I visited yesterday the very interesting exhibition “When Forms Come Alive” in Hayward Gallery in Southbank Centre in London. This is a contemporary sculpture exhibition centred on organic forms.
Ash Code is a Dark Wave band from Italy, actually form Napoli. They were playing here in March, opening for French band Corpus Delicti. I could not resit to go back to concert shooting after a very long hiatus.
I wasn’t sure how much gear the venue would allow me to bring in, so I settled for one lens one body set. Namely the LeicaM6 classic and the summicron 50mm v5. My favourite provider had no more Kodak TMZ 3200 so I bought two rolls of Ilford 3200 for the whole show.
The venue is 229 at 229 Great Portland and the evening organized by Reptile. I had no problem checking the camera in. I had set the body to 6400 ISO, but I will come back to this later.
The concert was great. Ash Code, produces some dancy tunes, not very remote to what Sisters of Mercy would have done, with a bit more synthwave side. Maybe a better comparison could be found in the direction off some 80’s belgian bands , remote cousins of Neon Judgement or Parade Ground.
They deliver a pretty good show, Alessandro and Claudia taking turns to the mic. Although I am pretty new to their music, that was a very enjoyable.
The scene was quite dark with a lot of back light, so not super ideal, but access to the front of the stage was super easy. I shot a concert of a friends band with the same set-up a few years back and I realised that the only good shots are those where there are both dark areas and highlighted ones, there is not point shooting a scene without contrast, whatever the ISO.
I also had a discussion with a pro about the value of metering : because most of the scene is in the dark, your meter will be fooled and try to over expose. So having shot the rolls at 6400 ISO I had them processed at box speed, actually pulling the film or compensating by -1 stop ( there is no compensation setting on the M6 ). I think that was a wise choice. Because most of the shots were taken at 1/125 f.2 or f2.8, I have a fantasy of setting the speed and aperture once for all and not to bother, but I was told otherwise.
Last holidays, I organized a mini trip with my family to the Normandy landing beaches used by the allies during D-Day. This is a quite common thing for French people, but I never had the opportunity to bring my son there neither my wife who is quite reluctant with anything war related.
Omaha beach memorial
The D-Day beached area is actually quite wide and there are plenty of sites to see. We had a bit of limitations for various reasons and I wanted not to overwhelm everybody. Factor in that the weather is not great in Normandy in February, so I had to cut short on my bucket list.
The west side of Omaha beach
I thought it would be a good tour to include Omaha beach, one of the most well know areas. The beach is kilometres wide, and I was mostly looking to picture the new sculpture “The Braves” that was added to the old memorial some 10 years ago.
A bunker.
Of course we landed ( that’s an easy one ) on the wrong side of the beach, but I found the bunker above ( bucket list ticked).
Omaha beach National Guard Monument
My next stop was the American Cemetery of Normandy in Coleville sur mer. An understandably sad place.
American Cemetery of Normandy – 21mm View
There is a museum at the entrance which is very interesting, I have not visited the one in Arromanche which is supposed to be very good as well so I cannot compare.
American Cemetery of Normandy – 50mm View
Second tick box of my list. There are sadly many military cemeteries in Normandy, I remember being very impressed by the German one in La Cambe when I visited it as a teenager.
Remains of Arromanche artificial harbour
Third thing I really wanted to visit was the artificial Harbour of Arromanche. It is hard to fathom that nearly 80 years later the concrete cubes used to create a practicable arbour for the allies are still here ( not all of them of course). This is an testimony of the incredible D-Day adventure if needed.
A concrete element of the Harbour
One element of the Harbour that can be approached at low tide, so I planned my visit timely.
As I mentioned above, Arromanche sports a museum that reopened last year but was originally built in 1954.
The museum is well guarded
At that point we had to head back to our base in Deauville. That was quite a full day, a couple of things I wanted to see that I did not manage : some big batteries and bunkers before reaching Arromanche, the German cemetery mentioned before, Utah beach where you can find well preserved bunkers and some planes.
Bunker in Etretat
Just to be safe I also shot the above bunker in Etretat the day before, you can see the hollow needle.
I found mildly interesting and border bad taste to visit the sites with my WWII area Leica. The body dates from the late 40’s but the Summitar 50mmF2.0 is definitely contemporary to the war. So I carried the Leica IIIC, the Summitar and the Voigtlander Color Skopar 21mmF4.0, with the Sekonic light meter. I intended to shot this subject with the Agent Shadow film, which gives a kind of more vintage look, but actually I finished the roll before reaching Normandy and I switched to the TMAX 400, crisp as usual.
