The Leica III goes out for a spin in London

17/08/202217/08/2022 waex9921mmF4, 50mmF3.5, acros, bike, bromptom, car, chelsea, color, elmar, fuji, Garden, iiic, jaguar, leica, london, lots, ltm, mount, musician, paris, road, saint, screw, skopar, Sulpice, VC, vintage, voigtlander, weddingLeave a comment

It has been a year since I moved to London but it still feels like I just arrived and there are still so many things I have not done. But this is one I have done now : I took the Leica IIIC for a spin, and we had a great time.

The pictures have been taken over a few weeks, mostly in London, but actually I realised I even brought the little fellow to Paris. It all started the week of the “Secret Gardens” walk : a week-end of open gates in private gardens around London. An opportunity of long walks and discoveries.

The first pictures are not really garden like, but I found this beautiful beast parked outside a garden. I had loaded the camera with my last roll of Fuji Across 100 (the old version) expired since a couple of years now. A souvenir from Singapore. For that first day I brought two lens (I think) the VC 21 Color Skopar and the 50 Elmar F3.5.

I have a small choice of LTM lenses: the VC 21mmF4, the Elmar, a Summitar 50mmF2 and a Summaron 35mmF3.5. And also a poor 135mmF4 Canon Serenar. But I particularly love the Elmar because of its ease of use and very predictable results. The 21mm, I love because it is sexy, particularly with the VC 21-25mm Viewfinder.

I went to Paris that week end with the little fellow and I think that’s the first time he’s been there. I only brought the Elmar, a week end in Paris is not for fussing around.

The above scene is badly centred, I blame the viewfinder for this. I sometime wish I could have a 50mm external finder like the cool Leica SBOOI.

A choir was rehearsing in Saint Sulpice church and I capture the above is a beautiful subdued light, probably wide open 1/15s, slow lens and 100 ISO film can do that.

I was back in London to capture the most beautiful day of the life of the lady above, and indulge in my gothic tendencies in Brompton cemetery

But soon it was time for Wimbledon and tennis balls grew on trees

I finished the roll in Chelsea harbour, back with the 21mm with the two shots below.

The pub around the corner, I love the tones.

Top picture is of a mural on Primrose hill, a portrait of Captain Sir Thomas Moore, more popularly known as Captain Tom, who was a British Army officer and fundraiser who made international headlines in 2020 when he raised money for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Film was processed in Analogue Films is Shoreditch as usual.

My last roll of Ektachrome

03/07/202203/07/2022 waex992022, 21mmF4, 35mmF3.5, choeur, choir, color, diapo, diapositive, ektachrome, Garden, japanese, japonais, jardin, june, kodak, leica, london, londres, ltm, m6, mariage, paris, seine, skopar, slide, summitar, tamise, Thames, voigtlander, wedding1 Comment

No worries : this is only the last roll of Ektachrome in my box. It expired sometime in early 2021 and travelled in a container from Singapore to London, and probably made a couple back and forth on airplanes without being shot.

*Nic G, The friendly gardener at All Hallows By The Tower Garden*

It all started by the Secret Gardens open days in London, where I loaded the M6 Classic with the said roll, and attached the Voigtlander Color Skopar 21mmF4 and the famous 21-25 viewfinder. It was a very lovely day and we headed first to the Tower of London where we visited the garden of All Hallows By The Tower garden, where Nic the gardener grows plants he saves from the streets.

We walked back along the Thames , for the very touristic shot above, we also visited the Nomura building with its rooftop garden but I managed to screw-up the shots.

A bit of panning on passing vehicles is never lost, above on Lower Thames street.

Catching up with the city, we visited the Lincoln’s Inn, as they put on their website a “thriving society of barrister”, I am totally ignorant of this, but there were beautiful grounds and I could shot a few birds. Getting there we crossed the London’s Naked Ride, for which I made a couple of shots but not so funny with 21mm, so I’ll pass. Use google if you have no idea what I am talking about.

We continued the game the next day, spotted the nice vintage vehicle above.

We finished sometime Sunday afternoon around Notting Hill visiting some private gardens.

As I am a slow shooter, I finished the second half of the roll in Paris. Which I find very inspiring since my return to Europe. By then I had changed the lens to the vintage 35mmF3.5 Summitar LTM.

