The last roll of 2022

A Well travelled one.

Well actually this roll was shot between mid December and the first week of January. It travelled around a bit as it started from London (Spitalfields market on the first three shots)

Then came Xmas holidays and a trip to see the family in Cannes on the French Riviera, and the long awaited trip to Lapland (Guess which shot). I will try to talk about my (limited ) experience shooting in Lapland but maybe another time.

We were back from Lapland in Paris the 1st of Jan

Then finally back in London (one have to work)

Then back to Cannes and Nice again.

and finally back to London where I have to go to Brick lane to drop this roll.

Ok so these two months were not very good for my carbon footprint and I feel a bit ashamed, although some of the trips were done by train. This also mean this roll of Kodak TMY-400 travelled quite a bit and went through at least 6 scans, and is still faring pretty well. I still have a TMZ 3200 that I bought for Lapland and did not shot, so it will also have a bit of mileage and it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

All shots were done with a Leica M6 classic and a Summicron 50mm v5 or 35mmAsph v2.

Thanks for watching.

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The Italian Market (Cagnes sur mer – France)

It has been super long since I last posed anything so here is my first post of 2023, even though these are pics of 2022. These are picture of the Italian Market that happens once a month, the first week end of the month, in Cagnes sur mer, near Nice, on the French Riviera.

Very colourful, even in black and white. Excellent cold cuts and cheese, pretty good value for money.

Genuine food sellers coming from nearby italy.

Shots were done with Leica M262+Summicron 50 and Leica M6 with Summicron 35mm Asph v2 on Kodak TMY (400Iso)

Enjoy and bon appetit.

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

On the French Riviera

After leaving Paris, I travelled to my hometown of Cannes, famous for its festival, the beaches and its beautiful weather.

It did not disappoint its son. The weather was perfect, mostly bright blue skies all the time and a far warmer climate that Paris (or London).

Cannes also boasts two main harbours, filled with oversized yachts but also with fishermen’s boats as in the two pictures above showing some traditional fishing boats called “pointus”.

The end of the bay on the east side is called la Pointe Croisette and hosts the casino named “Palm Beach”, whose name is sometime used to designate the area. The casino is under renovation, and for those with a culture in French cinema, the crane you see is located where the famous swimming pool of “Melodie en Sous Sol” was located.

Cannes is not just for stars : locals still play the “petanque”

And not all drive Rolls Royces.

A tiny Autobianchi can be found on the harbour (in excellent condition)

And a 1950’s Peugeot 203 can be found driving around (slightly less good condition).

There was a lot of activity along the beach this year. Some relax, some have to work, thats life.

The sunsets on these winter days were often breath-taking.

All shots with Leica M262 and 35mm Summicron Asph v2 or Elmar 50mmF3.5 ltm, what else do you need?

A roll of Rollei RPX 25

I had high hopes for my holidays in the alps, so I brought some slides and low speed B&W film, but alas, the weather was, how can I put it politely, not so great.

And over the week I did not took out the film body.

When I hit the french riviera I was still quiet excited, but I could not really convince myself that this was the time for shooting this last roll of Velvia.

Anyway so I loaded the M6 with a roll of Rollei 25, I used a mix of 50 Summiilux V2, the 35 Summaron 2.8 and the newly acquired Summicron 28mm.

Needless to say I still find the M6 is a joy to use with any of these lenses.

In my ignorance, I though that a low speed film would be better used in bright daylight on a great sunny day. Actually this is a  very contrasty film and in bright light you end up with very high contrasts. You may like it or not, I am so so.

In subdued light like on the next picture taken on the beach on a cloudy day, the grays are nicer.

On a practical point of view, the film is very flat when coming back from the lab so it’s fairly easy to scan.

There is a very thorough review of this film (and many more) here:

http://photo-analogue.blogspot.sg/2014/03/rollei-rpx-25.html

Clearly it is a bit childish to play with these “special” films and bring them to a commercial lab. It looks like their “specialness” need to be handled with care when processing the film, and the character can be managed one way or the other.

Note that I did not use any filters for these pictures

Medium format on the Beach : “Le cabanon de la plage” and more

Summer holidays in France means for me taking an odd camera out of the cupboard in my parents house. I must say I am always tempted to take the Dacora Digna  which gives me quite some quite consistent results. Its lack of settings, its Lomo / Holga style rendering (yes but a Free vintage Holga mind you) always make it for interesting results.

Le Cabanon de la Plage is an extremely nice good restaurant with an amazing setting on the border of the beach in La Bocca just outside Cannes on the French Riviera.

La plage

I also became partial to using slide film with it. This makes the price per shot quite high indeed but actually I really like what I get in return.

Nice is nice I think “Nice is nice” is part of lyrics of a song, this made us laugh our heads out when we were teenagers.

Finally, a subtle hint of posts to come, picking one one of the “odd” camera was quite challenging this year as I carried from Singapore my beloved Leica M4 and also my new long awaited toy, a pristine M6 Classic black with a Summaron 35mmF2.8.

