Gemma’s Neighborhood

And why is it if I delete a spam comment, it doesn't disappear from my recent comments box in my sidebar?

ANNOYING.

About a year ago I collaborated with my good friend and a fellow street photographer on a little double exposure project. Exactly a year later we have another roll of film multiple exposed and developed! Yay! I shot a roll in London earlier this spring and shipped it to Berlin where the roll was shot through again and the photos developed over last weekend. Unfortunately this time the roll only had about four great double exposures, but more so quite weird and wonderful in their coincidences.

We agreed both times to give as little as possible in guidance of what the other had shot on the roll to maximise ... weirdness, I suppose. It's quite odd to see some of these photos and what we have caught in the images. This one above in particular is very ghost-like for me.

Or what about this one? How funny that the two images would be a slot machine and this logo. If I was superstitious I'd be quite freaked out by these photos by now. :D

This one is my favourite one from the roll. The trees of The Green Park embossed on the people and street life of Berlin - just lovely! :)

Looks like I am posting a lot of film at the moment as well. This is of course not a bad thing at all.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's another roll of film developed from my Holga 35mm! Wow! And not that long ago since my last one. ;) There were some more shots left from Covent Garden (see previous post) on this roll so I took the camera out again this week with me to finish it off.

It's always a nice surprise to get something developed after a while from actually taking the photos. None of this instant gratification of the digital era for me, I say! Just good old fashioned film, negatives and prints. The Fuji Superia 800 never fails with its colours on a sunny day out with the Holga either. It's a shame I'm a bit lazy to clean the dust off these scans properly, so please, just turn a polite blind eye to that fact and enjoy the colourful lounge wear! :D

Sometimes it still amazes me how close I can get to some people to take photos and for them not to care or notice. This couple had such nice mirroring positions and odd shoe arrangements I dared to step closer and I didn't even get them to turn their gaze at me. A lovely moment I wish happened every time I wanted to document something odd going on around me. :)

And here starts the "new" half of the roll (yes, he was yawning!). I went over to my favourite place of  quiet reflection on Thursday this week. I have spoken about the beauty and meaning of the British Museum to me before, so I won't bore you with the philosophy of it all today. Just enjoy the moments I had whilst visiting one of my favourite places in London.

The Superia really is superior for colour on gorgeous sunny days, don't you think? There is no editing on photoshop on the colours here. I swear! Just look at that intense blue of the sky. Good enough to eat, right?

Early morning is the best time to visit to get the best effect of the Great Court and see the play of the shadows the ceiling throws across this vast architectural space. A truly inspirational place to be standing in. And to think I remember the time there was no Great Court to admire when I first moved to London! Where would I be without it now? :)

Ah, and an old series creeps up on me... As a nice "lost" moment below me unfolds, literally. The best view of the Great Court is actually from the West Wing (no pun intended). Just take the first set of great stairs up from your left when you enter from the main entrance and go all the way up. From a small viewing balcony to your left at the top you're able to see the whole Great Court in the best light if you come first thing in the morning.

Like these shadows! I have taken photos in from this spot before, I know. I just can't resist the play of the people, the shadows and the architecture of those stairs here. And yes, this is a colour photograph (no more Superia gushing I promise!).

These tables at the cafe are usually more full, but for some reason there were only these two men, deep in thought, over their papers that Thursday morning. Nice light, nice posing. Shame about my scan quality. :)

In other (good?) news; there should be more blogging and street photography coming your way this autumn as the wedding season draws to a close and I can focus on some more personal projects. Next time I'll be out and about with the digital cameras, I'd think. Oh and I have been drooling over the new Olympus E-P1 cameras online. It's neither healthy or wise, but they look so gorgeous... Let's see how long I last before I cave in and get one! :D

Hello chaps! Remember me?!  :D Well, here I am after a lovely London Saturday on the streets of London after a long while. It's been aaaaaages since I've had a Saturday off and felt like picking up a camera, but today there I was. Armed with my trusty 35mm Holga, film and late August sunshine to spur me on I wandered about Farrindgon and Smithfields during lunch time.

Actually, it was early lunch time, as you can see and I was on my way to get my hair cut. (I wanted a change and I sure got one!) ;)

What a peachy Saturday it has been indeed. I get my hair cut at the Glass hair salon (site under construction by the looks of it) at Barbican, a skip and a jump away from Smithfields, so it was a lovely walk back for me showing off my new do. :D

Hope this wasn't a case of the old swine flu... She didn't look too well or too happy to be out and about today.

On a side note: Taking the Holga 35mm out with some film was so lovely. It's been ages since I shot anything on film and it was great. I had my prints done in SnappySnaps this afternoon though and they messed them up (again). So, I had to put the negs through my scanner and my Canon scanner has issues with film higher than 400iso. Perfect, as these Fuji 800ZPro prints come off nothing like the punchy colours they should be. (I called the lab and they are reprinting my film as they did 80% of the roll off frame *sigh* Labs just aren't what they used to be...)

Just couldn't wait for the reprints to show you these, so I'm posting these anyways. There were so many great moments going on today. I loved this guy hiding from me when he saw the camera. Really nice moment this.

Sometimes I wish I could zoom a bit with the Holga, but alas, this is also still quite nice. If the scan wasn't so crappy you could actually see the "Love" ads more properly at the front of the newsagent, just have to point them out for now... ;)

Dad's are great, aren't they? :D What a safe crossing for the little ones. I wish I caught some traffic in this, but the cars were too quick and so was the daddy. You can barely see a shadow of the traffic passing in the bottom left hand corner.

A true photographer always finds the best angle. She certainly had the right idea for her tourist photos. :) Blackfriars is undergoing some major works at the moment to get ready for the crossrail to come (for the Olympics of course). The traffic is bad, but it also provides a nice backdrop even on Saturdays.

There are also a lot of workmen around in their high viz gear around all over Blackfriars Bridge all the time. Not sure what he was supposed to be doing, but what he was actually up to was quite photogenic. Look at the lovely London clouds as well. Perfect August day today, really!

All the legs and shadows caught my eye in this. And then there's that ad up there pulling a nice oops-face as a bonus. Damn SnappySnaps, if I could only show you the prints from all these photos...

... this one especially. The scan does this no justice, but what can I do. This was actually my last frame before turning the film in for processing. It's a a hip shot from walking across the road. I saw this couple, aimed, shot and this is what I got. A nice photo for my ongoing couple series, don't you think?

It really was lovely to be out there again to be shooting, I can't say that enough. And of course on film. I really have missed my Holga(s) and good analogue action, but the weddings are still going on thick and fast and I am really enjoying shooting them as well. You can see my SusieShoots gallery for updated wedding goodness (in the gallery section) and I do blog over there now as well. This far 2009 has been an amazing year and I really have enjoyed it. Let's hope it can only get better. :)