hold me

The last couple of weeks have been full of experimentation and new developments (pardon the pun) after setting up my new darkroom. I have already made quite a number of prints and I was quite surprised that the experience gained from making just a handful of them a few years ago hasn’t faded completely. In fact, even the very first print with my new enlarger turned out wonderfully! By now I’ve made some 20 prints on RC and FB paper in different sizes and I’m hooked. When they say that a silvery image appearing in a tray is quite magical, you should believe every word!

The weather and the work on printing have kept me from shooting much, but I feel like I’ve had a breakthrough. I’ve been printing a specific project and the negatives were old, shot on slightly broken gear and were developed rather badly, so I never was quite happy with scans from them in the past. However, apart from a few difficult exceptions they did print quite wonderfully on FB paper and I’ve seen a definite jump in quality and character. I’m onto something and I will continue to work on the project to see how far I can get with it. In any case, starting with darkroom work was a great decision and it opens up a whole new range of possibilities.

At some point I will take the time to scan some of the prints, but today I’ll show you some regular film scans from pictures taken in August 2015. The pictures were mostly shot on Fomapan 400 and it turns out that I can dislike both T-Max 400 and Fomapan 400, although they’re at opposite ends of the film spectrum. T-Max 400 is a very fine grain emulsion with a rather digital looking tonality range, whereas Fomapan 400 is a coarse grain retro emulsion with considerable glow to it. Given the choice between a demon and the devil himself I’d always pick Foma, since I generally prefer classic grain. Although I won’t buy Fomapan 400 in 35mm again, I’m pleased with the pictures beyond the technicalities. It was warm, crowded and great for shooting, so get some coffee / tea and enjoy plenty of summery shots in these wintery times.

Pictures taken with: Leica M6, Zeiss ZM C-Biogon 35mm f/2.8; Olympus XA; Rolleicord V, Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 75mm f/3.5.

Starting off with M6 and my last HP5+ / Caffenol-CH.

Maybe it was too much for her to see …

Is it me or do dog and man have the exact same facial expression?

I wonder what the name of this game is, dog crutch ball?

Say hello.

Happy biker.

Backpacker central.

Delicious children …

Look who I met!

Tickled my bw spidey senses. I knew her hair would light up like that in bw.

Nope, this spinning top doesn’t belong to the kid, he’s just rolling his up!

Suspenders clearly belong to a different generation.

Here the light was working against me. Look closely at the boys on the right.

Nope, this wasn’t about the camera, it was the sunshine! Vampire kid!

He was too close for my zone, but I like it anyway.

Some bread lined up on a scooter seat … nope, I don’t know what that’s all about either …

Flight simulator?

Strangely this must have been 1/125. I rarely shoot at that speed while I’m walking.

Outside a candy shop.

I especially liked the owl.

Girl and daddy having a little boxing match, ball mid air, but clearly not the right picture for the blog.

I changed to the Olympus XA for a couple of rolls to see how I feel about the camera after more than half a year of Leica joy. Still HP5+ / CCH.

Serious conversation?

Shades and cigar.

Not too happy?

Family scene.

And relax!

Uhm … right.

View from the promenade.

Oh no, where did I leave my own board?

People were queuing for something, can’t remember what.

Obviously a very hot day.

Can’t see where the bangs end and the furball starts

Another XA roll, Fomapan 400 / Caffenol-CL stand.

Can’t tell whether this is shaky or out of focus. Probably both.

Coming out of church.

Hah, not a smart phone!

Grumpy look.

End of the roll complete with bulk loading light leak.

XA verdict: Sharpness is overrated? Looking at these feels like going a bit blind after all that Zeiss sharpness … maybe it’s not so visible on the blog, but on 20x30cm prints or zoomed in it’s quite apparent.

Back to M6 and Zeiss bliss, Fomapan 400 / CCL.

When you expose the Fomapan just right, it can shine too, but it falls into the mud way too quickly to be useful for hip shooting.

Depressed dog.

I just love this one!

Fomapan is not even close to fine grain, so squaring the Leica shots isn’t really a serious option. But this way you can also see what I mean by “mud”.

Taking note of the right shoe?

I was having a killer day. 4 shots worth printing in one day, 3 on a single roll! This one cracked me up.

Twins! Cracked me up too.

Another instalment of people pointing at things.

Serious looks all around.

Typical Fomapan. Barely a stop below and you already get murky shadows and midtones while the highlights still go nuts over the probably missing anti-halation layer. Not a fan and won’t be buying it again in 35mm. Also, super sensitive emulsion, a third of the rolls were scratched or had some minor emulsion damage just from bulk loading. It’s cheap for a reason! The only way to make it shine is to buy pre-rolled / roll without a bulk loader and meter correctly. There is no way to combat the retro glow though, which isn’t my cup of tea.

Yep, why not block the whole sidewalk right at a crossing?

On break.

There was a nice band playing, so I stuck around for some shots.

The next few: Rollei, Portra 400, bw conversion.

I had never seen / heard a real singing saw before, only in cartoons or video games! Difficult to get the saw on the picture in any meaningful way, so I focussed on the bow instead.