hello there! just a quick note that i have finally moved this blog into a self-hosted wordpress blog, so i’ll be blogging about my analogue adventures over the new place! see you there!
don’t forget to sign up for that blog to receive the updates! have a lovely week!
yap, didn’t go that well! now when i got my first DSLR i was “shocked” at the difficulty i was having in getting a decent self-portrait. now i had no remote control, just a lousy tripod and i was having a major hard time in getting something focused that served as a reference so that i could turn on the self-timer and take a decent shot.
see those were my problems with a digital! was i prepared for the problems i would have with a film camera? no way! on film, a selfie is way much harder, unless you’re doing it to a mirror! there’s no preview. so this was attempt #1. yes, i kept on trying! more to come! maybe one day i’ll get a good one… or not!
camera: yashica tl electro x
film: kodak portra 160
i walk my dog three times a day and one of those times is during the afternoon for a long 45-1h walk. sometimes more, sometimes less, according to the time i have and the weather itself. during summer i tend to have longer walks i guess, though it’s hotter and makes no sense on a first analysis, but i think it’s more pleasant to take walks on a sunny day, rather on a rainy or cloudy day.
this happens to be one of my favourite houses, just for this gate and these flowers! how beautiful are these colours together?! most of the times there’s someone in the garden sitting, so i passed by this house several times before i had the luck of passing by with no one there! i don’t have the guts to just ask or take a picture without asking. i always feel that people will feel strange to look at me taking a picture of their house, though it’s for such a beautiful reason – it’s a beautiful house.
ok, so this you might not understand but this picture above was one of my favourite pictures of the entire summer roll! i loved the colours and soft shades, and the way sun reflected on the white base and spread the light to these vases. and the fact that these were cactus also helped for the desert feeling! i have no idea where i took this photo, but i think it was here in lisbon. maybe yes, maybe not, who knows?
oh bougainvilleas, got to love these in so many colours falling on these walls… i have one myself on my backyard, but it’s still tiny. maybe one day i’ll have photos from it a lot more glorious like these!
camera: yashica tl electro x
film: kodak portra 160
ps. i will try to adjust the exposure on my photos too next time, i always adjust for slight overexposure, but with all the sun it gets too much! oh and i have a b/w roll to pick up from the lab, which i’m so eager to get!
this blog is called film summer days for a particular reason, i thought that the idea of shooting summer days on film was pretty interesting. this whole passion for photography, being it digital or analogue, hits me hard when i see a good light. that is actually what drives me to other photographers, it’s the way they capture light. i’ve seen many many ways of doing it, and sometimes i also see people capturing it in such a dull way, that i don’t think they know what they’re doing. others do it like magic.
and one thing that happens to be interesting is the way light appears and is felt in different parts of this world! for example, people in london or seattle (which i think is also known for its rainy days) will capture light in a very different way that people in san francisco or lisbon will do it, as these places are known for glorious sunny days. and i happen to be in lisbon and in general portugal is a sunny country.
and how about you? where do you live?
these last two were taken on the camping park where we spent our summer vacations! i love this camping park so much! everything is so good, there are a lot of trees and we happen to love to have our breakfast sitting in front of the pool, first thing in the morning, while almost everyone is still sleeping.
camera: yashica tl electro x
film: kodak portra 160
back in august i went on vacations to the southwest coast of portugal! that side of the country is known for the glorious beaches and delicious food! though it has been a well-known part since some summer festivals started to happen there, i just started going there back in 2010. first on a new year’s eve, which was both good and depressing (just for the lack of things to do on a cold winter week with only beaches to visit, shorter days and not much to do while waiting for dinner time, in was eager to get back to lisbon!). then i went back during summer for a few days and this year i went back again!
i was happy to drive alone to meet my boyfriend who was already there and, packed with all my cameras, i stopped in every interesting place i would put my eyes on. it was so relaxing and such a good experience! so to start i drove to portinho da arrábida, which people had told me that was paradise. this place is merely 50km from lisbon and i didn’t know about it. yes people would say that it was gorgeous, but i wasn’t expecting this… this was heaven!
do you know when you arrive at such a beautiful place you just want to either embrace everything or take pictures of every single detail?? i was feeling like that! this was so peaceful, you couldn’t hear a sound, as there were no waves and there is a whole mountain on your back, which makes this even more beautiful. i had to go back through the mountain and the sight to the ocean was really breathtaking!
