Avotius
Some guy
I dont know if any of you feel that way. I do. For me the ideal image ratio is 1:1, just like a 6x6 camera. I guess I think 6x6 because im such a square.......ok terrible joke, sorry.
But really, I do think that even if 3:2 image ratio is nice and yes you can crop etc etc but really, seeing in the square ratio for me just works so well, one of the reason I like rangefinders so much, I can see square and then crop in a rectangle. I have a Yashicamat with the old Lumaxar 75mm which is a great camera but has a jammed shutter/self timer that when you advance and fire the shutter nothing happens but the occasional short buzz from the self timer thing. I had a while back a Mamiya 6 which was almost the perfect camera for me except you couldn't trust the meter, and the lenses flared like mad even with the hoods on, and the film door likes to fall off for no reason while I was shooting.....and that the rangefinder base was way too short for really accurate street shooting on such a large negative where DOF is your enemy rather then your friend, sometimes. The 150mm lens I had for that camera was near perfect, it was so unbelievably sharp and the colors were gorgeous and all that good stuff. The 80...75....? I dont remember the length....but it was a dandy lens as well, for the most part living on the camera when I was not shooting some tighter landscape shot.
Really all this started when I was playing around with one of those old original Seagull cameras here in China. It was kind of neat but had a lousy viewfinder. After that I started searching which brought me to the Mamiya 6 and rangefinders in general. While searching I borrowed a friends Hasselblad 503 and a 80mm zeiss lens, my first time shooting with zeiss and thinking what a pain in the neck it was since at the time I was still relatively fresh with my 20D digital. Since my Mamiya went back on the back door falling off then later on after just so many problems with a second body and in the end me not trusting it at all I sold it and started looking for a Leica. As you would figure things never work out the way you want and the funds went to other more pressing matters. Later I bought a old but very clean Seagull from my girlfriend the photographer who used it exactly once.
Since my Yashicamat broke I have not been shooting 6x6 until my Norwegian friend graced my side of the world again this time with a little item for me to play with. His old Hasselblad 500 with two massively heavy chromes, a 50 Distagon and 150 Sonnar. Now I find myself cursing my canon gear thinking after using zeiss in Leica M mount and now in Hasselblad mount how in the world could I possibly go back to using that canon "stuff" now sitting in the back of my dry box somewhere. With the cost of film prices and my adamant attitude again modern nikon cameras I find myself in a picky what to do later. Surely the idea choice is a Leica M8 and some nice zeiss glass for the front, but its not that 1:1 ratio is it. Oh well, I guess I can just bite the bullet and cost of film for a little while longer and play with my friend's Hasselblad that he left with me for the next....well whenever he comes back to China again, ahhh the feeling of a mechanical camera as it whirs to life.....
And without further ado, as with what usually happens at the end of one of my ramblings, some photos, why the hell not.
Hasselblad 500, Carl Zeiss f4/50mm Distagon Chrome
The boys playing their boys games after school, stretching their parents calls to the last before they are dragged inside to do homework.
I love these old entrance ways, they are so detailed with many different things chaotically ordered around them. That white piece of paper on the right however is a notice that the building will be torn down and the inhabitance moved soon, not something I would care to see by my door.
I love apples, I grew up in apple country after all. The apples here are so cheap, and so many different choices, great.
Its an odd one this photo, I dont know exactly why I like it but I do. Not my most technically shot but something in here is kind of neat to me.
Those stone slabs there to the right are an official protected heritage site. When I say protected I mean they haven't been torn down yet for an apartment block or strip mall. So while they so are the people who live in the little alley way, street side noodle shops and all.
These old houses are coming down soon to make way for modern apartment blocks. You know what they say...if walls could talk....
Same as one above, I dont know what I like better, the color or the sepia toned black and white...
Hasselblad 500, Carl Zeiss f4/150mm Sonnar Chrome
(not my favorite focal length on a 6x6...)
This guy crawled his way through the street market looking for hand outs...its not that he cant walk, he can, kind of, but crawling is more effective isn't it? One of the neighborhood guys told me he makes more in a month then most of the people around there and that he lives nearby, who knows.
But really, I do think that even if 3:2 image ratio is nice and yes you can crop etc etc but really, seeing in the square ratio for me just works so well, one of the reason I like rangefinders so much, I can see square and then crop in a rectangle. I have a Yashicamat with the old Lumaxar 75mm which is a great camera but has a jammed shutter/self timer that when you advance and fire the shutter nothing happens but the occasional short buzz from the self timer thing. I had a while back a Mamiya 6 which was almost the perfect camera for me except you couldn't trust the meter, and the lenses flared like mad even with the hoods on, and the film door likes to fall off for no reason while I was shooting.....and that the rangefinder base was way too short for really accurate street shooting on such a large negative where DOF is your enemy rather then your friend, sometimes. The 150mm lens I had for that camera was near perfect, it was so unbelievably sharp and the colors were gorgeous and all that good stuff. The 80...75....? I dont remember the length....but it was a dandy lens as well, for the most part living on the camera when I was not shooting some tighter landscape shot.
