Film | France

Since, it doesn’t look like I will ever get around to doing a full trip re-cap, here are a few more film photographs to share. 

Detailed lamp-post in Monaco at Prince Rainier’s Palace

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One of the many flower markets in Aix-En-Provence

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A quick cappuccino on a rainy day in Paris

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The beautiful gold Dome des Invalides after an afternoon rain on our walk from the Metro stop.

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Yummy bakery treats waiting to be eaten

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The charming Aux Terres Rouges bed and breakfast we stayed at while in Aix-en-Provence

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A flower shop on Rue Cler in Paris

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Just two guys stopping for some friendly chatter in Paris

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Everything is cuter in Paris including the Metro signs

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The market square in Nice

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Spring time peonies waiting to be purchased in the Aix-En-Provence flower market

Nice View

I finally picked up my proofs from the lab yesterday and was reminded of these two pictures with a view.

When roaming the streets of Nice, France, my sister and I turned a corner and wa-bam! There staring at us is a massive Mr. Muscular Statue Man.  How about that for a welcome! Well, I couldn’t help but to snap a picture of the huge statue.  After doing a little research, it turns out this statue (Apollo) was banned for 22 years because it was thought to be too well-endowed and just made its return to the plaza last June. Standing at 21 feet tall, this guy is hard to miss! 

As for this picture, we were walking along the promenade and I found this single umbrella which I wanted to capture so I began adjusting my camera settings. The film camera takes a bit longer because everything has to be manually adjusted. Finally, my aperature is selected, shutter speed set, and focus set at infinity. I hold my camera up and…..oh no!  Two women on a stroll decide to stop right in my picture!  I am working with a fixed lens length (85mm) and standing on a ledge with no ability to move forwards or backwards. So, we wait. My sister so patiently waited with me for about 5 minutes for these two women to move. After no luck, I gave these women a silent count down.  As luck would have it, before I got to 10, the women had decided to continue their stroll which left me just enough time to snap this picture to which I am thankful we waited for.

I love both of these images and as they remind me of all beautiful views France has to offer. So, time for a serious question of the day, which view do you prefer?

Secret is Out

My wonderful husband took this picture of me almost 2 months ago when I was……..5 months pregnant! I know, I know, I waited a while to post anything about it, but I haven’t been posting about much lately anyways and all of my posts have been random bits from our life, so I guess in the random nature…the secret is finally out! Since then my belly has grown quite a bit because this baby is coming in just a couple more months.

The late April fog had rolled in and I decided we need to head down to the beach before dinner to use up the last of our film before heading off to France. I love to see how Ryan decides to capture things, even if I might boss him around a little to make sure he “gets” what I am going for! I tell him my thoughts, and show him where to stand, and which lens to use  (i know, annoying!), all of which he is half listening to so I freak that he doesn’t get it and wont get the picture I want. But when the film comes back, he never fails and his talent always surprises me and makes me excited that he shares the love for photography as much as I do! Thanks cutes for dealing with me and creating such pretty pictures!

Fuji Pro 400h; Nikon FM3a, 85mm f/1.4

xoxo

Paris on Film

Our stay in Paris was filled with bakeries, cappuccinos, strolling, and window shopping at all the finest stores. We spent each morning walking the streets looking for a place to enjoy a croissant before starting the day. Everything in France is created with thought, skill, and pride which makes the products, food, and architecture have that little extra something special that we are lacking here in America.

As you can see, there is no shortage of pastry selections at the bakery and the best (or worst) part is that everything is terrific just like you always hear so it makes deciding on a treat quite difficult for someone like me who loves treats and struggles making decisions. (Side note: We went to a gelato stand that had 99 flavors, so you can imagine my head exploding as it took me 7 minutes to pick a gelato flavor).

Cappuccinos are one of my Dad’s favorite morning drinks, so he was always up for a little coffee break. I love this hat and tweed coat and thought he fit the Parisian part quite well.

We have countless pictures as there is never a shortage of beautiful things to photograph. The colorful doors, old windows, aged shutters, and cute flower boxes line every street, but yet the view just never gets old.

xoxo

All photos taken with Fuji Pro 400h; Nikon FM3a; 50mm f/1.8 or 85mm f/1.4

France First Glimpse

All taken with Fuji Pro 400h; Nikon FM3a

I was blessed and lucky enough to spend two weeks in France with my Mom, Dad, and oldest sister and had an amazing trip that we will never forget. I just got the film back today from Richards Photo Lab and have since been reliving all of the yummy treats, architecture, and landscape from our trip. Somehow, this office cube is appearing much more bleak and dull by the minute and I am hoping if I close my eyes real tight and click my heels, the magic Ladurée fairy will appear and transport me back!  You can probably imagine the amount of pictures collected over my 12-day trip, and I haven’t yet made it through all of them, here are a few of my favorites on film!

And if those waffles or “gaufres” could please find a way to my bedroom tomorrow morning I will be forever grateful!

