down south

For 5 years I have posted almost every day when I had pictures to share. For the first year I even posted when I had nothing because I had a 365 project to complete. After this I went on in a similar fashion, because I kept on shooting almost daily. And even after I started to shoot exclusively film last year I kept going, even when there was a quite significant distance between the pictures and the words that went with it. For a while now I have been uncomfortable with this and on rainy days when I’ve been mainly reading I’ve found it rather difficult to find anything interesting to say. This daily style of blogging really fits digital shooting much better than film anyway and to be honest it’s also too much of a hamster wheel to be shooting, developing, scanning, editing and on top of things also fight for words daily. It actually takes away time that I could be spending on making pictures or writing more sensible things than “Oh look, it’s raining again. I hate rain …”! So, I take my inspiration from other film shooters and from now on will show you longer posts here about once or twice a month, trying to tell you the story this way without all the superfluous technical detail. Don’t worry, in the end you’ll still get to see roughly the same amount of pictures, just a whole load of them all at once.

You can’t live without a daily dose of pictures from me? Well, in that case follow my tumblr or my Facebook page.

Since my last post a number of things have also been happening around here. I developed the rest of my black and white film from last year, I moved on to Agfa APX 400 after finishing my Delta 400 test – beautiful tonality, just lovely pushed to 800 in HC-110 – and I shot another bunch of colour rolls during the Carnival, which also gave me the opportunity to shoot my last roll of Agfa Precisa CT 100 with my Nokton lens. Having shot that roll means that I can mix up my E6 chemicals any time now and see what kind of results I’ve been getting over the last year. Shooting slide definitely means that I have to be patient, because I mostly shoot it in 120 and don’t shoot much low ISO film in general. We’ll see whether my first batch will be as successful as some of the C41 stuff I’ve been shooting. I hope my metering was accurate enough!

Apart from shooting and developing I’ve also been planning a couple of new projects. One of them will involve a bunch of homemade pinhole cameras and the other one will be filled with darkness and red light combined with copious amounts of paper – can you guess? I might even throw both efforts together and see what happens! I’m definitely excited and can’t wait to get back into printing after a 3 year break from it.

Finally a bit more to talk about than just the incessant rain! However, since you must be used to it by now I can tell you that the rain returned yesterday and will probably stay indefinitely. The 10 day weather forecast doesn’t have a single sunny day predicted. I’ll have plenty of time to get going with my E6 development!

And now after the usual weather update, grab a cup of tea / coffee, sit back and enjoy the rest of the pictures I brought back from Argentina last year.

Pictures taken with: Leica M6, Zeiss ZM C-Biogon 35mm f/2.8 / dm Paradies 400 (mostly) and Rolleicord V, Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 75mm f/2.8 / Portra 400.

Subte to or from the centre. I miss riding the subway. Always a good place for pictures.

Elbow in the face?

Those glasses cracked me up. We were in the centre, where people were just rushing about like crazy.

Lots of water.

Cigarette break.

Can’t resist people pointing at things.

Keeping the shop open while reading the newspaper.

Back in our neighbourhood. Not going anywhere.

Some careful treading going on there. Pavements in BsAs are a mess not only at building sites.

Mid yawn.

Sorting the greens.

Couldn’t see a thing, but took a picture anyway. Not the first time.

Photographing the street art that is photographing me. Huh?

Gotta love those sunstars. We were walking towards the book fair, which happened to be roughly in our neighbourhood – 10 blocks or so away.

First shot on the fair grounds. I would have taken that in bw too. I like the subtle off white though.

Snoopy was looking out for all those books.

Indoors with window lighting and lots of lines. Perfect for a picture.

I guess she needed to entertain herself.

Chess and books, it’s only logical (as Tuvok would say).

This stall was super packed because they had lots of interesting books. I think we bought one or two books here too (and brought back 53 books in total for which we needed an extra suitcase). This nice guy was drinking mate while attending to the customers. He gave me that super serious look for the picture and then smiled.

We spent quite a bit of time at this stall too and picked up one of those Galeano books.

The little guy was scared of the princess. After listening to fairy tales I’d be scared too.

Next day across from our flat. He knew exactly what I was doing although I was shooting from the hip. Ninja stealth skills need oiling.

Doesn’t look overly comfortable.

Oops.

Tomorrow in the news: Fish eats sleeping man.

I probably would have taken this in BW too, but it wouldn’t have worked.

