Two Days in One Roll

During our last stay in Madrid I was a bit more cautious with film.  From experience, I have seen that the more I return to the same places, the more I take the same photographs, and there's only so many shots of the Plaza Mayor in Madrid one can take, no matter how eerie the light effect.  In past visits, I had burned two, or even two and a half rolls in a single 10-hour day.  This time—summer of 2018—I felt a lot less generous and more selective, as you can see here: here are some selected photographs from one single roll of film (Kenmere ISO 100), spanning two days in Madrid.  As you may have surmised, the camera used was a Leica M4-P, with an Elmarit 28mm f2.8.  

 Not too early, not too late... at the post stamp market in the Madrid Plaza Mayor.

 Buyer, Post Stamp "mercadillo" at the Plaza Mayor, Madrid.

 The market actually offers a vast array of used or antique items, and browsing can be fun.

T-shirts in another institution of Madrid: "El rastro"

Backstore in "El rastro"

 Musicians parading/performing at "El rastro"

Abundance of things strange... "El rastro"

"La casa de las navajas" bar, near where "El rastro" gets assembled on weekends

 

 

 

 

 

 

 "Chotis" dancers in Plaza Isabel II, Madrid, on a Sunday afternoon. 

 Young opera singers, Calle Arenal

Magician at the Puerta del Sol

 Feminist demonstration at the Puerta del Sol

 Young women walking down Puerta del Sol at dusk.

 Young patrons at Café de la Opera

Man checking cell phone on Campomanes Street, following day

 Young woman on Gran Vía, following day (hip shot)

Young woman, Calle San Isidro

 

Here's the end of that roll (Sunday and Monday, if I remember correctly).  These are, to me, the ones that deserve some attention.  As for the rest... they'll do fine as long as they stay buried in my computer.  So long!

Paris and the 35mm Zeiss lens

During the summer of 2017 I had foot surgery, but before going in the hospital I spent some two weeks in Paris, and a few days in Germany afterwards. All that time I had with me two cameras: my Nikon D700 (with my AF 24-120 f4 zoom), and my Leica M4, with a Zeiss 35mm f2 and a 90mm f2.8 lens made by Konica.  For metering, I took a recently (back then) acquired Sekonic L-208 that can be small, discrete and accurate.  Film?  A mixed bag, but mostly Kenmore ISO 100 and Ilford FP4 (exposed at ISO 125).

Here, the photographs...

 Place St Julien Le Pauvre.  Artist setting up his work for sale.

 Place des Vosges.  Girl reading.  For this one, I used a Konica Hexanon 90mm f2.8 lens.

Place des Vosges.  Corridor and man.

The light was at all times intense and bright, but there were exceptions and places in which I was able to get (interesting) exposures with a bit more contrast, and an air definitely French, or at least continental.  Like these ones...

Men conversing in café by Place des Vosges.

Waiter, Ile de St. Louis.

 Photo shoot and model.  Palais Royal. 

Ladies and the cost of living these days.  Passage Jouffroy.

Girls at Café Dome, Rue Lévi. 

 

Not all the photographs I have show this "slice of life" quality.  Some are deliberately more architectural (or perhaps environmental), because... Paris offers everything everyone may want.  I wanted to do this trip and take a Leica I used to own (an M3), with a collapsible Summicron 50mm, but I sold it before anything happened.  I am now glad that I was able to take this M4 instead, as I have always found the 50mm focal length a bit too narrow for my taste.  Needless to say, I want to return, and I want to do some night photography like I did in Madrid.  But enough of that.  I'll return with some street shots (literally, photos of streets) that I liked because... I think they're a good representation of the charms of Paris.

A bientôt!

Digital and Film: Lima, Perú

I am aware that I'm interrupting my intended project of the Leica typology, but these images came to me as a result of a trip to Lima, Perú (professional conference).  I took with me a Fuji X-Pro 1 with a 23mm/f1.4 lens, and my trustworthy Leica M4-P with an Elmarit 28mm f2.8 (third version).  As the TV show says, "these are their stories..."  Let's begin with the digital material.

 A classic, casually parked across the street from my hotel.

 The cathedral steps.

A street off the Plaza de Armas.

Family at Parque Kennedy in Miraflores. 

 Ketchup texting in Parque Kennedy.

Guard change at the Palacio Nacional (in front of the Plaza de Armas).

Facade in Jirón de la Unión (street between Plaza de Armas and Plaza de San Martín); mostly commercial, but still may have a few interesting scenes (you will see below).

 Sandwich restaurant near Parque Kennedy.  They have a cute ode to the potato on the board right above the counter, and it's no small matter: Perú has a lot of different potato varieties.

 San Francisco church.  Famous for its catacombs (in which photography is not allowed), the church still has a rich interior and an interesting altar.  Not to mention a painting of the Last Supper that features lots of American foods...  Very odd. 