*Photoshoot for a Japanese wedding, place Dauphine*

In Saint Sulpice church, a German Choir was practicing, the light was wonderful and I regretted not having a better set-up, but I think the above shot gives an idea of what was going on.

This was my first E6 roll processed and scanned by Analogue Films. Good job as usual and I was nicely surprised they were able to do it in the same one week period as they do for C41 or black and white.

I hope you enjoyed the reading.

Twelve a dozen

24/05/2022 waex99120, 500cm, borough, color, couleur, ektar, extinctionRebellion, film, format, gens, Hasselblad, kodak, london, marché, Market, medium, moyen, people, square, street1 Comment

And here is the second roll shot with the Hassie in London last month. Kodak Ektar 100 shot at 100, with Hassie 500CM.

Friendly climate activist (Aren’t they all?)

I use a handled Sekonic L-308X, that is overkill for the job, but I had to change my last one after 10 years of service, some soldering broke, and I though about finding it a new home and treating me to a new meter.

I am impressed by the 3D pop on this shot. The hassie is a great ice breaker. I really like these first two shots.

A bit of Easter spirit was still hanging around.

We bumped into Malaysian students around Borough Market, chit chat about Singapore and Malaysia and took a few pics and weefy.

I was quite intrigues when I arrive din London to see these street shops selling food for cabbies and probably the general public also. I never tried though.

A colourful block near Victoria station

Film processed and scanned by Analogue Lab in Shoreditch.

ROLL 2021#14 COLORFUL JOO CHIAT

13/06/2021 waex99120, 6x6, analog, argentique, asia, color, colour, couleur, ektar, film, format, Hasselblad, JooCHiat, kodak, medium, moyen, planar, singapore, squareLeave a comment

So after Roll15, here is Roll14. This one is a bit late as I had to bring it to the lab and it took me the whole week to do it. Well so here is a beautiful roll of Kodak Ektar, processed and scanned by Whampoa color. The roll was shot with the Hasselblad 500CM with the kit lens (Planar 80mmF2.8), as last Sunday I stick to the rule, one camera one lens.

So these are 12 shots done when I met Ez in Joo Chiat, you can see him in one of the shots.

It was a beautiful morning, with a lot of light (and very hot), I shot the Ektar at 100 measure with the Sekonic 308x. As usual there was not a single AA battery in sight at home, so I started my photowalk by scouting for batteries.

CNY 2021 ON KODAK EKTAR

14/02/202115/02/2021 waex99100ISO, 120, 6x6, analog, argentique, bahru, chinese, chinois, chintaown, cny, color, couleur, ektar, film, format, kodak, marche, medium, MF, moyen, new, nouvel, ox, Singapor, singapur, square, street, temple, tiong, walk, whampoa, year1 Comment

So when I brought my last roll of Portra to the lab the uncle coaxed me into buying some Ektar 100, not wanting to look mean I bought not a roll but a box of 5 rolls. I must say this is a decent deal as it comes with five coupons of one dollar to be rebated of their processing. If I remember correctly this is 52 dollars for the 5 rolls and they do processing + super decent scanning at 11 dollars (Singapore Dollars).

I shot Ektar before, but mostly in 35mm, I must say it pays credit to the claim that it is the finest grain film. So I loaded the good old Hassie 500 CM with my first roll and hit the road to give it a try.

12 shots on a 120 roll is not much, but walking through overshot areas on a Sunday afternoon, it can be quite a challenge to finish a full roll.

The ex-Majestic Hotel, now the Straight Clan asscoation

We walked from home to Tiong Bahru, then headed to Chinatown. The Straight Clan is where the Majestic hotel used to be. I spent 5 weeks in this hotel in 2006 and have some interesting shots from the construction site period, when it was converted. Maybe I’ll share this some time.

We moved to the Buddha tooth relic temple where I notice the Buddhist flags which where not there last week ( you can check the post) and I though it was a nice opportunity for color sampling and smooth grain demonstration.

In Chinatown every year temporary stands selling goods for the occasion the Chinese New Year appear and disappear in a mater of a few weeks. Generally they close late on the eve of the New Year day. This year everybody was masked, there were less stands as the people coming from other countries could not enter Singapore. If you want to ne picky, the focus is on the cage bars, not the seller.