Did I mention that I love my Zeiss lens?

And more of works-only-in-colour!

Peekaboo.

Pensive (as in, “What the heck is she doing?”)

There was a touristy little market that sold all sorts of nice things. We were looking for mates.

Yes, one of those. The Pakon didn’t like this roll by the way, some shots don’t look like Paradies at all (which is not entirely bad).

The guy in the background who was chatting to his neighbour was selling beautiful pinhole cameras. I was tempted, but then I’m not really a tripod person. I thought that I’d maybe try it one day. Now I’l be building my own!

Another man with a mate. The really tough ones pour the hot water from the thermos even on the bus – and the bus drivers are as mad as the taxi drivers!

American tourists.

Lazy glasses. When I’m walking under the harsh Spanish sun trying to see what the heck I’m even shooting, for a split second I ponder this possibility too … The next thought is invariably: “What am I thinking?!”

On our way to the Mataderos market.

For some reason I always stopped to document the cars. There are obviously all sorts of new cars too, but abandoning broken cars on the street seems to be common practice.

Looking to the future?

Let me tell you a secret!

Ice cream, sweets?

I think I got noticed by this little guy too.

They’re not dressed up by the way, it’s just what they wear.

Melancholy station.

Dancing.

Proof that I don’t always shoot from the hip, even if I’m very close. Especially when I want to photograph little old ladies! By the way, I’m not shooting from the hip out of cowardice or laziness (ok sometimes), but because I like to take on the perspective of a little kid when I take pictures.

Really creative guy. We got a really funny mate with horns from him. And I couldn’t resist that ray of light behind him.

More dancing.

f/2.8. It was a dark corner.

Now for some Rolleicord shots, same day.

I think I’ve become a big Portra 400 fan.

A craftsman at work. He was so immersed in what he was doing, he didn’t even look up while I set up the shot.

Reminds me of the good old days when I went horseback riding with my Dad (we stopped after several serious accidents, horses don’t really know how much damage they can cause to us puny little humans).

It’s amazing how close one can get even with an eyecatcher like the Rollei. People don’t really know how it works. And if you linger for a while they lose interest in the camera too.

Slightly difficult shot because I was on the other side of an empty stall.

This one was fun. I set up the shot and right when I wanted to take the shot this young man came over and started talking to me about my Rollei. So, I asked him for a picture! Thanks!

As always taking pictures of old cars. Shadow with the classical Rollei pose too. The light was going.

Taken from inside a restaurant. He knew what I was doing too.

Next roll Kodacolor 200, which my husband’s father kindly gave to me. Otherwise I would have been one roll short.

View from the balcony. Every once in a while all the dogs of the neighbourhood would start up a barking concert. Not right at that moment though.

Argentina is more Italian than Spanish in mentality, which includes pizza and ice cream.

I would have needed a 21mm lens to get more than the dogs tail to go with that look!

A juggler entertaining the drivers waiting at the red light.

It was election day and in Argentina voting is mandatory, so we were off to the designated election office, a nearby school. I’ve never seen so many people at an election! Where I come from voting is optional and the tables are always empty, no queues at all. But then here in Europe the right and the so-called “left” also make the exact same politics, which in turn makes voting pretty pointless. In Europe you can basically only choose who is going to screw you over. In Argentina people had a real choice. And they chose the evil guys. Sad times. But enough of politics, back to pictures.

Didn’t notice these two walking into the frame, even better with them in it.

Lots of these guys too.

Clever to be taking ISO 200 film when you know you’re going to be shooting inside. Argh.

All the tables had long queues, except for the one where we had to go. Lucky.

Although we didn’t have to stand in line, I obviously wasn’t there to vote, so I had to wait anyway.

Everyone was slightly bored.

I think I might have taken that in passing on the way out.

Phew, done! Crowded narrow halls and endless waiting in a school building brings back too many bad memories of years wasted.

Some creative tilt to get the feet too.

My husband’s dad insisted that I couldn’t leave BsAs without seeing the “river”. It was the last day, and I had two rolls left, so I insisted too! We were pretty exhausted at this point after a month of running around the city trying to see everything (and not managing by a long shot). The M6 shots were Kodak Farbwelt 400, probably expired since I got them as loose rolls. By the way, it ain’t no river if I can’t see the other shore! Makes it even better since I love the sea and find rivers a tad boring.