My Instagram photos for the YHA.

 

I’ve been working for the Youth Hostel Association (YHA) for just over a couple of months now - one of my roles is looking after their Instagram account.

Here are some of my fave snaps that I’ve taken for them so far. With all sincerity, lucky me!

(Before you think I've magically got very good at taking pictures, obviously the best/pro looking ones on their account are not my photography)

Vintage 1960s postcards - kitsch kitten and daisies!

 

Remember when I used to scan stuff I’d found in antique shops? Let me remind you.

Anyway I’m up to it again, starting with this kitsch gem ‘Kitten in the Rose Bower’ photo above by Guy Withers! It’s a J. Arthur Dixon postcard and I think it’s from around 1965 (based on the one below I found with a dated stamp).

Fluffy animal and fake tree branches - what’s not to love?!

 

And another colourful and kitsch J. Arthur Dixon postcard I found in the same antique shop (I know, my hobbies are thrilling)! This one had a stamp on the back from 1965 along with the message:

 

"Thank you so much for sending us Contact. It is most interesting as usual. We are getting straight. With difficulty I at last got rid of some of the furniture and the Bristol furniture looks very nice in its place."

 

Other people’s mail woohoo. The flowers are Barberton Daisies, a wild South African species famed for their varied and attractive colours. Very bright, very 60s…

Amazing nature at Renishaw Hall and Gardens!

 

The amazing woods near Renishaw Hall.

The amazing lake near Renishaw Hall.

The amazing garden near Renishaw Hall.

I could have walked around here all day, such a beautiful place! Very ‘The Secret Garden’ and one of my favourite Derbyshire stately home haunts.

It was also a fun surprise finding Watership Down under a tree. You can’t see it (you gotta have faith), but they’re gazing at a suspended wooden sun (Lord Frith I assume). Except for atheist bunny on the left there.

 

 

The amazing flowers near Renishaw Hall.

The amazing statue near Renishaw Hall.

Digitally tweaked in Photoshop for added drama/contrast/really cool things.

The cellist is Amaryllis Fleming and she was sculpted by Fiore de Henriquez. My knowledge of cellists extends to ‘Hilary and Jackie’, so I always reckoned this was a dead ringer for Jacqueline du Pré!

I took my camera to the Eden Project.

The Eden Project, we loved it there!

It is where small impaled wooden cats spin on spikes and frogs and flowers are ripe for macro photography.

Animals at Paignton Zoo.

 

 

 

 

 

One of these animals isn’t real.

I’ll give you a clue - it’s the giraffe.

Summer holiday photos, Devon.

These were taken back in August around Ilfracombe; only just finished posting everything from that holiday on Tumblr, so here they are in a big ol' chunk (sorry Blogger)! I also have a bunch of photos from Broomhill Sculpture Gardens -- I'll be uploading them in a separate post.

Lovely weather!

Ilfracombe Museum.

On hot days, this beautiful harbour smells like rotting fish.

Valley of the Rocks, and Hillsborough.

Enrica Soma photographs.

Enrica Soma, photographed mid-1940s by Philippe Halsman.

I seem to post a lot about ballet. Mostly coincidental, the magazine I’m taking my scans from seems to be ballerina themed! Were they the favoured celebrities of their time I wonder…

‘Ricky Soma through the Ages’, photographed by Philippe Halsman as a renaissance painting, rococo courtesan and modern professional.

The article is a little tragic. According to Picture Post, Enrica was a dancer, and after becoming the face of Life magazine she trained to be an actress but was never actually filmed by the director paying her. These photos were then shown to director John Huston, who said he "liked her figure" and instead of getting a lead part, she became his fourth wife and mother of his children.

One of which is Anjelica Huston (90s Morticia Addams!), so at least her next generation got to act I guess. Hmm.

Joel-Peter Witkin and Shintaro Kago.

I was going to keep these pictures and mini-reviews on just my Tumblr, but what the hell! Figured if I actually express some opinion and it's not just a reblog I can post it here tooooo.

I was first introduced to artist Joel-Peter Witkin at college. I’ve never quite forgotten his photographs.

Sorry if you’re eating your lunch!

Tumblr’s more grusome than I expected, you can’t go anywhere without coming face-to-face with somebody’s corpse. I do think Witkin’s pictures are beautiful though.

And have some of this...

Rather enjoying Shintaro Kago’s work. Only just come across him, have I had my head down a hole you ask? Haaa.

I do use Tumblr for things other than finding nightmare fuel, honest.