ChrisR
I'm a well known grump...
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Edit 2021: images on Ph0t0bucket now replaced with uploaded images. This may mean reduced numbers of images in some posts...
Edit: now moved...
Edit: This opening post is substantially edited because of my plan to move it from Photos from Film to the Personal Projects and Themes sub-forum, adding context from a previous post in Talk Film & Conventional.
I quite enjoy The Online Photographer blog, which seems to be an interesting mixture of photography stuff, great value print sales (though I have not yet succumbed) and some interesting Off Topic (OT) articles. Recently he wrote a piece about the digital version of "One Camera, One Lens, One Year"; this article referred back to an earlier article called The Leica as Teacher. In that, he wrote:
This has been at the back of my mind for a while. I'm really intrigued by it. It's pretty much opposite to a lot of the general "buy/try as many cameras as possible" approaches (very valid and lots of fun). A few people here [on F&C] come pretty close, at least as far as the shots they post coming almost exclusively from one camera (or maybe two). But while I'm intrigued, and while I do think it would be valuable (reminds me of those first few years in the late 60s with only the Werra 1 and black and white film), I'm not sure I'm quite motivated enough to want to give up a second camera with colour (or, for that matter, my little digi beast for appropriate moments).
[End of edit]
OK, having mentioned [the section quoted above] on the main F&C thread last year (discussed here), and dithered a bit, I have decided that I'm definitely going for a One Camera, One Lens, One Film challenge. Like Dean (@Strappy ) I'm not sure I'll make it a full year, but since I've sort of been doing it for a month already I'll try to make it at least 6 months, and more if possible. As [F&C members] might have guessed, the camera is the Leitz Minolta CL, with the Minolta M-Rokkor 40mm f/2 lens, and the film is Tri-X because... well because it's lovely and I've now ordered a couple of dozen rolls.
I'm a bit more comfortable with the CL now, though a bit worried that the light meter only works intermittently, so when I get a chance I'll take it back to Cameratiks in Edinburgh for them to have a look at. And if they had a Voigtlander R3M, who knows what could happen .
One thing, I intended to couple this with doing my own processing, but I haven't got that part of the act together yet, so sent the first two films off to Peak. One benefit I expected from processing my own was actually looking properly at the negatives. Recently I've been taking XP2 and getting them scanned at Photo Express, so the negs generally don't get out of the sleeves! Anyway, I had a good look, and despite the intermittent metering they don't look too bad. I guess with black and white film you don't really need to be adjusting the exposure every shot, unless something has really changed.
[EDIT to note: decided to change shot numbering by including a film number prefix to try to reduce confusion in the thread, assuming I keep it going for a significant time...]
1-1) So, this was the very first shot, already mentioned in another thread, but here for completeness. It was perishing cold, I was wearing gloves and unsure how everything worked, focus and aperture rings are totally back to front compared with my Pentax MX, so it took me about 3 or 4 minutes to make each of these early shots. Not surprisingly, infinity focus is out. Scan-150226-0001
1-2) Second trip out, not quite so cold, I could actually hold the camera without shivering. I like this sort of shot, but I think this illustrates why this exercise might be good for me. You'll perhaps picture this wall, range of different textures and those lovely ferns contrasting against the wall... except that I always forget that in black and white they pretty much tone in and fade away. I've got to relearn how the coloured stuff I see translates to tones, used to be able to do this, but maybe for me colour's too seductive unless I cut it out completely. Edited to add: knowing the edges of the frame is proving a problem at this stage, I'm not sure this is quite the framing I wanted, but it's a learning process. Scan-150226-0007
1-3) Steps and a doorway. Have to meter in landscape, then turn and focus and frame in portrait. Quite like this... Scan-150226-0010
1-4) Steps and a couple of bikes. As above. Scan-150226-0013
1-5) Graffiti and Pampas grass. I really liked the contrast between the brutal street furniture with its ugly graffiti and the graceful fronds of pampas grass behind (plus a shed and inviting doorway behind that). Too much competing for attention and nothing but the graffiti is really getting any notice here. Scan-150226-0020
[Too many to upload]
1-6) This alley and building between the Meadows and Buccleuch St has wonderful curved walls, but I couldn't find a shot to show them off as I wanted. Luckily this couple wandered through, and I managed to get my mind into gear sufficiently to get this, which I think works OK. Edited to add, sorry wrong pic for a while there! Scan-150226-0024
1-7) ... and just along that alleyway, complete contrast in style, 40mm lens really worked I think. Scan-150226-0025
Just two more to show you from that roll...
Edit: now moved...
Edit: This opening post is substantially edited because of my plan to move it from Photos from Film to the Personal Projects and Themes sub-forum, adding context from a previous post in Talk Film & Conventional.
