under the ombú

Sometimes things don’t quite go as planned. Originally I hoped to finish with the pictures of our longest trip this year already in May, but first my supplier didn’t deliver the chemicals for ages, then the new chemicals were giving me trouble and I was also travelling quite a bit more. My plan was to finish them finally this month, but it’s now almost the end of the month, and still only 18 of 53 rolls have been developed. Again things didn’t quite work out, but it won’t be long now until the drawer full of undeveloped rolls will be a bit more empty. At least almost all the rolls from other trips have been processed and I’m quite up to date with the stuff I shot at home too. I have no intention of catching up completely – I wouldn’t even want to post recent stuff -, but I have to make sure that my backlog doesn’t get out of hand entirely.

You might think that all of this could be a lot easier if only I shot digital, but I don’t think it’s quite true. When I was still shooting digital I was also often months behind, precisely because I didn’t have to restrict myself to a limited number of rolls and frames. Back then editing meant looking through hundreds of useless shots to find a few interesting ones. Sometimes I would come back with 300 pictures to keep 6 pictures in the end. With film my hit rate is much higher – all of these shots came from the same roll of 36 frames – and editing now doesn’t consist in mostly deleting a great number of different versions of the same subject, most of which would be out of focus. Editing pictures is now a lot more interesting and enjoyable than before. I’m still in the process of optimising my workflow to minimise all the annoying parts, but film basically got rid of everything that annoyed me with digital photography. The rangefinder shooting experience is much better, editing is more enjoyable, experimenting doesn’t involve spending hours in front of a computer and I don’t have to make an effort to keep up with the always changing technology. Instead I can stick with things that were getting a bit old a long time before I was even born. It feels reassuring somehow.

All pictures taken with: Leica M6, Zeiss ZM C-Biogon 35mm f/2.8.
dm Paradies 400 developed in Fuji Hunt C41 Kit, Jobo CPE-2.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

The dynamic range of this fascinates me. All the shadow detail in the ombú is there, but the highlights didn’t take a substantial hit.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

One impressive tree, right? Well, it’s not a tree though, it’s a bush.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

Shot from the pavilion that appears in the Eternauta! We didn’t realise until later or I’d have taken a picture of the pavilion itself too.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

Now that’s a real tree. Not quite as impressive, eh?

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

Caught the right moment with the smoke.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

Waiting to cross the street.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

A typical taxi. By the way, in the background you can read “zucchini”. There are no zucchini in the typical shape over there. They only have the round ones.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

One of the new trains I suppose.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

Bronx, eh?

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

We were in china town. My husband was hungry, but when he saw a display of grilled duck heads he had sausages with bread instead.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

Let’s just say that china town was a little anticlimactic.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

Quite similar to the chinese shops over here.

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