Train des Pignes à Vapeur (France)

So this was the first day of the holidays; after the long-haul flight from Singapore to Nice and a night or rest, here I am driving up 2 hours from Cannes to Allos in the Parc of Mercantour in the southern french alps, a couple of boys day’s out with my son and my dad.

I had a couple of ideas of things to shoot on the way, including a stop at the railway station in Thorame Haute a stop on the “Train des pignes” that link Nice to Dignes-Les-Bains.

To our amusement, when we stepped out of the car a vintage steam train was parked along the station.  It appeared it had to make a stop to let the regular train  pass by as there is only one track in this area.

The people attending the train were very nice, happy to have a chat and camera friendly, hell they had 2 hours to kill

This train is kept by a non profit association it travels from May to October on Sundays.

 

You can see their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/TrainDesPignesAVapeur/

Shots with Leica M262 and M6+Cinestill 50, with Summicron 28 and 50.

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THE SECOND ROLL OF BERGGER PANCRO400

Most common activity : posing in from the Mexican style mural

Last week I went out with fellow members of the “Lets shoot film SG” group, in the area of Arab Street in Singapore. The intent was to shoot the crowd : this has became a very popular spot now and there are many opportunities for candid shots.

Second most favorite activity : show your best profile to the camera

I loaded the Agfa Isolette III with my second roll (on 3) or Pancro 400, to see how it fares with a slightly better camera. I must say this was not some precision work, the uncoupled rangefinder is not working so the distances are guestimated and I preset the exposition most of the time. I put the original yellow filter (probably 1/2 stop) in front of the Apotar 80mmF4.5 lens as well as the aluminium hood for good order.

Painting is older than film

The film was processed at the same lab as the first one, I was not told the film need pushing this time, so maybe they worked out how to process it “normally”, go figure!

Small variation : a duo in from of a plain wall

The results : as the first film, this one came fairly flat from the lab and was easy to scan. A bit of tweaking in Lightroom, et voila!

Is it the conjunction of the small aperture used and / or  the yellow filter? The results surely have more contrast that my first roll but still shows pretty smooth tones, and no hard contrasts. Highlights were easily recuperated, underlining the claim to large latitude.

Whats going on there?

Something keep on surprising me ( as I also just scanned my first roll in 35mm format) it is that this film manage to be quite grainy and still preserves an impressive amount of details even in under or over exposed shots (no shown here) or areas.

I will shot the last 120 roll with the Hassie; maybe I’ll try to do some portraits to see if in a more controlled environment something else is revealed.

 

 

First roll of Bergger Pancro400

The French company Bergger released earlier this year the Pancro400 film in 120 roll film & 35mm. Without getting too much in the technical details that you can find here, this is a film  with high speed, fine grain and wide exposure latitude (from ISO 100 to 1600). As per Wikipedia, a panchromatic emulsion produces a realistic reproduction of a scene as it appears to the human eye, which is what most modern films are tending to (except the ones labelled as orthochromatic films) so nothing special to expect. Some of my friends think the film will have a tendency to highlight skins and darken greens / blues.

 

Le refuge du Lac D’Allos – Parc de Mercantour

Recently during my last fridge replenishing order, I bought 3 rolls of this film in both 120 and 35mm.

I shot the first roll with the Dacora Digna, a 1950’s German 6×6 camera with a collapsible 80mm lens, a fixed speed of roughly 1/50 seconds and a choice of aperture of f8 or f11. This is not a perfect camera for testing a new film but the Hassie was 10000 KM away.

 

On the way to the Col D’Allos.

The film was processed at my usual lab; when I collected I was told it was pushed; the only explanation I had was that the guy from the lab knows the film need to be pushed. The result is ok-ish anyway, but the negative did not look too contrasty; I expected it to be overexposed a bit by sunny sixteen rule.

View from the Col d’Allos

On a practical note the markings on the back of the film are very faint so it is difficult to read the frame number though the red window when you advance the film.

Alpine shed

The pictures were taken during a walk to the Lac d’Allos one of biggest high altitude (2230m ) lakes in Europe.

Roll number two is at the lab at the moment, street shots from yesterday walk with the more reliable Agfa Isolette III, the last roll I’ll definitely keep for the Hassie.

Damien Hirst: Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable

Aspect of Katie Ishtar ¥o-landi

So holidays are over, and after a one week business trip to Philippines I am back home where I can start processing my pictures. Let me start by saying that I enjoyed very much the Leica Kit that I wrapped in my last post (The summer bag). Sadly the 90mm did not get much use (apart from some marmots)  and my sensor is dusty so every shot with some blue sky needs editing.

Let me start by a small post about the exhibition “Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable” the latest work of Damien Hirst at Foundation Pinault both at Palazzo Grassi and at la Punta Della Dogana. This is off the Biennale, but probably the most striking work to be seen in Venice this year.

Gilded Medusa head

Hirst exhibitions is a colossal collection of the old world wonders as they have been recovered from a wreck in Easter Mediterranean sea. The exhibition boasts the “original” treasures as recovered, some footage of the salvaging, some artifacts redone as new.

This fictional (needless to say) story and the amount (in quantity, variety of materials and size) of the objects in display is mesmerizing, whatever anyone can think of Hirst work. If you still have time don’t hesitate to go.

Silver Unicorn skull

The ticket covers both exhibitions, but frankly the exhibition at Punta Della Dogana is superior to the Palazzo Grassi, so if you have to chose… The Palazzo offers two major items, a colossal status of three stores high (below) and a piece inspired by the haircut of Yolandi from the band “Die Antwort” and teh bust of the artist girlfriend (so was I said, but I did not have a chance to check).

You can check  http://www.palazzograssi.it/

Note also that the building at the Punta Della Dogana is a 17th century warehouse refurbished by Tadao Ando, this by itself is worth visiting.

All shots with Leica M262 with Summicron 28mm or 50mm.