Exiting Chinatown, I took this shot of the Ox silk paper statue. This is not the best angle as it is quite busy with the traffic lights posts and cars. The best angle is diametrically opposite I think. But you can see here how nice and bright the colors are.

Nice mural on Substation, an art center on Armenian Street, close to the Peranakan museum. Substation used to host gigs and has a broad program, with what seems to be a focus on the street / youth culture.

The last shot in order to finish the roll : a mundane view of the Rendez-Vous Hotel at the bottom of Orchard Road. Totally uninteresting but very nice blues.

I you missed the links in the text you can check the post CNY 2021 in Chinatown with the Hassie 500CM to compare similar shots with Portra 160.

All shots: Hasselblad 500 CM with standard 80mmF2.8
Kodak Ektar 100 shot at 100
Processing and Scanning : Whampoa Color

Around Singapore in November 2020

22/11/202022/11/2020 waex9935mm, 400ISO, Chinatown, color, colour, couleur, deepavali, film, Halloween, india, kodak, leica, little, m6, parapluie, portra, print, rangefinder, Sentoda, siloso, singapore, street, Summicron, umbrella, walk, WhampaoLeave a comment

A very quick post of shots done earlier this month on an expired roll of Kodak Portra 400 with the Leica M6 and the Summicron 35mm Asph v2.

The roll was processed and scanned at Whampoa Photo. I find the scanning job they do of equal quality (or better) than what I do myself, so no point wasting time. The first set above was done around Marina Bay, over a couple of different week ends, one being just before Halloween.

Second section comprise photos of Little India around Deepavali celebration and the first shot was in Chinatown during a meet up with fellow film photographers.

Third section contains some shot shots fort Siloso in Sentosa, and a couple of random shots from a walk around Newton.

Finally a shot of fellow film photographer from Japan who has been around in Singapore for quite a few years and always carry his two pristine Nikons F2. He will go home soon for good, so farewell.

This was roll number 42 of the year, and the 11th with the M6, I hop eyou enjoyed the ride.

Walking around with color film

04/09/2020 waex9950mm, 50mmF2, analog, argentique, color, coutume, custom, fantomes, film, ghosts, kodak, leica, m6, mois, proimage, ritual, rituel, seventh, singapore, singapour, Summicron, whampoaLeave a comment

A quick post about last two weeks walking around with the Leica M6 loaded with a roll of Kodak ProImage 100 and paired with a Summicron 50mm V.

This is a bit awkward in the middle of my Caffenol frenzy, but it helps changing perspective. Also I brought the film to Whampoa Photo, and the scanning is very nice. I usually scan myself, but that time I decide to give it a try and the result is surprisingly good.

Feb 2020 in Singapore with the Leica III

23/02/202023/02/2020 waex99135, 2020, 21mm, 24x36, 35mm, analog, argentiqe, chestnut, color, colorplus, colour, couleur, february, fevrier, food, hot-road, iiic, kodak, leica, ltm, people, random, screewmount, singapore, singapour, stall, street, temple, virus2 Comments

Regular readers already know the Leice IIIc is my go to camera when I just walk around without goals. This roll was loaded at the end of a supposed Hasselblad walk with the Hasselblad User Group Singaore (HUGS).

2020-10-IIIc-03-4 — Masks and hankies are out to fight the Coronavirus

This is a roll of cheap Kodak Color Plus. I shot a few of them so far, and I think it is good enough when you have no special goal.

2020-10-IIIc-03-6 — Reading your fortune for the year of the rat

This is quite an easy film to scan, the ISO 200 is quite convenient for color street shots on a nice day.

2020-10-IIIc-03-8 — Roasted Chestnut stall

Walking from Bugis and Waterloo street area, the weather was beautiful, and I think the colors are very nice, vivid enough but not over saturated.

2020-10-IIIc-03-12 — The newly renovated Indian temple on Waterloo street

That day I had the Voigtlander 21mmF4 mounted on the Leica IIIc, and as above and below I think it realy renders movement very nicely.

2020-10-IIIc-03-13 — The shy passer by (cropped)

The colors on the next two shots are outstanding, but light was exceptional too.

