bubbles

Last week I told you that I experimented with a little pinhole camera I built myself with still rather unpredictable results. This week my experimentation took me to another strange beast which is similarly unusual for a Leica shooter like me: I went out with a Holga! I actually bought the camera to convert it into a pinhole camera, but wanted to see what it could do with the lens first. It was a sunny day and I only had ISO 400 film in 120 lying around, so I had to improvise a little. The Holga really only has one shutter speed around 1/125 and the maximum aperture is somewhere around 13, so I had to shove a red filter with a filter factor of 5 on the front to get to the right amount of light. And although I was winging it on a crappy plastic camera, the exposure worked just fine and I was even surprised with the pictures. Not half bad for plastic wrapped in more plastic. Maybe I should give it another chance before tearing it apart?

In any case, as you can imagine I’m trying to push myself a little out of my comfort zone by embracing some more unpredictable stuff and experimenting with things I haven’t tried yet. These experiments are of course quite unrelated to my usual street photography work and I’m just trying to see where this takes me. I think I’ll make a point of experimenting with more toy camera / pinhole stuff about once a week over the next year and I’m certainly curious to see where I’ll be at the end of it. So, right now I have a matchbox pinhole cam that needs a bit more expert light proofing, a Holga, a toy TLR, a Lomo actionsampler, my mum’s Lubitel that needs some cleaning since it’s full of fungus and different containers for paper pinholes. There is lots of experimentation and tinkering ahead I think!

Apart from these experiments I also shot a decent amount of rolls in my Leica this last week, this time mostly FP4+ with a scattering of Kodak Vision 3 500T. And since I shot mostly lower ISO film I actually switched to my 50mm Nokton, which I enjoy shooting in the daylight with low ISO film. What’s really interesting about this is that I actually shot many of my favourite shots this year with the 50mm Nokton. Both 50mm and low ISO used to be quite far out of my comfort zone and now I’m rather enjoying both of it in combination. Who would have thought? I actually bought the 50mm Nokton for night shots, but in the end I fell in love with it during daytime.

Enough talk though, let’s finally get on with some pictures! This time I’m showing you pictures taken at the end of March, shortly before our trip to Buenos Aires in April. Next time you can therefore expect some colourful pictures from another continent!

Pictures taken with: Leica M6 with Zeiss ZM C-Biogon 35mm f/2.8 and Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1.1. Rolleicord V, Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 75mm f/3.5.

Starting with: M6 / Nokton / RPX 100 / HC-110.

Busy communicating.

Copycat.

Cow is not impressed.

Comfy.

Careful with the leopard print!

Disapproving looks.

M6 / Biogon / APX 400 / HC-110.

I was pretty exhausted after that Nokton roll, sat down and wondered whether I should load another roll. If I hadn’t I would have missed this …!

And this. They had already called an ambulance.

Lost.

If you can’t walk …!

Expectation.

Ah, contrast!

Expectation.

And he was very patient.

On break.

APX 400 @800 / HC-110.

I don’t know what it is about this picture, but I keep coming back to it. Maybe it’s the girls hand.

Maimed?

Out for a stroll.

Bored with the breadstick I suppose.

Taking out the cat.

Hitchhiker.

Dog meeting.

M6 / Nokton.

Mid jump.

I always say that this place is like Disneyland without the rides. Not quite true I suppose …!

APX 400 / HC-110.

Geometry.

Attitude!

Strange moves.

And then all of a sudden the ground seemed to become somewhat magnetic.

More magnetism.

And more floor magnetism.

Even on the skateboards.

That bag has a tail …

Dog encounter.

M6 / Biogon / HP5+ / HC-110.

Old school attitude.

Accident waiting to happen.

Fascination with toys.

Hiding …

Tree football.

Stylish.

Aww!

Uhm … Don’t run down the stairs with scissors?

Kick.

Floor magnetism.

Safe?

Making a mess.

Kick.

One of those strange moments.

Making sure the mannequin isn’t cold …

M6 / Nokton.

We were planning to go out to an outdoor concert, but it was raining. After walking a block we stopped under a roof to decide whether to turn back. This was the view.