Really all this started when I was playing around with one of those old original Seagull cameras here in China. It was kind of neat but had a lousy viewfinder. After that I started searching which brought me to the Mamiya 6 and rangefinders in general. While searching I borrowed a friends Hasselblad 503 and a 80mm zeiss lens, my first time shooting with zeiss and thinking what a pain in the neck it was since at the time I was still relatively fresh with my 20D digital. Since my Mamiya went back on the back door falling off then later on after just so many problems with a second body and in the end me not trusting it at all I sold it and started looking for a Leica. As you would figure things never work out the way you want and the funds went to other more pressing matters. Later I bought a old but very clean Seagull from my girlfriend the photographer who used it exactly once.
Since my Yashicamat broke I have not been shooting 6x6 until my Norwegian friend graced my side of the world again this time with a little item for me to play with. His old Hasselblad 500 with two massively heavy chromes, a 50 Distagon and 150 Sonnar. Now I find myself cursing my canon gear thinking after using zeiss in Leica M mount and now in Hasselblad mount how in the world could I possibly go back to using that canon "stuff" now sitting in the back of my dry box somewhere. With the cost of film prices and my adamant attitude again modern nikon cameras I find myself in a picky what to do later. Surely the idea choice is a Leica M8 and some nice zeiss glass for the front, but its not that 1:1 ratio is it. Oh well, I guess I can just bite the bullet and cost of film for a little while longer and play with my friend's Hasselblad that he left with me for the next....well whenever he comes back to China again, ahhh the feeling of a mechanical camera as it whirs to life.....
And without further ado, as with what usually happens at the end of one of my ramblings, some photos, why the hell not.
Hasselblad 500, Carl Zeiss f4/50mm Distagon Chrome
The boys playing their boys games after school, stretching their parents calls to the last before they are dragged inside to do homework.
I love these old entrance ways, they are so detailed with many different things chaotically ordered around them. That white piece of paper on the right however is a notice that the building will be torn down and the inhabitance moved soon, not something I would care to see by my door.
I love apples, I grew up in apple country after all. The apples here are so cheap, and so many different choices, great.
Its an odd one this photo, I dont know exactly why I like it but I do. Not my most technically shot but something in here is kind of neat to me.
Those stone slabs there to the right are an official protected heritage site. When I say protected I mean they haven't been torn down yet for an apartment block or strip mall. So while they so are the people who live in the little alley way, street side noodle shops and all.
These old houses are coming down soon to make way for modern apartment blocks. You know what they say...if walls could talk....
Same as one above, I dont know what I like better, the color or the sepia toned black and white...
Hasselblad 500, Carl Zeiss f4/150mm Sonnar Chrome
(not my favorite focal length on a 6x6...)
This guy crawled his way through the street market looking for hand outs...its not that he cant walk, he can, kind of, but crawling is more effective isn't it? One of the neighborhood guys told me he makes more in a month then most of the people around there and that he lives nearby, who knows.
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ClaremontPhoto
Jon Claremont
I like the photos above very much, and the captions to give context.
The 1:1 is, as you say, the classic 6x6 and resonates with many of the great photos of the past.
Most of my photos are 3:2 on 35mm film, but I do sometimes like to crop to 1:1 if the photo needs it. More often I use a camera that does 3:1 very nicely in a movie sort of way.
The 1:1 is, as you say, the classic 6x6 and resonates with many of the great photos of the past.
Most of my photos are 3:2 on 35mm film, but I do sometimes like to crop to 1:1 if the photo needs it. More often I use a camera that does 3:1 very nicely in a movie sort of way.
Avotius
Some guy
While im at it, why not a few old shots from before taken with my other 6x6's?
YashicaMat and that 75mm Lumaxar thing:
After they finished surfacing the sidewalk they took a break against the wall, they have done this everyday since they started on the road project.
My old stomping grounds in Washington state, the Olympic mountains.
Hm....and some from the Mamiya 6 too why not:
A nice day with the sun finally shining after a long cold winter, still kind of chilly out but nice enough to sit outside and enjoy the light with a friend and a cat while sipping tea and gossiping about little nothings.
Scraps left over in an abandoned house.
Someone left this bowl behind in their old house.
Anyone want to get some dentist work done out there on the street?
After a little chat about cats and her old house and a few photos later this old lady walked with me back to the main road to see me off. I wonder where she will live later when the neighborhood is leveled.