If you haven’t watched it, I recommend watching The Longest Day the 1962 epic about D-Day.
Happy new year dear readers. January is coming to its end, but its never too late, so here is my first post of the year.
Back in December we visited the amazing exhibition of Daido Moriyama at the Photographer’s Gallery in Soho ( London) and I discovered that their shop in the basement has a dream selection of films.
I am still going to patronize the usual smaller shops but I think it’s great to be able to put one’s hand on the stuff you read about in blogposts. So I browsed the shelves and found a roll of the just available ( and if I am correct not for long) color film from Harman.
I vaguely remembered that Harman is the company producing the Ilford films, but frankly I don’t know much more. So at the end of December we were back home in Cannes for family holidays and I finished my roll of TMY400 and loaded the roll of Phoenix 200.
As you can see on the first picture the film has a very pretty ( odd?) yellow color out of the canister and once processed a pronounced purple tint. I loaded the film in full light, in the skate park above, but I don’t think it had any effect. And set the meter to 200ISO, although the film is said to have latitude ( but not so much if you read some reviews).
The skate park is a new addition to the Cannes cityscape, that day was really gorgeous and the tint of the film goes pretty well with the colors of the place.
Moving a bit further towards the Pointe de la Croisette I took a couple of shots of boats. I think we see here what people mean by the film being very contrasty.
I quite like the picture above, probably the color scheme fell right into the soft spot of the film, and the light being softer the contrast is less accentuated ( oxymoron )?
The four pictures above are taken along the promenade des Anglais in Nice. A certain atmosphere develops there, probably mid afternoon winter light and overcast day helps with the contrast. The feeling is very vintage.
Back in London, the dummies below were remarkable by their red heads. The glow is quite funny, I would say unexpected.
The Standard building renders pretty well ( overcast, mid afternoon ) with not so much color cast. Definitely vintage and some glow around the lights.
Bye Bye Georg Baselitz sculpture in Hyde Park.
Finally walking on a beautiful lunch time towards Hyde Park I met these two nice Brazilian students, one holding a Nikon F3, we had quite a long chat ( in the cold), and parted our way after taking this shot. This gives an idea of how skin tones are rendered.
Final word? Probably worth a try. Surely has a lot of character, I think Hartman said the film was experimental. A very specific vintage look, a lot of contrast but I probably won’t try again to be honest. If I compare with the post about the Cinestill 400 D I think the Cinestill has a lot less color cast, a smoother rendering of contrast, but ok its more expensive ( 12.5 GBP vs 17 GBP if I remember well).
Here are 8 shots of last week protest by climate activist group Just Stop Oil in London.
The protest was mostly against the imprisonment of members of the movement after some protest last year I think ( maybe related to Occupy Westminster ).
A very peaceful march from Scotland yard to the High court of justice. Probably as many photographers as protesters and more policemen it seemed.
I understand that as part of recent legislation changes some protest actions like road blocking can lead to prison charges for their perpetrators.
On top of this main request to free their fellow activists, they also protest against recent changes in UK policy to come back on their promises to fight climate change and limit fossil fuel exploitation.( In case you don’t know, UK has off shore fuel resources ).
Blame my inexperience in protests, but I was a bit shocked by seeing the police film the whole event. I know we live in the period of social media ( this post is proof if need be) and most people there will have their face / name in the public space, but still.
I also don’t like my journey being disrupted by protesters, but lets remember there is no planet B.
All shot’s done one a slightly expired TMX 3200, that has travelled by plane a couple of time ( here goes my carbon footprint ). Only one camera this time, the Leica M6 classic with Summicron 35mmF2 Asph. The film was shot at box speed.
There are a few more shots is the next roll, stay tuned.
Here are a bit too many pictures of my first ever Cinestill 400D roll for my first ever trip to Malta.
I bought this roll a while back, maybe 6 months, from Analogue Labs ( where this roll was processed) for what seemed to a bit too much money ( about 18 GBP).
Marsaxlokk
I waited for the correct opportunity and here I am going to sunny Malta for a family holiday.
Marsaxlokk Sunday market
The D in 400D stands for daylight, and the film is described as a fine grain color film with daylight balance. It has soft tones, natural saturation, warm skin tones. The film can be shot between 200 and 800 without push process and up to 3200 with push process.
Marsaxlokk Sunday market cleaning up
I loaded the film in the faithful Leica M6 classic, fitted with the Summicron 50mm v5. ( some shots may have been taken with the 35 Asph v2 or the 38 Asph v1, but generally the 50 is attached to the M6 and the others to the M262)
I set the ISO dial of the camera to 400, not knowing what was best for my situation, the box speed seems to always be a safe bet.
