2023 Roll#02 – Week end strolls around London

Hey hey, slow shooter I am, we are mid April already, and I am just posting about this year’s second roll.

Around Chalk Farm Tube station

Actually I have my 3rd roll out of the lab now, the 4th is there and a 5th is on the way.

A nice day for a ride

SO this is my last roll of HP5+ from the infamous bulk I bought in Singapore in 2021 before moving to the UK. I am not sure how many rolls that was in total but I think that was worth it.

He is a great painter

HP5 made sense when I was doing Caffenol back then, as it is pretty friendly with this process, but I would say I am not the biggest fan, and unless I go back to shooting one roll a week as I did in Singapore, I may stick to the Kodak emulsions.

Anchored along the Thames

So this roll stayed in the M6 for a while. The first shot was probably taken in February, along Chalk farm on a long walk to Camden. Then subsequent pictures from another very long walk through Sloane street, Battersea Bridge, along the Thames,

Lady with a TLR

and back to South Ken.

Thames Heliport

Yes there is an Heliport along the Thames for the not so climate conscious in haste to join the city.

Black and white

These were 10+ km walks so the week after we probably just had a casual stroll to South Bank via Green Park (above).

Hayworth Gallery

Hayworth Gallery

I can fly

Something different the next week end for a walk to Angel to see a show at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre (Excellent Copelia by Scottish Ballet) and back.

Never get what this one was about

It seems there are defects like the white mark on some shots, not sure to blame processing or a light leak.

Finally comes the Saturday where we walked to Borough Market to stock up cheese.

Friendly Chap

I am not sure if the issue is with the processing or the film was scratched. Pity I wont be able to print it for him.

All shots with the Summaron 35mm F3.5 LTM, I love this lens, but you my know already.

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Paris in the spring

Batmaid (Boulevard Beaumarchais)

So this is the second part of my second roll of Cinestill XX I started in Biarritz. I was not super satisfied with the scanning so I plugged the old Epson v800 and rescan the whole film. I did not like the scan for two reasons, first I forgot to ask for high res, and I though the pictures were a bit small. Second I thought it was too grainy and had too much contrast.

City of Romance (Rue Amelot)

I quite liked the result of the Epson, if I recon correctly I scanned in 2400 dpi, saved as B&W JPG using the standard holders. The result is a bit smooth, that you may assimilate to lack of sharpness.

Fun in Paris (Ile de la cité)

I think there is a bit on compromise between sharpness, grain and details. Well anyway I am not very technical, I like these scans better.

Ready maestro (Rue de Buci)

These shot are still part of the same trip so I think the lens is either the Summicron 50mm v5, either the Summicron 35mmF2 Asph v2, attached to the Leica M6 classic

Glorious food (Rue du pas de la mule)

After the second roll, its a bit difficult to make an opinion on the Cinestill XX, as I am not sure how properly my lab process it. As I said before a bit too much grain for my taste (remember my favourite film is the Rollei Retro 80), but maybe there is a ratio between the distance to the subject and the grain that makes it less suitable to my may of shooting (I usually do streets shots between 5 and 10 meters) ? Did anybody consider that?

Public transport ( Rue Saint Antoine)

Enough of the technical bit, Paris in the spring is a beautiful place to be. That’s a first for me in about 15 years so I was under the spell, and I thing that will be the same for the seasons to come.

A l italienne (Boulevard Saint Germain)

Paris is not as eccentric as London, but there is a good mix of old and new, tourists and locals, fake and authentic, making you raising your camera every 5 minutes. Ok I am a slow shooter so that will be once every thirty minutes.

Lost if thoughts (Rue de la petite boucherie)

One last technical thing: I can see on forums the never ending question of bringing films through airports: remember that there are x-ray machines as well when you take the Eurostar. I never cared being worried about X-ray machines damage to film. I think if you are an amateur this is irrelevant. If you are a pro that’s different, but then you can always buy and process locally if its so important.

For the ladies : the firemen of Paris (Bords de Seine, quai François Mitterrand)

Lost ( Quai des Grands augustins)

Thanks for reading.

All shots Leica M6 Classic, Summicron 35 or 50, Cinestill XX shot at 200 ISO, I put an indication of where the pictures were shot so you can plan a tour. This roll is older that the one displayed in My last roll of Ektachrome.

A Royal Week-end

Last week end (2nd to 5th of June) was the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, a celebration giving some picture opportunities.

