don’t bite

You might have noticed that unusual things have been happening on my blog. Not only do I keep posting landscapes, no suddenly there also appear shots in colour. This might be confusing to some, who are used to seeing mostly black and white street shots on here. No, just because I’m posting colour and landscapes this doesn’t mean that I’ll stop shooting black and white street, don’t worry!

What I’m actually doing is some preparatory work for one of my next projects, which will happen not only on colour slide film but also involve mostly landscapes (quite a few of them urban ones). Right now I’m not shooting slide film yet, but only dabble in C41 film, because E6 slide development needs even more precision with the temperatures (for C41 you need to keep the temperature between 37.5°C and 38.5°C). I will therefore wait with this until I really got the hang of developing C41 and then I move on to what I really want to shoot. Slide film is really rather expensive, so I better practice on cheap C41 film before trying around with the expensive stuff!

Of course, to practice I actually need to shoot stuff on colour film and to be honest I don’t really know how I’m supposed to shoot this stuff. I just don’t really “see” colour. No, I’m not colour blind, but colour as a photographic subject hasn’t really interested me in quite a number of years. It also doesn’t really fit my usual street work. Black and white creates this rather stunning visual effect that strips away the “normality” of a situation. This means that whatever happens in the picture automatically seems more odd in black and white even if it’s a completely everyday situation. Since in street photography I’m mostly interested in human behaviour and also in its most banal expressions, black and white highlights precisely what I want to show. In colour on the other hand this usually just kind of drowns in the normality of the situations. Basically, colour doesn’t really work for what I do. However, I might post some colour street shots anyway if I happened to have taken some on colour film.

By the way, scanning this roll really made me look forward to the 100ft roll of Double-X that I will have soon! This stuff really is beautiful in Caffenol-CL semi-stand!

All pictures taken with: Olympus XA, F.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8.
Eastman Double-X @400 semi-stand developed in Caffenol-CL, 30min.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Well, he did bite!

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

I used to walk over this bridge every day!

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

This totally makes me chuckle. Probably my favourite of this lot.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Well, when people stand in the way, they get photographed.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Enjoying the sunshine. I certainly miss the sunshine with all this rain lately!

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

This makes me laugh too. Such a contrast! Not sure what they were doing. I suspect it had something to do with fish.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Self-portrait. I try to make one with every roll.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

A bit of romance.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Rendered anonymous by flare!

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

This is actually a pet shop. They have little dogs and cats in these boxes that you see on the right … urgh!

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Comments

  • Harry

    Really,really nice shots there, the two guys looking in the water is my favorite,the water looks so perfectly developed. That little XA holds it’s own against the big boys . Shame they don’t make Kodachrome slide anymore because nothing could touch it in my opinion,Wearing a colour hat and black and white one comes easier than you think, Not having two cameras with each type of film in with you is my problem. I couldn’t find the double X on the site when you first told me about it I will Email them. Again some lovely work Lilly,your picture comments make me smile.

    Regards Harry.

  • Kodachrome in development was not on this time era anymore. Apart from Kodak which has left the entire E-6 market so only Fuji with a small offer of E-6 films and Rollei/Agfa Gevaert with the CR-200/RSX-200 E-6 film. Ferrania will launch first an E-6 film too in the beginning of 2015. Indeed the prices of Fuji E-6 films are high though the Rollei Digibase CR200 price is pretty low: Eur. 4,60. Of course you can also do cross processing, slide film in a C-41 development.

  • I like to shoot color, I like to shoot B&W. But not in the same time, that is confusing me and I loose my concentration. When I go out I have to know today is B&W (or color).
    Therefore, depending on the project (if I have any) or the mood I decide it as first thing.
    robert

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