Back from inside the cardbox : the Canonet 28

During last summer holidays my wife looked into an old card-box in the garage and found the Canonet 28 her dad offered her for her 10’s birthday. The camera was still boxed, with the never ready case, strap, manual, guarantee card and a film still engaged.
All looked in perfect condition at the time, but I did not have time to take it for a try and the wife did not want to bring it back to Singapore.

Cannes Le Vieux Port – Fishermen’s warf

So last month we were back to France for Christmas holidays and I planned carefully to arrived with a roll of Tri-X and an Alkaline battery to make my test. Opening the box a second time was a different experience: the never ready case is very deteriorated, and some joint on the camera door are desaggregating as well. The battery contact shows some corrosion but my father in law was clever enough to remove the old battery before packing the camera. All in all the camera is in good shape, but bought in 1975 and packed probably since the middle of the 80’s (30 years ago), it is not in pristine condition.

Orchestra – Xmas market – Cannes

After cleaning the contacts, I loaded the battery and the roll of film and the meter start moving when the aperture ring is set to auto mode. I went though the documentation but could not get the meter to give me a speed indication when I select the aperture manually; so all the shots are done in full auto mode.

Framed – Saint Laurent du Var – France

Results are quite good I think. Quite good contrast if not sharp. There is a few limitations ISO is limited to 25 to 400 range and speed from 1/30th to 1/600th. When it is getting dark, the camera will take pictures at 1/30th F2.8 which cause some motion blur or under exposure. Focusing is easy and seems quite accurate.

The fence – Saint Laurent du Var – France

I saw the fence and just thought about Geoff Dyer’s book “The ongoing moment” that I am finishing at the moment. He makes a relationship between a 1916 shot of a fence by Paul Strand and a far later picture by Michael Ormerod echoing to it. And here I am in the next century, 100 years later indeed, in front of the fence… really I have no shame

Court Saleya – Nice

Marché Saint François – Nice

Ferris Wheel – Nice

Ferris Wheel – Nice

Roundabout at night – Antibes – France

Xmas Market scene – Cannes – France

And now for those who read carefully the start of the post. What of the film that was engaged in the camera?  This was Konika SR-V 100 color print film; manufacture in the late 80’s; so this is probably expired for 20 odd years. I rolled it back carefully, loaded it in the Nikon F3 and shot it at 50ISO and brought it to the lab… absolutely nothing was shown on the negs when I collected them. Too bad….

Carnaval de Nice – Nice – France

Carnaval de Nice

Last month I went to the “Carnaval de Nice” with the Hassie and the second roll of Rollei Digibase CR200.

Carnaval de Nice

Nice is just 30 km from my hometown of Cannes, but this is just the second time in my life (about 48 years) that I go there. I have an excuse because I have been away since 1985. I went with my son Noé who also made some nice pics with his Coolpix.

Carnaval de Nice

Not so easy to catch action with the Hasselblad, I was also not very well positioned so there is a bit of back-light. I still think this film is great; the colors are very realistic and it is quite relaxed regarding exposition.

Carnaval de Nice

Carnaval de Nice

Carnaval de Nice

 

Camera::Hasselblad 500CM, Planar 80mmF2.8
Film::Rollei Digibase CR200

Rollei Digibase CR200 – PRO

Quai du large – Cannes – France

This is probably the last film of 2013, all in all I think I shot 54 rolls not including a couple of complete lost ones, so I reached my target for the year: 1 roll a week. I am not sure I will do it again this year.

But back to the Rollei Digibase CR200. This is a slide film, formerly sold as Agfa Precisa, and now produce by Agfa in Belgium. I orderd a 5 pack a few month back and found it in the post box (so to speak) when I was back in Cannes for Xmas. I could not resist to try one of rolls.

My medium format of choice when in Cannes in the Dacora Digna. A german point and shoot made in the late 50’s with a single adjustment for apperture : F8 and F11 (this was all shot at F11) and a very simple shutter made of a single spring that works more or less at 1/50 seconds. The distance is set on the barel of the extensible lens with just 3 markings.

Back in Singapore it took a while to have the film processed: I was told that the guy doing slides was busy which I think is a good sign (or maybe he has so little work that he waits a few weeks to process a a couple of rolls in one batch). Anyway 4 weeks and 12 SGD (7.5 EUR) later I got my 12 shots. Talking about money I think the film goes for more of less 5EUR.

The shipyard – Cannes – France

The film is easy to scan, although a bit curly, the colors are going out very well, very natural, unlike the last roll of Fuji that I scanned. There is probably more grain than on other slide films, but oh actually are there any other slide films available in 2014?

Le Moure rouge – Cannes – France

All considered I’m very pleased and cannot wait to try in with the Hassie.

Camera::Dacora Digna
Film::Rollei Digibase CR200