Film Diary, January to June

These photographs are from January 2013, to June 2013. I took them on my Canon ae-1 Program with a 50mm f/1.8 lens. I like film photography, but I always feel a little disappointed with the results. These document some of my year so far, but they really only tell a small part of it. They tell the part where I could be bothered to bring the heavy camera with me mostly, and don't mention anything else that happened. I'd like to document more of my life through film, it's rather fun to get the photos back and remember. 

I start off 2013 by making the drive up to Mount Tassie at sunset, to take my first 52 weeks photograph. I scrape my knees climbing on and off the stone sundial but manage to create something I really love. The world is so wide from up there, that I sit for a while and just listen to the silence. Eventually I let my imagination creep myself out and I leave before darkness truly settles in.

I drive along bumpy roads to Walkerville, to spend the weekend camping with my parents. We go for walks along the beach, play card games and drink weird tasting champagne. The sunset on the night I arrive is magical, and I spend some time thinking about how I'd like to live closer to the ocean one day. The trip is cut short though when we get some awful news. Grandma has had a fall, and is in a hospital in Geelong. We drive home visibly shaken, and spend the next few hours worrying while she is in surgery. She comes through okay though, and we visit a few weeks later, when she is in the rehabilitation centre. 

I get a new bed for my room, it's bigger and there is even less free space than usual, but I like it. I spend free afternoons watching Doctor Who  and dreaming about Europe. Mel and I book our flights to London after some schedule rearranging and I remain giddy for a few days. I then set to work on finding us accommodation.

I take my camera with me to University and manage to snap a couple of portraits of friends in the secret place on the top floor of the library. Things start to get busy, assignment wise, and I have a bit of trouble with a group assignment, but it all comes through quite well in the end.

I move into Liz's boyfriend's house. I am staying there while he is working in Darwin. I feel incredibly lonely for the first couple of weeks, before routine kicks in and Uni gets busy again. The move gives me (and everyone else) space, and Dad and I get along a lot better. He comes round to mow my lawns and I write an assignment on his work in disability services. Mum breaks her little toe on ANZAC day helping me move my stuff, though denies that she actually has broken anything. When it is still purple and swollen after a couple of weeks, she concedes. We go shopping at the supermarket together and she gives me the Margaret Fulton baking book. I make doughnut cupcakes (not as nice as they sound) and get used to this new space.

I spend some time pondering the origin of the weird grapefruit-looking fruit growing in my backyard. The new house has some pretty light, but it doesn't come through on film as nice as in person (isn't that always the case?). The next few weeks are just Uni, Uni, Uni. One of my units is a swimming one, and I start to swim laps more frequently. I find that I feel better when I have swam some, but that is still not enough for me to do it more than twice a week. 

We all go out for dinner to celebrate Turtle's 21st birthday and spend a hilarious night playing Mario kart, eating cake and playing piano. Allyce and I leave Turtle and Laura on the footpath and laugh uncontrollably when Laura tries to climb onto the car. We giggle the whole way back to my place as Allyce drives as slow as she can to annoy Ross. Laura discovers that she has no idea how to play Mario kart, and we all scream with laughter when she realises that she is the bottom screen, not the top. I smile a lot, and feel glad to have friends like these. 

Mel and I drive out to Cowwarr Weir to take photographs for my Aquatics assignment and I marvel at how wonderful the Autumn colours are. We wander around, talking about Europe and our plans for the future. I feel excited about photography again, and spend some time getting this site up and running. It feels good to blog again, to share photos with the world. 

I fill in the last page of yet another journal and do the front page of my Europe travel journal, which I got at the Oxfam shop in Melbourne Central. I feel incredibly creative and proud of myself for sticking with writing these for so long. I spend a few nights making plans for my travel journal, something that I want to keep forever. I still have my travel journal from when I went to Italy, and I want to make this next one so much better.