A Month in Polaroid: The August Break 2017 - Final Week

Can you believe that it's already September? August just flew by! To be honest, I'm glad it's the end of summer. August was far too hot and humid for my taste. Now, that the temperatues have dropped 10-15 degrees Celsius compated to last weekend, my energy is coming back and I got more done this weekend than on all the weekends of August put together. But I did finish this year's August Break, and here's the final days of my month in Polaroid:

It was fun to think about how to interpret the prompts and find something to photograph. Of course with Polaroid, it takes a bit more planning. But that's the charm of analogue photography. 

I also made a little Steller story of my Month in Polaroid. I think it used to be possible to include a Steller story directly on your blog, but it doesn't seem to be so anymore. That's a shame, but anyway, you can find it here, if you want to have a look: A Month in Polaroid 2017 on Steller.

A Month in Polaroid: The August Break 2017 - Week 3

Here's last week's photos for the August Break challenge, again, all taken with a Polaroid SX-70 Alpha 1 and a Polaroid SLR 680.

A month in Polaroid: The August Break 2017 - Week 2

Here's my second week of the August Break challenge. As last week, all the photos were taken with my two vintage 1970s Polaroid cameras, a SX-70 Alpha 1 and a SLR 680. If you'd like to see the prompts for the challenge, and these photos, you can find them here.

A month in Polaroid: The August Break 2017 - Week 1

I've been away from my blog for a bit, spending a lovely holiday in Dorset in July and then just taking it a bit slow in the summer heat. But for August, I've taken my Polaroid cameras out of the cupboard, where they have been sitting, unused, for far too long, to take part in the The August Break challenge. Some of the prompts are quite challenging, and not made easier by using Polaroid cameras, but it's good to get thinking, trying to get the right photo for it, and get the photo right.

So here's my first week. I've used my two favourite cameras for this, the SX-70 Alpha 1 and the SLR 680.Y ou can find the prompts here.

A month in Polaroid: The August Break - The final week

The final week of the August Break, and the end of the challenge. I really enjoyed it, especially taking the photos with my vintage Polaroid cameras. And there was such a great bunch of people that took part, and shared their photos and stories in the Facebook group and on Instagram. I will definitely miss this community. I didn't take a photo each day, with the Polaroid cameras, that wouldn't have been possible. They need a bit more planning, so I took them when the conditions were right. I took each photo for each respective prompt, though.

I created a story of all of my photos on a new app that I just discovered. Well, it's probably not such a new app, but it's new to me. I love how you can turn your photos into little story books with it. I just wish there was a desktop version, having to do it all on your phone is quite time consuming. But fun too. And this will probably not be my last story.

A month in Polarid: The August Break - Week 3

The third week of The August Break, taken with a Polaroid SX-70, a SLR 680, and an Image Pro camera. I just love black and white film at the moment, as you can probably tell. And I had some great fun with the double exposure and timer settings on my Image Pro camera.

A month in Polaroid: The August Break 2015 - Week 2

Here's week two of my photos for The August Break 2015, taken with a Polaroid Automatic 100, a Polaroid SX-70, a Polaroid Image System and a Polaroid SLR 680.

A month in Polaroid: The August Break 2015 - Week 1

I started painting a bit last night, but I've only got as far as putting a first layer of the background down. Not much to share yet, in other words. So I have to give Paint Party Friday another miss, and am posting some more Polaroids again instead. It's still too hot to do much, really. This must be the longest and hottest summer in decades. It's quite usual that we get a few days with temperatures up to and over 30 degrees here, but it's been like this now since June, with only a few cooler days in between. I'm really getting tired this summer, and can't wait for it to end, so in order to take my mind off the heat, I've decided to do a little project of taking a photo for every day of the month. I have joined The August Break hosted by Susannah Conway. You get a prompt for every day, which you can follow, but you don't have to, and you can share your photos in a separate Facebook group and/or on Flickr. I've decided to use my various Polaroid cameras, which is a challenge at times, but I'm also learning a lot. So this is my first week of August in Polaroid (click on the link above to see all the prompts. I'm also posting them on Instagram, Flickr and FB).

