Brendan & Rose - FIND workshop | Hunter Valley, NSW

A few months ago in July I had the privilege of attending Jonathan Canlas's film workshop. Having heard so many wonderful things about his teaching, I decided to go knowing that I would definitely benefit for it.

Jonathan's Film Is Not Dead workshop focuses on how to use film and the benefits of using it.  Then we apply our learning using our own Film cameras and practice with wonderful real-life couples and families with Jon's guidance. To put it simply, it was really amazing. I learned a lot and I met some great photographers. We had endless late chats and laughs while eating great food prepared by Nicole Spears. I'll never forget it!

The timing of the workshop itself was perfect. I've been at cross roads with my photography, not  knowing exactly where I was heading. Do I continue working a 9-5 job? or do I take the risk to pursue photography full time?
My obstacles with photography has always been with finding my own voice. But towards the end of the workshop we were all in tears by the overwhelming realisation that who you are as a person and what defines your voice begins at home. I certainly want to take that journey, begin at home and photograph what I love most.

After the workshop, I was off to the USA and was so inspired to shoot completely in film and throughout our trip I was thinking of personal projects that I wanted to start. I also thought about taking the risk and quitting my day job to focus on photography, and I made that decision. Thanks Jonathan Canlas!

To start of with I've shared some photos of Brendan & Rose below, one of our lovely couples who modeled for us.

Photos developed by Raw Digital & Film Lab

xx
Farrah

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New York in B&W | Acros 100 and Ilford 400 | Mamiya M645

Hello!

In August, my husband and I had the opportunity to go to my cousin's wedding in San Diego, USA. This was an amazing chance for us not only to see my relatives after 20+ years but to also get some rest and for me to get my travel photo fix :)  So we decided to go and make the most of the 14 hour plane trip and travel to a few other major cities. Our first stop was New York!

From our previous travels to Europe I learned my lesson on what kind of camera gear to bring with me. When we were in Europe I was trying to take digital photos, film photos and iPhone, crazy right. This time I was sensible and mainly used my film camera Mamiya m645 as well as occasionally my iPhone for instagrams. It was much easier to focus on the one camera and dealing with less frames to edit. Also I feel like I experienced a lot more because I took less photos.

What to say about New York? Pretty amazing. We stayed in Dumbo, Brooklyn which stands for Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass. Our Airbnb apartment was right under the bridge and we had some spectacular views. We loved our neighbourhood because there was always something happening. We had an Italian movie filmed next door, as well as White Collar TV show, a Japanese music video, a country music video and we almost ran into some sort of a zombie movie scene.

We mainly used the New York pass to see the major attractions, it was really worth the money you just need to be organised with the itinerary, it includes many tours too and even things like renting out bikes which was a lot of fun around Central Park.

Of course you don't go to the USA on a diet, so we had some of the best fatty foods like cheesecakes, burgers, pizzas and the best NY steaks from St Anselm in Williamsburg.

Our favourite tour was the Seinfeld tour with the real Kramer, he was as hilarious as the Kramer character on the show and he took us to parts of NY that we wouldn't have seen otherwise including a visit to the real Soup Nazi.

The only museum we had time for was the American Museum of Natural History, mainly to see the dinosaurs :) and that was pretty awesome.

Lastly, I was the happiest human alive when I visited B&H Photo - heaven for all photographers with a huge stock of film and all things cameras. A must visit for all photographers.

More photos to share, but here are a few B&W's taken on my Mamiya.

xx
Farrah

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Film is not Dead Workshop - Sneak Peek

I think it's pretty obvious that my love for film has quadrupled and so when the opportunity came for me to attend the FIND workshop by Jonathan Canlas, I couldn't resist. Here's a sneak peek, a full blog post soon.

Thanks to my talented photographer friend Daniel Klass for lending me his Auto Mamiya :))))

xx
Farrah

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Instagram featured my work. Yey.

Okay time to really update this blog regularly. Ahem. Hi.

If you're not on Instagram, there's something wrong with you. Instagram is so amazing for its or its sense of community and the ability to allow me to capture everyday life at such ease. When I travel I've had such an amazing time getting to know some of my instagram friends which has been an awesome privilege.

So of course it was a delight to hear that recently the lovely people of Instagram have featured my work in their blog as part of their Spotlight series. This time it was a spotlight on Melbourne and they hand selected a few Instragrammers from Melbourne and show cased their work. This explains why one morning I woke up with er...a few thousand extra followers. Yes, crazy, wow, amazing.
This is the second time Instagram have been kind to me. The first time I received an email from them telling me that I have been selected as a Suggested Instagram User to all new Instagrammers when they sign up.

http://blog.instagram.com/post/51057556921/spotlight-melbourne

AND also the lovely people of Get Chute, a kickstarter company based in San Fran which provide all the tools to capture, manage, and display media.

http://blog.getchute.com/2013/07/17/instagram-highlight-geeking-out-with-farrahallan/

In other news, I'm working on a new website so stay tuned! and loads of posts coming up of weddings, engagements, and my travels to the USA. WOOT!

xx
Farrah

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Weddings

Some of my latest weddings works. Its been fun, and many late nights.

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Paris on 120 Film | Kodak Portra 400 | Mamiya M645

I'm going through a bit of a travel bug at the moment, so it's only fitting to share more travel photos! When we went to Europe last year, I carried a Mamiya, a Canon MKII and my iPhone. I kinda wish I only took my film camera, it was really just such a delight to spend time on each photo in contrast to snapping a million on my digital.

In saying that, I also wish I took more film in Paris but I was rather sick and wasn't feeling up for it most of our stay and sadly it was raining most of the time.

We stayed 9 days in Paris at the beautiful Hôtel du Panthéon which we absolutely loved. We thought staying in it was far less touristy. It was close to Rue Mouffetard which has some amazing selections of restaurants, cafe's, butchers, bakeries and by far the best creperie at Chez Nico. The first photo below is Wayne and I after a long day shopping around Paris, ended up back at a cafe on Rue Mouffetard called "Le Verre à Pied" which we then found out was a used in the film Amelie, one of my favourite movies!

How beautiful is Paris?

xx

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1, 2, 3...BOOM.

Mel & Adam at their engagement shoot in Nundle, NSW. More to come from this beautiful couple. These guys don't know how to take a bad photo that's for sure.

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Santorini & Athens on Kodak Portra 400 and Tri-x 400 | Mamiya M645

What can I say? If there was one country I would go back to over and over it would be Greece. The people, the food, the culture...everything is just amazing.
The first few photos are of my husband who was absolutely captivated and totally impressed by a guitarist playing in one of the laneways in Athens, he was from Bulgaria trying to make ends meet. Wayne spent so much time getting to know him. So after a while I took out my Mamiya and took some photos. I'm so glad I did.

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