It’s difficult finding time to work on my own film at the moment, much less time to put together a blog post. It seems I might end up doing things in reverse order, since these are my most recent shots (captured earlier today, no less!) and I have literally hundreds of film photographs going back months and possibly years, that have yet to see the light of day. I’m excited at the thought of getting to them; of reliving the memories they will evoke. But putting together a spontaneous collection from today’s walk whilst it’s still fresh in my mind has been fun.
It’s a long weekend here in BC and indeed across Canada, as on Monday there is a national holiday to celebrate Queen Victoria’s birthday. Which is a rather charming concept for a British citizen living in this beautiful land (in the UK, strangely enough, Victoria Day does not exist). With this long weekend some glorious weather has rolled in, bringing with it a host of campers, hikers and holiday-makers, and introducing a new, lively feeling to the sleepy town of Hope. Ever since we moved here we comment as we drive or walk about town, how many quirky and beautiful features hide around every corner, and how great it would be to spend some time wandering with our cameras. So today – until we got too hot – we did just that.
It has been a long time since I’ve had a proper outing with my Rolleiflex. It’s a camera I love but which I find more challenging to use than my Contax 645 or my Canon AE1, and I’ve had some struggles trying getting results I’m happy with. I seem to either produce photographs I really love, or ones that I’m very disappointed with. But it’s a lovely, lightweight camera for photographs on the street…and with its unusual appearance, for some reason I feel less conspicuous wandering along commercial and residential streets with it than I do with a more conventional looking camera (I should say, my ultimate aim is to never feel conspicuous when I’m out taking photographs on the street, whatever camera I’m shooting with!) It probably goes without saying that this was a day crying out for Ektar and even though the saturation on some of these might hurt your eyes just a bit, I think it was the right choice. With my Rolleiflex skills a little rusty I set out with low expectations for my photographs, and because of this I was a little more free and relaxed choosing and taking my shots. I’m happy to say that my slightly haphazard approach paid off and resulted in a set of images I’m really pleased with. The final image is included because I love azaleas so much, and this vibrant pink colour in particular, and also because a gigantic fuzzy yellow bumblebee flew into my shot and he’s there if you look hard enough among the bright blooms.











