“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.
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.
TwinsOff 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 marketThe blue oyster cultStreet 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 watchLocal artistsThe 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.
If you read the last two posts, you get that I fell in love with Paris for the second time (or the third maybe, one shall not count when it comes to love).
Palais Royal
So this is my last post of the digital shots made with the M262 and the Elmar 50 or the Summicron 35.
Goldilocks was here
You guess by this last sentence that there are indeed some analogue shots of Paris but that will be for another post.
Goldilocks’ car a pre WWII Citroen Rosalie I think
To each his (her) own
6 or 7 weeks after these pictured le M11 is out and the M262 really feels like an antique. But I still really like it, faithful device, my goto camera.
The model and her phographers.False hopes?
I did not go camera shopping in Paris. Err, ok I went to the Leica shop on the Faubourg Saint Honoré, to check on the film MP prices in France. This camera is a beauty, but do I really need it? Ah let’s wait a bit longer…
That week Josephine Baker made it to the Panthéon. A bit of history captured here.Patron un p’tit coup on a soif
Probably translate literally to “Boss pour us a little one, we are thirsty”. Paris and its bistro’s could fill a life of photography.
A short post with not many words for the roll 14th of the year 2021. This is a roll of Ilford HP5+ hand-rolled from a bulk roll. I thought I counted 30 frames but it looks It did not count well and could just fire 25 shots.
I dug out the Leica M4 from the box and screw the Voigtländer 21mmF4 Color Skopar in front of it, set the 21-24mm finder, put a battery in my Sekonic light meter and hit the road.
The roll was processed at home in Caffenol Delta. I put a 6th of the water from the fridge to cool down the very hot tap water ( 29 to 30 degrees), and used the usual dev time (4.41 minutes) for the delta recipe. It looks it had a positive effect as the negatives were not as dark as usual.
The film dried overnight and was scanned today. After scanning there are a few dusts specs and white spots, but all in all a pretty successful processing.
A pretty mundane set of pictures : after 15 month without leaving Singapore, I start to be a bit bored. No big celebrations are happenings, it s a bit more of the same every week ends.
I shall not complain too much as the weather was pretty good that day, instead of the usual downpour we get on afternoons these days.
Luckily sometime the unexpected steps into the frame
Or you have lunch with friends
And suddenly when you feel you are finally in the mood, the film ends.
Oh geez another week gone. But this week is different, because this is the last before we start exiting the lock-down and enter phase 1 of the rest of our lives.
Do not sit. (or can I sit between the crosses?)
This week I also resume shooting film, not really knowing when I will be able to process the roll. I took 20 odd shots with the Leica M6 (400 TX) around Balestier area, where not much action was going on.
Look how much the grass has grown in from of the Victoria theater… (I have corrected the perspective of this shot in Lightroom).
and the nice light going through Anderson bridge.
Some stalls at the Interim Food market (moved from Golden Shoe) still have goods delivered.
Matching shirts for these people delivering good in downtown area.
Slim silhouette wearing what seems to be the new outfit for ladies going out shopping in the new normal.
Pure lust
All shots with Leica M262 and Summicron 28mmF2 Asph v1 : two old friends that I actually bought together, 4 years ago in June 2016. Time flies.
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.
Xmas film shooting in town with the old Kodak Autographic Jr.
Difficult not to note the problem in the bottom left side of the frame; not sure what it is. It did not appear on the last B&W film and the patterm is quite consistent when it shows. Maybe a pressure plate problem?
Camera: Kodak Autographic Jr Film: Kodak Ektar 100 Scanning: EPSON V500, Lightroom 3, PSP Elements 4
[French] La poste de Killiney Road à Singapour avec son service voiturier! Hé Hé, non ne rêvez pas, en fait c’est le bâtiment qui est partagé en deux entre la poste d’un coté et un bistrot de l’autre, et le voiturier au milieu. Et le parking bien sur pour le seul café. Mélange curieux de service public et d’entreprise privée, bienvenu dans le monde de demain dont Singapour est parfois le laboratoire. Je précise que la poste et KPO (c’est le nom du bar pour “Killiney Post Office“, à Singapour comme en France on aime les acronymes) ne sont pas seulement voisins mais qu’ils communiquent, je n’ai malheureusement pas trouvé une manière de photographier cela convenablement.
[Anglais] The Killiney Road Post Office in Singapore with its Valet Parking service! Stop dreaming! In fact the old building has been cut in two: the post office on one side, a pub on the other, and the Valet Parking service in between. And of course the parking place for the pub only. Strange mix of public service and private business; welcome in the world of tomorrow of which Singapore is sometimes the laboratory. To be exact the post office and KPO (short for Killiney Road Post Office, Singaporeans are fond of such abbreviations) are not only neighbors, their insides are communicating, but I could not find a nice way to picture this.
<!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–><!–[if !mso]> <! st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } –> <!–[endif]–> <!–[endif]–>The Killiney Road Post Office in Singapore with its Valet Parking service! Stop dreaming! In fact the old building has been cut in two: the post office on one side, a pub on the other, and the Valet Parking service in between. And of course the parking place for the pub only. Strange mix of public service and private business; welcome in the world of tomorrow of which Singapore is sometimes the laboratory. To be exact the post office and KPO (short for Killiney Road Post Office, Singaporeans are fond of such abbreviations) are not only neighbors, their insides are communicating, but I could not find a nice way to picture this.
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