Rollei 35 - one year

Rollei 35

Rollei 35

Congrats -some fine seeing - you got through the bottleneck that a lot don't - i.e. leaving the equipment behind and concentrating on the image!
 
Thank you IanBiggar, and welcome to RFF!
Paul, not every day. The work concentrates on the weekends and in the late evening. No pubs, no events, we feel most comfortable at home.
 
Zeno, I'm curious if you feel that the project so far has caused you to alter your way of working or visualizing? I think the results so far look wonderful, but then I was always fond of your work before you embarked on this exercise. Perhaps it will take you the entire year to draw any meaningful conclusion as to what it means to your style, but I'm wondering what your read on this is now.
 
Rob, I´ve been talking with a friend of mine lately; (he is a sculptor and I trust in his eye!) In our dialogue he asked for changes in my vision and my final sentence was: "My photos become more and more subjective".
I mean and feel (or hope) that I am following my own vision and my own compositions.

Thoughts ...
... about the one camera thing:
I did not hope or wish to increase my skills very much by reducing the gear, I only wanted to be free from the daily pain of choosing equipment.
I was afraid to become a slave of the possibilities and thought it would be better to be master of the limitations.

... about the one year thing:
I don´t have a target for this year, I want to play on my way. The fun is big these days and the lust for gear becomes smaller each day.

... about changes:
I changed from stand development to normal agitation from time to time and experimented with higher temperatures of the developer. I think it gave me better tones in some situations.

You see, these thoughts are quite erratic and will surely change from time to time; Sometimes I´m not sure whether i can go the whole year, sometimes I´m even thinking of a continuation after the year!

A positive conclusion is that the thrill of taking the film from the reel is increasing!

Edit: btgc, no one and everyone is a sinner;-) The cardinal sins give possibilities to everyone!
 
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well put. especially the notion of being a "master of limitations."

I force myself to shoot something nearly every day. I think the more we shoot, generally, the more finely honed our personal vision becomes. Subject works for me.

I find that your style is almost always recognizable, though you occasionally provide a surprise in that area. I do feel that the recognizable style never takes away from the freshness of the images, as you see different things to record each time you go out.

I'm enjoying seeing your "project" and I'm glad that you don't feel obligated to apply stringent "metrics" to how you're doing it, rather letting your heart and feelings guide you.

petronius said:
Rob, I´ve been talking with a friend of mine lately; (he is a sculptor and I trust in his eye!) In our dialogue he asked for changes in my vision and my final sentence was: "My photos become more and more subjective".
I mean and feel (or hope) that I am following my own vision and my own compositions.

Thoughts ...
... about the one camera thing:
I did not hope or wish to increase my skills very much by reducing the gear, I only wanted to be free from the daily pain of choosing equipment.
I was afraid to become a slave of the possibilities and thought it would be better to be master of the limitations.

... about the one year thing:
I don´t have a target for this year, I want to play on my way. The fun is big these days and the lust for gear becomes smaller each day.

... about changes:
I changed from stand development to normal agitation from time to time and experimented with higher temperatures of the developer. I think it gave me better tones in some situations.

You see, these thoughts are quite erratic and will surely change from time to time; Sometimes I´m not sure whether i can go the whole year, sometimes I´m even thinking of a continuation after the year!

A positive conclusion is that the thrill of taking the film from the reel is increasing!

Edit: btgc, no one and everyone is a sinner;-) The cardinal sins give possibilities to everyone!
Click to expand...
 
Zeno,

The 2nd shot from roll 101 is outstanding - definitely calls for pro printing.

I notice that you get a little vignetting - is that the camera, or just your style?
 
Thank you John. I increased the contrast of this picture very much to get the road glowing. This increased the vignetting too. The lens has little vignetting that I like as well as the "soft" corners of the Tessar.
 
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Zeno,

Worth the effort, definitely. Yet again the 2nd shot of roll 104 is a stunner, and i think you are increasing the percentage of outstanding shots as time goes by - the last shot of 103 is another example.

I wish I had the time to do something like this. I now have my 35s with me daily, but don't get much chance to be out and about in daylight. Your sequence gave me the impetus to look back through some of my B&W shots from compact cameras, and I realised how much I had enjoyed the Rollei 35 and one of their other products - the Voigtlander vf101 - I think some of my best compact shots were made with that. Here's one from my gallery:-

U957I1106748989.SEQ.0.jpg


I'm looking hard for that camera - it's in storage somewhere!
 
John, nice picture; the VF 101 was close to the Rollei 35 when I choose the camera for this year, only the fact that the VF 101 needs batteries let the Rollei win. (Do you know that the VF 101 can be converted to use CR123A lithium batteries?)
The percentage of my keepers did not really increase in the first three months, I´m really glad that I found at least one shot for publishing on some rolls. The rolls 102, 103 and 104 were shot in the village where my parents still live and were mostly shot in one hour on a Sunday morning walk with my son.
To get out in daylight is not easy in this dark season, but I try to take the camera out in my lunch break.
 
Zeno, thanks - I think the Skopar gives very similar results to the Tessar (but they are probably different formulas). Mine is original, in that it takes 4 x PX625 (or 2 x in emergencies). I used to make 625 adapters to use the SR44, so it wasn't a problem. I suppose the conversion is by removing the devider plates? Does the meter need adjustment?

I managed to get out in winter sun for 30 mins today and shot some around a farmers market and the seafront near the office. Not sure when I will get it processed though 🙁

Keep up the good work - it's paying off 😉
 
Thanks for that - it looks to be an easy (& reversible?) mod - with a lithium battery that makes the 101 a very modern (?) and usable camera.

I'll report back once I manage to find it - I know it's there somewhere, it's just been hidden since we moved house a while back. I found an Oly Pen EE-2 while looking, and that's currently stripped down to fix a sticky aperture, but I seem to have misassembled the shutter, as it won't close now. Fixed the apreture and "broke" the shutter! :bang:
 
I managed to get out at luch time again today - only to drop my 35s aaaarrrggghhh :bang:

Cold hands, gloves and not having the wrist strap in place - 4ft onto the pavement, right on a patch of road salt 🙁 At least it landed on the end opposite the strap mount, and it still works.

Ah well, at least it now looks like 80% of all the other Rolleis out there...............
 
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