Valetta
The days were very sunny so a lot of the shots were done with high speed and smaller apertures. The colors remind of Kodak Portra ( warm tones) maybe and surely has a certain vintage look to them. Is this expected or not, I am not sure.
The film surely has very fine grain and shows a lot of details.
I also find the shots to have a lot of contrast, maybe just bit too much for my taste. But it is a very nice result I think. I an already looking to buy some more.
Oh and Malta in this story? Malta is a small country consisting in a few islands, the capital Valetta is where we stayed. If you are open minded there are plenty of things to do, mostly around history and architecture.
There are also plenty of outdoors activities.
Diving just outside the city walls is one of them.
The place is attracting quite a crowd of tourists, in this mid-term holidays the place was packed with French and Britons.
A street photographer with his box camera
A couple of steep streets with stairs are hosting several bars and eateries.
Our first stop was Marsaxlokk with a famous Sunday fish market. You can access from Valetta by bus or Uber. From the ferry terminal in Valetta you can access the northern island of Gozo ( we missed because the schedule changed the day we planned to go) or you can take a 2 Euros ride across to the 3 cities.
Tourist boat touring the harbour
Boats in the Three Cities marina.
Typical houses with their bow windows
The fortifications and the war museum
Wuestenwinds beach
At night
Finally on the light picture, you can see a very special effect around the led lights. I think its called halation. Very common on the 800T film, but I was not aware that the 400D would also produce it. Anyway, this picture managed to go in Explore on flickr, so thank you Cinestill.
The Leica M4 was my first Leica, I bought it in 2011 for the incredible amount of roughly 2000 Eur with a Summilux 50mm v2 attached, to the amazement of my son ( 9 years old then ) who looked at me counting 100 SGD bills as I paid the seller.
Bibliotheque Mazarine, Institut e France – Paris
The M4 had a strange double effect on me : first it was not love at first sight, second it still pushed me further down the Leica rabbit hole. Fast forward 12 years, I only shoot rangefinders ( 90% or more of my pictures ) and I sold my Nikon Digital Kit (awesome gear) .
Libre Service
So as per the opening picture I still own the M4, and shoot with it from time to time, the lack of a meter make me use the M6 more ( or the IIIC if I want to go back to basic). Over all these years however I am ashamed to admit that I have only shot about 50 rolls with it, so roughly 4 a year.
Bourse du commerce
Heading for Paris recently I attached the Summicron 35mm Asph v2 ( the only Leica Lens I ever bought new ) and loaded my second roll of Kosmo Foto Agent Shadow film. This is a pretty sexy combo, I also carried the Sekonic 380x.
La petite tailleuse de pierres
Actually not : the young lady above is not a stone mason, but close enough : she is a project manager in a company renovating historical buildings. And she was giving a hand for the “Journées du Patrimoine”, and yes : she can handle a hammer.
I can’t I have pop-up
So back to Agent Shadow… I found the name a bit ridiculous, why do you have to give witty names to films? Also I was not so amazed by my first roll. But at a third of the TMY / TRI-X price, it is worth giving it a second chance.
A Love Letter to Paris by Peter Turnley, by the Paris Townhall
In fact this roll gave me some good reasons to like the film : it is not too contrasty, grain is small, details are good. All in all this a very good midway between the HP5 and the TMY.
La SorbonneMazarin statue on his tomb
We were lucky to be in Paris during the Journées Européennes du Patrimoine as we could visit a couple of historical buildings like the Institut de France, la Sorbonne and the College de France.
La Sorbonne libraryA professor introducing us to the College de France
On the last day we had a bit of street action as the sun was going down. Walking towards Chatelet, we met what was left of a street party / demonstration.
On n’arrete pas un peuple qui danse
When suddenly arrived a massive party of rollers / cyclists.
Causing an interesting / interested reaction from the party side of the place.
Ensemble / together
I hope you enjoyed the pics. Film was processed ( and bought ) at Analogue Films in Shoreditch.
I have been following the resurrection of Film Ferrania for a long time. This is very interesting story of passion and perseverance, it could be a plot for a movie.
Pallenza market
Their first film has been available for nearly two years now, but I must say I did not made too many efforts to get some.
Pallenza Market
We had a family trip in Piemonte this summer and I could not resist looking up photo shops ahead on getting there. In Torino, there I finally found a shop ( Grande Marvin ) very well stocked where I could purchase two rolls of the said P30 and two of the Ortho 50, for 13.90 Euro each inc VAT.
