brownies

some new cameras for our collection. modeled fabulously by these little ones.

whenever the littlest comes over, she is sure to tell me exactly which camera is hers. even if she doesn't quite know that you can see through the little hole to take a picture... i think she believes we just hold it up to our faces and push a button to make a loud noise...

love,
r&y

baby, we've always got next year...



this year, it was quite possibly the best. christmas. ever. we were filled with food, presents, memories, sleep, and energy to last us for the remaining few months we will be out here. and everything on our to do list was easily forgotten (we've always got next year...).

and we took about 12 rolls of film. so for me (and you), christmas will last another month or so!

this is charlie, my gold dress, and GQ tyler after church at our cabin in idaho. there are too few times you get to wear gold, sparkly dresses, and christmas time is one of them. one of many reasons i love that season.

love,

r&y

ps. these pictures were taken with my christmas present, a mamiya m645



collectoholics anonymous

ty and i have recently discovered that we have a serious problem: we collect stuff. so, i'd like to blame my grampa elwood jackson. and so would ty.

me:

sunflower anythings

audrey hepburn anythings

things that hang (ie. like, with hooks...its quite a general term, but i'd like to keep it that way...)

picture frames

pictures
quotes

glass stars

glass balls
buttons

movies

books
journals
sewing supplies
tea cups
antique china
magazine ads
vintage magazines
shoes
dresses
amber jewellery

ty: (disclaimer by ty: the first 4 on this list are purely "accidental" collections. he vows to get rid of all but one of everything, eventually...)
record players
amps and preamps
speakers
miscellaneous electronic equipment
different types of wood
vintage and antique radios
tools
authentic recipes
vintage ties
cuff links
cheeses (yes, we have quite a collection in our refrigerator...)

us:
music
records
vintage light bulbs
lamps
old cameras
lenses
elephants
tightly sealable glass jars (like, to put our food in)
art

luckily, thanks to second hand stores, ebay/kijiji, and the people of ontario's blessed tradition of leaving things they don't want on their front lawn for anyone to take, our addictions can be quite cheap. here are some of our most beloved finds.

love,
r&y

  

making a list, checking it twice...

i am making a list. and even though it coincidentally coincides with the Christmas season, it is a list that might last seventeen years. patience is a virtue that makes for a lot of window shopping.

1. a tilt shift lens (so i can make people and places look like miniatures like these whenever i want to...)

2. 360 spinner camera (so i can get a 360 view of everything at one time...)

3. excalibur food dehydrator (so i can have fruit and veggies at any time of the year)

4. a medium format slr (for that wedding shoot i will do one day)

5. an antique view camera (to take family photos with)

6. vintage dresses. a lot of them.

7. matching, warm, cute touque and mittens and scarf

8. a puppy (he loves me...)

9. an instax fujifilm wide instant camera! (it's the new polaroid. and i want it...)

10. a macbook. (so all my photo and music dreams can come true...)

11. a lens baby (a toy. the second cousin twice removed to the tilt shift lens...)

12. a piano. maybe one that can play a little better than this one. but i'd take this one, too (photographed by clayton austin, one of my most favourite photographers in all the world...especially when he travels the states with this piano as a prop for his photoshoots).

and here's another piano i love in a music video i love by a band i love.

merry christmas.

love,

me

ps. i did not take any of these photos or record any of this music. to find their source, click on the link above each picture.

one thousand and one words...

tyler and i love to take pictures with film cameras. although our relationship with said film cameras can be trying (like, when you have taken a whole roll of film and realize it wasn't loaded correctly and you actually haven't taken a single shot...or when the battery on the light meter is low and most of your pictures of new york city are underexposed...or when old cameras get a bit, well, old and only one picture turns out from an entire roll...), the times when we see a picture we took and it takes our breath away, or we can't stop looking at it, make it all worth it.

we thought we would share with you our cameras:

my grampa's ikoflex. we fell in love with film using this camera. thank you grampa j.

our polaroids. we love them. even if film is too expensive to actually use them.

my birthday present: a 1933 kodak brownie. we sat in the dark for half an hour blindly playing with film to try and re-roll 120mm film onto a 620mm roll (they don't make 620 anymore...). we think we may have got it, but we have yet to develop our film. if it didn't work out, it is still excellent to take pictures of...

a camera i've had for years, but has only been used as a decoration/conversation piece.  now that we (hopefully) know how to re-roll 120 film, we will be playing with this soon...

we found these in the spring at a garage sale for $10.  we had no idea what we got ourselves into, and they changed our lives forever. they might be enjoying retirement at the moment, but we bring them out to play on occasion.

this is the camera we take most of our pictures with now: a canon a-1. and we love it. a lot.

and finally, my other birthday present: a 16mm movement camera. i love it. i love holding it. i love playing with it. and i can't wait until i have the time and money to film with it. film for it is just too darn expensive to buy and process. but one day, something glorious will be filmed with it that will blow all other home videos to smithereens.

that is all. for now.

love,

r&y

photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. what you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything. - aaron siskind

a quarter of a century young

people are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs...

it is my birthday. maybe this is why i love the fall. i guess i feel a bit more grown up, being 25 and all... but instead of doing grown up things, we played in the leaves. tyler spoiled me. and i feel like the next 25 years might actually be as fun as the first. especially with my new vintage fur.

love,
me

happy birthday to me.