grasswire

We had the second day of blistering sun in a row and it felt sooooo good. Apart from the cold, it felt as if spring was about to start. Spent the morning around Ljubljana’s city centre, did a lot of walking in the company of my Holgos (that’s how I just decided to call my EOS with Holga lens). The morning was as much fun as the bits of conversations I had or overheard. On the train, a high school girl complaining quite loudly how her breasts are too little compared to those of the other three girls that she was talking to. As I took the photo of stacked chairs in front of a bar, the bar owner came out to talk to me as he thought I was going to send the photos to local authorities as a part of complaint (well, talking about a guilty conscious). An hour later, a funny old guy at the secondhand bookshop said “let me give you a business proposition” – that I should start making stock library of old illustrations and he didn’t want any fee or credits for the idea (but he did want a fortune for a bonded volume of magazines from 1900 with nice illustrations and ads).
And some Holgos’ output of the day:
- long winter morning shadows in the park
- property of the bar owner with guilty consciousness
- close-up from vegetable market
- a rural vignette in the middle of Ljubljana

Just a simple pic to commemorate the passing week which was marked by my frequent train commute to Ljubljana. I actually like to commute to work by train – not only because it gives me a little more than half an hour to relax, read or catch up on my correspondence but mostly because its a good way to observe people, their surprising reading habits and to get snippets of youth culture I would otherwise be completely disconnected from. Not to mention the sound bites of interesting conversations, such as the one I wish I overheard more. Two boys were talking about someone photographing women and one guy said I wouldn’t mind photographing your mother in swimming suit. After initial shock of amazement, the other guy recuperated by saying: “Well, if you dare to do that….I will give you….lets say 10 Euros. Yeah, I’ll give you 10 Euros if you dare to ask her that.”
And they say that you can’t put a price on everything :)) Sort of reminded me of that “priceless” adds for Visa. Anyway, I guess Matej would also be very interested in models so cheap.
Have a nice weekend.

Here it is, my first digital Holga pic. Untitled still life #7391. Click here to see the beautiful unsharpness of the larger version. The lens just arrived with today’s mail – I eventually decided that I would just buy it instead of making it myself and from the look of it, I made a good decision. Holgamods did a very nice job, the thing is sturdy and actually looks like a proper lens. Plus there is no duck tape or stalactites of excessive glue, which would probably be featured in my version :) Well, this does not mean goodbye for the old Holga but it makes for me the click-to-pic process so much faster. And way cheaper. And hence so much more rewarding at this stage of my life.

There are some advantages to living in small towns – I managed to renew my driving license in five minutes, plus with really friendly service. As I went to check something for Edirisa, I noticed that the guy in Room 11 handled a weird combination of tasks. The three areas he covers are registration of weapons, events and associations. Hmmm.
The odd looking pic is on how to achieve Holga effects without Holga when you are a bit bored by shooting through Tamara’s bottle cap. I actually quite like the dreamy effect though it’s actually not very easy to replicate, particularly with auto focus switched on. Here is one of the less failed attempts. I think I’ll still go for a proper Holga lens for EOS.

…where do I live. Last night, while b-day Champaign was bubbling its way through my sleep and into my dreams, the major crime act of the night was committed by a guy who stole a truck with 107 pigs. When he was caught, he claimed that he stole the truck because he just wanted a ride home. I do wonder what you plan to do with a truck full of pigs, start a farm perhaps? Stock with meat for the rest of your life?

No comment, but you are more than welcome to post one :)
The image is a Holga pic from Dresden.

And here are some Holga pics I promised a while ago. No, they are not from world toy camera day roll which still patiently waits to be scanned but from an earlier one. A little bit of military nostalgia, 1960’s jet fighter F-84G Thunderjet solemnly overseeing the parking lot at Krk airport. Plane buffs can click here and read more about the plane,  others can go and see more Holga shots (pairs) of the same patient photo model on my Flickr page.

A photogenic Friday to you my friends. Tomorrow is the world toy camera day so grab your beauties and do some shooting. Or buy one today and get ready. Or click here to read what this is all about.

For some reason I can’t publish a photo to go with this post so try clicking here if you are interested in seeing one.

Marry Friday folks, here is a little pic I recently made with my Holga. I like this plastic camera thing, though I don’t shoot with it as much as I would like to. It’s another type of aesthetics, I think it doesn’t become all motifs and it does cost some money to develop the films, not to mention that its almost impossible to have prints made in Ljubljana. But luckily, I can always scan the negatives.
Or, I could follow a tutorial and make myself a digital Holga by mounting the plastic lens to my EOS, or spare the crafting and buy one ready-made. But why would I want to do a thing like that, skipping crafting…