Grande Marvin is strategically placed opposite the Leica Shop
So the P30 is a panchromatic ISO 80 B&W film. I loaded my first roll in the trusty Leica M6 classic, using mostly the 50mm Summicron (v5 I think).
Pallenza back streets
The roll was processed by my usual lab in London ( Analogue Films in Brick Lane)
Overall I am a bit disappointed, I think this is due to me shooting the roll at 100ISO instead of 80, making it a bit underexposed. That said, I am not a specialist but I wonder what difference this really makes, but ok I’ll shoot the second roll at 80.
Castello Rivoli
Italy shots were very touristic and more about static subjects, back in London, I had something close to half a roll left that I used for my usual street style.
You got milk ?
100 ISO is not much for street shots and some shots were taken with big apertures so they appear out of focus, soft.
Hare Hare
Hara Hare
Also when there is some movement after 6pm, 125th/s does not quite cut it, particularly for the picture above.
Plant powered penises last longer
A not so sharp picture of the sharp dressed man you can meet from time to time in Soho. His large hats remind me of the The Mask but Sharp Dressed Man came to my mind.
The sharp dressed man
I think I mistook Joe Jackson’s “Look Sharp” and ZZ Top “Sharp Dressed Man” songs, but never mind I thought there should be a music reference in this nick name.
Duke of York Square food market
Next Saturday, I was lucky with the light in Duke of York Square ( Kings Road ) food market.
Paella stall
So what do I think all in all ? Well, I am a bit disappointed with this roll, but it can be down to my skills. There is plenty of details and I think there is little grain ( you can see on the shots with writing or small details like the above), this I like. I also like very much the blacks which are really really dark. That said, there is something I don’t like so much in the contrast. Lets see if I can make a better job at ISO80.
I always likes a bit of panning shots, as you can see in the two final pictures:
Quite a while back actually, I shot a first roll after the IIIC was repaired. But one roll is not enough right?
Notting Hill
So, on a sunny day, I loaded the little fellow with a roll of Kodak Profoto 100 a fool proof colour print film that comes and goes from the shelfs, and screwed the Voigtlander Color Skopar 21mmF4 on its front.
First set of pictures were taken during a big walk to Notting Hill, Portobello road and back.
The area is usually very colourful and have a lovely rendering on film.
And the 21mm give some good dynamics to the pictures.
If you are familiar with my blog, you remember that a couple of years back I bought a metal 21/25mm external viewfinder made by Voigtlander to replace the plastic one that comes with the lens.
The optics of the plastic finder seems to unglue itself and move so its not fit for its purpose. I brought it back to the shop once, then tried to repair it myself, not so easy. In the end I bought the separate viewfinder for about half of the price of the lens ( both new).
As I am in no haste of finishing any roll, a week passed for the next stroll to Brick Lane.
Crossing the City on our way to Brick Lane ( because the tube broke down), we came across this white dead tree which in fact an art work by Maurizio Catellan.
… and we finally hit brick lane and its murals.
And another week passed, until we finally walked by Marylebone (above) and Soho ( Below).
In between, the Thai restaurant below is situated opposite the Aperture Camera shop where the IIIC was repaired.
There is always some action in Soho, but not enough to finish the roll. Luckily there is always a Sunday walk to Hyde Park…
where a lucky young fellow turned 30.
Very happy to walk around with the IIIC again and see that’s its working fine. The 21mm is still a hard beast to master and there are a couple of missed shots with my fingers in the frame. I finally quite like the film, maybe its better for evenly lit scenes. But overall I cannot complain.
This is a small follow-up to Notting Hill Carnival 2023. I also carried with me the Leica M4 and Summicron 50mm v5 loaded with a roll of Kosmo Photo Agent Shadow.
This is the first time I use this 400 ISO film, and I don’t have a lot of info on it. Is it a knock-off of some existing formula ? I am not sure. It is said to be a 400-ISO panchromatic black-and-white film, so far so good. I read that the Mono 100 was some rebranded Fomapan 100, so it is likely to be a rebranded film, maybe Kentmere or Fomapan, I cannot find any decisive information.
The day was super bright anyway so al these shots were taken around F8 and 1/250th. I don’t this I measured for each shot, rather once for all.
These shots turn out to be quite pleasing to my taste, with good contrast and a lot of details. I would say probably a bit better that my average Ilford HP5 rolls, but once again the conditions were very good that day.
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