though i love winter and cold weather, so that i can stay inside on my cozy home, drinking hot tea with cookies, watching a good movie, or just feel warm inside while is raining outside, this makes me miss summer days and this day in particular! and yes, summer light is gorgeous!
camera: yashica tl electro x
film: kodak portra 160
ps. i have 5 120mm rolls of film waiting to get developed! but it happens to be so expensive, that i’m just waiting for the right moment. you know the feeling, don’t you?
first i must confess that when i started this blog, i sure thought that this would be much easier. i thought that i would find the time to post a lot more than i ended up having. the thing is that i’m not that good when it comes to time-management (though i try so hard) and yet i believe that i have gotten so much better in these last years. i’ve worked in high-pressure environments and after that when i started working by myself, building my own business, i always felt the pressure to make it work fast, because of well… money issues. bills need to be paid and food must be on the table, so that pressure was always there.
but though i think i improved myself a lot when it comes to organization, i still find it extremely hard to just do everything i want to do. a lot of people suffer from the same, i get that. and as many would say, the fact that we can do something, is not enough reason to do it. but i honestly want to do this. i want to have a place which is fully dedicated to film photography, because on my main blog i don’t find the place to do it. i honestly don’t think my other blog readers are interested in this topic, well a few will be, but not the majority!
sometimes i don’t know what to post, i want to post everything because the last roll was awesome. or i want to just talk about my experiences with some camera or some roll of film. but though i’m not complaining, i’m not even sure someone is actually reading. oh this is so lame, this feels so much that i’m complaining and wining. and i might even put this post to trash before hitting publish, but let’s hope not, because all this has been coming out from my fingers at light speed.
and i have so many nice pictures to share with you. now that i look at my last roll it was really amazing! the light, oh the light in lisbon is a kick-ass light! forgive me all of you who don’t live here or believe that your city has awesome light, but light on this city?! kicks some ass!
but of course i will keep posting to this blog, as this is a place that is very dear to me, though in the meantime i will self-host this, because the limitations of a self-hosted wordpress blog are driving my nuts! if you know me, you know that i love to change things around and having the same look for months now, with such lack of choices is not for me. have a nice evening and weekend folks!
back in july we were invited to a baptism, which was followed by a lunch on a restaurant with a gorgeous view over to the ocean. i had never been there, and i’ll share the view in proper images, but these are a few of the people and mood there! it was such a gorgeous day!
though i love the sea, i’m not much of a person that finds peace just by looking at the sea. i actually got bored of the beach over the years and though i go to an island every year to get some rest, i don’t just feel thrilled to hang around laying on the sand for hours. i get bored. on the other hand i found out that looking at the waves and the way the ocean hits the rocks makes me completely absorbed by it and my mind rests, because i don’t think about anything, i just watch the waves hitting the rocks over and over again.
this last one is one of my favourites! i absolutely love the light and sharpness! and of course, the perspective is also pretty interesting… what a view my friends, what a view!
camera: yashica tl electro x
film: kodak portra 160
we have moved to a new home a month ago and now we no longer have this view, which provided gorgeous sunset views over that church. now we live closer to that church, in the same street to be exact, and we live in the ground-floor, so no such view, but we do have a bigger house and a backyard, bonus points for that! oh and fruit trees on the backyard! yay! i will miss this view though, it was so beautiful and dreamy some times.
camera: yashica tl electro x
film: kodak portra 160
it was back in july and the sky was glorious as expected! i went to the beach right in the morning for a maternity photo session (you should really see the session because it was gorgeous!), and after it i headed down to another beach for some photos with my yashica! just a few random photos of the seaside and beach flora.
and yes, i just tried the slideshow feature on the blog! i’m not sure if i like it, but i just wanted to give it a try! have a nice weekend!
camera: yashica tl electro x
film: kodak portra 160
well, apparently just like everywhere else, time also flies around here! and since last time i was on this place so much has happened! i have not been a nice blogger around here! but maybe this month i’ll behave well! promises! promises! so, what have you been up to? i have developed another roll of my summer vacations and wondering days around lisbon and i absolutely loved the results! the light was gorgeous and the film also helped a little bit, since i used kodak portra 160.
so i will be back with more! and in the meantime, do you want to say hello on my other blog? i shared some film photos today on my simple things feature!
film summer days 