D-Day trip with WWII area Leica

The Braves – Omaha beach

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.

My first roll of Cinestill XX

London, where else?

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.

Twins

Off 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 market

The blue oyster cult

Street 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 watch

Local artists

The 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.

Hope you enjoyed the ride.

Cannes in black and white

Welcome

Everything is nice in black and white, there was not other choice for pictures a few decades back anyway, nor for motion pictures. And black clothes have a sliming effect (oh I m being carried away, my goth side is speaking now).

Vintage Vedette projector, Cannes is home of the film festival right?

That said the seaside is not necessarily associated with black and white photography, the sand and blue skies are far away from the gloom and doom of big cities.

This is part of the second roll of the year, still going through the 30 meters roll of Ilford HP5. It is a bit boring but I used the M6 classic again and all these pictures were taken with the 35mm Summicron Asph v2.

Topolino

The Fiat 500 is associated to the Dolce Vita, a movie that was host in … Technicolor black and white.

The Blue chairs

In winter on the famous Croisette boulevard, not many stars nor sunbathers, but you can see the light is quite good.

A walk along the dock

On the seaside you can also so some street type shots.

Smells fishy

Finally the sea, on this scene backlit by the setting sun (on the left), the old city of Cannes in the far right, hills of Tanneron behind and the Esterel range on the left.

Finally two random shots, trying to see what can be done a bit closer.

French Riviera on Portra 400

Mare Nostrum

My posts since July are like a pinball : London – Paris – Cannes – London – London – London – Paris – Cannes – London. There are worst things in life particularly by the time being.

I have tried many times to shot the water on pebbles and finally above is a picture I like. Probably the only picture with amazing colors.

High FLyer

This a roll of expired Portra 400 shot on the French Riviera during the Christmas season.

I missed Santa but the Christmas trees were growing very close to the sea this year. I used the faithful Leica M6 and either the Summicron 35mm Asph v2 or the Elmar 50 F3.5.

L’estérel

I found the seaside less inspiring that the city, but if you look closely there is always something to capture.

The masked gamers

Older gents playing chess with their Covid masks on or not. I generally prefer to shoot Black and White on film, as I think the digital M renders more live like colours and the picture are popping more.

The “pétanque” club

The misaligned sign of the “pétanque” club…

Or the first bathers of the year (actually not quite but they will do for today)

Nice is nice as goes the song, not too far away from Cannes, a big 30 minutes by train, and a bit more city like.

Holidays !

Individuality

Topolino forever

The Michelin Building at dusk

Finally back in London.. thanks for watching

A nice day out

Sunday at Marina South and Marina Barrage with the Hasselblad 500 CM and a roll of Rollei 80s. I processed the roll in two or three weeks after shooting it. There is couple of problems (like the dost on the bonnet of the Beetle) but I think this is due to teh film being old and the having taken in and out of the fridge a few times

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A bit more defects are visible in the shadow area. lets blame the age of the film. Also at the bottom the part of of the picture missing is due to the film starting too early, probably some adjustment to make to the back of the hassie.

Wifey with Helix bridge in the background

Hope you enjoyed.

By the sea in Thailand with the Leica M6

I always found the mix of photography and beach repulsive, the salty breeze, the sand that gets everywhere, hands oily with sunscreen, splashes and the odds of falling into the water,… so much things happening that you don;t want a camera, let alone your precious Leica mixed into.

Well I must say I am a bit fantasizing here, as an adult the experience of the beach is not necessarily the one I had when I grew up along the shore of the french riviera. A stroll along the water not involving leaving the camera on a beach towel or in a bag in the sun is now more common that is use to be, and if it is a day I intend to go for  dip, I generally take a lesser camera (read MEDIUM FORMAT ON THE BEACH : “LE CABANON DE LA PLAGE” AND MORE)

The sea side always offer a special quality of light, that works particularly well in black and white.  

Also it is an endless opportunity of activities, landscapes and man made constructions.

All shots with Leica M6 on Kodak TMAX400 (The shop ran out of TriX), the first three were taken with the Summicron 50 v5, the rest with the Summicron 28mm Asph v1. Shooting at 400 on this very bright morning means the lenses are completely stopped down and the shutter speed at 1/500s or 1/1000s, which may not be idea technically. My favorite film the TMAX100 would surely have been better, but…

As I am here, on the same roll of film were also some street shots taken in Bangkok on the say back from Hua Hin.

A young film photog with his Olympus pen, he also shoots medium format.

Below are four shots of the food hawkers around our hotel near Lumpini park.

A friendly and muscular worker along the Chao Phraya river near the Grand Palace

Finally below are two shots of worshipers inside the Grand Palace i think.

Over and Under the sea with my Heineken Camera

Ok actually this is more over the sea than under. Part of the “big tour of the south pacific” holidays camera pack, I carried along the Heineken Toy Camera and its waterproof case. I had a great time and some interesting shots when I brought in on a company week end out in Phuket two years ago, so I thought it would be a nice complement to the DSLR and the Agfa.

To make things a bit more funny, I loaded it with Black and White Tri-X film. I think the colors generally sucks with such cameras and black and white will make a bit more special images. I think at 400ISO the Tri-X is a bit over exposed even given the F9, 1/60th of a second fixed exposure of the camera. The 100ISO shots at Phuket where a bit better.

Oh and the fixed lens is a 28mm.

Below is my aquatic family, mini me and wifey

And your servitor, shot by Noé the aquatic photographer.

Shots from our hotel in Tahiti, with the island of Moorea in the background.

Our neightborhoud

Finaly a real underwater shot with fish included.

All of this is good fun. I missed having a digital submarine camera though, I must say the few underwater shots would have been nice. But not regret, i’ll do this again.

The return of the fishermen – Fort Galle – Sri Lanka

While in Sri Lanka I missed the fishermen on stilts, which can be found in many places along the coast  and actually not too far from Galle (pronounce Goal). I have been warned by different people that the are mostly doing for the tourists now, as my guide put it, they do it for real and may not be here when you go there, or it’s just for the show. Anyway I would not have mind taking a few shots for a few rupiahs, but I just missed the show.

However when arriving in Galle I noticed that there are quite a few fishing boats along the shore and I went for a stroll on the morning of our departure for Colombo. This is just outside of the walls of the Fort when to the east. Just 10 minutes walk from the Amangalla hotel (see my TripAdvisor review )

Fishermen return from the sea with fish when they are lucky, here are some of the catch.

I was a bit stressed to have wandered away before the imminent departure so I did not pay too much attention at my shooting : fatal mistake.  Only the first picture is ok grade I think, but I like sharing.

Nice – Le Port – Juillet 2011

Le Port de Nice

One of the first films in Cafenol; nice harbor under July mid-day sun. I’ve been walking around nice with the Hassie and the d700+17-35 for the last two hours, I definitely looked like a sweaty tourist. This is the last shot of the film, I put a Portra in just after and make a couple of very similar shots.. maybe another post tomorrow?

Camera: Hasselblad 500CM, Planar 80mm F2.8
Film: Kodak TMAX 100
Processing: Cafenol
Scanning: EPSON V500, Lightroom 3, PSP Elements 4