16.7.11

eclipsis lunae.









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Here are the photos that I took back in June, when there was a lunar eclipse. While I had been half expecting the sky to be completely clouded over and dark, I was pleasantly surprised and fortunate enough to be able to see the moon in the sky, although it didn't have a red glow to it as, apparently, the Earth's shadow had already gone away. Nevertheless, being the sort of girl I am, I braved the cold and stood barefoot outside for well over half an hour and just snapped away at the moon, which was just in front of my house. The atmosphere of that night was so eerie, interesting and magical, and the photos I took, both from outside and through a window upstairs, really look quite mystical so they're a good reminder of it all. :)
           The warmer and more appropriately orange-red photos are those that I took while I was outside, and the bluer, more ethereal photos were taken from the front window of my house. The bokeh effects and soft lighting come from the moonlight shining directly through the window into my lens, hitting the blinds and, most importantly and interestingly, the droplets of condensation that came with the cool night. That was what created the misty, bokeh effect in the indoors photos. Also, I'm presonally fascinated by the night sky and space, so I did a little reading up on the matter, and I found a little gif file for you all to look at, just in case you were interested in it as well! Here we go:

(Hopefully it works, but knowing my luck it won't so if it doesn't, click here, or on the image, to watch it.
It may take a little while to load completely.)

I hope you like the photos, and please excuse the quality of the images- it was dark and so they aren't the greatest because I didn't have my tripod or anything like that to hand so they're ghosted slightly and a bit unfocused. I still like them though and hopefully you do too? As I keep saying, I have more blogposts to... well, post, and so keep your eyes peeled! Hopefully, I'll be motivated this weekend to try and get some blog posts done and dusted. I'll most likely do lots of photo-posts with a couple diary-eqsue bits and bobs, so hopefully that'll be alright for you all. :)
Hope you're all happy and well! I hope you have a lovely weekend ♥

Love,
Mari-ann xxx

15.7.11

hop farm.


sunday 3rd july.

Aloe Blacc smooth-talking and livening up the crowd.
someone hang-gliding above the main stage. 
some of the crowd & Imelda May.
the crowd with their hands in the air during Tinie Tempah. (and a couple conversing.)
Tinie Tempah.
and again, Tinie Tempah.
hop farm sunsets. (taken through my sunglasses lens)
waiting for Prince!
Prince's wonderful and beautiful band and singers.
the crowd went wild when Prince came on stage!
ah! PRINCE coming onto the main stage :D
this was set up to be a great photo of Prince, and just as I clicked the button,
this guy pushed me out of the way and then stepped in front of me. I was not amused.
possibly my best 'close-up' photo of Prince from the night!
so close and yet, so far!
Prince.
a huge piece of purple cloth 'crowd-surfed' numerous times. (this was during 'Purple Rain'. :))
an attempt to capture everyone behind me. it was in vain,
I failed spectacularly haha.
(Boots fails at aligning and printing photos.)
Larry Graham and the Graham Central Station with Prince came on stage
 for the third and final encore! 
Larry Graham & Prince.
and then, unfortunately, it was all over!



***



Here are the photos that I took while at Hop Farm festival on the last day of the festival using a disposible camera with some pink tissue paper stuck over the flash (I wanted to see what sort of photos I could get... I'm trying to be more experimental and free with everything :) so they may be amazing, but I had fun so nevermind!)... I hope you liked them, some of them were quite pleasant surprises! Ahh, the memories...

This was quite literally one of the best nights I've ever had in my whole life :) Once Prince and his singers and Larry Graham & the Graham Central Station finished playing and the lights went off, I almost didn't want to leave, just in case Prince came back for just one more song... but alas, we left at the right time. There was no more singing by the time we'd walked to the car, so I think it's safe to say, I didn't miss anything! Which is always a good thing :D We got back to our car at around 11:30pm and we did not move even an inch for over an hour and a half... it was insane! Although it wasn't too bad, because my dad put on his Prince playlist and I got to play Angry Birds while my sister slept next to me. We finally got home from the festival at about 02:30am and I was still buzzing from it all so I didn't get much sleep!
         While we were there, my sister and I got giggly on coca-cola and lemonade, I ate a hot crepe with lemon juice and sugar (nom!), we bought a flowery headdresses each and had a yummy little picnic sat on the grass in front of the main stage soaking in the sun with our dad. Let's not mention the hot-red-cheeked-embarrassment that we (mostly me) suffered stood next to our dad during the music sets... Basically, our dad was clapping, whooping and bopping from side to side nearly all of the time. Hopefully you are able to visualise such an image? I imagine we've all endured, and can recall, moments just like that... When we mentioned his 'moves', he simply answered, "Well, it's my job isn't it? To embarrass you both.". He's so kind :P haha But nevertheless, we all had bundles of fun, so it was easy to just relax and soak up the atmosphere and the music.
       Also, a couple of days afterwards, I saw my friend at college while we sorted out our art for the Art Department's A2 exhibition at college, and she told me that she and her boyfriend had been in the very same crowd, just on the other side of the stage! We ended up reminiscing about Prince and the whole festival over some much-needed sustenance in between putting up our artwork. :D Sorry, random facts #1+2, but anyways, I thought it was pretty cool!

Ahh, it was an amazing day! I keep think about it and having waves of huge grins and happiness and excitement! The next morning, my sister and I both has tummy aches from the music being so loud and powerful from the speakers which were right in front of us :P hopefully, no permanent damage was done. I think I'm still in the Hop-Farm-Festival-bubble because I keep thinking about I should be there when it's Sunday :) I definitely would love to go again next year! All in all, I saw The 1945, Aloe Blacc, Imelda May, Eliza Doolittle, Larry Graham and the Graham Central Station, Tinie Tempah and the one and only, Prince! I missed seeing The Pierces which was a bit of a downer, but I've vowed to try and see them whenever they're performing near me, wherever I may be! So all is not lost :) I'm sure I've missed something out, but I think I'm going to draw this to a close now. If I do remember anything, I'll add it in for you to read. Well, it'll be there if you want to, anyway.

I'm sorry for not posting this past month. I've had posts planned and I have even started some but I've never really had the motivation to finish them off :) but I'm trying to shoot more frequently now so that I can get back into the habit of it. I think I was in a rut, and I sort of fell out of love with it. We're still not on the best of terms... but time heals all wounds. (fingers crossed, anyways) I have lots of posts coming up, with lots of photos I've forgotten to post, so keep your eyes peeled, whoever you may be! ♥

Lots of love,
Mari-ann xxx

p.s. I apologise for the not-so-great scans, Boots didn't do a very good job of aligning the negatives and so I have lots of split images. Nevertheless, I hope you like them as much as I do :)