So I took a load of photos with my Holga when I was in New York a couple of months ago.

Then I did my usual thing of waiting ages between taking the pics and getting them processed. Bored of waiting I went into the local snappy snaps style place and asked if they could process 120 film, and was assured they could.

Quite why, in that case, all the photos came out with strange lines and artefacts on them I have no idea – but I probably won’t use that particular place again…

Only a scant four months have passed since we went to Kenya and had a lovely holiday. At the time I shot a single roll of film through my Holga which is unusual for me because I was expecting to have used about 96 films.

Anyway, on to the point – I got the photos back this week. First up, this really hurts – partly because I have no memory of the camera coming open at any time, but mainly because I’m now utterly convinced that the photo in the middle would have been the best photo ever taken by anyone ever.

The ones either side don’t look that special, but I’m not letting that deter me from my belief. Moving swiftly on from my apparently never ending ability to make ridiculous mistakes with what is basically a very very simple camera, I did manage to get one or two that I liked. First up, hanging the camera out of the window of the safari truck I just did a hopeful shot to see what would come out.

I think this was taken on the first day, and was our first experience of what a lot of the roads in Kenya are like – red – and horribly uncomfortable. Next up, a random street scene in Kenya – like nothing I’ve ever experienced before or since.

This is a local shop – and is fairly consistent with all the other local shops you see when you aren’t in a city. Finally – out on the safari trail, a couple of shots that I feel OK about sharing:

I simply can’t understand why I didn’t take more pictures with the Holga whilst I was there – I guess I was too busy having a good time to think about it, most unlike me!

Three posts in a week I’ve done. I’m so excited I could even be a little bit sick. I’m turning into some sort of prolific writer, next thing I’ll be publishing books and be all famous and that.

So this morning at home I finally got around to scanning in the pictures I took with my Holga whilst I was on holiday, and when I went to the balloon fiesta as well. This all happened literally months ago, so it’s testament to my awesomess that I’ve only just done anything with them.

What better to do than stick a couple up here so you can see them with your eyes! LooK! Here they are! Yay!

What these seem to show is that in Menorca, the Holga vignettes way more than anywhere else in the world – weird. Also it shows that trying to capture action with a Holga is like trying to watch Susan Boyle singing without wanting to kill yourself – impossible.

You know when you agree to something which seems like a good idea, then months later suddenly you’ve got to actually do it and you’ve done nothing at all to prepare?

A few months ago I was contacted by Alex Tsander who asked me if I would like to do a joint exhibition of my photography alongside him and another photographer.

The theme of the exhibition was that photography doesn’t need to be complicated or require expensive digital cameras and computers.

Anyway, fast forward a few months and the exhibition opened last night and is now on at Photographique a gallery on Baldwin Street in Bristol. The exhibition is called Photo Povera and runs until 19th of November.

I’m showing some of my Holga work, Alex is showing his work, and another photographer called Clare is showing work taken on cheap Chinese “Lucky Pan” film.

I took a quick snap after hanging my photos:

There are a few more than this – I’m quite pleased with how they came out when printed large.

I had some faint hope of selling a couple, which probably won’t happen – I did however end up buying one of Clare’s photos!

In another instance of an epic delay occuring between me taking the photos and then getting them processed and getting the time to scan them in, I’ve finally got me Holga photos back from when we went to Cornwall a couple of months ago.

So without further ado and without me bleating on pointlessly, here are them pictures.

In a short break from the relentless photos of beaches in Cornwall, I’ve got some photos of a beach in Bournemouth instead, how exciting!

I’ve complained in the past about the delay in getting photos from my Holga developed on these very pages, and this was no exception. I took these ages ago, and had forgotten that I took them, so when this roll showed up along with the six or seven others from Cornwall I did a little wee wee.

I just love Fuji Provia slide film, look at them colours, just look at them with your eyes.

This couple were living the life, enjoying the sun in their Bournemouth sea front beach hut. It was hard not to be jealous, but since I’m a long way off retirement I’ll just have to settle for a handful of weeks off work each year.

It was only April but the beach was packed, with everyone enjoying the good weather.

The Pier at Bournemouth. Not on fire.

So that’s all for the Holga photos from Bournemouth. Now time for a moan. I got a new PC recently, with Vista x64 loaded on it. Since it’s been available for several years now, I stupidly assumed peripheral makers would have software that works. But oh no, of course they don’t so Epson can kiss my stinky bum because I now can’t use my scanner with my PC. As a result I had to hook it up to my laptop which was both annoying and also very very annoying.

I had to wait for my blood pressure to drop before scanning in the rest of my slides. Don’t panic though, I’ll be back with more photos of beaches in Cornwall before you can say “oh crap not again”.