You cant go 50 meters around here without running into another shop selling common everyday items and toys. People turn the front of their houses into shops to help offset the costs of living. In many places one person keeps and eye on the shop and another goes off to work. This one seemed pretty neat because it’s crammed so full of stuff that it looks like it’s pretty hard to get around in it.
YashicaMat and that 75mm Lumaxar thing:
After they finished surfacing the sidewalk they took a break against the wall, they have done this everyday since they started on the road project.
My old stomping grounds in Washington state, the Olympic mountains.
Hm....and some from the Mamiya 6 too why not:
A nice day with the sun finally shining after a long cold winter, still kind of chilly out but nice enough to sit outside and enjoy the light with a friend and a cat while sipping tea and gossiping about little nothings.
Scraps left over in an abandoned house.
Someone left this bowl behind in their old house.
Anyone want to get some dentist work done out there on the street?
After a little chat about cats and her old house and a few photos later this old lady walked with me back to the main road to see me off. I wonder where she will live later when the neighborhood is leveled.
You cant go 50 meters around here without running into another shop selling common everyday items and toys. People turn the front of their houses into shops to help offset the costs of living. In many places one person keeps and eye on the shop and another goes off to work. This one seemed pretty neat because it’s crammed so full of stuff that it looks like it’s pretty hard to get around in it.
Avotius
Some guy
hm....I want to stick up a few more landscapes.....
by the way, these are a little old, from the days when I used to frame stuff, I dont do that anymore obviously....
Taken after a few kilometer crawl through the mountains at an elevation of more then 3 kilometers, the temperature was just above freezing yet the sun was so harsh that I stood there with a t-shirt on as I waited for the sun to illuminate the valley before me
Taken out of the dirty back window of a bus.
As much as I think about it I cant think of anything inspiring to say about this photo other then I like that mist effect in the trees. What I can tell you is that as I was taking this photo, my two week old Mamiya 6, in the typical Mamiya fashion, totally fell apart in my hands, the back film door came off and the hinge was a total loss and the entire camera had to be replaced. So its kind of a miracle that this photo came out, but im glad it did because you got to admit, that is a neat mist effect.
When I was much younger my old man and i would come to this place to relax and be away from the monotony of daily life. These waters are provided by the fresh snow melt and are so clean that you can drink from them. Fishing, a little swimming (me not him, its pretty cold after all), camping and just wandering around the middle of no where in the solitude of the natural surroundings. This is pretty much where I grew up, almost all of my childhood memories involve this place or other similar locations in Washington state's Olympic mountains. This is where I learned to drive, to take photos, to make a camp fire (lots of gas and matches), and in this very hole I pulled out the biggest Trout ive ever caught. When I took this photo I did what my old man would call "crazy", as usual the water here is just a wee bit over freezing and me, not fearing cold one bit, with tripod and camera in hand, waded right into the middle of the fast current until the water was up to my chest, set up the tripod, and stood there for half an hour taking long exposures. Another term the old man would refer to me as in this situation would be "dumb ass"
A shot that I took on top of a very much active volcano, Mount Saint Helens, Washington state. You might recognize the name from 1980 when St. Helens erupted with enough force to wipe out hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of...everything. At the time I took this photo the mountain was belching out smoke, and to make things even more interesting they say the thing should go any day now. In the distance is Mount Rainier, another Washington state icon.
Ok im done.
by the way, these are a little old, from the days when I used to frame stuff, I dont do that anymore obviously....
Taken after a few kilometer crawl through the mountains at an elevation of more then 3 kilometers, the temperature was just above freezing yet the sun was so harsh that I stood there with a t-shirt on as I waited for the sun to illuminate the valley before me
Taken out of the dirty back window of a bus.
As much as I think about it I cant think of anything inspiring to say about this photo other then I like that mist effect in the trees. What I can tell you is that as I was taking this photo, my two week old Mamiya 6, in the typical Mamiya fashion, totally fell apart in my hands, the back film door came off and the hinge was a total loss and the entire camera had to be replaced. So its kind of a miracle that this photo came out, but im glad it did because you got to admit, that is a neat mist effect.
When I was much younger my old man and i would come to this place to relax and be away from the monotony of daily life. These waters are provided by the fresh snow melt and are so clean that you can drink from them. Fishing, a little swimming (me not him, its pretty cold after all), camping and just wandering around the middle of no where in the solitude of the natural surroundings. This is pretty much where I grew up, almost all of my childhood memories involve this place or other similar locations in Washington state's Olympic mountains. This is where I learned to drive, to take photos, to make a camp fire (lots of gas and matches), and in this very hole I pulled out the biggest Trout ive ever caught. When I took this photo I did what my old man would call "crazy", as usual the water here is just a wee bit over freezing and me, not fearing cold one bit, with tripod and camera in hand, waded right into the middle of the fast current until the water was up to my chest, set up the tripod, and stood there for half an hour taking long exposures. Another term the old man would refer to me as in this situation would be "dumb ass"
A shot that I took on top of a very much active volcano, Mount Saint Helens, Washington state. You might recognize the name from 1980 when St. Helens erupted with enough force to wipe out hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of...everything. At the time I took this photo the mountain was belching out smoke, and to make things even more interesting they say the thing should go any day now. In the distance is Mount Rainier, another Washington state icon.
