This summer was quite the photographic discovery within a social environment for me. I’ve been getting in touch with analog photography and I was more socially active than usual.

It started with a Fujifilm waterproof disposable camera. I was going to the beach with some friends and I’ve always been curious to try some underwater shots. So a disposable camera was the best thing to experiment with it.

I feel in love with the 35mm and I love the effects of waterproof shots as well. Too bad I only started halfway through summer, not having that many days left to shoot more of it.

With a analog camera around people don’t have the chance to get all obsessed about how that frame turned out (eg. if their face looks weird or something alike). And I think that created a much more relaxed mood when the camera was being used. Then there’s the wondering how all the frames turned out and a certain eagerness to finally see the results. And it’s always a nice get together to have everyone see it!

Sure, digital is convenient and cheaper as you don’t need to pay for film and development. But I believe that takes away a bit of a thrill. Don’t get me wrong I love digital as well. But for different things. Always carrying a nicely sized digital camera everywhere we go is great. We never know what we might encounter and there’s always moments when we wish we had a camera around. It’s great to check the results of your experiments and works right away, and of course provided you with much more control.

But being out with friends, I think analog beats digital any day! I guess the element of surprise has been undervalued.

I must confess, I’m all crazy with playing with film right now, so maybe I’m a bit biased.

I’m still waiting on two 120 rolls to be developed, and I’m expecting a bunch of rolls, of both 120 and 35mm, to arrive from lomography.com, along with a 35mm back adapter for the Diana F+. With it I can use both films. Because I love the classic 120 format, but the excitement of having your roll done in one hour after being dropped at the store is simply addictive!

Anyway, I’ve updated the photography section. Reorganized the old stuff and added new photos in the instant film and 35mm film. So check it out now!

And here’s my first experience with my brand new camera, the Diana F+! The first batch, in which I used a 400 asa (iso) 120 roll.

It was a weird feeling the first time I got them out of the envelope. They didn’t felt awesome on a first look, but rather they started to grow on me. I can’t tell if it’s either a good or a bad thing… But one sure gets unexpected results! Although the five day wait could be a tiny bit shorter..! I surely wouldn’t mind that!

I only got 10 photos, when I believe I should get 12, because I messed up a bit and overlapped some frames. No sweat, it made for some nice effects. I would say unexpected again, but then I would just be repeating myself.

Now, check them all >>

I want to try the old school stuff! Experiment with the settings without seeing how it turns out right away and get unexpected results! It has more of a carefree feeling to it. Digital is great and always will be, but sometimes it kinda sucks away the fun of the moment. We tend to point, shoot and check repeatedly. I think each has it’s own different place.

But better than my ramblings, here’s a video (by stuffmagazine) to introduce you to the Diana+:

AND, I also got a Fujifilm Instax 200. It’s pretty awesome! Although it has an auto flash that can be truly annoying. But I made a small carboard box, which fits the flash tight, to cover it up when I want to. So, problem solved!

See a few photos here.

So allow me to bathe in some joy, relieve and procrastination!

I have neglected this website for so many months, but now I’m finally on, some very well deserved and long expected, vacation! I have some plans to improve it. I mostly need to update it; bio, illustration work, photos, jewelry and perhaps a little something more. But for starters,I gave it a fresh face.

To give a nice closing to my time on jewelry school, I’m thinking of reviewing here all my jewelry pieces. One by one, under critical eye. It might make for some interesting posts maybe! It is also a way to evaluate my progress through these 4years.

It’s a new year all over gain. It’s the beginning of one more cycle of our continuity.

Resolutions aside, what’s the best way of starting it? Dates and events will be repeated, seasons will replay and we’re still the same. It’s up to ourselves to provoke change where it want it. Little adjustments to our attitude might go a long way.

The new year can be exciting if you look at it as new opportunities that will rise where you can to shine through. Or it can be a dreadful feeling of deja vu where you expect nothing new to come of it and feel trapped in a loop.

Like someone once told me, we need only to resign ourselves of the past. You only can’t change what has already passed. Everything else deserves a fighting change. Don’t limit yourself. Don’t resign yourself to an endless loop.

All your power lies in your attitude. The way you face the world around you is more powerful than might you think. It affects everything. You change the way you see yourself, the way you deal with others change, the way others respond to you changes, opportunities change.

At first it might hard to shift to a more positive approach. Just remember, whatever your insecurities are, others have them too. Everybody is flawed. It all comes down to how we deal with it and if we let it overpower us. Everyone has value, so let others see you.

Don’t be afraid and embrace who you are. Polish your positive side and don’t obsess over the negative. Focus on what you want and how you’ll get it instead on what you can’t have!

Have a great year!

When we are kids everything seems fairly simple, innocently simple, and the world has very little shades of gray. As we grow up we tend to complicate, we create a great variety of shades in most matters.

It’s refreshing to be around kids and see the world in that light again. Personally, being around (so called) adults for a while becomes rather draining and tedious.

Ever since I went back to karate and started to deal with kids and teenagers even, I slowly rediscovered children’s simple points of view.

