Mission accomplished

Yesterday I finished a major project. It was the third of the photobooks I have created from our trip earlier this year to Iceland, the Baltic, and Norway. I’m very proud of it, as our photos from Norway in particular are beautiful. It would almost be impossible to visit Norway and come away without beautiful photos. Some of my favourite photographs were taken out the front of the car as we were driving, and some required a bit more thought or design; here are just a few.

Fjaerlandfjord, from our beautiful hotel, is the cover of our Norway photobook

Mundal, on Fjaerlandfjord, is an international book town

The Geiranger-Trollstigen national scenic tourist route

Fb reminded me that this time last year I had already booked our flights and the Baltic cruise, and I was right in the middle of researching and planning our travel. I realised last night that, on and off, I’d spent a year planning and organising our trip, being on the trip, or completing photobooks after the trip. Of course, those aren’t the only things I have been doing, but I do feel that now I have some real space to think about other things. It’s time to move onto other long-neglected projects, and you know, that’s quite an exciting thought.

 

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Some Miscellaneous Monday Gratitude

• I heard about a journalist who had a gig reviewing noodle soup, was jealous, then realised I could, if I put my mind to it, do that on my own, so I’m thankful for the idea.
• I am once again appreciating our free medical services here in New Zealand, as over the last week or so an elderly relative has been going through diagnosis, ED (emergency department), hospitalisation, x-rays/CAT scans, tests, specialists, etc. We don’t have anything to worry about in terms of cost, and can focus on her ongoing comfort and well-being.
• This is however unlike my travel insurance, where one incident – a fall that resulted in broken glasses and smashed up face – was treated as two separate claims, and so we had an excess payable both for my glasses and my medical costs; but I’m still grateful, as I got 75% of the costs of a new pair of glasses paid. I picked them up this morning, and I still like them (better than the ones I broke), which is a relief too.
• A week or so ago I ran into someone I used to buy a lot of clothes from back in the late 90s and early 2000s, who charmingly said that I still looked as young as when she met me 20 years ago.
• I’m currently going through all our holiday photographs to edit and put them into photobooks, and the whole process lets me relive the experiences all over again, which is an added bonus.
• The free time I have currently is slightly bittersweet, as neither of us has any work right now, but it means that I can have an afternoon nap later (after two consecutive nights of watching the finals of the Wimbledon singles in the wee small hours) if I feel the need, and it meant that we could sit and watch the first episode of the latest series of Game of Thrones this afternoon, and that was fun.

 

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#MicroblogMondays: The ubiquitous white vans of Europe

With the advent of photobooks, which enable you to fill a page with just one photo or many, or to embellish a page with a small photo – perhaps a flower, or an architectural detail – I’ve started taking some series of photos. Other than flowers, which I always photograph, the subjects of these series differ depending on the location. In Italy I took several series over our three months there – there was of course the inevitable food series, and the compulsory aperitif/beer shots that developed naturally into a series, as I snapped shots on my phone for Fb. Other series were more deliberate; after seeing so many interesting chimneys, I decided to take a series of them, and the same happened with door knobs, mailboxes, water fountains, and – because it was Italy – vespas.

I also ended up with a series of the ubiquitous white delivery vans of Europe – simply because it seems that whenever there is the perfect square or scene you want to photograph, there will always be a ubiquitous white van in the way. My husband and I laughed every time we took a shot with the “ubiquitous white van” because the more we looked for them, the more we found – in the sunflower fields of the Molise, or in the middle of the Vatican, there was always a white van.

The ubiquitous white vans of Europe (and one blue one)

Do you do this? And if so, what do you photograph?

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Photo albums or digital? Why not both?

(Photo Blogging Day 20)

I am reposting (because I’m lazy) something I wrote several years ago, on exactly this topic:

So, I hear you asking, what do you do with all those photos?

Well, first I back up. I have heard too many horror stories of people losing all their photos when their laptop crashes, or a disc is corrupted, or I remember the case of one guy I worked with who complained to his IT department that his work laptop was too slow. They cleaned out the c: drive, and deleted all his family photos for the last two years. He hadn’t backed them up anywhere else!

So I have all my photos them on discs, or portable hard drives, as well as my laptop. A photographer we talked to recently recommended storing all photos on gold discs, because they don’t deteriorate in the way a normal CD/DVD does.

But mostly, I want to see my photographs – because they’re not just photographs, they’re memories. I want to use them on cards (as I’ve mentioned previously here and here), or put them on my wall.

And I’ve recently discovered that some photographs look even better on canvas. (I know I’ve posted a photo before, but this time it’s actually on the wall.)

Sure, my house is covered with memories of my travels. But I don’t have photos of kids, do I?

And I make photobooks. I have a confession to make. I am in love with photobooks. I have spent far too many hours making my photobooks. I have grand plans of finishing editing all my 1980 AFS photos, and of editing old family photos, and making separate photobooks of these. Those plans have been on hold. But I’m about to start again with my Turkey photos, so maybe the inspiration will continue to those other projects too. I find it tiring, exhilarating and, as there is no such thing as the perfect picture, frustrating. My eyesight will no doubt deteriorate further. It will be fun!

Since I wrote that in 2011, I have added seven new photobooks to my collection. Six are travel photobooks, and one is a family album. I still have plans to make books with old scanned photos, but haven’t done it yet. I’ll get there one day.

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Memories on the wall

So, I hear you asking, what do you do with all those photos?

Well, first I back up. I have heard too many horror stories of people losing all their photos when their laptop crashes, or a disc is corrupted, or in the case of one guy I worked with who complained to his IT department that his work laptop was too slow. They cleaned out the c: drive, and deleted all his family photos for the last two years. He hadn’t backed them up anywhere else!

So I have all my photos them on discs, or portable hard drives, as well as my laptop. A photographer we talked to recently recommended storing all photos on gold discs, because they don’t deteriorate in the way a normal CD/DVD does.

But mostly, I want to see my photographs – because they’re not just photographs, they’re memories. I want to use them on cards (as I’ve mentioned previously here and here), or put them on my wall.

Our black and white travel wall

And I’ve recently discovered that some photographs look even better on canvas. (I know I’ve posted a photo before, but this time it’s actually on the wall.)

A stitched picture from three photos of an African sunrise, printed on canvas. It makes me happy every time I see it.

Sure, my house is covered with memories of my travels. But I don’t have photos of kids, do I?

And I make photobooks. I have a confession to make. I am in love with photobooks. I have spent far too many hours making my photobooks. I have grand plans of finishing editing all my 1980 AFS photos, and of editing old family photos, and making separate photobooks of these. Those plans have been on hold. But I’m about to start again with my Turkey photos, so maybe the inspiration will continue to those other projects too. I find it tiring, exhilarating and, as there is no such thing as the perfect picture, frustrating. My eyesight will no doubt deteriorate further. It will be fun!

Beautiful photobooks full of memories

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