I enjoy browsing back the not so used scans and these are from one roll of November / December 2022. Unlike the most recent roll I posted, this one is shot entirely in London, it is the penultimate of my bulk roll of Ilford HP 5 bought in Singapore from Ruby Photo back in early 2021.
No surprise, the roll was shot with the Leica M6 classic and probably most of the shots were done with the Summicron 35mm Asph v2. The two shots above, early in the roll were taken around Spitalfields Market near my office and they were probably shot on my way to the lab to drop or collect one roll ( ANALOGUE FILMShttps://www.analoguefilms.co.uk/)
Sloane Square
Because I am a slow shooter I carried the film around London for a couple of weeks,
Fenwick store in Mayfair will close soonChelsea frame maker
The highlight of the roll was bringing some dear friends to Spitalfields and Brick Lane, quite an interesting area for visitors.
But first to Liverpool street station
Then through the street towards the market.
Xmas Spirit indeed
Finally to Brick lane
Excellent Haloumi wrapThe famous shop I did not try
Hope you enjoyed the walk, this was roll #24 of 2022.
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 Summicron50mm v5 or 35mmAsph v2.
I first saw Mike Nelson work in the 2011 Venice Biennale where he was occupying the British Pavilion, I quite enjoyed his set-up and particularly the dark room lit with red safety light.
Triple Buff Canyon , the woodshed (2004)
I must say to my shame that his name did not ring a bell when I saw the add for the exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London’s Southbank. But the picture of one of the artworks ( the one bove) was compelling enough to motivate me going.
Inside view of Triple Buff Canyon , the woodshed (2004)
Remnants of the Dark room were to be found both in a first piece looking like the artist storage room as the chandelier below.
But also in a recreation of the dark room itself, behind the dune of Tripple Buff Canyon
The main piece I think is maze of about 20 rooms, build with salvaged items, quite a bit of quite a bit of queue to get in as the space inside is quite narrow to get in.
The main room of the gallery, which is often the entrance of exhibition if today the last room to be visited. It offers a very striking piece with a 3D metal mesh holding concrete heads Studio Apparatus for Kunst Halle Munster.
Studio Apparatus for Kunst Halle Munster (2014)
A couple more interesting items can be found on the way out including a recreation of the artist studio in the early 2000’s (what a mess 🙂 )
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)
“Paris est une fête” as goes the say (Paris is a party) ; I am not 100% sure about it but Paris in summer surely put me in a great mood, and I enjoy shooting in the streets that I am rediscovering after so many years.
— Asian tourist checking a Korean restaurant —
This is summer 2022, probably my 5th or 6th trip in a year, carrying the M6 (The old one) and the Summicron 50v5 and a roll of Kodak TMA100, my favourite film very appropriate (I think) to the summer time. This is my 16th film of the year, so I am now far from my past One-roll-a-week diet, but ok this is not a competition.
Summer holidays are just a memory now and after much procrastination, here is one of the rolls shot in this happy time (12th Roll of the year)
This is a roll of Polypan 50 shot at 100 ISO with the faithful M6 Classic and some Cron or another but most probably the 50mm v5. I have asked the lab to push one stop as this roll was given to me quite a few years back now by a friend in Singapore.
The street scenes are shot in Ai- en-Provence where I spend a couple of days with my family in August. The sun was hitting pretty hard which is quite ok for a low speed film.
You already know I am not too technical, but here we go for the techie moment: The Polypan 50 lacks a anti-halation layer ( I think it means no protection from the light bouncing from the back of the camera); this makes it glow in some areas, making the images a bit old time and dreamy. I also quite like the rather profound blacks, although not as much as in the Rollei retro 80s.
The edges of the fountain are really glowing here you see what I mean.
Aix is quite picturesque, but the next day we went to Chateau Lacoste, a magnificent estate 40 minutes drive from Aix, with Michelin starred chef restaurants, a vineyard, an entrance building made by Tadao Ando and dozens of art works spread in the garden.
Yes the music pavilion was made by FRANK O. GEHRY
Oh no that’s just a barrel.
A beautiful tractorThe olive treeYes that’s a Richard LongMore treesA dirty spaceship Art work in progress
Really worth visiting, I ll post more shots in the next posts.
Oh I lost track of the Polypan roll, well I think it aged a bit it seems there are marks here and there that are not common to processing issues, so I guess this is a bit of an experimental roll. For such a slow speed film it is a bit grainy, but all in all I really like it.
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.
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.
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 !IndividualityTopolino foreverThe Michelin Building at dusk
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