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.
So 4th of June 23 was a beautiful Sunday, where I forgot receiving an invite to join “Drum & Bass On The Bike” at 2pm at Wellington arch. But anyway as fate has it, by 5h30 I passed by the said arch and noticed there was quite a crowd.
3rd of April 2023, Extinction Rebellion held a 4 days protest on Parliament Square in central London.
Sunday was a beautiful day, to march, dance and discuss.
Good opportunity to take a camera out, and make a bit of advertisement for the cause of fighting climate change.
So well there I went armed with the Leica M4 and the 50mm Cron, loaded with a roll of Kodak TMY400. I also use the handheld meter (Sekonic 380x) rather than the hot shoe one.
There is no planet B… whatever Elon saysThe mermaids…
.. are not yes instinct, and happy to pause for a snap.
The lady on the left photobombed the shot with her banner, I am not sure what is exactly her specificity. I feel that sometimes even if I agree with the big picture of the movement I may not find myself in one specific chapel, but ok I am here lets go with the flow.
A very witty speaker
There is no Planet B, encore !
I hope you enjoys the pics, and until proven otherwise lest assume there is no Planet B.
Sunday newspapers sold at the corner of the street
As the proverb says “errare humanum est perseverare diabolicum“, so here my second post with the second roll shot in Paris ( in the spring) with the Leica IIIC and its curtain problem
A bright jazz band
Of course I did no knew at the time that the infamous back curtain was lazy and that my pictures would be overexposed on the left and underexposed on the right.
Meanwhile Kuzama was painting a vertical line
I was so happy shooting away because as per my last post ( 2023 ROLL#04 – PARIS IN THE SPRING ) Paris and Leica III make for happy shooting. Particularly when a jazz band is playing at the foot of a giant Kuzama painting in the sky ( courtesy of LVMH advertising) .
Canal Saint Martin
We made a particularly long walk that day from the Seine to the Canal Saint Martin, aiming to reach la Villette ( we stopped before and turned back, that was already a 10 km plus walk).
Silence Kills
When I lived in Paris, I rarely ventures in this area, I probably did not set foot there in 20 years. For the cinema aficionados along the canal is the famous “Hotel Du Nord” from eponymous movie by Marcel Carné with Arletty.
Walk your plants
The canal seems to have become a fashionable leisure area where the young and the less young go for a stroll, a ciggie or a drink on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Particularly if the sun is out.
Rediscovering comics
.. playing pétanque, reading, lounging, studying, making music, drinking again, sunbathing, all typeof activities seems to fit along this calm water piece.
Unwilling victim of my camera
Our road ended at the “base nautique de la Villette”, visiting the park of la Vilette will be for another time.
A Vintage Citroen DS, with its vintage driver, shot with a vintage camera.In 2023 we bring our empty bottles for recyclingThe country of food (like any other country)
Next day was the last day in Paris, time for a couple of snaps like the creperie above of the other jazz band below.
A young fan
Ok I did not emphasize too much but the all the shots show signs of the curtain problem, at various level, depending on the speed of the shutter. I played a bit with Lightroom trying to balance highlights and underexposed areas, but I think as the scanner was fooled by the problem, there is just that much I can do. I think I can try to rescan some shots twice and blend… not sure there as any worthy of such work, maybe the next one…
Hyde Park Corner, London
Back in London I still had a few shots in the roll. I changed the lens for the Voigtlander Color Skopar 21mmF4 and shoot away on a Saturday stroll. The mounted police above is quite nice, very dynamic, the 21 has some charm.
Vintage on vintage again
This roll was shot on Kodak Tri-X (ROll 04 was TMY 400).
So the Leica IIIC went to Aperture UK for a CLA and they called me after a little more than a week to announce it was ready. I went to collect it yesterday and put a roll on it so I am checking that its definitely ok. The CLA cost 240 GBP, already the cleaning of the rangefinder is awesome, even if the window is small, it is super bright, focusing is a bliss. It looks like I have anew curtain also.
Tottenham court road – London
Is it worth it? Well how long is a piece of string? The gentleman from the shop told me a IIIC is about 250 GBP, so I could buy a new non CLA’d one instead of fixing mine : that’s an easy answer. Now on the other hand this starts to be an expensive camera. I bought it for about 200£ 10 years ago, had an initial service of about 200£ and now an 240, that’s a 640£ body. On the plus side its newly CLA’d, is in good condition. I shot something north of 40 rolls over 10 years, you can try to make some maths see how much vintage shooting costs.
“Are you feeling lucky punk?”, the famous line of Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry was probably a warning. How lucky was I feeling picking up the Leica IIIc for a week end in Paris?
Girls in Uniform
I had not used my oldest Leica for a good year, so it was time for a walk outside the cupboard. I attached the Elmar 50mm3.5 and took a couple of rolls of Kodak film. One TMY 400 (this one), one Tri-X (the next one).
