Thursday, May 26, 2011

Jackpot! Canoe!

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Oh boy oh boy! We have some excellent slides in the mail and should be arriving within the week, nearly 1000 new slides to sift through! It's be like Christmas at the FA!

So I've treated ourselves to a pretty pretty picture of a couple in a canoe. He doesn't look dressed for it, does he have a tie on?

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

No More Birdshit: The Ideal British Seaside.


Now you can own a piece of the archive through the nice folks at Blurb, the first collection of seaside photos is available in the new photo book: No More Birdshit: The Ideal British Seaside.

Check it out, maybe even buy a copy!

Monday, May 23, 2011

Happy Victoria Day!

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Why is it that we celebrate Victoria Day in Canada but not in Britain? I guess they get a little "Victoria" overload there, but we're full of places and things christened with her majestic name too. I wanted to look into it a little more, and immediately went to the Wikipedia article first, but the material is so incredibly boring I could barely scan it without dozing off. Maybe I'll celebrate with a Victoria Day breakfast cocktail - coffee and... gin? I guess it should be tea.

The only significance Victoria Day has for me is it marks the beginning of fun fun fun summer time, and when it's safe to plant stuff in the garden. I'll hug anyone named Victoria (or Victor). I'll send a commemorative email to the fine gentlemen at Victoria Villa. I'll try to slip the word "Victory" into most sentences. I'll only answer if someone calls me Victoria. I dress in all black and mourn the death of my beloved Albert. If I had a Royal Union flag, I'd fly it from sunrise to sunset. But really, that's it. Just a regular day off.


Happy Victoria Day Everyone!!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Blackpool beautiful.

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God I can't believe a week has passed! So here's a nice little shot of Blackpool way back somewhere between 1958 and 1961, Kodachrome. Oh for time-travel...

Sunday, May 8, 2011

More from Claridge's.

Ah so much fun in the details! While revisiting my Claridge's slides, I realised that they're from months apart from each other! Yet right next to each other in the slide sleeve, the slides from June 1962 are Kodachrome and the Ektachromes are from September! I don't know what to believe - are they incorrectly dated? Did two couples trade slides? What happened here? Anyway, here's some more from the same series:

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London cabs trudge along, you can count on that your baggage won't go flying out through a quick corner because there's no such thing.

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I'm frustrated by this one, I could not for the life of me correct the brightness and colour to get this one right. One the slide (Ektachrome, a little finickier, it seems) it's far more crisp in the background. The wallpaper is nice. It's all nice...

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Don't you just want to fling yourself on that bed?! Have room service on the phone before you land with a bottle of champagne on the way. That's the life! Kodachrome (ever so inviting!).

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Who is the "Girl in Claridge's room"?

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Pssst! <aside> Sorry to have been away from the blog, but we're just catching up on life so my posts haven't been as frequent.
Anyway, since the last post was so popular, I thought I'd toss you another pretty lady picture, but this one I think is beautiful corner to corner as an almost abstract photo. It's superbly just out of focus, the light is soft and diffused: warm and inviting on the left and cooling off to the right. It's elegant and attractive and it was taken at Claridge's of London in 1962 in Kodachrome. I love this image. But what really makes it is that the slide is labeled, "Girl in Claridge's room". So the photographer didn't know the subject? Did he just pop in a random door with his camera? Great title.

I have others from inside Claridge's, I'll do my best to scan them tomorrow. Stay posted.