I love this spot which is just off the Kilarney Lake trail heading towards the meadow. There is a short bridge that crosses the river and it’s a wonderful spot on a sunny day to see the surrounding trees and sky above reflected in the stillness of the water.

This was the first time in a year I’ve taken photos with my holga. It felt really good to be shooting film again.

When Boris and I were in Victoria earlier this year I came across the motherload of medium format expired slide film in a small camera store in Bastion Square. At first I was hesitant to buy it all because most of the film was 220 and I wasn’t sure I could shoot this in my holga. For those not familiar with film formats, medium format film come in 120 rolls which allows for 12 exposures or 220 rolls which allow for 24 exposures (this varies with the type of camera). The larger roll also doesn’t work with every medium format camera, at least that’s what I’d been led to believe. I went ahead and bought the lot deciding to take my chances because of the cheap price of four year expired film.

The shots I’ve included in this blog post were the first taken on the roll of 220 with a holga. As you can see, I had a lightleak and it went through the entire roll. With 220 film the whole camera has to be taped up, including the window at the back of the holga, because the film doesn’t have a paper backing the way 120 does. I’ll add more tape for next time. The trickiest part of shooting 220 is keeping track of the number of exposures because you can no longer see the numbers at the back, as well as being careful to count the number of clicks between frames.

For more detailed instructions on shooting 220 film go read “How to Use 220 film in a Holga.”

Little did you realize that each and every flower has a symbolic meaning. I rediscovered this recently via Conscientious and a link to an extensive list of the symbolic meaning of flowers. I recall as a teen that roses had different meanings depending on the colour, and girls always wanted red ones because they represented love, while yellow represented friendship.

I’ve always been more of a tulip loving girl, with a passion for dahlias and for poppies when they’re in season. At the moment the poppies are out in full force and I’ve been celebrating their yearly appearance by taking a million photos.

And what you might ask, is the symbolic meaning of poppies? Imagination, dreaminess, and eternal sleep.

“The moment you come to trust chaos, you see God clearly. Chaos is divine order, versus human order. Change is divine order, versus human order. When the chaos becomes safety to you, then you know you’re seeing God clearly.”

—Caroline Myss, *Spiritual Madness: The Necessity of Meeting God in Darkness*

It’s a bit morbid to stop and take pictures of the partial remains of a dead bird, but these were just too lovely to resist. I think it was my fascination with wings more than anything that drew me to take this shot, but I also found it interesting that the bone structure was still intact enough to keep the two wings together. And what became of the rest of the body before the remains of it landed on a busy city sidewalk…?

Taken with my “Snap Crackle & Pop” Trash cam, while driving along the Lions Gate Bridge.

Taken at Lighthouse Park in Vancouver with my Holga 120 CFN. Sometimes the Holga is surprisingly sharp.

Definition of a “Portrait Throw Down”: If you want to take pictures of your fellow photographers, then be prepared to step in front of the camera yourself. And this is exactly what Vandigicam did on our last meet up this past Sunday. These four shots are from the first session of the “throw down” that took place in August of 2005 at Kits Beach. Both events yielded terrific photographic results for everyone involved, and it was darn fun too!

Hands can convey as much human emotion as the face. They express the very basic need for human interaction and connections through touch.

Taken with a Canon EOS 500, using cross-processed Fujichrome Provia slide film. This is the third or fourth time I’ve worked with this film and it seems to have a lot of red in it when cross-processed. The colour bias isn’t always suitable, depending on the subject matter, but it works well with these two shots.

“I know I am made from this earth, as my mother’s hands were made from this earth, as her dreams came from this earth and all that I know, I know in this earth…and I long to tell you, you who are earth too, and listen as we speak to each other of what we know: the light is in us.”

~ Susan Griffin

The article on Bending Light has only been online for a day and already the response has been terrific. I’m really glad people are finding it so helpful in getting them motivated to either try shooting portraits, or trying it again.

The above shot is one I decided to leave out of the portfolio selection because I’d recently submit it to another publication. It feels good to have such an extensive body of work that I’m happy with to chose from.

Before Catherine Jamieson started Utata, she led a much smaller private group that I was a part of called Woman. As you can guess, it was comprised of only female photographers and it provided a private place for “talented women who take their art seriously.” It didn’t last very long but while it did we worked on a few themed projects, much as Catherine still does now with the larger group of Utata. My favorite of these was “What to do with old love letters…” which inspired a series of shots I’m still very pleased with that involved the challenge of photographing fire.

Taken on Broadway Avenue as I was waiting for the bus. I wanted to try capturing the pigeons in flight, which was hilarious to do with a holga.

Taken with the Canonet Rangefinder, using cross-processed fujichrome Provia.

This week Vancouver has slid back into the winter weather, just as the blossoms were starting to appear on trees around the city. I hope they can survive the unseasonable cold and the snow that was falling overnight. These are two shots I took last year, during a more spectacular spring that convinced me I should always be in Vancouver at this time of year.

Try to not let the crooked borders drive you nuts.

I decided to post these shots after photographing the newborn baby of my friend Pidge yesterday. I hardly get the chance to photograph kids these days, but I always enjoy it when I do. It’s a fun challenge because little kids don’t stay still very long and I try to capture them in their natural element without intruding. The above photos were taken last summer while visiting my friend Nikki in Ontario. Photographing her kids during the visit became a hilarious game of chase (literally), that ended with me in a puddle of sweat on the couch because it was a very hot day. I’m not sure who had more fun – me or them.

From my photo archive…

I was looking through my older photos for something to use in a digital image I’m currently working on and was reminded of this statue. I photographed her in a museum in Florence, Italy, when I was there in 1999. She was so beautiful I could’ve stared at her for hours. I’m very grateful the museum guards standing nearby didn’t mind me taking photos, or my cousin sitting down to sketch her.