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.

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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

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.

A day at sea with a Toy Camera

Let’s have a small break from the pictures of Vietnam.

Last week end we had a company outing in Phuket, Thailand and I was asked what camera i will bring. I have a pretty bad record for this type of activities as I broke my D80 last time as well as a Fuji Instax. So this in mind, plus not wanting to have a proper camera in the middle when having some funny activities (some involving water and some even stronger beverages) I ended up picking up the Heineken Toy Camera. A plastic 35mm camera that was given free a couple of years back with the purchase of 15 bottles of Heineken.

I loaded the thing with some Ilford 400 PAN, which turned out to be as its worst but also when we went to a beach on an island with a roll of Rollei RPS 100ISO. The pictures below were taken from this film. I really really enjoyed it, specially the ones under the rain. Of did I mention the camera came with an under water case? I don’t really shoot with toy camera’s, only with battered old ones, but I like the dreamy effect of the plastic lens very much.

Long Boat ashore

Long Boat

Fishermen

Andaman See

Happy buch

Friends under the rain

Long Boat ashore

All Rollei RPX 100ISO , F9, 1/100th

Long Boat

Fishermen

Andaman See

Friends under the rain

Happy buch

The old man at the well – Borobudur – Indonesia,

Around Borobudur temple, in one of the small temples outside of the city, we strolled in the surrounding village and this guy talked to our guide then showed us how his well was working.

Time for a shot I said.

Camera: Hasselblad 500CM, Planar 80mm F2.8
Film: Kodak Portra 400 NC
Scanning: EPSON V500, Lightroom 3, PSP Elements 4

Borobudur – La femme du photographe

Sunrise in Borobudur temple in Indonesia. I took couple of rolls with the Hassie. Clearly the light is not great and I don’t know why the negatives have not been as well processed as usually. Anyway, “The wife of the photographer” was there.

Camera: Hasselblad 500CM, Planar 80mm F2.8
Film: Kodak Portra 400 NC
Scanning: EPSON V500, Lightroom 3, PSP Elements 4