Friday, all started by the air parade shot from my window with the crappy Canon Serenar 135F4 mounted on the Leica M262. The lens was already mounted on the camera, I was just playing around last week.

WWII planes, I think a Lancaster bomber and four spitfires

The city was generally dressed up in national colours and royal memorabilia’s. Here the newspaper kiosk on Sloane Square, shot with the Summaron 35mmF2.8, the M version with goggles. I really went al vintage lenses this week,

A couple of “street parties” happened through the kingdom over he week end, mostly involving food and drinks, here in Mayfair Friday.

Paul Smith window in Marylebone.

I was expecting more silliness in the street, but ok some people really played the game.

Friday a steel band was playing on Kings Road, a couple of ladies made their best to warm up the atmosphere.

The queen of the afternoon

But they were not alone.

Even the Chelsea Pensioners were out.

Some people were rushing to parties in the hood.

The party went on until Sunday.

Chinatown

People rushed to the Mall on Sunday morning to see the parade.

But I met Stan Laurel.

and actually walking against the flow, we reached Hyde Park Corner and met the parade, with no crowd at all.

Sunday I changed the lens for the Summaron 35mmF3.5 ltm, a better choice as it is easier to focus without the goggles.

After watching so many horses, we moved to the Belgravia street party on Elizabeth street (the well named).

God save the queen

The queen

And all finished with a bit of music (and beer)

If you are not bored by now, I will have some film shots from Saturday to post as well.

All shots with Leica M262, with in order the Canon Serenar 135mmF4 ltm, the Summaron 35mmF2.8 M, the Summaron 35mmF3.5 ltm

More Chinese New Year spirit and a bit more

The love of the two oranges

These two auspicious oranges offered during CNY period, here at the entrance of a restaurant in Clarke Quay. As often I make associations in my mind which are quite irrelevant, why think of Serguey Prokovief Opera The Love for Three Oranges where actually I just have two? Maybe the essence of photography : showing what’s not there.

Posing for CNY the Buddha Tooth Relic temple

I started this roll in Chinatown a while back, and as we were during CNY period, people came around the Buddha Tooth Relic temple to take selfies.

A Bak Kwa shop

CNY is also about food, and the Bak Kwa (sliced barbequed port meat) shops are busy. There are queues outside some of the most famous who generally have sold all their goods by lunch time on week ends.

Traditional Cosplay

I was very happy / lucky a couple of weeks later when coming back to Chinatown I saw this group of youngsters dressing up in traditional Chinese costumes, for a fun photo shoot.

Urban sketchers at work in the shade

Caution fierce look

This is a roll of Rollei retro 80s, shot with the Leica M6 and the Summaron 35mmF3.5 ltm lens.

The lady with a fan

The lady in the shadows

The film was processed in Caffenol CM recipe at 28 degrees for 5minutes. Some shots are great, but the ones with big dark areas like above are showing some marks in the dark parts. Fingers marks? Fogging ? Effect of the expired film? I don’t really know. The effect is even more noticeable below:

Japanese restaurannt

It is not super easy to shoot indoor with 100 ISO setting and a 3.5 lens. I quite like the result, regardless of the marks.

Play

A big thank you to Louis Vuitton for this fashionistas playground giving opportunities for a few candid shots. Once again it was 7pm the light of the day was fading so the shots are taken at 1/60 or 1/40 and F3.5

More playground

A few random shots to finish

A pile of bar stools, the blacks and the contrast are really specific to the Rollei 80s, so I am happy this can be rendered in Caffenol.

Some sculpture in a back alley, I think it’s the entrance of a club or a bar.

A bit if tragedy to finish this is the place where 5 party goes met their fate when driving into coffee in the late night hours a couple of weeks back. You can still see the burned façade of the building. A few days (maybe 1 or two weeks) after the incidents, offerings were placed for the deceased.

The last roll of 2020

The back alley

Happy new year dear friend reader! Let’s hope for everybody that 2021 will be different from 2020.

I am cheating a little bit as this is not strictly speaking the last roll of 2020, I have a roll of Portra 160 in the Leica IIIc, that I will finish soon and that technically I will call the roll 51 of 2020 ( I’ll come back to this on the next post).

I love Rock’n roll

So number 50 is a roll of Fuji Across 100 version one, expired sometime last year, shot in the Leica M4 with the Summaron 35mm F3.5 ltm.