Polaroid Summer

Summer captured with my Polaroid SLR 680 and Image Pro cameras during our staycation.

Cyan Polaroid summer shots

I had this Impossible Cyan 600 film that had been sitting in my fridge for a while, and I thought that our holiday was a good time to try it out and use it up. I was a bit sceptical about the film, and I must say, I'm not convinced. One thing that I found a bit strange was that it seemed quite impossible to get a sharp image with this film. And my Polaroid SLR 680 does take sharp images. It has to be said, though, that these scans don't do the actual images justice. While they aren't sharp, they are by no means as grainy as they appear here. And the contrasts are much stronger and the transitions much softer and smoother. Apparently, it was not only the camera, that struggled with the cyan, but also the scanner.

I still like these four images, though. A boat trip on the lake, a cool drink in the garden, and of the course, the two of us. And it does not happen very often that N agrees to have his picture taken. It was fun to try out this film, but I'm not going to buy it again. Actually, I prefer the simple films to all the fancy special edition that are available. Colour or black & white, and a simple white frame. The photographs have enough magic in themselves, they don't need any fancy shapes or colourful/patterend frames.

Holiday Photo Sunday: Appreciating summer's pleasures

Summer is my least favourite time of the year, especially if it is as hot, and often humid, as it has been these past few weeks. But just because I don't like summer, it doesn't mean that I can't appreciate the little pleasures it can bring.

Happy Sunday!

Trying to keep cool

I don't have a Paint Party Friday post to share today. I did actually do some painting the other night, but it was just too hot yesterday to take a photograph of it, download it, edit it, write up a blog post... And today, it is going to be even hotter. 35ºC. All I want to do is this.

Or even better, this.

But N is back in England. The second attempt took him savely back to London on Tuesday. And I'm back at work, where it is probably going to be about 40ºC in our office by the afternoon. And I have a nasty summer cold, complete with burning sore throat, runny nose and sneezing attacks. Great. I'm so glad when summer's over. At least it's Friday...

Sunday walk - finding joy in the ordinary

I meant to post the last post in my little Stockholm series today, after having missed it last Sunday, but I still haven't got round to editing the photos. So I'm posting some pictures from our walk earlier today instead. We were out for about four hours, just walking around the forest and farmland up the hill. There were no exotic flowers or animals, but instead so much beauty in the ordinary and and all the small things - frogs, insects, cows, wild flowers, leaves, the clouds in the sky. I'm grateful to have such beauty more or less on my doorstep.

A bit of a photo overload today, but that is just nature's plenty.

Sometimes, you miss the perfect shot by a fracture of a second... and capture something delightfully unexpected instead...

Summer has definitely arrived here, the 26 degrees today felt pleasant in the shade, especially with a light breeze, but the hot sun is already burning uncomfortably. I'm not looking forward to the forecasted 33 degrees and not a cloud in the sky for next week. I'm just glad I don't have to sit in the office.

Happy Sunday!

Summer of Colour catch up

Back from my wonderful two and a half week's holiday in England, and I've got a bit of catching up to do. In the first week of Summer of Colour, I did a sketch in my sketchbook first, and then a second one on a sheet of watercolour paper. I enjoyed the different effects of the different papers and watercolours, but it also meant that I felt that I had to keep this up for the following weeks. Which is rather time consuming. I did take some watercolours and sketchbooks with me on holiday, and although I haven't been very productive, I did a page or two, and back home again, I spent today with preparing the backgrounds of this and last week's colour combination and with adding the doodle flowers on the background sheet for week two.