Everything that shines…
I also packed the Sekonik 308x light meter, as I cannot guesstimate and I found it easier to use than the flash shoe one I use from time to time.
A movie character
The IIIC is charm to use, and shooting with it you really feel lucky (I do). The Elmar itself is another story, the aperture setting at the front of the lens is not very user friendly, and it puts me in a mode where I set my speed and aperture only every few shots.
Pass me the lotion
So far so good, and I can add, probably for the 10th time, that the camera is quiet small and funky so it is quite appropriate for street photography ( I don’t like the term cause I am a bit snobbish, but that’s what I kind of do).
Another kind of street artist
So where does it go wrong? As usual with film photography it goes wrong when you get home, wait a week for the lab to process your film and you discover that the film has not turned out quiet as expected.
But the band played on
With some reframing and photoshopping I managed to minimized it, but on that beautiful week-end where most of the shots were done at high speed ( for the IIIC that means 1/100, 2/100 or 1/500, I never trust the 1/1000) the left of the pictures is constantly overexposed and the right underexposed.
Ciggie break
It is more noticeable in the scenes which are brightly lit, like those at the market, not at all in the one below shot in dim light. This is due in my experience to the back curtain being lazy.
Sketching in St EustacheLostThe painter
The two pictures above were actually shot in landscape and resized, as half the frame is black.
The harder rat will last (I can’t translate the French wordplay)
So what happens next? Well first thing I shot a second roll because I did not knew, and you will see it in a couple of days.
Then last week I brought the camera to Aperture UK in London to have it serviced. For the second time this little fellow will cost me more than I paid for it in the first place (230 USD back in 2013). Ok I realised that this is 10 years back! I can’t believe it. I think I shot about 35 rolls with it, so we’ll probably say that each roll cost me 20$ of camera usage, not counting the lenses. Film is definitely not cheap.
A popular Japanese place
I hope you enjoyed the reading, be patient, next roll is coming
OMG this is roll 03 already ! But one sec where is roll 01? Well ok Roll 01 is sitting tight in the computer, waiting for its blog post, but I think I could share a few colour shots for a change.
The players – Clerkenwell
So actually the trip starts where Roll02 finished, in Borough Market, I had a bit of a hard time to load a roll of Portra 400 in the M6, god knows why. This is always so easy but not that day. So I missed a few shots and soon after it was loaded it was too dark for the Summaron 3.5. On the way back we walk up to Smithfield market, then up to Clerkenwell, where we met these gents playing chess outside of a church.
Who cares about signs when you drive a Jag – Chelsea
Sunday was more a Chelsea / Thames river walk where I first met the above Jag then towards the Thames I met again the following acquaintance.
The return of the penny farthing- Chelsea
The guy on the penny farthing this time in colour, the cars don’t make much for a background, but I had not enough time to move them around.
Then a long walk along the Thames.
My photographic weeks are long tunnels where nothing happens until the next week end, so after a long apnoea I carried the roll of Portra ( with the camera around it) to the west side that time.
The three wise men
Around Harrods I met these three happy Chelsea pensioners, they are retired servicemen from the British army, leaving in Chelsea. They were happy to pose for me in front of a big car. When I told them with such a big car one may think they were having a good life they told me that indeed they had. Nice to meet happy folks from time to time.
Kensignton Palace entry
Through Hyde Park and towards Nothing Hill I notice the doorbell of Kensington Palace, next time I am invited I’ll know where to ring. Two Pictures are not much for a Sunday but ok there’s no hurry.
Meanwhile life goes on
Opposite 10 downing street Ukrainians continue demonstrating against the war that is still going on in our backyard, while here life goes on.
… a special tourist
Moving eastwards, Benjamin Netanyahu was in town, causing some of his countrymen to express what hey think of his visit to the UK and recent policies. The man travels in style, staying the Savoy.
A couple of shots reminding of the Empire and its colonial past.
Monuments to the Gurkha’s
A Royal Enfield Side Car
Dancing in the streets
Luckily all is not doom and gloom and people are still dancing in the streets.
I hope you enjoyed the walks, maybe a bit of Paris action soon…
This is not a piece of sci-fi write up, just a few shots from a protest about Climate Change on Trafalgar Square in London in early November.
It seems to become a recurring pattern in my posts (check here ), but this is a reality : some people wants to let the others know that climate is changing and its time we do something about it.
I don’t necessarily do enough myself (oh that business trip to Asia makes me guilty) , but maybe sharing pictures is a small action I can do?
It cannot be less productive than wearing an extinction rebellion tie 🙂 . Ok ok and what about the impact of film processing? Frankly I don’t know. This was shot with my Leica M4 from 1967, with an even older lens, so probably it has less impact that a digital sensor made in the recent years. Tough question, a bit like electric car battery impact vs thermic engine oil consumption.
