the girls for a walk, rather than the other way around
Anyway, with all these digs and jibes at your chilly snowy weather, what I’m really doing is setting you up for some photos to give you all some Christmas cheer, so here for your viewing pleasure, are the dreary surrounds of suburban Waikiki.
And Piper, as special as ever.
I know, its a hard life.
Ok, for balance, there are some downsides – being 40C hot in a suit is no fun and it might rain tomorrow for a bit.
There, happy now, snow people? :p
Three go on an adventure
Posted on September 17, 2010
A little tale from the motherland..
Towards the end of the time in England with the kids, they were nagging that it was sunny out and dinner wasn’t for an hour or so and can they have an adventure.
So, we hopped into the car and I took them to Knole Park – a Medieval deer park that survives pretty much intact – to see if we could see some deer.
There are usually hundreds of them about – even though its a pretty big place (1000 acres, 4 sq km) you can pretty much rock up at one of the entrances and there’ll be loads of them right there. They might be wild, but they’re not stupid – people bring food.
Here’s some photos I’ve taken before
Anyway, we arrived, parked up and walked a short way to where I have always known the deer to hang out.
No deer to be seen.
Now, thats fine if you’re me – its a beautiful park – if we don’t have deer, its no big deal.
Not so if you’re 3.
When you’re a 3 year old small boy, its the end of the world. Henry had decided that as there were no deer, he had a headache in his legs, he was hungry, it was cold and he had a sore throat. All at once.
Ella, however, being 8, although disapointed, is more flexible and wanted an adventure anyway.
So, she set off down an impossibly steep hill through the head-height (for me) bracken in order to find her some deer. Henry was busy laying face down bawling at this point, so I scooped him up on to my shoulders (with no regard for my now popping spine) and followed her.
Ella had no trouble following what turned out not to be a path as such, but was really a deer track into the ever thickening forest of bracken, trouble is, she had no idea where it was going nor was thinking about me, carring a bag, camera and a Henry down a 45 degree slope.
Anyway, we got to the bottom unscathed and had fun along the way, even though we didn’t see any deer. Henry recovered his dignity and decided that life was maybe worth living after all and was running about happily after his big sister.
On the way home, there are a couple of other spots where wild deer and such hang out, so I took them back via the scenic route and had a couple of pit-stops and into some fields to see if we could see any where I know they sometimes hang out.
Again, a pic from a few years ago from this spot (see, children, you do believe me, don’t you?)
This time. however, no deer.
The buggers have all gone on holiday!
Ah well, the kids started to find it funny that Daddy was totally hopeless at locating deer and also learned that wild animals can’t be relied upon for fun.
Good times.
Piccies from a foreign land
Posted on September 17, 2010
I got my films from my trip to the UK back yesterday and they are awesome!
I love my Hasselblad, it produces amazing images – so clear and full of glorious colour and definition in a way that digital images somehow aren’t. The trouble is, scanning these amazing prints and showing them on here doesn’t show them how they are at all 😦
I tried scanning them at 600dpi, but the resulting images lack clarity, so I really need to do them at the full 1200 or higher – which means a scan time of more than 9 minutes per image – crappy scanner.
So, I need to buy a dedicated medium format negative scanner.
They cost AU$750
Add it to the list of stuff I ‘need’ 😦
Expensive hobby, this film lark. Looks like I might be getting familiar with home developing sooner rather than later!
Aaaaaanyhoo… I do have some initial scans to share – they’re pretty much all of my kids and family, but hey, its my blog, I can share if I like! I’ll probably redo these over the weekend – hopefully they will come out with a bit more ‘pop’
Oh, and I’ve done this on my work laptop which has a very bright screen, I don’t know if the colour/contrast on these pics is actually correct or not 😦
The films, they are back!
Posted on July 21, 2010
I’ve been waiting eagerly for these ever since I got the call on Thursday to say they were ready and being posted back to me.
Well, they arrived yesterday and I’ve been scanning a few of the shots already and I’m pretty happy with them.
It was a bit of a camera combo this time
1 roll of 35mm from the (now dead) Supersampler
2 rolls of 35mm from the Olympus Trip 35
1 roll of 120 from the Holga
3 rolls of 120 from the Hasselblad
So, here’s a selection in the same order..
The Lomo Supersampler
The Supersampler has 4 lenses and no viewfinder – it simply takes one shot through each lens over the course of a second or so, making very interesting images. Sadly, our one has broken and the films get scratched and broken trying to get them out. These were taken in Melbourne and are relatively unscathed.
The Trip 35 – slide film cross processed like transparency film
Trip 35 – black and white
The Trip 35 ones were a little disappointing – there’s something a bit bland about the way the shots seem to come out and I’m pretty sure it’s not the lab or the scanning. The cross processed shots have very vivid colours – lomo-esque, but without the charm of the Holga’s lens distortions or the delicacy of the medium format film. I wonder what these would have been like if I’d got them processed correctly? Ah well.
The black and whites were very grey on the prints – I think the Trip tends to meter a little on the light side of the middle of a scene, which is okay I guess, but it can leave the pics a bit washed out. A quick push through photoshop for a little tweak of the curves and levels soon brought a little punch back, although not as much as I’d like. You live and learn I guess.
The Holga and Hasselblad shots I’ll save for another post.
When I were young..
Posted on April 24, 2010
I found some pics of me from when I was a nipper, thought I’d share and make you all giggle..
Ickle me
I had blonde hair when I was small – now its very dark brown – how did that happen?
blondie
I think I may have needed a wee in this pic 😀
me, Claire and my mumma
And one from the hole in the tree as per my earlier post – woo! The tree’s changed quite a lot – the hole has closed up a bit over the years.
hole in the tree
Charlie's World 
