Malta on Cinestill 400D

Here are a bit too many pictures of my first ever Cinestill 400D roll for my first ever trip to Malta.

I bought this roll a while back, maybe 6 months, from Analogue Labs ( where this roll was processed) for what seemed to a bit too much money ( about 18 GBP).

Marsaxlokk

I waited for the correct opportunity and here I am going to sunny Malta for a family holiday.

Marsaxlokk Sunday market

The D in 400D stands for daylight, and the film is described as a fine grain color film with daylight balance. It has soft tones, natural saturation, warm skin tones. The film can be shot between 200 and 800 without push process and up to 3200 with push process.

Marsaxlokk Sunday market cleaning up

I loaded the film in the faithful Leica M6 classic, fitted with the Summicron 50mm v5. ( some shots may have been taken with the 35 Asph v2 or the 38 Asph v1, but generally the 50 is attached to the M6 and the others to the M262)

I set the ISO dial of the camera to 400, not knowing what was best for my situation, the box speed seems to always be a safe bet.

Valetta

The days were very sunny so a lot of the shots were done with high speed and smaller apertures. The colors remind of Kodak Portra ( warm tones) maybe and surely has a certain vintage look to them. Is this expected or not, I am not sure.

The film surely has very fine grain and shows a lot of details.

I also find the shots to have a lot of contrast, maybe just bit too much for my taste. But it is a very nice result I think. I an already looking to buy some more.

Oh and Malta in this story? Malta is a small country consisting in a few islands, the capital Valetta is where we stayed. If you are open minded there are plenty of things to do, mostly around history and architecture.

There are also plenty of outdoors activities.

Diving just outside the city walls is one of them.

The place is attracting quite a crowd of tourists, in this mid-term holidays the place was packed with French and Britons.

A street photographer with his box camera

A couple of steep streets with stairs are hosting several bars and eateries.

Our first stop was Marsaxlokk with a famous Sunday fish market. You can access from Valetta by bus or Uber. From the ferry terminal in Valetta you can access the northern island of Gozo ( we missed because the schedule changed the day we planned to go) or you can take a 2 Euros ride across to the 3 cities.

Tourist boat touring the harbour

Boats in the Three Cities marina.

Typical houses with their bow windows

The fortifications and the war museum

Wuestenwinds beach

At night

Finally on the light picture, you can see a very special effect around the led lights. I think its called halation. Very common on the 800T film, but I was not aware that the 400D would also produce it. Anyway, this picture managed to go in Explore on flickr, so thank you Cinestill.

I hope you enjoyed the reading.

Paris – November 2021

I travelled to Paris in November last year for the first time in more than 10 years, the main reason being that I left the last 14 years on the other side of the planet. We were blessed with nice weather for the first part of our stay.

It was real fun being a tourist in a city I leaved for in the late 80’s. Like London, it takes me a little time to adjust and turn my eye to the local subjects and actually press the shutter, but there are really plenty of subjects here.

I carried my usual set in Paris, the M262 and the M6, but due to some luggae constraints I only carried two lenses : the Summicron 35mm Asph v2 and the vintage screw mount Elmar 50mmF3.5.

The Summicron is as always a great performer, and the Elmar is very pleasant. I must say the aperture adjustment at the front of the lens is a pain on a film camera without meter, but with the M6 or even better with the M262 set on auto mode, its no longer a problem.

Yes subjects are plenty in Paris, the sites, the people, the tourists, there is always something to shoot. I found there are also a lot of smaller shops that in London, which are making nice subjects.

Of course I was blessed being there during Christmas season where a lot of decorations are making the city even more attractive.

Below a few more random pictures. I have a couple more sets on Paris to come and in a few weeks, some analogue shots will come up.

If read until now you deserve me to whish you a happy new year, keep on shooting and may the light be with you.

New place, new life, new photos?

So that’s it after 14 years in Asia I am moving back to Europe, UK to be precise. I have now been 6 weeks on the old continent, and a first post is long overdue. While all my stuff is in transit, I have carried in my hand luggage the M6 and the M262 with 3 summicrons, the 28, 35 and 50.

I have finished my first roll of expired Fuji Across 100 and had it process at the first shot I could find for the whooping price of 16 GBP. I could hardly believe it, but I will be back to Cafenol soon so this is a one off. It seems however that prices of film are a bit higher that in Singapore.

Shooting in a new country is both exhilarating and inhibiting : I can see so many new things to capture but also I am a bit camera shy these days, and don’t really know how people will react to the camera. I have engaged a couple of photographers in the street and they assured me there was no problem with this, but I have to get into the mood.

Strange enough, I don’t see many people with cameras in the street and I am yet to meet a Leica shooter, but I am keeping my eyes open.

The shots were scanned by the shop (Snappy Snap), it seems they did an ok job at it.