This guy’s accordion is probably not younger than the M4, he kindly started playing when I asked to take his portrait, but even in 2022 the M4 is still not capturing sound. I used the KEKS EM-01 Light meter , it is nice and light and quite accurate, but I still have problems reading the measure.
This is another roll of my 100ft HP5 roll that I still have not finished, it is not so old, so I don’t think age has deteriorated it that much but I am not really enthralled by the grain. Well another 4 rolls to go. It seems it never finishes, but all in all it should be about 18 rolls overall. I think I’ll buy something else next. Maybe some Ultrafine 400, but it seems the Extreme is sold out. They now have a different product, Finesse, I have to dig a little before engaging me for another 18 rolls, but also that is just 60USD for 100ft roll.
Rebels at rest
By the way this is roll 23 of this year, all in all better than last year (in term of number of rolls anyway) but far from my 55 rolls from a few years back.
Oh I have decide to go back to Caffenol, so watch this space for badly processed pictures in the coming weeks.
I hope you enjoyed the pics, and remember : “There is no planet B”
Last week end (2nd to 5th of June) was the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, a celebration giving some picture opportunities.
Friday, all started by the air parade shot from my window with the crappy Canon Serenar 135F4 mounted on the Leica M262. The lens was already mounted on the camera, I was just playing around last week.
WWII planes, I think a Lancaster bomber and four spitfires
The city was generally dressed up in national colours and royal memorabilia’s. Here the newspaper kiosk on Sloane Square, shot with the Summaron 35mmF2.8, the M version with goggles. I really went al vintage lenses this week,
A couple of “street parties” happened through the kingdom over he week end, mostly involving food and drinks, here in Mayfair Friday.Paul Smith window in Marylebone.I was expecting more silliness in the street, but ok some people really played the game.
Friday a steel band was playing on Kings Road, a couple of ladies made their best to warm up the atmosphere.
The queen of the afternoon
But they were not alone.
Even the Chelsea Pensioners were out.
Some people were rushing to parties in the hood.
The party went on until Sunday.
Chinatown
People rushed to the Mall on Sunday morning to see the parade.
But I met Stan Laurel.
and actually walking against the flow, we reached Hyde Park Corner and met the parade, with no crowd at all.
Sunday I changed the lens for the Summaron 35mmF3.5 ltm, a better choice as it is easier to focus without the goggles.
After watching so many horses, we moved to the Belgravia street party on Elizabeth street (the well named).
God save the queenThe queen
And all finished with a bit of music (and beer)
If you are not bored by now, I will have some film shots from Saturday to post as well.
All shots with Leica M262, with in order the Canon Serenar 135mmF4 ltm, the Summaron 35mmF2.8 M, the Summaron 35mmF3.5 ltm
A bit more than a month back I bought two rolls of Cinestill XX in the Aperture UK shop in London. I have read about this film, but its the first time I saw some available for purchase, so I picked two rolls to see what it is like, keeping in mind that I will have a road trip in France a few weeks down the line.
I loaded the first roll soon after and started shooting in London over a couple of very sunny week-ends we had in late April.
The XX box claim to be a variable speed motion picture, but on a conservative move, I set the M6 speed dial to 200, and put a 50mm lens in front of it, most likely the Summicron v5 or the Summilux v2 with a yellow filer.
Balthazar’s bride
It is very difficult to tell which one I used from the pictures.
TwinsOff the wall
So a good first part of the roll was shot in London, the weather was nice and my brain clicked in shooting mode.
Fashion addicts
When holidays started, I spent a day in Paris, with not much shooting action, then drove to the Loire valley, where frankly I felt more compelled to use the digital M and 28 mm cron.
But here are three shots of the park of the Chenonceau castle.
At this point we drove to Bordeaux witch I never visited before and seems to be a good place for street photography, just enough people, and specific places.
A street in Cite Fujes built by Le Corbusier
Worth visiting for modern architecture buffs : the cité frugès built by Le Corbusier, one house is a museum and can be visited upon appointment.
The marketThe blue oyster cultStreet life
The film was processed by my usual lab here in London : Analogue Films in Shoreditch, it seems they were not very familiar with the film at first. They managed to do their usual good job as processing and scanning.
The last part we moved to Biarritz in the Basque Country, capital of surfing in France.
Life is a beach
I always found very odd to shoot sea side in black and white, but hey why not, my parents did this ages ago.
Bay watchLocal artistsThe market
I found the XX a bit too grainy for my taste, maybe blame the processing, who knows? Lets see how the second roll turns out.
Oh yes, the cost. The film was 11£ a roll ( almost 13 Euros, 14 USD, 19 SGD), mmm I think I still have some HP5+ in my 100ft roll. And Analogue Films charge about 8£ for process and scan.
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