Busting out our film cameras. This one taken with a Polaroid SX-70.

These ones taken with the iPhone :)

Tonight we tore apart our big closet in the second bedroom, unstacked and ransacked each plastic tub in search of the velcro dividers for my camera bag. We did this twice which reminded me why you should never do things half-assed the first time around. We never found the dividers, but I did stumble upon this gem which was hiding in the midst of empty electronic device boxes and a William Byrd High School terrier mascot.

When we were in college, Jeff and I spent a lot of time antiquing and going to yard sales. I found this camera case (and land camera) with the Roanoke Airport travel tag attached and it was love at first sight as I have a fondness for both Polaroid and old travel stickers/tags/boarding passes/etc and suitcases. I haven’t been to a yard sale, Goodwill or antique store in a while but I have to say that some of my most special things were found in these unlikely places. My absolute favorite camera in the whole wide world that I’ve taken my best photos with, the Nikon FE2 was purchased for just $20 at Goodwill (although I tossed the lens it came with). I also found this crazy looking flash bracket and bought an enlarger with developing trays and easel at a garage sale for way cheap which I used to set up a darkroom in my bathroom in college. Unfortunately my bathroom was way too small to be used as a darkroom on a regular basis but I hope that in our future home, we’ll have a space large and dark and ventilated enough for me to re-indulge in the dying art.

I’m still on the hunt for a medium format film camera like a Hasselblad, Mamiya or Rollie and of course a new digital Canon system (I’m almost there!). I also want a puppy. But that’s a whole ‘nother story. Know of any good sites to check out? I used to visit shopgoodwill.com for old cameras all the time and I’m a little iffy about ebay. Also, the craigslist for Roanoke is a joke (at least for photo-related stuff).

Also, remember my love for typewriters? Enter exibit B as proof of my obsession. This one got me first place in an art show a few years ago. More mosaics to be added soon.+

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I should be working on files from my shoot with George and Kristin but I’m currently obsessed with wedding blogs, planning, and getting content for our wedding website together. I’m super excited for Jeff to make it live. In getting photos together for the gallery of us, I came across this lovely little oldie that was taken on my birthday at the tender age of 24 (see above). I can’t believe this was taken three years ago. Or that I’m going to be 27 this year. And getting married!!1! We’re toying with the idea of going to Italy for our honeymoon…specifically Rome and the Amalfi Coast…stopping by Pompeii on the way to the coast. If anyone has any suggestions for honeymoon destinations we’d love to get some input. My mom wants to get us a Euro Pass…”you can see 22 countries,” she says. “That’s 20 too many countries in one trip, mom,” I say. I mean, of course I am all about that, but being that Jeff has an actual full-time job, I’m not so sure that would fly. I’ve always loved to travel and my mom has always encouraged me to see and visit new places and things. Instead of birthday gifts, she’d pay for me to travel somewhere new “because why let me buy you something you’re gonna throw away when I can give you an experience where you can learn and grow and never forget.”  Touché, mom. No arguments here.

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One of my favorite stories from this trip is that our friends Kyle and Lesley were going to be honeymooning in Paris the week after we got back from our trip to Paris. Being that we’re awesome and fun, we wanted to leave them something awesome and fun…so we decided to tape a polaroid under one of the seats at a metro station for them to find. On their wedding day, we gave them a card with another polaroid that read nothing more than this: “M7 toward La Courneuve. First row, last chair, look under side of seat.” We didn’t say which station specifically, but we knew they could figure it out from the polaroid. This is said polaroid that had said directions written on the back:

The polaroid taped under the seat was sitting in a make-shift envelope made out of a piece of paper that was lousily put together. Kind of spur of the moment…but I had tape with me for some reason…so maybe it was thought out? Who travels to a foreign country with a roll of tape? Unless you’re a photographer. Which I am. But this was a different kind of tape. I remember us wanting to leave it in a book in a library…but what if someone checked the book out while they were there…and what if they don’t find the right section of the library (the two libraries we visited were huge and had like 50,000 rooms). Metro it is! On the front it read: “Mr. & Mrs. Holody.” And inside was this:

We wrote, “Bon voyage! ♥ Huong + Jeff,” on the back.

The gnome was a gift that Kyle got me for Christmas when the whole Travelocity gnome campaign was going on. I remember mentioning to him how much I wanted a gnome to travel with. Come Christmas, he remembered that I mentioned that. It was quite apropos. 

Lesley later shared with us that Kyle wouldn’t tell her what they were doing for the longest time but eventually he had to explain why they were going to that particular metro station. She said “It was kind of weird being in the metro station and reaching under the chair…people around us thought we were crazy, I imagine.” As fun as it was for us to plan where to leave it, she said it was equally fun trying to find it.

Success!