In the last few weeks I have developed and scanned roughly 80 rolls of film. I only have 5 more rolls to go until I will have managed to catch up. It was quite a development marathon, which means that I didn’t have much time for shooting, but I still managed to shoot 9 rolls in my Rollei in October. The funny thing is that I basically shot only my Rollei last month. I already once tried to only shoot Rollei in August and struggled with it immensely. This time I had tremendous fun with it though and stuck with it quite by accident. As always, attitude matters.

In any case, today I’m sharing with you the last pictures from January. It was that time when I started falling in love both with my Nokton f/1.1 and with Delta 400. Surprisingly this perfect fine grain film with just plain awesome tonality plays very nicely with the quirky slightly flawed character of the Nokton wide open. I’ve since moved on from Delta 400 in 35mm – as always I keep experimenting with different emulsions -, but I know that when I finally settle on one ISO 400 bw film it might well be Delta 400. Settling down is difficult of course, because I really like several films very much. I haven’t finished testing all ISO 400 emulsions yet and can’t really say anything definitive. Of course, one of the emulsions left to test might surprise me in some unexpected way, but to be honest none of the emulsions that I have left seem very much like they fit my style. I can actually somewhat predict now that in the end my choice seems to come down to three very nice emulsions, none of them excessively cheap: Tri-X, HP5+ and Delta 400. More on that later though when I’ve finally finished all my tests.

For now my attention will probably stay with my E6 experiments though. There is a whole 100ft can of Rollei CN 200 which is waiting to be rolled and shot and it will definitely be a priority. These experiments will determine what I will do to develop the 5 rolls of E6 I brought back from Argentina and after 6 months it’s really about time. Also coming up, now that the sun is going down earlier (you see what I did there?) are finally some experiments with Kodak Vision 3 500T. I’ve been meaning to do this for the longest time and have already developed some other ECN2 films here and there in C41 and RA4, but I’m only getting serious about it now that I have the perfect lens for it on its way to me. Yes, a new lens!!! It’s going to be the other super wide aperture Voigtländer Nokton 35mm f/1.2 II, which is supposedly even better and much less quirky than the 50mm f/1.1. 35mm remains my favourite focal length, which means that I will have less trouble with the framing and can take certain shots for which I just wouldn’t have the space with the 50mm. At the same time the lens also adds a little more of a challenge because I will have to get closer while shooting from eye-level, which is still a little uncomfortable for me. With the 50mm I can stay a little further back and that works fine, but with 35mm I might still hesitate. Time to get bolder again! I think shooting 500T with this new lens will keep me happy this winter, which is normally a time when I find it particularly challenging to shoot.

But now let’s finally move on to the picture part of this post. Grab a cup of tea and enjoy.

Pictures taken with: Leica M6 with Zeiss ZM C-Biogon 35mm f/2.8 and Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1.1.

Starting with: Biogon / Delta 400 @800 / HC-110.

Mobile speaker gone wild.

Not really visible in this little version, but the girl is squashing her nose up to the window.

Time travelling dog walkers.

Light and dark.

Another instalment of “people pointing at things”.

Entangled.

Confidence. I also like the reflection of the girl.

Someone wants to dress up.

Oh no!!

Nokton / RPX 100 / HC-110.

Focus on the money.

Cigar break.

He didn’t mind having his picture taken.

Timeless.

Guess what the girl is touching.

Expectations.

Looks like graffiti in the making, but she’s actually just opening / closing the door.

Biogon / Delta 400 / HC-110.

Tired.

Drums, always drums.

Fun way of being carried. I believe I printed this one.

The sea, the sea.

Needs some guessing as to where the head is.

Whoever thought that this was a good promo picture needs to have their head examined. I laughed every single time I walked past this one.

Innocent look.

Supermarket scene.

Not two but three little girls.

Mid-jump.

Cigarette break.

Surfers and sun-stars.

The little dog also wanted to see.

Aww!

Ball action.

More pointing and more balls.

Awww!

More expectations.

Light was going and I was out with my f/2.8 lens.

Accident waiting to happen with ambulance at the ready.

There was a fire apparently.

Printed this one. Delta 400 really prints wonderfully by the way.

Random encounter of dog walkers. This town is crazy about little fur balls, which is the reason why I take so many pictures of them. They are everywhere.

Moving subjects in low light ISO 400 and a 2.8 lens are possible very occasionally. Just wastes a lot of film on blurry shots though.

So, winter light asks for Nokton from here on.

Waiting for the rain to stop.

So cute!

Probably my favourite picture of the entire year so far. Ministry of silly walks in the rain! I printed this one several times and it turned out just lovely. Delta 400 for the win!

Rain action. I don’t like to shoot in the rain, but that day I was determined to shoot.

Save on exit.

Also printed this one. Turned out lovely too.

People like scooters here.

Skating in the rain.

Better not!

I guess I was in a 5:4 mood. One day I want to shoot 5:4 for real.

Self-portrait with huge lens on my Leica. Looks super strange, doesn’t it? Lenses for the Leica are so small normally. When you’re not going for super wide apertures like f/1.1 or the even wider and substantially more expensive f/1.0 and f/0.95 of course.

Cigarette break.

4 boys, 4 guitars.

My god, what is it?! Last one for January.