28121

Once again I have processed the roll in Caffenol CM, scaling the recipe for 500 CL, with a certain success.

Anchor

As my regular readers have already found out, I was back to Geylang Lorong 3, with some friends. A place that will soon disappear, so no chance to see it again in 2021 rolls.

Heem

I put my favorite pictures at the top of this post, this is my third attempt at the back alley and I am quite happy with this one. And the guitar really rocks.

On most of the shots the Caffenol reveals great details and contrast. I am very happy with this roll. There was also very small dust cleaning required after scanning.

No-parking

The tiny Summaron is super sharp and easy to use. I have used the old Chinese made adapter (not my genuine Leica one) and it seems the focus is spot on even for closer shots.

CCTV ?

Is this the place where even CC TV Cameras get stolen?

Selfie in the making

Good think to tag along with friends is that they can make subjects.

The briefcase

This makes me think about one of these movies where spies or thieves exchange a big suitcase of cash. I did not dare to peak in that one, maybe I should have?

The final hour

Close up

Below a couple of unrelated pictures of the same roll, different styles with the same set-up

The old supreme court

Kid’s story

The new normal

The usual Shake Shack long queue

The title of today’s post is a trap. It should be called Caffenol week 6, but it starts to be boring. Saturday I finished a roll of Ilford Delta 400, and processed it as soon as I was back home.

The uncle just score

This is my second brew that I kept from last week. I have been careful today to limit the time of processing to 5 minutes at 28 degrees, plus 10 seconds for pouring out.

Back Alley BBQ

The negatives  are still a bit thick but on the better side I would say. I also filtered my fixer before using it. As a result I have very few crap on the film.

Fishing in the shadow of the tower

Another innovation this week is that I cut the roll in two before processing to squeegee. Less chance to scratch by carrying dust over with my fingers, less residual water at the bottom of the film. Unfortunately I did not  count he frames so I ended up with an odd number of strips.

A catch like that

The result : this is my best Caffenol film of these past 6 weeks. I must say it is the best film altogether and choosing a small number of shots from it was difficult.

Chef of wheels

But back to the processing, there was very little dust on the film, and I did only  minimal spot cloning in light-room after processing. I also added 1 more minute to the fixing time, this is the 7th roll with the fixer (It should do 17), it cannot harm.

Sometime we feel we are so small

This is shot again with the Leica IIIc, but with the Summaron 35mmF3.5, which is quite a sharp lens. I measured the light with the handheld Sekonic L-308-s, and used my 35mm Leica finder. The finder shoe was bent during my last move and I think the shot above really shows it.

Reserved

The first three shots were taken around Chinatown last week, while the next three where taken around Marina Bay, where I met some friends by complete fluke. Friends are great picture subjects, lets remember this.

Mannequin

Saturday morning I met some fellow shutterbugs in Haji Lane. The two frames above were shot in a kind of artsy enclave where a  lot of murals can be found.

The world’s on fire

The area is far less crowed than usual, but its still a busy place in the morning, with deliveries for local businesses, people having coffee or photographers bringing models to shoot with the colorful area as a backdrop.

The dancer

We hijacked the model above, thanks, thanks, one shot and we move, my camera is so old, anyway.

Haji Lane usual crowd

That time of the year

We have entered the 7th month of the Chinese new year and offerings are appearing outside maybe businesses.

Lets all go home safely hop you enjoyed the ride.

 

Caffenol Rebirth : perseverare humanum est

We roll models

So what happened since last post and the “Caffenol rebirth” ; well nothing much happened in town nor to myself, so I shot half a roll of Fuji Across, mostly Saturday

Lonely dinner

Last Sunday I pour my Caffenol in a bottle of green glass (Perrier) and kept in just in case.

Gelato

So tonight I was restless and I decide to give Caffenol another try.

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

Time for a nap

or catching up with th enews

Chinatown is her catwalk

As I did not finish my roll, I opened the Leica M4 in the dark, fiddle a bit with the film and managed to cut a 1 cm lead for the rest of the roll and unload the 22 first shots from the camera. I then loaded it in the Paterson tank and proceed as last week.

The lovely newly weds from China

That way

Massive Development chart give me again 6’44 @ 28 deg, for 100 ISO Accross, the Tri-x was overcooked last week, but that was 400ISO, so I though that I should give it a try, but actually I emptied the tank at 6’14.

