Since I heard about this blog beta I have been very excited! I used to have a blog for quite a long time but haven’t found a place in which I felt comfortable posting. My tumblr is more a collection of images than anything else and I just never felt like writing on there. So I’m excited to have a place to write, talk about on going projects and show some progress work.

I recently completed a print project based on my Richard (digital) photos. I even marbled some Japanese Sumi-e paper which was really fun to print on. Once I get the prints back I plan on uploading them to my site. There is so much variation in the water marbling which made the project quite fun for a black and grey image.

I also wanted to do something unique to this blog which is similar to something I used to love. I used to do these “in my purse” photo posts, but I wanted to start doing “artifact” posts. Artifact posts will be about things I love and why they’re important to me. So here we go:

1. Current read and Iceland bookmark. I love to read everything and anything! I used to hate reading when I was a little kid but I have learned to love it as an adult. I’m reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” because I didn’t get a chance to read it in grade school.

2. Nikon F2 with a wide angle lens. This camera was originally purchased by my grandfather but he wasn’t very photo savvy, and didn’t like the camera as it is completely manual. My dad then bought it off his father and had it ever since, and this is the camera that I learned photography on. Although the light meter is very faulty it still has it’s charms and still takes great photos. Sadly the wide angle lens has a dent where you would thread on a filter so I can never us a filter.

3. Mamiya 6 with a standard lens. This is my newest addition to my camera collection, and I was honestly the most difficult to fix! This camera came to my from my aunt Heidi, and she had it stored away since my grandmother passed away. The camera was actually used by my grandmother’s second husband Frank who was a portrait photographer. I have come to love medium format photography and find it almost meditative. The shutter on this camera is so quiet it’s so pleasing, and the internal bellows also allows for a more low profile camera.

4. Sekonic L-758DR light meter. This bad boy has helped me quite a bit at times as my Nikon F2’s light meter has become unreliable.

5. Smells Like Canada “Toronto Smoke shea butter salve”. As a person who works with print making and in a wet dark room my hands get dried out so badly. I found this product and really love it! It’s jammed full of shea butter, and a bit of bees wax to help keep moisture in.

6. Yard-o-led and Lamy fountain pens. I have come to love fountain pens so much. The Lamy was the first fountain pen I got, and I picked it up on my 25th birthday and then got the Yard-o-led pen at Penfriend in London, UK. I just love how they write, and have become really attached to pen inks (my favourite is Private Reserve’s Ebony Blue).

7. iPhone 4s. My boyfriend Richard thinks I am addicted to my phone and he may be right at times. This is the second iPhone I have had and I’m not sure if I’ll be switching brands when my contract is up. I also made the snap on case and have had a few other ones like this. I’m just addicted to cute things.

8. iPod Classic. I have a huge music library which I’m reluctant to even move off my old laptop, but at least this iPod is able to hold all of it! I am actually surprised this thing is still around as I’ve had it since 2008.

9. My rings. A few of my favourite pieces of jewelry: claddagh ring from my boyfriend Richard, grandmother’s diamond ring, and my purple garnet ring that I got to commemorate my first gallery show at 17.

10. Micro fibre cloth. Used to clean glasses and lenses; this one I got from a little restaurant called “fish” in Reykjavik, Iceland.

11. 50 krona coins. I’ve been using these to keep my screen a little farther away from the surface that I’ve been printing on. I just like that they have crabs on them.

12. Brass loupe. I picked this little trinket up from a market in London.

13. Photos of Iceland from the 1950s in a mint tin. I picked these up from the Kolaportid market in Reykjavik, Iceland. My favourite of the bunch has to be the one with the push pin hole which makes me quite happy to think that that photograph had a life and lived on someones wall who would look at it everyday. Most of the photos are from tabacco companies.

14. Field Notes photography booklet. Used to document each and every roll of film that I have used, and notes for my dark room process. This is the second notebook I’ve used.

15. Laguiole pocket knife. I try to always have a pocket knife on me and this is my favourite. It’s saved my boyfriend and my bacon a couple times while camping.

Katarina Kaneff

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