my 2012 in instagrams

Most of friends don't use or actively dislike Instagram, but I'm a massive fan; I love the way you can quickly pick the perfect effect to complement your photo and then share it with other people. Really, I like anything which enables me to make pretty and interesting pictures, and I love looking at everyone else's too! So I thought I'd adopt something I've seen around on a lot of blogs and post my favourite Instagram photos from the second half of this year.

July

Strawberry-Lime Rekorderlig with mint leaves at Giraffe//Deer at Savernake Park, Bracknell//On the way to graduation

Graduation day outfit//Caramel Frappacino//Ruthin Castle (I want to get married here. It has peacocks!)

Ruthin//Pretty H! by Henry Holland print//Lovely crockery

August

Carbis Bay, St Ives//Bakery in St Ives//Rainbow over St Ives

£5 (GIANT!) bear from a second-hand shop in St Ives. I adore him and can't wait to give him to my future kids to play with!//Pretty houses in Reading//Sculpture in Trafalgar Square

Fountain in Trafalgar Square//My lovely friend Rebecca's 21st//Meeting up with uni friends

October/November

Autumn at Warwick//98-year-old pressed flower in a diary from WWI//Autumnal outfit

OUP office, Oxford//Phoenix Picture House, Oxford//The Royal Oak, Oxford

Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Oxford//Church of St Aloysius, Oxford//Birthday present XD

December

Garden at The Vyne//Second-hand bookshop at The Vyne//Swan in The Vyne gardens

Another swan...//Birmingham Bull Ring's bull dressed up for Christmas!//Me and my friend Jenny at Birmingham Christmas market

Birmingham Town Hall//Cupcakes at Greggs//Freezing cold morning at the station

Hopefully I've now introduced some people to the wonders of Instagram... ;)

a very cold picnic

I got a beautiful DSLR for Christmas! My Nikon D3100 is probably the most surprising and exciting Christmas present I've ever received, and I got to try it out recently on my beautiful friends...

Picnic is probably the prettiest independent café in Reading, but it definitely needs more seats...It was worth it for the food, coffee and supporting independent business, but England in December is freezing!

I like taking pictures of food/drink...and Annie has very nice hands! The bright colours were great to photograph too.

I brightened all of these up in Photoshop Elements 10, which made the colours pop and everything really stand out; I'm very happy with the way these turned out and look forward to taking lots more in 2013!

captured on film (1)

In June 2011 I bought a Halina Paulette Electric film camera from ebay. I've always loved the effect of photos taken with film cameras; they seem to have a greater depth and an interesting dream-like quality. These are my favourites from the first film I took (June-July 2011); they came out even better than I'd hoped, as it was my first time playing with it! I've edited them in various ways with Photoshop Elements 10.

This was the first picture I ever took with my film camera (the accidental one of my laptop I took while trying to get the film adjusted definitely doesn't count...). I'm particularly proud of it as it's hard to get a photo of this boy in which he looks normal and happy rather than plotting world domination...

Leamington Peace Festival

University of Warwick Summer Party 2011

Reading station (before the platform numbers went  crazy!).

Partying in Beenham. Very meta. Or something...

I love that I managed to capture this moment!

And I think film gives it a beautiful poignant quality you don't get with digital cameras.