Amanda Goes to England, Vol. 3: Documenting the Mementos (Hits and Misses)

I’ve mentioned in my 2014 England blogs that I actually came back with a couple of things I’d bought myself while I was there. That’s basically a first for me! I usually don’t want to spend money on souvenirs for myself. Once I got home, I decided I wanted to photographically document the things I’d bought in England. I actually like to take instant photos of trinkets and such, as a tangible reminder of them (you know, a photo you can hold in your hand, even after the things in the photo are long gone.)

I had some Impossible Project film in my Polaroid SLR 680 and took a photo of my little souvenirs. I didn’t like the way it looked, because the colours didn’t match what I was seeing in real life. I became determined to take the photo until I got it right.

Too warm

So I took another photo.

And another.

Too cold!

I gave my Instax 200 camera a try. The colours were much more accurate, but you can’t focus very closely with that camera and the photo wasn’t in focus 😦I even decided to try my Yashica-Mat TLR (the one that temporarily broke while I was in England.) I knew the colours wouldn’t be accurate because I was using expired, Tungsten-balanced film that I would be having cross-processed.

I gave my Kiev 4AM its turn up at bat. It was at this point that I realised I’d been leaving a very important “England thing” out: the Sekonic light meter I bought in Tunbridge Wells! That had to be added to the mix after I noticed it was missing from the other photos. Too bad my lens fogged up when I brought the camera from the air-conditioned house to the muggy outdoors. Whoops!

Since I realised I’d left the Sekonic meter out of the earlier attempts of this photo series, I went back to trying the Instax…

The FLASH fired *angry face*

I can live with this. This one, I can live with.

So, what do I have at the end of this? A bunch of different film photos, of various levels of success. But I enjoyed the process of documenting my mementos and have no shortage of photos of them now!

What you’re seeing in the memento photos (taken with my digital camera):

£4 ballet flats from Primark (which are, of course, falling apart by now)

Red nail polish, one of my essentials – bought from Boots on my first Saturday in England this go round

Sekonic L-8 light meter, from the antiques market in Tunbridge Wells

Book I bought at the Museum of London, a photographic history of the city

My mug from the Tate Modern museum

Little dark blue handbag from H&M in York