 Miraflores Church, late at night.  It's in a nice park, always busy with people.  Peruvians live in the streets... a lot!

A very fine, gourmet restaurant called "Haiti," near Parque Kennedy. 

Chess players behind a traditional Peruvian fast food joint ("Salchipapas"), on a cool night in Lima. 

My Leica M4-P was loaded with Ilford FP4, which is contrasty and sharp.  I took a walk down the Jirón de la Unión (again) and took a few snaps along the way to the Plaza de San Martín.  For some reason, I felt more comfortable approaching people with the Leica than with the Fuji.  Here, take a peek at the scenes in this area.

 Ice cream vendor (Jirón de la Unión).

Workers on break (Plaza de San Martín)

 Street seller (candy, snacks, cigarettes) in Jirón de la Unión.

 Money changer.  They are perfectly legal and operate in the streets of Lima.  They're dressed in such a way that they advertise the currencies they handle. 

Young indigenous woman selling traditional candy near San Francisco.  She agreed to pose for me after I purchased three packs of her stuff.  It wasn't bad...  BTW, this is the only shot I made with the Konica 90mm f2.8 I had with.

There we go.  Soon enough, before returning to the Leica typology project, I'll share with you some of the images I managed to make in Europe this last May-June 2017.  In the meanwhile, feel free to comment below!

Toledo, adventures in light, or what I did with a hand-held meter

Let's begin with a little technical note about my meter. It's nothing fancy, but it's quite reliable: a Sekonic L-86. It was made for about 15 years, and it was only replaced by a less reliable (I speak from experience) but fancier looking: the L-158, a battery dependent thing.

Thus, armed with my M2 and my Zeiss 35mm lens, I proceeded to wander in the Toledo streets, and capture images like the one below. 

As any astute reader will imagine, I metered on the wall (or a similar light-reflecting surface) in order to make the light stand out.  I cannot remember the exact exposure, but I do recall using a lot of small apertures (I was shooting at 1/125th), so it's very likely that I used f5.6-f8 here.  A similar situation came up here.

All for the sake of emphasizing the beautiful Toledo light, I metered on the walls. If I remember well, this is a view of the same street above, which leads to the beautiful Calle Santo Tomé. Now, the street pictured below is behind the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, which is where my students were staying and taking some classes. The man you can see coming up was patient enough to greet me when he reached the corner from which I photographed him.

Since I had been standing at this corner for a while, I managed to take a quick reading on the wall to my left (which isn't a lot brighter than the ground).  This image still needed a bit of correction in Photoshop (levels only), but not a large slide of the indicator.  The figure in the distance gives the photograph an old air, as if this shot had been made decades ago. 

These, now, were a lot easier to meter.

Just the steps did the trick.

A quick read of the light reflected from the ground. 

Customary 1/60 at f2, but since I was using ISO 100 I lowered the speed to 1/30. 

   

With the sunny 16 I shot this landscape at f11 (or perhaps at an even smaller aperture); I was hoping for a darker sky, but a yellow filter cannot perform miracles.

Lately I've been using my M5 with other types of 35mm lenses (one f2.8 and an f1.4), and despite their being metered bodies, or perhaps because of their meters, it takes me longer to shoot.  The meter in both cameras is a bit distracting, and when metering is added to the whole operation (compose and focus) it definitely adds time and substracts fun. However, as soon as I get the results of my last experiment I'll try to post them here to see what it is to shoot with a Leica metered camera. But it'll take time because I'm not really good at developing. Before I do all of this, I can always offer the results of another trip with my black M5 or my silver M5. Both are decent cameras and I really like using them...

Despite their built-in meters.

Toledo and Avila, sun and shadows

Here are some street shots from Toledo and Avila... or rather streetscapes.  Again, the tools were my Leica M2, a Zeiss 35mm f2 lens and my reliable Sekonic L-86 meter.  Most of these are from July 2016, while we were in Spain with a remarkably nice group of students.

Girls in a swing in the playground of Plaza Juan de Mariana, in front of my favorite café.

Damasquinado (Toledo's exclusive handcraft) demonstrated in a small store.

I seem to remember that this photograph represents an area near the Plaza Tendillas in Toledo.

Calle Santo Tomé was always intensely lit by a strong light. It's an interesting place littered with small stores and eateries, and leads to the church that houses El Greco's Entierro del Conde de Orgaz.

Smaller but just as proud, Avila boasts a singular Jewish neighborhood. This photograph comes from a spot on the way there.

Man entering Avila's Plaza Mayor.

Nuns crossing the Plaza Mayor in Avila.

I still have a series of photographs in the bag.  These are the ones I'd like to share right now mostly because I'm impatient.  However, I'll post another group (mixed bag) and, if I can, I'll explain my metering criteria. BTW, before I forget, my lens was protected with a nice yellow B&W filter.  Not the darkest, but enough to add one stop for exposure compensation.