2020-10-IIIc-03-14 — HDB block at Middle Road

2020-10-IIIc-03-15 — Ezekiel the HUGS master

2020-10-IIIc-03-17 — The Chinese tourists at Chimes

Of course sometime as above the 21mm gives a bit too much negative space.

Over this last year I shot a lot of with the 21 VC and I like it a lot. On the negative side I would say that sometimes it gives a very crisp and modern look to the pictures you may or may not like.

From this point the pictures are taken with the vintage Summaron 35F3.5. They are mostly taken in the afternoon where the light if not as good.

2020-10-IIIc-03-25 — The ugly Jag in from the Raffles hotel

I also think the Summaron is an excelled lens. 35mm is a lot more manageable than 21, but I also have a 35mm finder,

The above is taken inside the National Design Museum, but there was plenty of light.

I don t realy know the relationship between the expo and Kraftwerk, but…

2020-10-IIIc-03-34 — Beaty Street Tibetan temple

2020-10-IIIc-03-35 — A random arcade game

2020-10-IIIc-03-38 — A Hot Road is a rare sight in Singapore

Film is scanned at home with Epson v800, I do a bit of colour and exposure correction in Light-room .

Polypan 50 ISO with Leica IIIc and a slow lens

24/11/2019 waex9921mmF4, 50Iso, analog, argentique, candid, Chinatown, color, epson, filrm, iiic, leica, ltm, polypan, rangefinder, sekonic, skopar, street, v800, voigtlanderLeave a comment

This is my third post about the Polypan 50 and thanks to my friend Felix who is always eager to feed me some more this is probably the 10th roll I have shot.

2019-34-iiic-4-6 — The subtle art of panning and the scratched negative

This roll is a bit old and traveled in and out of the fridge a few time, also Felix warned me about the first two frames to generally better be avoided. Finally the film is quite thin and this may result in a bit of struggle when loading the film on the reel. so one or two early

So this particular roll I decided to shoot with the Leica IIIc and the Color Skopar 21mm. I am still trying hard to love this lens and the camera looks super good with the VC finder I bought last summer.

At this point I have small problem because I am not really able to guesstimate the light and I have relied on my Sekonic 308, that i bought new in 2010 with my first Leica. The little fellow is now more dead than alive, draining batteries like hell and giving random measures. So after the first half of the film I decided to go the the shop and get a new light-meter. To cut it short I bough the same one, lets hope it last as long.

So this is a recipe for disaster, a slow film, an old camera, and a slow lens. Luckily last Saturday the weather was nice when I hit Chinatown and came across Felix of course.

I am not a big theoretician, but what i like with the 21mm is the dynamic it gives to (rather mundane) pictures where people are moving like above or below.

2019-34-iiic-4-19 — More crossing, but to slow to catch the lady’s face

Chinatown is also the opportunity to catch again and again the old folks playing Chinese checkers or chess. Some slow action going on, so speed can be lessen, perfect for my set-up.

2019-34-iiic-4-16

Another obvious thing with the 21 : you need to be close to your subject. How close is close? Probably all the pictures in this post are done between 2 and 4 meters ; the one below more like 1 meter.

2019-34-iiic-4-17 — Even better, people are rest

2019-34-iiic-4-2 (2)

And finally a bit more panning for that young lady.

2019-34-iiic-4-21

You can see my old posts about polypan50 here:

A first roll of Polypan F50

35mm Film in hassy back

BACK TO THE MONKEY GOD TEMPLE – With a roll of slides

04/11/201904/11/2019 waex9950mmF2, analog, argentique, birthday, Celebration, color, couleur, culture, diapositive, epson, expired, expiree, film, fuji, fujichrome, fujicolor, leica, m6, people, portrait, provia, religion, singapore, singapour, slide, Summicron, Taoism, Taoisme, taoist, temple, tradition, v800Leave a comment

2019_30_M6_19_38 — The Sedan chair porter

This is a follow up of my last port about the Monkey God temple birthday in Tiong Bahru. These pictures were taken with a roll of Provia 400F given to me by KC Eng. It is expired since 2008, but I did not check at the time and shot it at 400 with Leica M6 and Summicron 50.

Ths shots were processed at Analog Lab and scanned at home ; they turned out quite okay. Maybe the overcast weather did not allow for a more reach color palette.