Mocking Bird » Spring

Wandering Neighbourhoods: Point Grey

Amanda — Mon, 30 May 2011 23:35:34 +0000

Vancouver in Spring is AMAZING. I wish it was like this all year round.

The flowers are out, the produce is fresh and gardens are bursting at the seams with colour and Springy-ness. How I love the colour of the flowers and produce…I’m quite taken with those radishes. Don’t they look divine? And the greenery! The greenery is so incredibly rich. I have to stop myself from laying in people’s front yards because the grass looks so soft and inviting.

Point Grey borders Kitsilano…actually, it may even be a part of Kitsilano for all I know. Vancouver neighbourhood boundaries confuse me. Some have names, some don’t. It’s very different to Sydney, where every little area/suburb has a name. Sometimes we can be driving around and I’ll ask The Canadian where we are and he won’t be able to give me a name for the area we are in. It’s strange because where I come from, there are so many named suburbs that you can go a lifetime without even hearing of half of them.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my little slice of Point Grey.

Taken with a Yashica FX3 using Kodak Portra 400.

Vancouver And The Cherry Blossoms

Amanda — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:00:55 +0000

I cannot help myself. Will I ever tire of shooting them? Probably not. I made a comment on twitter about how ridiculous it was that I took 14 photos of cherry blossoms on one roll of film. According to a lot of my twitter followers, I have nothing to worry about and shooting bloom after bloom this time of year is A-OK.

And with these I bid you farewell for another year, beautiful sakura.

Taken with a Yashica FX3 on Kodak Portra 400.

Some Springtime Polaroid Goodness

Amanda — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:00:11 +0000

During my absence from Vancouver, flowers have sprouted up all over the place. Fields are over run with wild flowers while gardens are brimming with colour and happiness.

Secretly they whisper to me with a little nod and a wink letting me know that everything is going to be OK. The sadness that sits low in my heart is lifted a little with all the blooms and hues dotted amongst the green.

It’s as though Monet has waltzed in with his paint brush and dabbed his little Parisian heart out all over the streets and sidewalks.

Wandering Neighbourhoods: Suburban Magnolias

Amanda — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 19:05:19 +0000

Rather than sharing a well known Vancouver area, this week I have been photographing a more suburban walk. I have been doing a lot of wandering around the streets gazing at the beautiful Springtime colours that have popped up in suburban gardens.

The cherry blossoms arrived early but right now the magnolia trees are blooming all over the place creating dotterings of pink and white. I love their floppy petals which seem to droop like bunny ears.

Finally some warm weather for this chilled to the bone Australian. Aren’t these lovely beginning days of a season just filled with joy and hope for a happy time ahead?

Magnolia prints in my etsy store.

Summer Was So Long Ago

Amanda — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:00:48 +0000

Can you feel it? That special feeling that happens in the in between days of Winter and Spring? Winter isn’t quite yet gone and Spring isn’t quite yet here allowing us to notice little snippets of happiness to come.

Seeing as my last summer day was February 2009, I am crushing on Northern Hemispherian summer like a Japanese school girl on Hello Kitty. The Canadian says he is very proud of me for making it through my first Canadian winter and even though it was “mild”, I did it! So now that the winter coats are being put away for another season, I am starting to think about all the wonderful and exciting things I will get to do here in my first summer in Vancouver.

Back home in Australia, my summer days are filled with the smell of gardenias, afternoons at the beach, escaping to the movies or a shopping centre on super hot days, music festivals, picnics in the Botanic Gardens, living in Havaianas, eating dinner outdoors, walks around the harbour, Sydney festival concerts, pool parties, street cricket, drives to the northern beaches and barbecues.

I have no idea what our summer rituals will become here. The possibilities are exciting and intriguing. I’m super excited about the very late light which we don’t get in Australia. The latest it stays light in summer is generally around 7.30/8pm. I hear it can be well past 9 or even 10pm here. New worldly experiences that are so foreign to me inspire me to discover and observe.

I would love to hear what you get up to in summer time. Got any tips for places to go or things to do? I’d love to do a road trip somewhere. Somewhere where the light is long and low begging to be filmed by my camera.

p.s. The Polaroids above were shot for the most recent Words To Shoot By on the theme of ‘happy‘. Check out the rest of the photographers for this week!

Spring, I Love You

Amanda — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:00:16 +0000

So it doesn’t feel like Spring to my Australian bones yet, but it sure is starting to look like it, baby.

My love of cherry blossoms is for 2 reasons:

1. They only share themselves with the world for a teeny amount of time and that makes them so special.

2. They look beautiful from afar but they look just as beautiful up close.

I don’t often love my photographs but I really like this one and I do because the background looks like a painting. Look at those lines and stripes. Do you see them? I didn’t try to make that happen. It just did. Polaroid is magical like that.

Have a Spring-like weekend, unless of course your Autumn has begun and you are rummaging through the cupboards for your cardis and socks!

Film For a Few

Amanda — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:00:31 +0000

Needing a little Spring and colour inspiration…I hope you’re enjoying it, Sydney people!

Taken in Sydney with my Yashica FX3 using Kodak Portra 160NC film.