I quite enjoy The Online Photographer blog, which seems to be an interesting mixture of photography stuff, great value print sales (though I have not yet succumbed) and some interesting Off Topic (OT) articles. Recently he wrote a piece about the digital version of "One Camera, One Lens, One Year"; this article referred back to an earlier article called The Leica as Teacher. In that, he wrote:
The aim is to improve your photography...I suggest shooting with nothing but a Leica and one lens for a year. Shoot one type of black-and-white film (yes, even if you're completely devoted to color and digital, and hate film and everything it stands for. You don't have to commit to this forever; it's an exercise). Pick a single-focal-length 50mm, or 35mm, or 28mm. It doesn't have to be a "good" lens—anything that appeals to you and that fits the camera will do. Carry the camera with you all day, every day. Shoot at least two films a week. Four or six is better (or shoot more in the spring and fall and less in the dead of summer and winter). The more time you spend shooting, the better. The amount of film you shoot is related but not so important. (Photographing is like jogging: benefit accrues to time spent doing it, not how fast you go or how much ground you cover.)
Proof the rolls of film by contact and file them sequentially in a notebook. Get or make between one and six workprints per roll, however you choose to do it (even if you scan your picks and look at the pictures on a computer screen), and, every five or ten rolls or so, have one nice print made, or make it yourself. Craft well, but don't crop and don't fuss; just take what the camera gives you.
He had some reasons why a Leica was a good idea (particularly the viewfinder, getting away from the seductiveness of the ground glass image), but they are a bit pricy, and he pretty much suggested picking any camera. The more recent piece has further practical suggestions for how to make it work.... I'll say this: A year with a single Leica and a single lens, looking at light and ignoring color, will teach you as much about actually seeing photographs as three years in any photo school, and as much as ten or fifteen years (or more) of mucking about buying and selling and shopping for gear like the average hobbyist.
This has been at the back of my mind for a while. I'm really intrigued by it. It's pretty much opposite to a lot of the general "buy/try as many cameras as possible" approaches (very valid and lots of fun). A few people here [on F&C] come pretty close, at least as far as the shots they post coming almost exclusively from one camera (or maybe two). But while I'm intrigued, and while I do think it would be valuable (reminds me of those first few years in the late 60s with only the Werra 1 and black and white film), I'm not sure I'm quite motivated enough to want to give up a second camera with colour (or, for that matter, my little digi beast for appropriate moments).
[End of edit]
OK, having mentioned [the section quoted above] on the main F&C thread last year (discussed here), and dithered a bit, I have decided that I'm definitely going for a One Camera, One Lens, One Film challenge. Like Dean (@Strappy ) I'm not sure I'll make it a full year, but since I've sort of been doing it for a month already I'll try to make it at least 6 months, and more if possible. As [F&C members] might have guessed, the camera is the Leitz Minolta CL, with the Minolta M-Rokkor 40mm f/2 lens, and the film is Tri-X because... well because it's lovely and I've now ordered a couple of dozen rolls.
I'm a bit more comfortable with the CL now, though a bit worried that the light meter only works intermittently, so when I get a chance I'll take it back to Cameratiks in Edinburgh for them to have a look at. And if they had a Voigtlander R3M, who knows what could happen .
One thing, I intended to couple this with doing my own processing, but I haven't got that part of the act together yet, so sent the first two films off to Peak. One benefit I expected from processing my own was actually looking properly at the negatives. Recently I've been taking XP2 and getting them scanned at Photo Express, so the negs generally don't get out of the sleeves! Anyway, I had a good look, and despite the intermittent metering they don't look too bad. I guess with black and white film you don't really need to be adjusting the exposure every shot, unless something has really changed.
[EDIT to note: decided to change shot numbering by including a film number prefix to try to reduce confusion in the thread, assuming I keep it going for a significant time...]
1-1) So, this was the very first shot, already mentioned in another thread, but here for completeness. It was perishing cold, I was wearing gloves and unsure how everything worked, focus and aperture rings are totally back to front compared with my Pentax MX, so it took me about 3 or 4 minutes to make each of these early shots. Not surprisingly, infinity focus is out. Scan-150226-0001
1-2) Second trip out, not quite so cold, I could actually hold the camera without shivering. I like this sort of shot, but I think this illustrates why this exercise might be good for me. You'll perhaps picture this wall, range of different textures and those lovely ferns contrasting against the wall... except that I always forget that in black and white they pretty much tone in and fade away. I've got to relearn how the coloured stuff I see translates to tones, used to be able to do this, but maybe for me colour's too seductive unless I cut it out completely. Edited to add: knowing the edges of the frame is proving a problem at this stage, I'm not sure this is quite the framing I wanted, but it's a learning process. Scan-150226-0007
1-3) Steps and a doorway. Have to meter in landscape, then turn and focus and frame in portrait. Quite like this... Scan-150226-0010
1-4) Steps and a couple of bikes. As above. Scan-150226-0013
1-5) Graffiti and Pampas grass. I really liked the contrast between the brutal street furniture with its ugly graffiti and the graceful fronds of pampas grass behind (plus a shed and inviting doorway behind that). Too much competing for attention and nothing but the graffiti is really getting any notice here. Scan-150226-0020
[Too many to upload]
1-6) This alley and building between the Meadows and Buccleuch St has wonderful curved walls, but I couldn't find a shot to show them off as I wanted. Luckily this couple wandered through, and I managed to get my mind into gear sufficiently to get this, which I think works OK. Edited to add, sorry wrong pic for a while there! Scan-150226-0024
1-7) ... and just along that alleyway, complete contrast in style, 40mm lens really worked I think. Scan-150226-0025
Just two more to show you from that roll...
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