Take yourself back in time to when you’re a little kid. What did you enjoyed doing the most? What were your favorite things? What would you answer be to your problems of today? Who did you want to become? Who did you look up to and why?

It’s easy to get caught up in the big web of adult thinking, where we take into account many external factors. Which it’s rather pointless most of the time, but we think it matters so!

I think we develop an unnecessary tendency to we overcomplicate as we grow up. Not everything may be as simple as it was when we were children, but we certainly get a taste for complicating things.

We also get so wrapped up in being adults sometimes and quickly dismiss any childish activities.

We tend to stir away from doing simple things if they serve no direct or productive purpose. We become obsessed with productivity and ignore the small things that used to bring us joy.

Why not waste some time just looking at something simply because it’s beautiful?

I bought myself an Eee PC 901 from Asus! It’s easier to carry than the usual laptop, with an 9 inch screen and weighting 1.1 kg, it’s capacity serves my needs well and it’s rather cheap. Plus it’s available with either WindowsXP or Linux!

Having Linux version of this product from the shelve, it’s major bliss! I simply cannot stand using Windows anymore and I don’t want to go back by any means. And there were actually a number of other encouragements to it. Such as price and extra disk space!

I have been dreaming about such a device for so long! Even though I bought it the same day I saw them on the store, it wasn’t an impulse purchase. It’s all I needed!

The main aspect for me is really the size allied with it’s functionality. This is great to use the time on the ferry. It’s between fifteen to twenty minutes a ride, and I now can take this time to my advantage. Time flies, I feel accomplished and much more relaxed!

Plus, I don’t have to carry a bigger bag than the ones I usually wear.

I love my Eee PC!

But right now I’m focusing most of my energies in school, so I can finish it by February. This is the most important goal right now. Then, I’ll have a whole semester free to dedicate myself to drawing.

In the meantime, I’ll keep it casual. And at the same time try to fight this pressure I feel, that every sketch must turn out good! I start to stress on my worst drawing days. I can’t let that tension build up in me, because it only makes me draw even worse. I need to keep reminding myself of how mistakes are a natural thing and just keep at it, without stressing over it.

This year my parents got divorced. It has been mostly rough on my mother. She is 48 and has always been a bit self-restricted and very practical! So she is what inspired me to write this post!

It’s important to take care of yourself. And not just on a basic survival way. You need love to feel good, and whom better to give it than yourself? Love yourself, pamper yourself, allow yourself some indulgence!

Most times we find pleasure in the smallest things! You don’t need to go o a shopping spree, there are so many simply things that are . It all just depends on what swings your boat.

Bubble bath, a barefoot walk on the beach, your favorite ice-cream with all the delicious extras you like, just laying in the grass, taking a nice nap, dressing up for no reason, get yourself a bargain of something beautiful but not practical, buy a bunch of colored pens, spend a little more time on yourself, or money, whatever and so on…

Just be illogical, do what you want to and take pleasure in it! Do what you enjoy, do what calms you, do what comforts you, do what excites you!

Just remember to, once in a while, spoil yourself! You deserve it! You don’t need a reason. Just being alive is enough reason.

Ever since I was a small kid, I loved to draw and paint. It was always a big outlet for me. But as much as I loved it, after that year, I didn’t feel this was meant to be my career!

By now I was a bit drained of it, juicing it out full-time for a year. And I finally gave into trying out jewellery for real, and entered school. As my mind shifted a bit away from drawing, and much more from painting, as I felt I need a break from that. Other than the random doodles, I haven’t did anything significant or meaningful in about 3 years now.

A while back I started missing that outlet, as I needed something to express my emotions and thoughts again. And it hit me, am I stupid? Am I just going to just throw to waste this talent, something that had always been so innate in me? I can’t afford to lose it! And I know that if I don’t use it (and work on it), it will eventually fade away.

So, I’m back trying to develop this thing further!

I still have these pencils, but the tin box got damaged and is gone now. Meaning, half the fun is gone.

Recently I felt a need to reach into sketching and drawing again. Through colored pencils. The good old traditional graphite wasn’t appealing me. I’m in need of expressing color, and play with it.

My precious childhood pencils hadn’t exactly a good lead, so I decided to treat myself to a new tin box extravaganza!

Caran d’Ache’s Supracolor Soft, 120 box! Soft lead and being water-soluble makes them versatile. Three trays of 40 pencils each, stacked into a nice tin box!

Oh, the excitement! So many new colors, all so nicely ordered (although, not exactly perfect). They’re so many I’m afraid I’ll mistakenly disarrange them! (Control freak kicking in!)

But it’s simply a delicious sight!

It felt so pointless, the artist thing.

For a while this bothered me deeply, “I’m an Artist” didn’t really tell me much about what is it that they exactly do. And at the same time I thought it was a bit presumptuous of them, it was upsetting me.

After some time, it finally hit me why it displeased me so damn much…

Being an artist isn’t an occupation. Beings an artist is an identity!

When I’m asking what you do, if you’re an artist, I’m asking about your art. What is your art?
Through what media, how do you express your artist’s identity?

In this context, “I’m an artist” is simply so vague and empty. Meaningless.