A little bit of Chaos

HP5, Biogon 35mm, Xtol, Green filter

Ok, so my life’s a little chaotic at times. This week I have off from work, so I am going through my files, trying to organize them, stuff like that. I also have about ten rolls to develop, and I’m going to try to get that done with week as well. Sitting at my desk, I can see 11 rolls of color film sitting on top of my scanner, waiting to be sent off to North Coast when funds permit. Yes, there’s a bit of a backlog.

As I was going through my files, I discovered a folder of images (scans) from November which I had never edited. The date on the folder indicated they were developed over Thanksgiving, so what more than likely happened is that I developed the roll, scanned the roll, meant to edit the images and post some, but then went back to school and forgot about them.

Today, instead of some images from the SF trip, I’ll post some of those images from vancouver in November. All these images were shot with a Green filter on my Biogon, giving the already-contrasty lens some added bite. You be the judge of whether this worked or not.

One thing I always like about the Biogon is how little the lens flares when I shoot into the sun. Like above, for instance.

I was walking around the square where they had placed the Olympic Torch during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Interesting congruence of shapes and imagery.

One of the things that threw me when I first started to process these images was that the use of the green filter, with which I had almost no experience, changed the levels and curves I needed to use and which I had pretty much standardized with my normal film scans. It took me a little bit to get than hang of the new densities, but when I did, I really liked the feel of these images.

The green filter darkened the skies, exactly as advertised, and changed the tonal relationships.

I’ve talked here before about how I enjoy the lag between the capturing of an image and the processing of an image that the use of film promotes in my life. I get a bit of emotional distance from the shoot, and am often surprised in a good way by the images. Thew downside of that work-flow is that if something does work, I don’t find out about it until months later. These images make me want to shoot more with that green filter, but it is now four months later, and I might have used that combo in the intervening months had I been aware of how much I liked it.

Anyhoo, more images will be coming this week, but as of right now, I cannot say which ones.

Hope you enjoyed.

The Trip Continues

HP5, Xtol, Bessa, Biogon

More images and commentary from the trip . . .

I’ve mentioned that I get up as early as I can when traveling. Sometimes this is because of time-zone-change issues, sometimes it’s because I just don’t sleep, sometimes it’s because I set the alarm. This first morning (well, the only morning in Madeira, actually) I got up and was downstairs by 7 am. I had a meeting at 10:30, and I wanted to get some images before then.

This was the Christmas tree in the hotel lobby that morning.

Close up of the 'tree'

When I left the room, it was still dark. I wandered the halls, and took the images of the ‘tree’ and this of a hallway window.

You can see some of the island’s hills with their hanging lights in the distance.

As I wandered towards the dining area, I came to a balcony overlooking the restaurant and, well, the pool. You can see the dawn towards the eastern horizon out the window.

In an earlier post I had an image of the dining room at about 9:30. This is what it was like at 7:25.

Coming around towards the tables, these decorations were on the table.

After breakfast, I headed outside with one camera loaded with Portra, the other with Acros. Images from those rolls will be forthcoming. My goodness, circles and curves all over the place.

Just a note, many of the shots early in the morning and late the night before were hand-held at very slow speeds; 1/30th, 1/15th were not uncommon. It was dark in the hotel. I was happy that I got images at all, but if you look closely at the frames, many of them are a little soft owing to me moving. I tried to brace myself and such, but it didn’t always work.

Standing in Airports

Charles de Gaulle Airport on a Snowy Day

As I have mentioned, the first day of my trip to Madeira resulted in me standing around in a crowded Charles de Gaulle airport while my flight to Lisbon was rescheduled. Of course, I had my Bessa in hand, loaded with HP5 . . .

These images are from that roll, scanned last night.

We were all sitting in Terminal 2; snow had blanketed most of Northern Europe, and flights going anywhere from Moscow to Morocco had been delayed.

While I was able to determine, from listening to accents, that the majority of people were French, the melodies and harmonies of the languages ebbed and flowed as I walked from gate to gate, filtered in the main by the destination of the flight scheduled to depart from that area of the terminal.

I don’t sleep on flights, and I’m six hours off my own time zone, so I was not in complete control of my faculties. Given those circumstances, I was pretty happy with the lot of images I looked at last night.

Curiously, there wasn’t much snow on the ground in Paris, but from the amount of flights delayed, the rest of Europe must have been a mess.

It was a Thursday afternoon, and I couldn’t figure out whether most of the travelers were en route for business or pleasure.

This is the gate I stood in front of for four consecutive hours, as the flight was delayed again and again.

For there was nowhere to sit, too many people, not enough seats.

Finally, the flight left (only five hours delayed) and we arrived in Lisbon, where I grabbed a bite to eat.

I had waited twenty years to visit Europe again, only to spend the day in an airport. Sigh.

First Madeira Images

All images HP5, Xtol, and Bessa/Biogon combo

Developed the first three rolls from the Portugal trip this week and got around to scanning some of the negs tonight. This post is a smattering of images from the first roll of the three. This roll was captured entirely on the island of Madeira, which is part of a tropical archipelago off the north-western coast of Africa. I was on the island for about 28 consecutive hours, total. The single night I was there, the faculty, the students and I all went to dinner at one of the best restaurants on the island. This restaurant was situated at the top of a hill overlooking downtown Funchal, the city where I stayed. In the image above you can see both the light bulbs the population strings along each street to add a festive nature to the night as well as the low-hanging fog cover.

The restaurant at the hotel in which I ate breakfast that morning. Most people seemed to be from England or Germany based on the accents I overheard.

Part of the ground floor of the hotel, designed by Oscar Neimeyer, a famous Brazilian architect. He kinda loves curves.

I also have a couple rolls of b&w as well as color of the exterior grounds of this hotel. I’ll post some of them soon.

The hotel is kind of a shrine to Oscar. Copies of his sketch books lie all around, and this sculpture was behind the hotel’s desk.

It was dark when my plane took off the next morning, and as we rose through the clouds, the sun has risen.

This flight was followed by 10 hours in the Lisbon airport, as the Spanish air controllers had staged a wildcat strike that day. In Lisbon for 10 hours and all I could do was sit. But, as it was raining all day, there wouldn’t have been much to do anyway. They kept delaying the flight, so I didn’t know exactly when I could leave.

There was a lot of this going on that day.

More to come . . .