The Social Kitchen at Orchard YMCA

Today I am posting a few shots salvaged from a friendly “reportage” we did with a group of friends last week for The Social Kitchen at Orchard YMCA, in Singapore.

The Social Kitchen, is the Cafe located on 4th floor of the YMCA. It is a social enterprise that provides employment to disadvantaged individuals. The intention was to give them a few pictures to put on their website.

I must say I did not perform very well, and I am bit ashamed of it. I pleased myself in my choice of gear, but the result is not really usable by our friends at Social Kitchen. Luckily some more conscientious photogs were there.

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I brought the Leica M6 with Summilux 50 v2 loaded with Ilford Delta 400. Above are the shots processed in Caffenol, my eights roll and the worst so far I must say. Very nice opportunity to shoot in a kitchen, but also quite difficult as the place is small and was packed with 3 staff and 4 photogs.

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I also carried the Hasselblad 500CM loaded with Cinestill 500. There are only 3 “good” shots on 12, I don’t use the blad so often these days, so I mixed up mix and max aperture, and the first 6 shots were blank. The Cinestill roll was shot at ISO640 as usual, and all shots were done at 1/60 F2.8.

It’s nice to have fun, delivering good and usable pictures is another matter.

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Did I fix the Agfa Isolette rangefinder?

The young film photog and his model

So a few weeks ago, after the last roll shot with the Agfa Isolette, I decided that  something must be done with the rangefinder. My easiest solution was to order a second Agfa from Ebay. But actually when he finally reached home, the camera was in very good condition but the rangefinder was stuck and so was the lens focusing ring. So I took  step back and decided to leave it alone (for the moment) and try to fix the rangefinder of my original Agfa.

Potato head

I think I mentioned earlier this is a family camera bough in 1958 in Germany by my dad who was in the French forces there. It was my first medium format camera, I used it for the first time in 1990 (30 years ago already). I looked at this link and proceeded to fix my rangefinder : The Classic Camera Repair Forum: CLA’ing an Isolette III.

 

 

The photographer’s wife

I don’t have much to add to the procedure, this precise camera has other issues so I think I will proceed with repairing the other one soon, or maybe send it to repair, depending on the time I have at hand.

A chair’s story

Once again I used a roll of Rollei 80s because I have a few hanging around and because I love it. Shot at 100 Iso, this is a slow film for the weather conditions so some shots were taken at 1/50s F4.5.

Public transport

I processed the roll in my second batch of Caffenol, so this is my Caffenol roll #7. The results are good I think, but there is a lot of dust or particles compared to the roll#6, I am not sure where it comes from and I am  bit disappointed as I took care to filter both the Fixer and the Caffenol before using them. I also added 1 minute to the fixing time, just in case.

The chess players #1

It also seems there is some unevenness on the processing. I will have to reach out for some advice.

The chess players #2

Ah yes so what about the rangefinder ? Well see for yourself, but it looks to me that it may not be spot on but it surely can focus.

Puja in Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple – Singapore

One of the last week-ends despite not feeling very well, I head to Little India without any special idea in mind and the Hassie in the camera bag. Having left my shoes outside I walk inside the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple on Serangoon road to find that a celebration (or puja) was held that day. I just had half a roll and could shot the following.

The is Rollei RPX 400 ASA film, the first roll I ever shot. I must say I quite like it the grain is very thin, quite good contrasts. I have a little stock of both 100 and 400 ASA of this film in 120 format in the fridge, I may buy some 35mm when I’m back in France. When back from the shop the film was quite flat and easy to scan unlike the Rollei Retro which is so curly

I am not sure if this is a set meal or an individual set of offerings for each participant; I did no stat that long to check.

One of the musicians or the ceremony at rest.

The chariot of the temple that rides out in the city for some special celebrations.

CameraHasselblad 500cm
LensCarl Zeiss 80mmF2.8 probably 1/60 F4
FilmRollei RPX 400 ASA
Digi-filmScan Epson v500+Epson Scan software + lightroom 3.6