Messing Around

Photoshop isn't exactly my strong point but I like to mess around every so often. Last week I read up on an editing tutorial and I plan on going through some of my digital shots from Portugal to finally edit them. However last week I also saw an image on Tumblr that struck me as something relatively easy to try out myself. There wasn't a tutorial so I've just kinda worked it out for myself. It's pretty simple anyways. I haven't shot anything purposely for this, just found a suitable photo from my archives. I do think this type of editing requires a particular shot to work. Might take myself out to get some more suitable shots for it.

I think it'd work better with a subject matter that's diagonally cut across the shot. Just found a possibly more suitable shot within another folder but I'll mess with that another time. It's getting late as I'm writing this though it'll post during the day sometime.

Laters,

P x

Don't Jump!

Just messing around with a bit of editing. This was from Portugal last summer when mum and me saw a load of Aussies jumping off the harbour bridge in Lagos.

Laters,

P x

Capela de Ossos

Remember when I went to Portugal and the only thing I really wanted to see was the Capela de Ossos (Chapel of Bones)?



Well I did see it. And it was frickin' awesome!

More shots of the creepily good Capela de Ossos can be seen here.

Laters,

P x

A panoramic evening

There are days when I miss looking at this view.

Laters,

P x

Portugal on film

Got the first batch of my Portugal Diana F+ prints back today. Some of them came out quite alright. Most of them didn't. Which does make me worry for the rest of the films, got another 10 in the lab at the moment. But ah well. It's all part of the toy camera experience.

Here's some of my favourites.












The rest of the shots are in the Portugal on film set on my Flickr.

I'll post the rest when I get them at the weekend.

Laters,

x

Home is whenever I'm with you

Well I'm back. Home in fair England. The Portuguese dream is over.

I got home yesterday afternoon and within a couple of hours was rendered with the worst being homesickness. Ended up that I spent the rest of the day in bed feeling very sorry for myself. I came home on my own so I feel kinda vulnerable at the moment. But that's nothing you want to hear.

So Portugal. For 2 months. Wow. Erm I'm struggling to think of what to say or more correctly how to put what I do want to say. It's been a funny 2 months. Funny weird, not funny ha ha. Although there have been moments of that. When I arrived I was still pretty torn up about a recent and very painful encounter with my ex. I was really unsettled and unhappy, just didn't know what to do with myself. But eventually I moved past that and settled into the very quiet Portuguese life. We were in Praia da Luz, near Lagos. It's a pretty quiet place or at least I felt it was. A few bars, a few tourist shops and that's about it. It's not somewhere to 'have it large' as some may say. I'm not a partier so that didn't bother me. However I would have liked a bit more life in the town. In general I find Portugal a bit odd. Well where we were, other parts of Portugal may be perfectly splendid but I found Praia da Luz kinda lacking. They're kinda behind the times in Portugal which if you're into that slower paced life then it works out alright. But I needed that touch more culture and life to keep me interested. I think I'm too allied to Spain to be into Portugal seriously. Portugal didn't at any point feel like home to me whereas when I'm in Spain I feel like I belong. Sorry Portugal, I like your friend Spain better, I think I'm gonna ask him to go steady with me.

So it hasn't been the 2 month excursion I expected nor wanted. But I think maybe in a lot of ways it was what I needed. I took some photographs. I did some sunbathing. I thought a hell of a lot. Most of my time was spent contemplating one aspect of my life or another. And I wrote to process my thoughts. I got some news whilst I was out there that threw me for six. It's really funny because there's a part of me that says I'm making something out of nothing, being very petty and acting like a downright moron over it. But there's the other part of me that's taken it and turned it round to become something positive for myself. That news pushed me into a mini breakdown to be honest but it took breaking down to begin building back up. I sat down and thought about what I didn't like about my life and what I wanted my life to be. And I began making plans to change that. In my last couple of weeks all I could think about was coming home and beginning all the plans I'd made. I've been plagued by the fact I've not been living the life I want to live. Since I was 17 I've pretty much lived for the guys I've dated. And that's been true up until the most recent ex. I foolishly lived for others rather than for me and it's done a great deal of damage to me. So I'm back with plans to live for myself. I don't want to hold myself back anymore so I'm working on not doing so. I don't for a minute believe I've completely changed my way of thinking. My depression and anxiety issues are still around, still bringing out the negativity in me but I'll keep working on those. In the meantime I have a fair few plans for the upcoming months. Got tickets for several gigs including one tonight, to see Dry the River at the Deaf Institute. I'm seeing my best friend tomorrow for a catch up and to finally put myself through the sobfest of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. Thursday I'm supposed to be going out with another friend. Then I have a job to apply for and research to do for a few of my other plans. Essentially what I'm telling myself is that I have a life to be getting on with and that doesn't involve being hung up on my ex or any other silly issues in my life. Time to start living. Not just existing.

I doubt this has been the riveting update expected of all my Portuguese adventures. I just needed to write this stuff down in a public domain to remind myself of what I told myself I'd do. Not return to what I know and definitely no reaching out to my ex.

Anyways, that's all for now. I have things to be getting on with after all.

Love,

P x

Jollidays.

I've been having a mild shitter of a time recently. Nothing serious compared to what some of my friends and their families are going through. Just a bit of a weird beef with my dad over me moving in with him come September. It's all about an old bed essentially. Had a frustrating moment this morning where I'd called him, left a message asking him to call me back but he called my mum and didn't even ask to speak to me. He repeated this behaviour earlier when I answered the house phone, he just asked to be put on to my mum without even making any kind of small talk with me. Way to be a parent hey dad?

But in two weeks I can forget all about my dad and just enjoy my life again. You know why? Because I'll be jetting off to sunny Portugal! I cannot wait. I've been promised this summer in Portugal since the beginning of the year and we're finally going. Mum got fed up of waiting for my stepdad to let us know what was going on so she asked me to help her book the flights this afternoon. So at 4:45pm on the 11th we're off to Faro. My folks were given an apartment in the Algarve which is why we get to spend the whole of our summer there. I'm really hoping that a summer in the sun away from all my issues here in Manchester will cause a significant difference to my depression. I'm going to focus on my photography and remind myself why I love it so much. With my new 50mm lens and the array of film for my Diana F+ I reckon I'll come back a different photographer (and hopefully a better photographer).

I can't truly cover how excited I am for the 11th. I can't wait to explore a new country and photograph to my heart's content. Expect a few holiday related posts over these next two weeks.

But I'm signing off for now as I'm watching Jurassic Park on the tellybox as well as keeping my eye on a lens on Ebay.

Laters,

P x