Southern California Beach Day

Fuji Pro 400h; Nikon FM3a; Nikkor 85mm f/1.4

This is what a typical Southern California beach day looks like in March – warm sun, cool water, and not too many crowds. We hope to get many more of these days in this summer but with warmer water of course!

xoxo

Catalina Glimpse

We  are still here just super busy, and can’t seem to spend a single weekend at home, so just a quick post with two pictures from a trip to Catalina to start your Wednesday off….

Oh yeah, and just in case you need something to entertain you while at work, here is Boo the Dog’s Facebook page with over 2 million followers and more pictures of him on People.com.

xoxo

Girlie Chatter

Girls. I love everything (well almost everything) about being a girl and appreciate our differences from the male gender. I love that girls can spend spend endless hours getting lost in girlie chatter about clothes, make-up, shoes, and of course the proverbial discussion of boys. Our voice-mails are longer, our gmail chats are filled with emotions, exclamations and smiley faces, and our text messages result in full paragraphs sometimes worthy of chapter introductions. I don’t realize a girls need to talk and chat until Ryan makes some remark like “Whoa – that was the longest voicemail ever” or “you talked about all that in a text?!”

I recall one 5-hour drive to Mammoth with Shauna and Katrin.  Ry had made sure the iPod was freshly loaded with new songs and the axillary cord was in place so we could listen to music during our drive up. When we arrived, Ry asked how the drive was and if the iPod worked ok. At that point, when trying to recall, I realized that we didn’t even turn on any music for the entire 5-hour drive and rather spent our time talking with each other. As funny as it seems, it is relaxing and enjoyable and amazing that we never run out of stuff to talk about.

This picture above reminds me of those times. Girls just getting lost in the chatter about the important things in life – you know, what your wearing tonight, someones new hair, or the newest episode of RHOBH!

Cheers to girlie chatter and may it never grow old!

xoxo

love

i love this picture so much. i love the beautiful colors of the water. i love the serene un-posed feeling. i love the exposure. and best of all, i love that man.

I took this picture with our Nikon Fm3a film camera. The Fm3a allows us the ability to enjoy photography in its simplest form: the subject, the camera, and the photographer. There are no extra ISO settings to contemplate or the vast lens selection to maneuver through {because we only have 2 that will work on it} and best of all there are not hours and hours of editing involved.  The film camera is definitely under used in our house but when each picture costs close to $1.00 it is hard to grant anything in our life film worthy {i am frugle what can i say}! Anyway, I am always so happy when we get the email from Richards Photo Lab letting us know that our film is ready because I love seeing the results and makes me love photography even more!

****And because I have been asked several times the difference between the film and digital pictures and how our film pictures appear on the blog, I guess it is not obvious to all. So here, ya go! We send our roll of film to Richards Photo Labs who then develops the film {just like the old days} based on specific color profiles which I have been working with them on. Once the negatives are developed, Richards Photo Lab then scans the negatives and creates a digital .jpg and sends us an FTP site where we can download the images and store just like our digital files! As a bonus, they will print the roll of film for you for $4 – so you actually get a printed picture as well {i love that part}******

Dreaming in French

Dress: Anthropologie  Belt: J.Crew

This week we got our second and third rolls of film developed and I have to say it’s so much fun waiting for the notification from the lab letting me know they are finished! However, I can’t say the same about the lab bill! 

Now, I will sit and pretend these were taken in the French countryside  – but if I am not in France, my parents French inspired chateau will work juuuust fine!

xoxo 

SAPCE

SPACE

SPACE
SPACE
SPACE

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Our life….on FILM!

We shoot digital. We edit digital. We print digital.

But, I lust after FILM!  How do I know this? When planning our own wedding I realized every photographer I fell in love with (Bret Cole, Jill Thomas, & Jose Villa just to name a few) used film! Film – really? Why did they use film? Because they didn’t want to pay to upgrade their equipment? Because they were “old school” and not current with the times? 

At the time, I did not understand why they still used film, but after spending the last two years analyzing photographs and attempting to learn the ins and outs of photography, I now understand why they still choose to shoot film…..because it is simply stunning. The color, creamy skin tones, and pure beauty is just something you cannot obtain no matter how many Photoshop actions you try to run on your 20MB digital picture.

Over Christmas my Dad kindly gifted us his Nikon FM3a, a completely manual film camera – manual focus, manual aperture ring, manual shutter speed, manual film advancement!  This required us to put what we had learned the last few years to the test and trust that our skills were up to the challenge.

While these pictures are a far cry from those of the film masters mentioned above, they are a start and for some reason I feel extremely proud to have actually captured something because I did have my doubts that we would end up with completely white pictures! These are our very first pictures ever developed and are all straight from the negatives, no post-processing or editing  (talk about a time saver!)

I am so happy to share part of our life with you captured on film. There is something enduring about film and its permanent nature that makes me want to go back for more!

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