I hope you’ll enjoy the reading, my second roll is nearly done and I start having a backlog of digital, so get ready for more posts. All shots Leia M6 + summicron 28 Asph v1

A tour around Taipei

I am cleaning a bit of my backlog, and found on my work-space some remaining pictures of our Taiwan trip back in Feb/March.

The only day we decided to take a tour with our friendly guide was also the only rainy day of the trip so it ends up being a no so great experience.

We took off from our hotel in Daan and headed to the North West, to visit what I believe is the Wufeng Lin Family Mansion and Garden. A historical house and garden from a rich Taiwanese family.

This is a very nicely preserved house, a quite interesting visit, not a good as the Lin Family mansion in Banqiao  district but still a nice thing to see.

We then drove down to see the change of the guard at the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine, but we arrived too late, and the rain started. Continuing further west we stopped in Beitou, a suburb of Taipei known for its hot springs

The place made its living through mining and hospitality, including bath and spas.

There is a very nice museum is an old bath house, including the beautiful pool below.

At this point we headed along the Tamsui River to the fisherman’s wharf for lunch. We did not find anything much exciting, had a sandwich and then a long walk, without rain, before finding our car again.

The last stop was Tamsui old street, that we reached after visiting the interesting Fort San Domingo, showing an interesting display of the colonial times. By then the weather started to be very.

We nevertheless spent a good hour walking along the Tamsui River and through the old street with a stop at the beautiful Longshan temple, above and below.

Finally, after a nice Taiwan beer in a dry place, we happily headed back to the city and our hotel ( probably the rain stopped along the way ).

All shots Leica M262, Summicron 28/50/35, it was another day where the weather was not enticing to pull out the M6 and play with two cameras.

On the road from Patiala to Chandigarh

Patiala looks to be a very interesting place, but we had little time to hang around. We try to visit the two palaces but both were under renovation and although we were allowed to the grounds in both (many thanks to our guide), I was denied using my camera. The first palace was a residence for the maharajah and his many spouses; the buildings we could see are set around a very large pond. It is located in a residential area on the town outskirts.

This may have been some sort of Natural Sciences museum

Under construction

The “pond” is what separate the girls here to the building in the background.

 

The second palace, Qila Mubarak, is located in the heart if the city, it is normally hosting a museum which was closed at the time of our visit (Oct 2017) and the building also under renovation. This is an incredibly big compound to be located in a city center. There is a fort behind the main buildings and more buildings behind the fort. No pictures available unfortunately.

We then start our drive to Chandigarh through the busy city streets and then on the very good roads off Punjab. Chandigarh is only 70 km away, but with a few stops, we got there in about 4 hours.

The main stop was in Sirhind-Fategarh, the Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib there is famous as it is the place where younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh, who were bricked-up alive in 1704 by Wazir Khan and a place to commemorate the memory of the brave Sikhs who were killed while fighting with Mughal forces.

Gurudwara Bhora Sahib, the wall where the younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh were bricked-up alive

Outside the Gurdwara itself is a  shop for religious artifacts where I finally decided to satisfy my long lasting envy to buy a  Kara (a Sikh bangle). After a long debate we decided to by one each (ok my wife wanted two) and to our great surprise the shop keeper refused us to pay for them and offered them as presents. Another sign of the great Sikh hospitality and friendliness.

The Gurdwara shop keepers 

Next to the main Gurdwara is another one, where we met the guy in charge (below). Very happy to talk about his religion; probably on of the first guys we could exchange in English.

Not far from this site is a Mosque, which is supposed to be linked to friendly Muslim people at the time of the war with the mughals. The complex is very nice and spacious. Not all places are allowed for women to visit and photography is a bit more limited than in the Gurdwaras.

The basement of the main building above contains the tombs of some saints where people come to make offerings.

Back on the road again, our guide stopped us by one of the many places where a few men where boiling some sugar cane to make some solid sugar.

Pressing the cane to extract the sugar

We tasted the sweets and pack-up after a little while and finally made it to Chandigarh.

All shots Leica M262+Summicron 28 or 50

B&W shots Leica M6+Summicron 50

 

THE GOLDEN TEMPLE – AMRITSAR

The Golden Temple in Amritsar, known as Sri Harmandir Sahib,  is the holly place for the Sikh faith.

 The entrance is a short walking distance from the street, but on the Sunday we visited the traffic was so bad we had to envoy a nice stroll through the streets of the city. A bit esplanade sits in from of the temple (above) where many pilgrims sleep at night. The entrance is North gate called also the clock tower.

After having left your shoes at the counter, covered your head and washed you hands and feet you can step trough the gate and access the path around the Sarovar (the holly pool of immortal nectar) and have a view at the golden temple, the sanctum-sanctorum.

Benevolent and photo friendly guards are posted around the pool.

Sunday may not be the best bet to visit as you see above we were not alone.

