Polaroids from my In-laws!

My In-laws love the idea of me starting film photography and they've happily shown me all the film cameras, old pictures, and polaroids they can find.  I love it!  At Christmas they showed me these old polaroids they took back before (I think) my husband was born.  Not sure about that one though.  Don't you just love the colors!  They still look like this, btw.  My father-in-law has just started growing his mustache back and it looks great on him!  He told me that the suit he is wearing in the first and last pictures was what he wore to work everyday!  That's awesome!

Aren't they sweet?  You can tell how much they love each other!

Hope your New Year is starting off well!  I'll be back later with some goals (not resolutions) I have for this next year!

My New Baby... Pentax Spotmatic F!!

This is my new baby!  A Pentax Spotmatic F with a Takumar 55mm 1.8 lens!  I LOVE it!  I ran my first roll of film through it (Fujifilm Superia X-tra 800) and the pictures are gorgeous!  These are my very first film photos and I am just thrilled to bits that I actually got the exposures right!  They aren't the look I'm going for, but I know now that I can properly expose the pictures with the settings I was using.  I'm so proud of myself! I was totally expecting for a lot of extremely over and under exposed images.  

Here is the very first photo I took with the Pentax. This is my sister helping cook Christmas dinner at my mom's.  The colors are dead on to what it really looked like.  

A close up of the Christmas tree...

Here is my african violet.  I've had it for almost a year now and it is finally blooming!  

A heart I drew in the snow on our driveway.  I tried to overexpose this one a little so the snow wouldn't be so grey.  

 Same with this one...

Here is the aftermath of Christmas morning.  No more presents and pine needles everywhere!  I love how this picture was exposed.

Same here....

So, in summary, I'm in love with my new camera!  I can't wait to develop some more rolls of film!  Now I have to do some research and hunting around to find the best photo lab with the lowest prices.  :)  I'm still trying to figure out how to best scan these into the computer.  The originals are better, but you get the idea.

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas!  Mine was, well, not so good due to the whole family getting the flu just in time for Christmas day.  I think the worst day was actually Christmas day.  Uggghh.  Hopefully next year will be better.  I don't want to complain but I you can't imagine how depressing it was.  I didn't get sick because I was the only one who got the flu shot.  I can guarantee that EVERYONE will be getting the flu shot this year and every year from now on.  

Enjoy the rest of the holiday season and have a Happy New Year!!  Next up will be my OTHER new camera!!  Didn't know I had another one, did you?  I've lost count of how many cameras I have now, but that's a good problem, right?  :)

My New Toys...

I know it's not Christmas yet, but I already bought myself some early Christmas presents!  Introducing my three new babies:  Yashica-635, Duaflex III, and LifeTime 120.  Aren't they adorable?!  I have been interested in vintage cameras for a while now and I've finally starting collecting some of them!  I am so excited!

I got this lovely Duaflex set on Ebay for $12!  It was a bargain.  I'll admit that the only reason I got a bargain on it was because the person who listed it misspelled the name of the camera and I don't think very many people even knew that it was there.  The only reason I found this misspelled listing is because I misspelled it in the search bar.  Ha!  I don't plan on actually running film through it, but I do plan on practicing TTV or "through the viewfinder" photography with it.  Google it sometime.  It's amazing!   

Here's my first TTV!  It's a very bad one because I haven't built the holder for it to block out the light that puts the glare on the glass.  But it's still pretty cool!  In case you didn't know, it's supposed to have all those flecks and spots.  That it what makes TTV photography so cool!  

Here is my prized Yashica-365!  I LOVE it!  It was made sometime around 1958.  I got it from a guy off of Craigslist for $39!  Score!  I haven't taken any pictures with it yet, but I will very, very soon.  It takes 120, or wide format, film that is about four times the size of 35mm.  You can make HUGE prints of these pictures.  But aside from that, this camera is supposed to take very crisp and clear photos.  I can't wait to see what it can do!  There is also a way to run 35mm through this, but you have to have the adapter.  I'll probably try to find one sometime to cut the cost.  120 film is expensive to buy and develop.  It is built like a tank and weighs a ton!  No wonder they still work over 50 years later!

Here's what it looks like when you look into the viewfinder. 

This little cutie is just a box camera from the 40s, I think.  I won't be running film through it.  She's just a collectible.  It's not in too great of shape and everything seems a little wobbly, but I got her for free!

Can't wait to show you the pictures they take!