Last weekend my friends and I made a little trip to Chambers Flat Strawberry Farm!

It was such a fun experience to pick our own strawberries and spend the day together. We are all in our late 20’s now and have been friends since we were 12-13. We all have busy lives in different stages of life so we don’t always get the chance to get together, but the few times we do every year is always a blessing and feels like nothing has changed in the last 15 years.

Bringing my film camera was the best idea I could’ve had. Shooting my friends in natural lighting is my favourite things to take photos of and film truly allows them to shine! I chose my Pentax Spotmatic as it had a half-used roll loaded that I wanted to finish (the first half was from mid-2019 when we could still travel and COVID-19 didn’t exist!). The Pentax Spotmatic for some reason isn’t my go-to favourite camera, but it is a wonderful experience shooting with it and I’m always pleased with the results. It’s a great beginner camera and I’d highly recommend it for anyone wanting to get into shooting film.

I truly love my friends and am so grateful for these adventures with them. I highly recommend scouting your local area for different fun activities like this – it’s spring in Australia so it was the perfect time to pick some strawberries and have some fresh strawberry ice cream!

Strawberry fields forever

Each year I like to visit the Swell Sculpture Festival at Currumbin Beach. This year my friend Simone, her two babies & I went to have a look. Going anywhere with a two-year-old can be difficult and we experienced a couple of tantrums but overall it was a nice day.

2015 was the best Swell Festival I’ve seen and this year’s was an improvement on last year’s so it fell in somewhere in the middle. The highlight was the bird, and the lowlight was the traffic cone square.

Afterwards we headed to a local park to let the kids run wild. Mason is now able to walk with a little bit of assistance which is soooo cute.

Photos taken with Pentax Spotmatic using Kodak Profoto XL 100 35mm film.

A few weekends ago we were lucky enough to have a long weekend on the Gold Coast! My friend and I decided to make the most of it and head an hour south to Byron Bay to see the sunrise. We got up at 3:30 am and got there at the perfect time. We walked for a few minutes in the pitch black darkness of night and before we knew it the darkness subsided and gradually the landscape was illuminated by cool daylight.

At 5:59am the sun was rising and had shone its brilliant warmth over the lighthouse and the scenery in front of us. The ocean reflected and shimmered with its magnificence, and I felt so at peace.

Whenever I see a sunrise or sunset I feel a rare sense of belonging and tranquility. To see the breaking of dawn on Saturday morning made me feel connected with the world, when I often feel disconnected from the wonder and instead stuck in the mundane, monotonous existence of everyday life.

the dawn is breaking

a light shining through

We had breakfast at a local cafe afterwards and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the empty streets and the early morning.

On our return to the Gold Coast we headed to Springbrook National Park where I shot most of my photos on film (coming soon) and I am so excited to revisit it in summer and swim in the lagoon under the waterfall.

All photos were taken with my Pentax Spotmatic, 28mm lens, and Fuji Pro 400H film.

Last week I got 5 rolls of film back! I’d been shooting some of them for a long time, and this is definitely one of them.

I got a Pentax Spotmatic with a 35mm lens off eBay back in October 2015 (Cost: $180) and for some reason didn’t shoot much with it. It took me 2 and a half years to finish the first roll of film because I just wasn’t inspired by the camera once I got it. The camera is in great condition, came with a great carry case and a good lens, but I just rarely picked it up.

The Pentax Spotmatic is very easy to use and is fool proof. I would definitely recommend you consider it as an option if you are looking to get your film camera. I also really love my Pentax ME Super – Pentax film cameras in general really work for me. They are more compact which makes them easy to carry around with you.

Shooting film is such a joy and although I wasn’t very inspired by this camera at first, after seeing the results and falling in love with them, I’m very excited to shoot more with it over the next couple of years, especially as my Pentax ME Super (former favourite SLR) needs a repair.