Stuck on Film

  Rouen Cathedral, built in 1318 In July we were fortunate enough to spend a little time in Normandy with our nephew and his wife Jenny and baby daughter Rayelle. We had a very pleasant day wandering around Rouen the 'capital' of Normandy. a very historic place with a number of churches and a lot of medieval buildings. All of the pictures were taken using my Zenit film camera and Kodak Gold. Church of St Ouen We spent some time walking the streets, even venturing into back alleys, and had a superb lunch.  The 14th century astronomic clock in Rouen Here are the intrepid travellers with their friend Jenny Lebrun

  While we were on St Kilda I took a number of pictures using a Diana 35mm camera. This is a very basic instrument with a plastic lens, but I thought it would work well with the subject matter. Unfortunately due to some problems with development most of the films I took were unusable, except for one, a few images from which I am showing here. The day was foggy which added to the atmosphere of the place.

  The Finca de Son Real is a medieval manor house and estate in the north eastern corner of Mallorca which we visited this March. The estate was purchased by the Balearic Islands in 2014 and is open to the public.  It is a fine place to walk as the paths take you through woodland down to a rocky beach and, interestingly as the estate has been inhabited since prehistoric times, on the beach are the remains of a stone burial ground dating back some 3,000 years. You can also visit the manor house which now serves as a small museum and there are a few chickens and pigs to amuse the little ones (and me!). I took these photos using a  Lomo Zenith compact film camera which has a lens not designed for sharpness but does give very saturated colours. I also developed this film myself and as it was the first one I attempted it may have not been perfect! Subsequent films have not quite had the character of these pictures but I have no idea what made the difference. There are a couple...

 I am really enjoying using the Diana Camera. A cheap plastic sky blue girl with a plastic lens. Although on this occasion she was equipped with the upgraded glass lens.  I had a trip to London while staying in Maidenhead (yes I know) to see the America in Crisis exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. The Diana needs lots of light and it was a dull day so I got some nice dark moody images. I hope these conjure up a rather dark urban scenario.