Lights! Camera! Cuba!

By The Awkward Artist on October 7, 2018October 7, 2018

antique automobile automotive car — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I have always wanted to visit Cuba! It is a dream and will help me expand my street photography experience….the architecture, the vintage vehicles and the people it all appeals to me on a visceral level. The colors, the sights and sounds…it the kind of thing that makes my photographer’s eye twitch. So the bestie and I are going….she writes a lifestyle colum for an online magazine and I blog. It is a perfect combination and she is the perfect travel partner. So I am going to document my research and the cameras I am taking with me. I have to start this now so my head doesn’t explode before I get there…getting it all down will keep me sane.

Cameras

I plan to take 4-5 reliable film cameras and one Polaroid…my new Minty. I am starting to stockpile film so there is no mad dash to get enough before the trip. My most reliable cameras are the Holga 120CFN, the Holga 135BC and the Diana Mini. I think it is a good mixture of 35mm and 120mm film choices. Unfortunately, my La Sardina’s failed the test when I took them on a family cruise. There were too many issues with film loading and rewinding with all four.

Research

There are so many articles to read…people share their experiences and it makes my heart sing. I can’t wait to see and document it all. I am over the moon excited…my soul needs to be fed and traveling with my bestie is the best way to do this. We are Army girls always ready to go with the flow. We let the locale dictate the days…we don’t have to have fancy digs and plan to live like the locals.

My travel research beings with the first link a subscriber sent me. Where to have film developed in Havana….I will check out this photo lab and may get some film developed while I am there. I will see how it flows. This photo lab seems like a a good place to check out. I will give a comprehensive review on the services#309 Calle Obispo, Habana Vieja, Ciudad de Habana. That’s the main east/west street down the middle of Old Havana, running down from Parque Central to Plaza de Armas.

Fashion

Cool, casual and comfortable is my goal and I want to blend in and look like a local. It is not hard in Cuba…the population covers the color spectrum and mostly look like me. My Pinterest page will be my go-to for storing my ideas so take a look if you get a free minute…my plan is to update it as often as possible.

Join me on the journey from planning to touchdown and let me know what you think along the way. Any tips? Send them my way.

Holga Tips and Tricks: Taping Your Holga

By The Awkward Artist on August 7, 2018August 7, 2018

I started my Holga journey because I was bored out of my mind after graduate school. I needed something to kickstart my creativity. Film photography is a form of therapy for me and I can lose myself in the camera and the beauty of life around me.

Hipstamatic sparked my interest and after some research I started hunting Holgas, Diana’s, La Sardinia’s and all the different film formats that produced the gritty, grainy artistic photos that I see in my head. My first set of developed prints made me want to cry but I toughened up and soldiered on. I studied my technique, my awful mistakes and the light leaks that destroyed more than a few of my prints. My mistakes made me start paying attention to what the heck I was doing. I will write another blog on my common mistakes this blog is for the light leaks.

Why Tape Your Holga

The Holga is a cheap, light-weight camera from China that comes with a plastic lens and a plastic body. Light leaks are natural to the Holga and there is really no way to avoid them unless you tape the entire camera and what is the fun in that. I can understand how light leaks can be intimidating to someone new to this type of photography but I encourage you to embrace the unpredictablity. Let yourself be surprised by your images.

The first time I developed 35mm film in my Holga I realized I needed to tape up the back of your camera, or light will leak in through the film counter window and over-expose every single shot. Along with my other mistakes I’d ruined an entire roll of film but hey… that’s part of the game of experimenting with your camera. 35mm film doesn’t have paper backing like medium format film does so it has no protection from the light seeping in from the little red window at the back of the camera. Without covering this window your roll will be exposed to light in every shot. A common solution is to seal the window off to keep everything nice and pitch dark inside the camera. I use electrical tape to make a flap so I can tell when I have gotten to the first shot while loading and how many shots I have remaining. I get some leaks but my shots are not completely blown out.

I also cover the bottom of the camera and the metal clips on each side. The cilps are worthless to me a lesson learned after I put my brand new camera around my neck for the day and the weight of the camera was no match for the cheap clips. I watched in horror as my hours-old Holga slipped off my neck and hit the cement. It works….I played with it for hours and coaxed it back to life.

I am not an expert at anything. I research and share my journey with others. Have fun and let yourself go. Follow the Golden Rules! Share your experiences and your photos.