Time for a trim

Double ciggie break

The film is still dense, but can be seen through in normal light. Probably some of this is due to the coffee coloration (I can see if is brownish), so for the next 12 shost I will cut the time down by maybe another 30 or 45 seconds.

Social distancing

Orchard back-light

I kept the Caffenol again, I read you can keep for 6 or 8 weeks. Without being so extreme, if I can use one batch for my monthly shooting this changes the economics of it totally, at 2$ a roll this is a no brainer. Plus it is amazing to have all the products ready and go through the motion in about 45 minutes.

My new fav model

Ok so now I’ve been through this roll what is the conclusion. It looks quite good for what it is, no reticulation, reasonable grain, the contrast is quite good.

Walking in the sunshine

This was also measured using my new Keks EM01 ligh meter.

A COVID hero back from work

The last pre lock down roll is back

I collected yesterday my first roll in a long time. It was probably finished the first week of the lock-down in Singapore which was on 5th of April.

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This is an expired roll of Fuji Across shot with the Leica M6 and probably a mix of Summaron 35 and Summicron 28.

The roll is so so , maybe the roll is too expired maybe sitting on my drawer for 3 month was not a good idea, maybe I just mucked up the metering. Well there is a couple of fun shots. I put them as a slide show just to try.

 

SOFT LOCK-DOWN WEEK 2

Yeah, we made it through another week. I my case work from home means being super busy, so I just have the time to go out shopping for food everyday and take a bit of fresh air and exercise a bit, generally I walk 3 to 6 km. Only today, Sunday, did I found the courage and energy to go fur a quick ride.

unattended bar

So this week I did not had much time for photography, Friday I did not even stepped out of the house. Saturday we had a long walk (for food) and I brought the camera along, under the disapproving eyes of the family.

No sitting

Clark Quay was our first stop and a funny (funny as in strange, no as in Ha Ha) sight, no bars, no boose, no tourists, no waitresses : just joggers and cyclists.

The picture that does not work

Some pics do not work : I found the juxtaposition of Ice Cream and temperature check funny (funny ha ha) , but that is unreadable.

We continued to the Fullerton

The memorial to Joseph Konrad

Who remembers that the author of “Into Darkness” was once  a sailor heading to Singapore?

On Raffles place the sound of advertisements is still playing full blast for no crowd, except maybe this uncle.

The Providore is open as most food businesses trying to take their chance with take away food.

The Arcade passer by

The Quadrant, once hosted the Bank of China (Or a Bank of China of some kind)

Maxwell good market

Through Telok Ayer and Club Street we head to Maxell and then to Kon Siak road.

We said no sitting

Above the picture that works.

No fear of avian flue

Finally a real street shot from Orchard road today!

All pictures taken with the Leica M262 and the Summaron 35mmF3.5 LTM.

 

SOFT LOCK-DOWN WEEK 1

So here we are (were) the past week : it officially started Wednesday. Work from Home became mandatory, restaurants were closed and outside activity were, if not restricted advised against, except shopping for food and exercise.

Part of my time out for exercise I carried my M262 and the old Summaron 35mm F3.5. The first shot is not related to the current situation, but the the closure of Liang Court commercial center. The Novotel is closing, I foresee a big and long construction site in my backyard.

But back to reality, Tuesday before our version of the lock down kicked in, a lot of moving around happened, people pushing office chairs, …

… or waiting for a ride with piles of paper.

But otherwise there was a lot of business as usual.

and above all it was a beautiful day.

Well also you could see the take-out, food delivery business start to expand. Actually a lot of my friends running restaurants started messaging their customers about their take away offerings.

It is a bit more difficult to shoot people in the street when there are less of them. But still i tried.

Friday was a bit more funny, in a hotel, guests (are there still any?) were exercising (withing safe distance of each others) to the loud sound of a coach talking to them from the 3rd floor.

Taxis stand for taxis, everything is still in order.

Oh yeah nice light as well.

Construction of a new MRT station still ongoing at Keppel Road

Saturday streets were very quite.

Some were praying

 

The sky was beautiful

Strange view of the satay club, closed down, with Boon tat Street still closed for the evening nonetheless.

Easter eggs were early

Taxis queuing for customers in from of Great World City

Vintage vehicle, maybe can be reused as deliveroo?

And finally, a flora picture, very unlike me, so enjoy for one.

I have one finished roll in the in a drawer, I am not sure when I will be able to have it processed. So I think I’ll stick to digital for a moment.