Week 2: Orange & Hot Pink

Week 3: Lime Green & Purple

Week 4: Charcoal Grey & Pale Pink

I found a sketchbook with a landscape doodle I did one and a half years ago, and thought it would make a nice change from the flower doodles. The flowers doodles from week two came from the same sketchbook. I didn't even know I had done these! I'm afraid the pale pink didn't turn out too pale though.

I can't wait to learn which next week's colours will be. So far, none of the combinations I've voted for has come up in the respective week, but I've thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of them. But then that's the fun of these challenges, to do something you wouldn't normaly do yourself, isn't it.

Time to relax

The time to relax is when you don't have time for it

(Sydney J. Harris)

 

Hope you are all enjoying a relaxing summer :)

Week in the life ~ Monday

Monday, 1/08/2011. I know I'm a week late with the Week in the life project. But I only learnt about it last week on Monday, and I thought it would be a pity to start with already missing the first day. And besides, last week was very boring. Just work, and lots of rain on top of it. So I decided to do my own little week in the life this week. And it's the perfect week to start, as today is our national holiday, and so I start the new week with Monday off :).

I went to Appenzell with my mum and an aquaintance of her to visit a friend of theirs and to harvest some red currants. We took the train from Zurich mainstation at 9, together with masses of people all heading for the mountain areas to spend a lovely day in the alps. (I know, it doesn't look very crowed in the picture, but believe me, the train was packed).

There's no direct train to Appenzell from Zurich, so we have to take the train bound for St. Gallen and change in Gossau.

The heavy rains in the last few weeks have caused some landslides along the route of the Appenzeller Bahn and so there's a bus service between Herisau and Urnäsch until the repair works on the damaged tracks are completed.

Back to the train in Urnäsch for the last few stops until Appenzell. The weather outside the train window is still looking misty and rather like autumn (quite to my liking though :) ).

We have finally arrived in Appenzell and are on the way up to where our friend lives. I manage to get a quick snapshot out of the car window before the woods block the view. This is the edge of the town of Appenzell, the capital of the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden. With a little under 6,000 inhabitants, this must be one of the smallest capitals in the world. But it's a beautiful place.

After some cake and tea we head into the garden to tackle those red currant bushes. I'm a bit lazy though, I only fill two small dishes. I'm longing to go for a walk.

So off I go, following the path down to the bottom of a little valley with a river in the woods to get to the other side. I just love those mountain woods!

Where to now? I'm heading to the right left (always get those two wrong...), up the mountain. Nothing's better to clear one's head than being up a mountain and looking down on the world below.

It's hard work walking up those mountains, especially if one's in such a bad shape as I am. But the views from up there is worth it every time. Admittedly, I didn't get even near a mountain top, just some way up. I'd need much more time than just an afternoon walk for a real mountain tour. But really, I ought to do something for my fitness...

Of course there have to be cows up here. The Swiss alps without cows wouldn't be the Swiss alps :). It's just such a pity that there are those power lines everywhere going right trough the pictures.

And more cows...

But not all of them are allowed to play outside. Poor little thing...

Back from my 2 1/2 hours walk and lunch is ready :). Salad and and the most delicious homebaked bread for starter (even the flower is edible! Though none of us actually did eat it...).

Followed by a lovely and tasty salmon dish...

Not much time to rest after our late lunch, as it's already time to head back. So back to the train station we go to take the train back to Zurich.

Somehow, after getting off the replacement bus, we actually manage to miss our connecting train in Herisau. So we have to wait half an hour for the next one.

Finally back home after seven, half an hour later than planned. For dinner there's a bowl of fruits - melon, peaches, blueberries, and red currants picked just a few hours ago. Yummy!

And some telly - one of my favourite shows is on at the moment: Terry and June. They're so funny. Just love it.

And then it's soon time for bed. It's been a long but wonderful day. And I'm sure I won't even hear the fireworks and firecrackers tonight. Back to work tomorrow, and I'm sure I won't have half as many pictures tomorrow. Which is probably not too bad. It's quite a lot today. But then it has been a packed day.