Next up….My common mistakes and what I learned.

Rainy Day Musings…..Red Hunter Boots!

By The Awkward Artist on June 26, 2017June 26, 2017

The East Coast has been hit with a number of heavy rainstorms this year and last week I got caught in a big one. I was soaked from head to toe. Thankfully, I was on my way home for the day so that soggy feeling had a foreseeable ending. I knew it was time to bite the bullet and buy a pair of red Hunter boots! I have danced around this purchase for years. I have been looking for a deal on them because I already have a pair of black and a pair of fuchsia Hunter boots but my heart was set on the eye-popping red version. Every time I wanted to buy a pair my size was unavailable or I didn’t want to pay full price. Well, my lucky break came in an email from Groupon. They had my boots! The size and color and they were discounted. I knew it was time and when they arrived all I could do was gaze at them. They are beautiful!

I love shopping in my closet! It is so much fun to pull outfits together from what I have and come up with new ways to wear items that I have had for years. I find that I do not shop as much and buying key items keeps my wardrobe fresh and wearable all year round. I want these boots to make a statement all year round and I am already planning the cutest looks for them. I love denim dresses and now I have the perfect rainy day compliment for them. Those plaid blankets scarves from last season?!…. red Hunter boots pick up the color and make a casual outfit pop! Grab your favorite leggings and sweater or those white skinny jeans from the summer….pair them with red Hunters add a denim jacket and you are set! Light snow on the ground….red Hunters with the comfy liners will keep your feet toasty! There are so many ideas that Hunter boots pay for themselves in all of the compliments you will get from your friends. There are so many ways to wear these boots that you will never be disappointed.

Let your personality shine with that pop of color that can take an outfit from drab to fab! Keep it simple, classy and fun! You can’t go wrong with red Hunter boots.

Life Musings…Journal Your Way Through Spring!

By The Awkward Artist on May 2, 2017May 2, 2017 3 Comments

Spring is a time of rebirth! Flowers are blooming, the weather is cooperating and we have shed the heavy layers. Spring is a time to celebrate yourself! Beauty trends and the latest fashions are amazing ways to express your self but at its core beauty starts within. Take the time to preserve your inner light. I take the time to celebrate my thoughts and the things that make me happy through travel, photography and writing. Cultivate your inner beauty along with your physical representation and you will shine this season. When you smile and laugh your inner peace resonates and everyone around you reaps the benefits. I have kept a journal or diary since I was a young girl, capturing my thought and feelings while documenting people and places that brought me joy. Many of my blog posts start out in longhand and transfer to my site once I have settled in for the night.

Journaling is relaxing and allows me to relieve stress. So in honor of the Spring/Summer season I indulged in new journals for work and me time! My favorite Moleskine journals now come in bright vibrant colors like teal, red and fuschia, colors that are guaranteed to bring out the writer in you. Moleskine journals have a long, distinguished history. The Moleskine notebook is, in fact, the heir and successor to the legendary notebook used by artists and thinkers over the past two centuries: among them Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Bruce Chatwin.

In the mid-1980s, these notebooks became scarce, and soon vanished entirely. In 1997, a small Milanese publisher brought the legendary notebook back to life, and selected this name with a literary pedigree to revive an extraordinary tradition. Following in Chatwin’s footsteps, Moleskine notebooks have resumed their travels, providing an indispensable counterpart to the new and portable technology of today. Capturing reality in movement, glimpsing and recording details, inscribing the unique nature of experience on paper: the Moleskine notebook becomes a battery that stores ideas and feelings,

A chance trip to a Crate and Barrel store gave me a new favorite and I balance my love for journals between the two styles. The French-inspired Mon Carnet de Poche has become a favorite in my day bag along with my Moleskine. I am an inpatient shopper and very grateful that Amazon carries both styles and I can get them overnight or close to it through my Prime account. I like to use one for my fashion and blog notes and the other for tedious meetings. I mean really…who wants to sit in a meeting and not make a must-have now list!

Last but not least is my One Line a Day memory book. My memories cannot be contained in one line so I try to document the one thing or significant memory that has affected me emotionally. Good or bad and with little censorship. I celebrate life’s challenges through these memories. You never know how far you’ve come unless you acknowledge the good times and bad. So, I hope you can find joy and peace in the reflection of life.