4 month in the back of the Hassie (The colour version)

Two weeks ago I took my courage in my hands and pulled the Hassie out of the box. When I say the Hassie I mean the Hassie and my second back. Because after my first outing with the Blad in London (here and here) I was so happy that I put a colour (Kodak Ektar 100 slightly expired) film in one back, and a roll of Ilford HP5+ in the other.

One back has a label “400” which is supposed to make things easier. Well anyway, back in May, and this Ektar roll, that was the Chelsea flower show and the sun was shinning and everything was perfect for a stroll in Chelsea.

I even found a Chinese artist doing whatever he was doing

and a dummy representing Vivienne Westwood close to where her iconic shop was in the 70’s.

Charles Eames plastic chairs are always a colourful delight (some of these are vintage fiberglass ones)

And then the hassie went in the cupboard for summer and went out two weeks ago. And on a beautiful autumn day, I dragged it along regents Canal, where the afternoon light was warm and beautiful.

All of this is water under the bridge. I used the Sekonic 380x as a light meter. A great piece of kit, but no so easy when switching backs.

And of course you are now expecting the catch at the end of the story. So we finish walking around Regents’ Park, went back to the Freeze open air sculpture exhibition, shot the final two frames, roll the roll .. et voila. The back labelled “400” is of course the one containing the Ektar roll. So assuming I had all my head for the first half of the roll, the second half was over exposed by one stop without visible effect on these shots.

You will also notice that there are only nine shots : apart from a portrait of my lovely wife that I keep to myself, there are two incredibly sh!t shots : the floor at my feet and a misfocused Austin mini as the beginning of the film. That’s easily 4 £ lost … errr

I hope you enjoyed the reading, get ready for the other roll soon.

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The Leica III goes out for a spin in London

Captain Tom Moore ( Primrose Hill)

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.

Old 120

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.

Nature

Light

The choir in the ultimate garden.

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.

Ride in Piece.

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.

Swing in Paris

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.

Saint Sulpice

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.

Chelsea Old Townhall

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.

A Chinese Thanksgiving – Singapore

There was a Chinese Thanksgiving in front of Ngee Ann City on Orchard road in Singapore. That was a good occasion for the test roll of the The Leica IIIc which is back from the shop with a new curtain.

 

 

These are small sculptures on a boat, I am not too sure (how Singaporean) of the meaning.

 

Uncle watching the musians

 

Old people folding joss paper to be burned later in offering to the ancestors. I asked once about the significance of the folding and was told it is to make it easier to burn. But there may be another meaning.

 

Camera:Leica IIIc
Lens: Summitar 50mmF2
Film:Kodak trix 400ISO

The return of the Hi-Matic (2)

So the Minolta Hi-Matic 7s, is out of the box. I find out a suitable Duracell battery in my magic cupboard and a roll of TMax from the fridge and off we go. As I said elsewhere I am not a mass shouter, I picked up photography in the old days of film when we were taking one shot at a time because well it costs. I don’t care too much about the cost nowadays but still I kept the habit, so unless there is a special event it takes me a few weeks to shoot a full roll of film. This is something I like with the Hasselblad or 120 film cameras in general, 12 shots per film is pretty good for a week end if nothing special happens. Hey also remember that this is not digital so ISO is fixed; there’s just so much time in the day where you can use your camera. Back to the cost, 1 TMax = 8 SGD, processing 6.5 SGD, 4 bus rides to the shop 3 SGD = 17.5 SGD for a roll so 50 cents per shot; 4 shots per EURO.

We are the rrobots

A Robot in a toy store (N’gee Ann City, Orchard Road, Singapore), shot wide open (F1.8) probably 1/30s handheld

Shark Aid 2012

There is always something happening on Orchard Road, that day it was the Shark Aid 2012 campaign to save sharks from Shark Fin soup

Walter by Dwan Ng

This is WALTER: A Big Bunny by artist Dawn Ng, in front of SAM (Singapore Art Museum)

Low Kee Hong and Jeremiah Choy,

Singapore Arts festival 2012 presentation in Kinokuniya bookstore by Low Kee Hong and Jeremiah Choy, interesting and funny.

Shot wide open F1.8 at 1/30s handheld, a bit blurry… duh!

Ok that was funny, but I’m not  sure my practice of photography have made a big leap forward. I think I have to get rid of the leather case whose strap comes in the middle when framing vertically,  also the  shutter-release button is not that soft, you have to press it with some strength before it actually fire, causing some shake; very unlike my Leica M4.

Girl by the road side – Udaipur – Rajasthan – India

The girl on the side of the road

Sorry, as I said yesterday, I have loads of pictures from Rajasthan so I think i’ll keep posting them until I am done with sorting them out and publishing a small book on Blurb.
Actually as follow up of my post of yesterday, I think I’ll do 2 books, one with the pictures one with the pictures interesting a more general audience, and why not try to sell this book. He he, maybe I can get enough money to by a couple of rolls of film? So I have starting to tag the family pictures as “Family” in Lightroom, so I can export them all on one go. Oh yeah, I’m using Lightroom 3 for post processing and an old version of Photoshop Elements for which I have a license. I have loaded all the pics, digital and film in a “India 2012” collection, and that’s where I’m working from, rejecting pictures that are not good enough for publishing and lightly touching up the others as I go along.

Oh yeah, the girl by the road side was standing by the road side (amazing !) with a lot of other people on the way from downtown Udaipur to our hotel in a quite busy cross-roads. At that time of ate afternoon the sun was on her back but without too much touching-up the results is show-able, note that this was shot from inside the car with the 50mm, but I’ll come back on this later.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikkor 50mm F1.8D App: F.4 Speed:1/4000s
Processing: LR3+PS Elements 4.0