The Promise of Spring
Leonard lens // Daydream film // No flashWho doesn’t love a cherry blossom? The sight of a fruit tree (cherries, apples, apricots, plums) festooned in pink blooms is surely enough to delight everyone – after all, it heralds the promise of spring. The sun shines more brightly and the birds sing more happily.
Last week I spotted this tree in a side street in the midst of a concrete jungle, and it drew me unerringly. I made a positive beeline (ahem) for it. Isn’t it pretty? Spring is coming! Hurrah!
Here are some more pictures (click to jump through) to make you smile.
And there are birds!
Fashion Lights
Vogue cover illustration by Georges Lepape, March 1927This morning I turned the page on my Vogue calendar to this picture and immediately thought, ‘Oooooh, this looks just like my photos of Flinders Lane on White Night!’ Except that, ahem, this is an illustration.
For the Spring Shopping Number of March 1927, Georges Lepape – one of my favourite fashion illustrators of the era – paints a woman walking down an electrified city street. But what are those bubbles of light floating around? Lanterns, balloons … urban fairy lights? The woman is wearing a classic cloche in one of my favourite shades of blue, periwinkle.
I took the photo below last Saturday night in the streets of Melbourne during the White Night Festival. My friend and I stumbled out of Hosier Lane into Flinders Lane, and into an intersection alive with myriad circles of light, created by lights concentrated on a set of mirror balls suspended high above the laneway. It was utterly entrancing.
Fashion Lights :: Doris // Sussex // No flash World-renowned lighting designer, Philip Lethlean, created the installation and this section was called Rags to Riches (so called because this precinct of Melbourne was the centre of the rag trade in the mid twentieth century). So similar is the electrified streetscape to Lepape’s drawing, I feel it behoves me to create a fashionable homage to his work using some of my photos as a backdrop.
Oh, and happy first of autumn, by the way (or spring, as the case may be)!
That Was 2013
May Morning :: Tinto 1858 // Pistil // Laser Lemon GelAt last I have edited thousands of photos and distilled last year into twelve of my favourite pictures. It wasn't easy – there were another 102 that didn’t make the cut. Some months seemed to have far more options than others, June especially. I dithered over June.
I have had my favourite Hipstamatic combinations, but I still shake for random often, although out of this selection only the umbrellas and the quinces resulted from random shakes. I particularly love the Tinto/Pistil/Laser Lemon Gel combination (above), which I originally discovered from a random combination.
My newest favourite is the Brighton Hipstapak – the Doris lens and Sussex film, although the latter works well with the Melodie lens too under lower light conditions or high contrast light/shade, when you want to tease out a little more detail than the Doris will give. Sometimes I use the Laser Lemon Gel flash with these – I do love a golden glow. I still love the Tinto pak too, though it tends to crash the app most of the time unfortunately.
Click through to view the entire gallery.
Daydreaming of Summer
Daydreaming of Summer :: (black and white) Wonder // D-Type Plate // No flash :: (colour) Doris // Sussex // No flashIt’s been a dreadful summer in Melbourne so far. One the one hand, while one must be grateful from a respite from bushfires, on the other, Melburnians are all sulking and getting rather tired of their winter wardrobes. This little double exposure (made with two Hipstamatic pictures combined in the DXP app) is about as close as I’m getting to a beach getaway!
Modern Cave Painting
No. 3 :: Tinto 1858 // C-Type Plate // No flashI must say I don’t very much care about the Melbourne Cup (apart from the fact for a short season it means hats are back in fashion), but I did think these paintings on the underside of the Richmond railway station overpass were rather sweet. I love the simple stylisation, especially how the horses look like they’ve been lifted from a cave painting – particularly apt for the long, dark tunnel this overpass is.
No. 7 :: Tinto 1858 // C-Type Plate // No flashThis wall is usually plastered with bill and rock posters, so these paintings make a nice change. They are so large I presume they have been officially sanctioned, although I can find no information about them online. Stylistically, they are also a refreshing variation on the typical style of urban muralists (as opposed to graffiti vandals), and it’s surely past time to move on from stencils too, please. Bravo Yarra City Council!
No. 5 :: Tinto 1858 // C-Type Plate // No flash