Lomo Film
I have recently been dabbling in out of date film both colour and black and white. Iv kind of got to grips with developing my own film but found printing to paper costly and time consuming so i recently got a negative scanner for ones birthday which cuts out both those factors and fits into what i want to do. I had My first attempt at processing colour film, something that most people seem to think complicated and yet its nearly the same at processing B+W with only a little more care time and temperature. I love using this out of date stuff has your never to sure as to what your going to get from it when you process it. the results have been great so far like taking your images back in time, saturating the colour and giving small imperfections which i really like. I love my digital camera but my film cameras have personality and their own style which some presets cant beat. These images were not touched or altered in any way and taken on my Rollie xf35, processed in my kitchen.
Roma
Turning the big 30 this week and my lovely wife dropped a great surprise on me last Sunday. She took me away to Rome for a few days, a place that i have always wanted to go and it without doubt held nothing back and lived up to my expectations. The city is not ruined by modern architecture or mindless initiatives. Its kept in time and all the buildings are the same and go together like a finely composed painting. Everywhere you look there is some sort of hidden detail, craftsmanship and pride. Its a beautiful city and I'm really lucky to have seen it with my own eyes. In complete contrast i then went to Glasgow which there are no pictures off as of fear of getting my camera robbed by a smackhead. It was entertaining and to be fair people were polite, a comedy club and a Celtic game (pretty much the same thing really) helped.
she's a Waterfall
Yesterday the Stone Roses announced their getting back together, never actually seeing them perform when they were together this has made me very excited and will definitely be looking for tickets to go see them. I just hope they don't fall out in the mean time.
Chocolate Fondant
Watching a cooking program at the weekend gave me the urge to have ago at making a chocolate fondant. For no real reason apart from it being kind of tricky. So tonight after tea i threw together the ingredients and voila it only bloody worked. it tasted like chocolate heaven very rich and in desperate need of ice cream.....i forgot that part but still its the thought that counts and for once Mrs Monkey actually liked my desert.
Laser Cutter
Today I took delivery of our brand new laser cutter/engraver. Its a beast of a machine, in fact its quite a bit bigger than I thought it was going to be and the original place it was going to go has had to be changed but never mind its bloody awesome. I will be spending the week playing around and getting use to its capabilities and generally lasering anything I can get my hands on. I love getting new toys me.
The Unseen Sea
Iv been to San Francisco quite a few times and feel like i know the city reasonable well, and every time i return home and talk to people about the city and the Bay the first thing i mention is the Fog. The Bay has with out doubt some of the most amazing fog that you could ever imagine, and it is literally like a tidal wave hitting the bay stretching out in land as far as the cool air will allow before the Californian sun burns it away. My mother saw the bay recently and she finally understood why i go on so much about the fog.
The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen on Vimeo.
Pizza with an Egg on
Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone from Virgin Media
Sunday Roast
I got my annual dose of fruit while walking round the garden as the apples, plums, damsons and pears all seem to be coming on nicely and i just cant help but sample as i walk. I do love England even though it was windy and rained most of the day i cant help but be outside looking at nature do what it does best.
9/11
Home we go