Ok im done.
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ChrisN
Striving
Very nice work! I find 6x6 to be kind of liberating - with 35mm I'm always flipping the camera back and forward between landscape and portrait. With 6x6 I don't have to worry, and for screen display the 6x6 format is great; makes good use of the screen real estate.
Thanks for showing us some more of your city. It's amazing (to a small-town Aussie boy)!
Thanks for showing us some more of your city. It's amazing (to a small-town Aussie boy)!
kshapero
South Florida Man
Enjoyed every bit of your work.
Michael M
Member
Great images ! You seem to have mastered the hasselblad.... Can you tell me how you meter your shots ? Whats your approach to that ?
kind regards,
Michael
kind regards,
Michael
monochromejrnl
Well-known
i like the square as well...
owenreading
Established
These photos are beautiful, I'm impressed with them all. I particularly like the landscape ones, and I'm definitely thinking of getting some MF gear for landscapes.
Funnily enough, I tend to see things in the 3:2 ratio, mainly landscape format. Although I'm fairly sure this is just because of the cameras I use.
What I never understood was why P&S digital cameras always shoot in 4:3. I know it's the typical screen ratio (although with widescreen displays so common these days it's less so), but it's a terrible ratio. There's very little pleasing about it, so I assume it's just for manufacturing convenience.
Funnily enough, I tend to see things in the 3:2 ratio, mainly landscape format. Although I'm fairly sure this is just because of the cameras I use.
What I never understood was why P&S digital cameras always shoot in 4:3. I know it's the typical screen ratio (although with widescreen displays so common these days it's less so), but it's a terrible ratio. There's very little pleasing about it, so I assume it's just for manufacturing convenience.
naruto
GASitis.. finally cured?
Fantastic stuff. I loved every bit of it.
I got addicted to the square format through the YashicaMat, and now it has to be retired (jamming shutters). I might try and give it a clean myself.
Meanwhile, I got myself a Mamiya which I have fallen in love with. :angel:
I got addicted to the square format through the YashicaMat, and now it has to be retired (jamming shutters). I might try and give it a clean myself.
Meanwhile, I got myself a Mamiya which I have fallen in love with.
:angel:zuikologist
.........................
Great stuff - especially for us city based folk.
Avotius
Some guy
zuikologist said:
yup, all the photos save for the landscapes were shot in the city.
ClaremontPhoto
Jon Claremont
Avotius:
I read this British newspaper article last year and remembered it
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1731061,00.html
Today your photos enticed me go go back and read it again, and I enjoyed it so much more.
Thank you.
I read this British newspaper article last year and remembered it
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1731061,00.html
Today your photos enticed me go go back and read it again, and I enjoyed it so much more.
Thank you.
Solinar
Analog Preferred
An awesome 6x6 portfolio. Those are truly powerful images. Do China's generation X'ers even come in contact with the old neighborhoods in their day to day lifes?
photophorous
Registered User
I like finding threads that are full of photos. These are very good shots and I enjoyed looking through them. The square format is something I like to look at, but I was never able to make it work when I owned a Yashica-MAT. I ended up selling it to pay for my Bessa R2A. For me, that was a great decision, but you seem to do very well with it.
Paul
Paul
Avotius
Some guy
photophorous said:
thanks! I took your decision and took it one step further, I bought both!
mllanos1111
Well-known
Beautiful work! I hope to someday capture images as beautful as those.
hans voralberg
Veteran
I want to try 6x6 out sometimes, on 6x4.5 atm and still not make full use of it yet very nice composition on your pics avotius
very nice composition on your pics avotius
jan normandale
Film is the other way
Colin, knock out stuff.
Great dedication too. I read that note regarding the 'trout pool' and I know how cold that would be. Even in chest waders, after 20 minutes you can feel hypothermia set in, that is cold water
Great dedication too. I read that note regarding the 'trout pool' and I know how cold that would be. Even in chest waders, after 20 minutes you can feel hypothermia set in, that is cold water
rogue_designer
Reciprocity Failure
I love square format (and 6x7 - but 6x6 is king) usually 120, but I sometimes crop down 35mm too. These are a mix of rollieflex and yashicamat images
(edit: yeesh - I really need to scan in some newer work.. and rescan some of these.)
(edit: yeesh - I really need to scan in some newer work.. and rescan some of these.)
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