23: Fennel - David Wilkinson

Fennel

10 comments so far...

striatic December 05, 2009, 09:54 PM

i remember that fennel smells nice, although i can't remember what it smells like.

the flickr theme, you're going with?

David Wilkinson December 05, 2009, 10:00 PM

It has an aniseed scent and flavour. Very nice.

I thought I'd give the blue and pink a whirl for a little while :-) I doubt I'll stick with it long term though.

stealthflower December 06, 2009, 11:32 AM

Oh, that's lovely! Interesting tags - you don't often see hassy and polaroid together ;) Polaroid back?

David Wilkinson December 06, 2009, 12:50 PM

Yes, it's a polaroid back :-) It's a strange looking beast, and a bit clunky to use, but I quite like the results...

stealthflower December 09, 2009, 12:48 AM

I'm very jealous of the Hasseblad, at least. When I was in Japan, I kept seeing used ones in camera shops - the pricetag was still always higher than my budget allowed, though.

David Wilkinson December 09, 2009, 01:09 AM

When I was a teenager, many years ago now, I used to look through the photography magazines dreaming of the day when I might possibly be able to get a 'proper' camera - the Hasselblad sat at the very peak of that list of desires, but back then it seemed an unattainable goal.

Of course, as I grew older, the world moved on too. Life got busy and I pretty much gave up photography for a good decade or so. It was only the advent of digital, with its easy instant gratification, that got me interested again. And for a good few years, I was a digital convert. I even gave away my old 35mm SLR thinking I'd never use it again.

It was Flickr that eventually reminded me what film photography could be like, Utata in particular, where a few members routinely posted good old-fashioned analogue photos that I admired very much. So, I bought myself a Holga. Cheap, cheerful , and great fun. And then, I started prowling ebay. My long-desired Hasselblads were no longer the bees knees for many folk - they were ditching their old medium format kit and moving to the modern world of digital. The Hassies were much less expensive that they once were, but still not cheap. They had, however, transformed from that unattainable dream of my youth into something that if I tried really hard to convince myself, I could now justify buying. So I did.

I love it. I haven't regretted it for one moment.

Brenda Anderson December 09, 2009, 01:17 AM

Just coincidentally, the girls got home from school yesterday telling me that Sophie, for some reason, had eaten a sprig of fennel because someone told her it would taste like liquorice. She was not terribly impressed. I'm still not sure why there was fennel at school?? Perhaps they are growing it in the school vegetable garden.

stealthflower December 09, 2009, 03:30 AM

Brenda, it grows wild here in Sydney almost everywhere; maybe NZ is the same?

David: that's a wonderful story, thank you. I've been meaning to find the time to get back to film; once I'm there, I think I'll start thinking about medium or large format cameras again.

Brenda Anderson December 09, 2009, 04:12 AM

Could be wild. I'll have to ask her where it came from.

striatic December 09, 2009, 05:01 AM

@dopiaza - plus you can pretend you're an astronaut.