In various stations devotees envoy a ritual bath, note that there are special enclosed sections for women. Sikh are so open minded that we were told nobody would be offended if a non Sikh  would have a dip.

An important part of the Sikh temples is the kitchen offering food to every visitor, school kids above were waiting to get their meal.

Inside the Akal Takhat

A Sikh man reading the Holly book in a small chapel around the pool.

Volunteers working at the cleaning of the holly pool.

Sikh apprentice meditating, yes you can become a Sikh (Elmarit 90F2.8). There can be many reasons, like getting married to a Sikh for instance.

Good bye.

Leica M262, Summicron 28 and 50 and Elmarit 90

On the road to the Lac D’Allos

One of the exciting bits of our small outing in France southern alps was going to the Lac d’Allos, a place I did not visit in more than 20 years. Allos is a ski resort 2 hours drive from the sea, situated at 1500 meters of altitude with highest slopes around 2500.

The side of the valley of Verdon opposite the resort is part of the Mercantour natural reserve and its highest pic, Mont Pelat is 3050m.

One of the popular walks is to go up to Lac d’Allos. This lake situated at 2300m is the largest natural high altitude lake in Europe. It covers 60 hectares and has a depth of 50 m.

From the last parking place, the walk is an easy 45 minutes uphill until the majesty of the lac and surrounding mountains appears.

When reaching the lake there is a high altitude refuge, providing food and drinks during the day and shelter for the night.

From the refuge, a lot of path are available, with various distances and difficulties, I walked a few of the in my teens. If you pass by the area and like hiking, this is worth your time.

The lake and the “Towers” in the background

You can have another hour of pleasant walk around the lake, admiring the scenery, flowers, drift wood, or marmottes (marmot in english).

A marmot, the furry local

Up the refuge is a small chapel.

The weather even in early July can be treacherous and we had some rain that day, forcing us to retreat in the refuge. Remember that as easy as this walk is, this start to be the realm of high altitude.

Inside the refuge you can always hope to make some nice encounters and engage in interesting exchanges. Here Gilles from Lille, was walking the mountains for a week. He likes to play music and use it to exchange with people he meets.

 

All shots Leica M262 + Summicron 28 asph or Summicron 50 or Elmarit 90mm F2.8

 

Train des Pignes à Vapeur (France)

So this was the first day of the holidays; after the long-haul flight from Singapore to Nice and a night or rest, here I am driving up 2 hours from Cannes to Allos in the Parc of Mercantour in the southern french alps, a couple of boys day’s out with my son and my dad.

I had a couple of ideas of things to shoot on the way, including a stop at the railway station in Thorame Haute a stop on the “Train des pignes” that link Nice to Dignes-Les-Bains.

To our amusement, when we stepped out of the car a vintage steam train was parked along the station.  It appeared it had to make a stop to let the regular train  pass by as there is only one track in this area.

The people attending the train were very nice, happy to have a chat and camera friendly, hell they had 2 hours to kill

This train is kept by a non profit association it travels from May to October on Sundays.

 

You can see their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/TrainDesPignesAVapeur/

Shots with Leica M262 and M6+Cinestill 50, with Summicron 28 and 50.

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House is surely one of the most iconic buildings in par with the Eiffel Tower. For our first trip in Australia I select Sydney as our first landing point not to miss it.

If you stay close to Circular Quay the building is always in view.

I am not going to copy wikipedia but quickly the building was the work of danish architect  Jørn Utzon and was opened in 1973.

If you walk around the Rocks market during the week end you can see some vintage shots of the construction which are quite interesting.

We took the tour to visit the building which I highly recommend, but be warned, I find it pricey at 34$ per adult.

On top of having a guide that tells you the story of the building and describe its architecture, you can see some of the show rooms and inner pieces or architecture.

Definitely one of the nicest views is from Harbor Bridge.

All shots with the Leica M262 and M6 for the Black and White picture.

NORTH THAILAND TRIP – PART 4 – SUKHOTHAI

We had decided to fly from Bangkok to Sukhothai, that was half a good idea as the plane was mid afternoon and staying at the airport we missed nearly a full day of holidays.

Despite its name being quite well known, Sukhothai is actually a very small city. The center is mostly made of hotels and restaurants for tourists visiting the main attraction; the Historical Park.

The Sukhothai historical park is a vast compound of ruined temples just outside the city centre. This is a very large area, better be visited by bicycle as some temples are quite remote. You can easily spend a half day in there. We went for the walking option, but we missed a couple of nice spots.

This man is picking what seems to be algae from the moat surrounding the main temple.

You can find there dozens of temples, shrines and shedis (pagodas), in various states of conservation. You can take hundreds of pictures of Buddha statues in various positions and state of decay.

There are also some nice pieces of water, used for the Kratong festival, which unfortunately would happen a few weeks after our visit.