A couple of days ago we returned from our last trip to Madrid. Instead of melting in 40°C weather, this time we were freezing cold at times. It seems we always pick the wrong time to travel. Nevertheless, we had a very good time, saw dinosaurs and interesting art, bought books – oh surprise – and I can be proud enough to say that I resisted buying a large format camera in a nice camera shop just two blocks from our holiday flat (it’s almost as if someone had planned it that way *cough*). The other cameras I ogled were a Horizon 202 in a display case and several Rolleiflexes behind the counter. I didn’t even ask for the prices of those, since already the Graflex seemed somewhat overpriced. Not buying any cameras doesn’t mean it was a photographically unsuccessful trip though. I also shot about 15 rolls, 4 of which were taken with the Rollei, splitting the rest of the rolls fairly evenly between the Nokton 50mm f/1.1 and the Nokton 35mm f/1.2. Definitely a good trip and I can’t wait to see the pictures!

Just before we travelled I also started on a new set of experiments, this time another attempt at making slides with HC-110 and C41 chemicals instead of E6 chemicals. Since Tetenal discontinued the 1L E6 kit I’ve been waiting and waiting to see my slide pictures without any end in sight, so I decided to try a mad little experiment with the help of lots of pointers from Kelly-Shane Fuller, fellow member of the Film Shooters Collective and my personal slide film hero. He already figured out how to do this himself and I just tried to reproduce his method. After an initial failure with a weak re-exposure light I’m now fairly close to perfect results. The first development in HC-110 is still a tad too inactive – I’m still getting a little too much blue in the shadows – , but I think increasing the temperature by 1 degree should do the trick. I love it when my wild experiments work out! And once I will have perfected this process, more slide film experiments will follow, including black and white slides and paper reversal processing for shooting paper in pinhole cameras. You see, there are always more experiments to undertake and more things to learn!

Speaking of learning: The other day I decided that it’s time to take up learning Russian again. Last year I learned French with a method that was new to me and for the first time succeeded in teaching myself a language. The year before I kind of failed at learning Russian, because I got incredibly stuck with the grammar before being able to properly understand anything. My attempt to learn French was a sort of test run before tackling a difficult language like Russian with this new method and it worked splendidly. I can now read books in French without a dictionary and I even listened to a couple of audiobooks in French on the train to Madrid without any problems. After this success I will now try the same method on Russian and see whether it works just as well on a grammatically more challenging language. So, a new non-photographic challenge awaits and you’ll probably read a sentence here or there about my progress.

Now let’s get on with some pictures though, this time again taken in April during our last trip to Argentina. I actually miss Argentina again – it’s always so much fun to shoot there – and I’m really looking forward to travelling there again. We’re not quite sure when yet, but fingers crossed that it will be soon!

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

Starting with: M6 / Biogon / Kodak Gold 200.

Movement!

Lost shoe.

Pink.

For some reason I like that somewhat blurry expression.

Choosing ice cream.

Strange fassade.

Are you coming or what? Asks the dog, of course!

Camouflaged car.

Love the light in this.

Yeah, yeah, I know, one day I’ll end up with curtain burn.

We actually wanted to go to one of the big cemeteries, but it closed 5 minutes before we arrived thanks to another impossibly long ride on public transport.

Didn’t trust this guy, so I stayed away from him.

We went to a café that had a whole camera collection on display. They had some really nice stuff there, so I took some pictures. Of course I had only slow film and a slow lens.

Very atmospheric place.

Obligatory café portrait of my husband.

Table top long-exposure.

M6 / Nokton.

Hanging out at the skate park. Literally.

Same facial expression. And in the background my husband walked into the picture.

Mmmmh cake! We were at the Feria de Mataderos again.

First you eat the chocolate.

Then you give the doggy a kiss.

Another furry handbag.

Wild hair.

Creepy.

Toy gun.

Far away from Manchester.

There is a rider hiding in a mural.

These kids were racing about on their horses.

Rollei / Portra 400.

Start them early!

The leggings need no comment.

When Muybridge published his first high speed pictures of running horses people thought the gait of his horses looked comically unrealistic.

I love how this one turned out.

M6 / Nokton / Gold 200.

Aww!

Another portrait of my husband. And people who say that this lens has strange bokeh forget that most of the time it’s actually not that bad.

Portrait session.

High five!

Kodak Farbwelt 400.

A real air guitar.

Makes me curious.

I don’t care what people say, I love this lens!

M6 / Biogon.

Happiness is having to take the bus in Buenos Aires.

Ah, back in my old stomping grounds, the subway. I always feel at home there.

Lots of hearts.

“Oh, grandmother, what big hands you have!” is what my grandkids will say when I show them this picture.

Last one!