Thirty Days

January, Day 28: LiquidLate last year when I was thinking about New Year’s resolutions, I decided I needed a new creative challenge. For two years in a row I had been fulfilling my 2017 resolution of a poem a day, but it was time for something different, although of course I would keep writing regardless.

I take photos every day, if nothing else for my on-going Lost Things project, but I hit upon the idea of a ’30 Day Photo Challenge’. I had come across the concept here and there in the past, and a little research on the Google brought up various options on Pinterest. I quickly decided I didn’t like any of them in their entirety, and wrote my own subjects, trying to keep them fairly broad and open to interpretation.

January, Day 10: NostalgiaAdditionally, I decided to complete each month using the same equipment in Hipstamatic in its entirety – that would make approximately twelve, visually cohesive sets. (Because I am rolling over each thirty days immediately rather than waiting for the first of the month, I will finish up the twelve sets a bit before the end of December.)

February, Day 6: Morning In January I used Hipstamatic’s moody, vintage-style Tintype ‘pak’ with desaturated tones and short depth-of-field; and in February I chose a green-tinged combination which evokes for me blissfully lazy, sun-dappled summer days. I didn’t use any flashes in the January set, but the February set is a mixture of no flash, and various coloured flashes in the Hipstamatic app’s arsenal.

Here are a few samples, and to view the full sets, go to my new 30 Days Photo Challenge gallery page. These will be updated each month, so do come back to take a peek at my 2019 visual diary again.

February, Day 25: Upside Down

Blue Skies Go On Forever

Here’s just a little fancy for the day, because it’s perfectly apt for this morning’s blue-feathered sky. Blue skies and sunshine always make me happy.

The Lost Photographer

The Lost Photographer :: Elijah Lens // Pearl Film // Yuletide FlashI am always keeping an eagle eye out for Lost Things, and really it is quite remarkable how many there are in my hometown of Melbourne.

I don’t know if Melburnians are simply more careless, or whether in other cities the custodians of tidiness are more zealous about picking up after people. Perhaps there are Committees for the Restoration of Lost Property to Rightful Owners? For recently two friends (and already sometime contributors) of mine were overseas, one in London, the other in Hong Kong, and both were on the lookout. But neither of them spotted anything in either of those two great cities! It’s a mystery.

The Lost Boater :: Elijah Lens // Pearl Film // Yuletide FlashHere I am in a Melbourne shopping mall, taking a picture of a Lost Boater, forlornly residing on a table. My brother-in-law snuck up behind me to take a picture of me wearing a boater while taking a picture of a boater – he thought that would be rather amusing.

I post daily on my Lost Collections Tumblr blog – there you can check out the myriad of lost things I’ve amassed over the years (I’ve been capturing them on Hipstamatic for six years).

Temple of the Winds

Salvador 84 Lens // Uchitel 20 Film // Yuletide FlashOn Sunday I went for a walk in the Royal Botanic Gardens, a few minutes walk from my home and which I fondly refer to as ‘my backyard’, and took this photograph of the Temple of the Winds.

The structure was created by William Guilfoyle, one of the directors of the Gardens from 1873 to 1909, and who is often described as “the master of landscaping”. The Temple overlooks the Yarra River and beyond to Melbourne’s sports grounds such as the MCG and tennis centre, and further eastwards, Richmond.

I took the photo with the iPhone 6 native camera app, and used the randomiser in Hipstamatic to create the sepia double exposure. I love to make modern photos look vintage, and I love the happy chance combinations made using the random button in the Hipstamatic app. You never know exactly what kind of double exposure the Salvador 84 lens will make, and the Yuletide flash in monochrome images has a lovely aging effect. The sepia film, Uchitel 20, also produces random spotting and foxing.

Although it’s not the same as analogue photography, it is a rare instance of serendipity in the digital age, as I mentioned in my previous story on Eugène Atget. While I was not trying to emulate his work, it did remind me of him.

Here’s to happy chance.

A New A–Z of Tintypes

E is for EspressoFrom Al Fresco to Zebra Crossing, this selection of 26 new tintypes – created with the Hipstamatic app for iPhone – range from literal objects to more suggestive concepts or actions. Some letters present more challenge than others, unsurprisingly, such as X and Z, but the only letter I had to photograph fresh was U. However I didn’t have trouble finding a subject for that one as you’ll see  – I have quite a collection which is often remarked on by visitors to my home. It was fun to put together, and I hope you enjoy them too.

You can also look back at my first collection here.