Photography at 3 m/h

GeneW

GeneW

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It snowed lightly last night. A fresh dusting that, early this morning, was pristine, with no tracks. I pulled on my boots, toque, gloves and coat, and headed out just after daybreak with a small bag with Leica M2, M-Hexanon 50, Ultron 35 and Elmar 90, and a couple of extra rolls of Neopan 400.

Just walking, at 3 miles/hr, enjoying the overcast but bright light and luminescent landscape. Nooks and crannies everywhere with interesting shapes and textures. A couple of joggers -- "good mornin!" -- a couple of dog owners -- "down Fang" -- and me, one photographer, stopping occasionally to meter, frame and shoot. A hawk, possibly a Cooper's flew into a tree top. As I watched it a Northern Shrike flew into a tree below. Must be lots of mice and voles in the fields.

On the lake, the buffleheads, scaups, mallards and ubiquitous Canada geese. The clouds open for a moment -- quick -- catch the lone tree on the shoreline, vertical, up into the clouds with a brightish sun. A different kind of decisive moment.

Two rolls, and about five miles, later, back home, brewing a hot cuppa. Waiting for the camera and lenses to come to room temperature before taking them out of the bag. Tonight, I'll mix up some HC-110 and see what I caught. Nothing urgent, or hurried. Just a lovely walk with a rangefinder.

Good mornin!

Gene
 
Makes me feel like a sloth, sleeping in on a Sunday morning. ;)

Good morning!

BTW, how do you like that hexanon, Gene?
 
it was rainy and gray, as usual, here, today morning.
Had to convince myself for a long long time to get out of the house.
And then, it started to rain even more.
It was a iso100-f/2-1/50 s light. Outside, under the full sky.
I guessed the light leve, checked with the exposure meter, but i didn't shoot a single FRAME (edited). No inspiration, no nothing.
It got dark soon after.
I couldn't manage to shoot one bloody roll in a full week. And i don't like to force these things, if it doesn't come it doesn't come, that's it.

But i am lookin' forward to see your results, Gene. By the way, walking at 3 m/h, that's quite rapid, isn't it.
 
Hey, sleepyheads! (I slept in yesterday morning :) )

Ray, this was the maiden voyage for the new Hexanon so I haven't seen the results yet.

Pherdie, 3 m/h is an average walking pace -- not too brisk, but not slow. I do slow down, though, for the shooting :)

Gene
 
Pherdinand said:
it was rainy and gray, as usual, here, today morning.
Had to convince myself for a long long time to get out of the house.
And then, it started to rain even more.
It was a iso100-f/2-1/50 s light. Outside, under the full sky.
I guessed the light leve, checked with the exposure meter, but i didn't shoot a single FRAME (edited). No inspiration, no nothing.
It got dark soon after.
I couldn't manage to shoot one bloody roll in a full week. And i don't like to force these things, if it doesn't come it doesn't come, that's it.

But i am lookin' forward to see your results, Gene. By the way, walking at 3 m/h, that's quite rapid, isn't it.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the weather here in Amsterdam, Csab'! :) I'm glad I didn't have much to do this morning, and in the afternoon I went to play squash.

And, like you, I haven't shot much over the past few weeks. Bl**dy rain all the time!
 
Short days make for good early afternoon walks and shooting :)

I long for that sort of thing - just have to clear the rather busy schedule to do it :) Nice read Gene :)

As for me.. I'm currently souping 2 rolls of Tri-X (did 2 rolls of Tmax 3200 @ 1600 last night) to clear my backlog of unprocessed film.

Cheers
Dave
 
Very captivating story Gene, you certainly have a way with words! I slept in both days this weekend. :D

I was supposed to pickup a couple of rolls of developed film from a lab in downtown TO on Saturday afternoon but couldn't make it there in time. Now I'll have to wait until Monday evening to get them... arghhh, the agony of waiting.
 
Pherdie, Remy, man I hope your weather clears up. Steady rain for days at a time can get you down!

You bet, Dave. The early afternoon light is great this time of year. Two rolls of Tmax 3200, eh? Sounds like you had a night on the town! :D

Thanks, Salman, and I hope your films are full of great images!

