beach bar at night

You might have noticed that in most of my posts these days I talk of technical details more than anything else. The reason is that most of my other summer adventures apart from the development can be summed up in a sentence or two. On some days we go to the beach, on others I might go for a walk in town, but that’s pretty much all that happens. Usually when I’m out I shoot some rolls and that’s the extent of it. Today for example we went for a little walk, but it was so hot that it was rather uncomfortable to be outside. Even inside it’s rather unbearable still. So, instead of shooting outside I was dabbling in self-portrait attempts again, locating all mirror surfaces at home and playing with my too short cable release. This time I was shooting with the Mamiya C220 and a roll of RPX400 shot at 1600. I would have liked to develop the roll right away to see the results of some of these experiments, but it’s too hot to even consider a 1 1/2h development time.

Today I’m showing you the second roll taken on the night of the Fiesta de San Juan in June  – the night where the locals jump over the fire for good luck. I still don’t have the right lens for this kind of thing and shoot fire too rarely to know how to meter it properly, but I keep trying anyway. And of course the badly fogged T-Max 400 pushed in Rodinal didn’t help either. Nevertheless the night yielded some pictures that I liked very much.

All pictures taken with: Leica M6, Zeiss ZM C-Biogon 35mm f/2.8.
T-Max 400 stand-developed in Rodinal.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

I love my Zeiss.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

And I love how this one turned out.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

My husband staring into the fire. Tones! T-Max pushed is just lovely. At least once I edited out all the fog.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

If I ever want to take a good fire jumper picture I have to get a faster lens. You get the gist.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

The atmosphere of this is what I like about it.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

Did I mention how nice T-Max is pushed at night? I don’t like the stuff at box speed at all, but dang! I definitely need to figure out how to cut down on the fog to make editing less of a nightmare. If I figure it out it might well become my go to film for shooting in low light. And the 4×5 crop gives me really expensive ideas …! Better not go down that rabbit hole!

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

Gimme!

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

Walking the line. Too much fog and too much contrast. The grain is a little more pleasant though.

Comments

  • Julia McClelland

    The 4 x 5 might be expensive but my favourite tonight!

    • Well, this particular 4×5 was a cheap 35mm frame really, but one day I will try the real thing 🙂 I’m glad you like it!

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