Gene
 
Pherdinand said:
RML, by the way, did you notice there are/will be some interesting exhibitions at FOAM? Like annie leibowitz http://www.foam.nl/index.php?pageId=9&tentoonId=39
and soon Cartier-Bresson http://www.foam.nl/index.php?pageId=10&tentoonId=40
Click to expand...

Csab', I happen to have the book American Music. I wasn't too impressed with it, finding Corbijn's work much better. So, perhaps I won't go to FOAM for that exhibition.

But the HCB exhibition is a different matter! I have never before seen any of his photos in real life. If th real life photos are as stunning as the the real life Winogrand photos, I'll return home a changed man. :) I liked Winogrand already for his odd angles and tense "decisive moments" but when I saw them in 20x30cm format on the wall, I was blown away! I hope HCB's photos will have the same impact.
 
i'm too much of a wimp and it's too cold here for a leisurely walk.
besides it's just a regular barren neighborhood i live in. i have to drive to be somewhere interesting.
joe
 
Sounds lovely. I was out with some Maco TP64c on Sunday morning to see what it can do. Saturday afternoon is was snowing here so I went up to the marsh and took shots of the birds stomping across the dusting of snow on the ice.

Peter
 
It was a really lovely Sunday here in Reykjavik, with some sunshine, but I slept until noon (I was at a party yesterday). Like Joe (back alley) I live in not so photogenic neighbourhood...a very regular monotonous suburb with almost no people out and about. I had to take the bus to downtown and the old interesting part of Reykjavik. It was around 1.30 when I got there so I only had 2-3 hours of daylight.
I must try to get up early at weekend and use the few hours of daylight better.
 
Gene,
Your "light dusting of snow got a bit heavier on my side of the lake. I'm just on the edge of most lake effect snow but we got half a foot or so. The cold I can deal with but not the poor(today anyway) light. So I spent much of the morning dealing with my photos for the RFF book. Partial sucess: I had two negs scanned and one of them has major scratches :bang: not sure if it's the camera or the lab. BUT, I knew I didn't want to use the full frame on that one and the scratches aren't in the cropped area. So it worked out OK(I hope). The second one is giving me more trouble. Lots of dust that I'm trying to fix unobtrusively. At least the spot pen ink comes off the computer screen easily :D
Gene,sounds like a morning well spent!
Rob
 
Well written Gene! I got up at 9:30 this morning to find "snow lightly falling" too. ;) It still is and I'm just about to go out at 3:45pm to my orchestra project. (Its nice to have an indoors project sometimes!) Taking M7s, 35, 50 & 135 plus my tripod and some Neopan 1600. Should get a roll or two I hope.
 
The two rolls of Neopan 400 are now hanging to dry. I souped them in XTOL 1:1 and they look promising. It's been a long day. Think I'll watch some football then call it a day.

Thanks for sharing your day, everyone!

Gene
 
I also took a long walk this afternoon, from my home in Watkins through the cemetary on the top of the hill, to the top of our state park and back. I took along my Polaroid 100 (Took 1 photo, waited to get home to pull), a Polaroid SLR 680, and my Chinon Infrafocus. About half-way up I was regretting the Polaroids. Fell 3 times going up the steep hills in the Cemetary. Oh well.
 
Aaaaargh!! Well I'm back and I had an "incident". Apart from the fact that a clumsy moving staff member hit one of my cameras with a music stand, I couldn't get the film in my .85 M7 to go past 12 exposures. Jammed film in a new camera! Grrr... That's what you get for using bulk film I thought. But luckily I had a .72 body with me so was able to transfer the 135mm TE over to that cam and keep on shooting. But I couldn't open the jammed camera even if I wanted to because I had the Arca Swiss QR plate on the bottom and didn't have the Allen key with me. :bang:

So anyway to cut a long story short I had a "backup" so I didn't lose too many shots, and when I got home I rewound the film into the cassette. It rewound in perfectly, and I thought - hmm that is weird - no roughness due to broken sprocket holes or whatever. Then I opened the cam and looked at the sticker: 1600 -12, it was a 12 exposure test roll that I didn't realize was still in the cam. Duh! What a dope I am... :bang: Unfortunately my day was nowhere near as tranquil as Gene's. :(

 
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