I’m back!

Hi everyone.

I know I’ve not been regularly writing on my blog like I used to and I just wanted to let you all know that I’m ok.

At the beginning of 2020 I was hoping to have lots of film photography content for my blog this year, including getting to grips with using a large format camera and building my own darkroom but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be….

My photo content all looked promising at the beginning of the year when I visited Madrid and I was really happy with the black and white photos I had taken and blogged about at the time. Then COVID-19 struck in the UK around mid March.

I was fortunate enough to still find myself in full time employment and busier than ever with work which ended up taking up most of my time this year.

I’m also currently in the process of setting up a new online craft business which has taken up a lot of my spare time.

The darkroom space I had planned to kit out that my husband had at his work ended up being converted into a staff canteen as he had to review his work space to keep within the COVID-19 regulations, so I now need to look at a new space. I may even consider joining the Brighton Community Darkroom again next year because even if I only get there once a month, it’s still better than not developing any of my photos at all. I have really missed not using a darkroom this year!

I certainly haven’t taken as many photos this year like I would normally do and I’ve really missed going on photo walks and meeting up with other photographers.

I had originally planned pre-Covid to host an instant photo walk in Brighton in September but I’ve now postponed this for next year to review when hopefully the whole COVID situation would have improved and it’s safer for groups of people to meet up.

I was hoping to get some fun new photos for my photo blog when I went on holiday to Albufeira, Portugal back at the beginning of September.

My husband and I had originally planned to go to Greece but then saw the Islands being shut down and Portugal being put on the safe list so thought it would be better to go there.

We flew from Luton airport as we could easily park our car there. I was apprehensive about the airport and flight in view of the current COVID situation. However, it was nice and quiet at the airport and flying was actually quite relaxing and prompt with no delays.

When we arrived in Portugal, it was really hot! I had brought both my SX-70 Polaroid Camera and also my Leica M6 TTL, all loaded and ready to take some photos of my trip!

I was quite excited about finally getting somewhere new to take some photos, which wasn’t in my local area.

The locals were lovely and really happy to have the tourists back. They had only re-opened the beach about two weeks prior to us arriving.

They actually had more stricter rules than the UK in relation to COVID-19 and wearing masks, using hand sanitisers etc so it felt very safe out there.

During the first couple of days I didn’t take my camera’s out with me as I knew we’d be out in the sun most of the day and I was worried about the heat effecting them and their mechanics since they’re vintage cameras so I kept them inside the cool hotel room.

On Day 3 of our trip, we decided to go on a sunset jeep safari. It was a Thursday and the day that Boris Johnson would be announcing the countries that would no longer be classed as a safe zone which included Portugal being put back on the list. We were completely oblivious of this information whilst on the safari until we received a phone call from a friend who was meant to be coming to Portugal the following week.

If we had stayed in Portugal for the remainder of our holiday, it would have meant self-isolating for 14 days when back in the UK and due to both mine and my husband’s work commitments, we couldn’t do this.

We had a deadline of early hours Saturday to be back in the UK before we’d have to self-isolate.

On Thursday evening once we got back to our hotel, we booked a flight back to the UK for Friday afternoon. Thankfully, British Airways had put on some extra flights so we were able to get on one of those.

It was always going to be a risk going abroad, but all I can say is the three days we had there in the hot, glorious sunshine, were really lovely and just getting away after the best part of a year of hard slog with work, we really felt like we had been there much longer! We had some amazing fresh, local seafood meals alfresco, a nice walk around the local marina and loved seeing the old village in Albufeira.

I did manage to take one photo on my SX-70 with some SX-70 colour film from my hotel room balcony before we left:

Here are a couple I managed to take during the jeep safari on my Leica M6 TTL using Kodak Ektachrome E100 film:

The morning before we flew back to the UK, I managed to visit the local cemetery around the corner from where we were staying and take some photos with the same camera and film:

Here is the last photo taken at the end of our brief trip to Portugal (taken on my husband’s iPhone) coming out of Luton Airport with added face mask!

There is another reason this year why I have not had as much time for my photography as I would have liked and it’s quite exciting and hopefully going forward, there will be much more photos!

I’ll be blogging about my other exciting adventure I’ve managed to have around COVID-19 recently over the next few weeks!

A trip to Madrid with my Leica M6 TTL and Rollei Retro 80S Film

Back in the beginning of March I went to Madrid for a long weekend with my husband for his birthday.

I knew there would be some great historic streets to take some photos so thought it would be a great opportunity to use my Leica M6 TTL.

I also knew that I wanted to take black and white photos. I really love the results I’ve obtained from the Rollei Retro 80S film in the past with other cameras as I love the high contrast. I therefore took this film with me.

Here is a sample of some of the photos I took during my trip:

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I took two examples of this photo – one with people walking in it and one without. I still can’t make up my mind which one I prefer as I quite like the street photography style with the people in it:

I then headed to the gardens in Madrid and took some photos:

We came across a cute little ice cream parlour during our walk back from the gardens with a mirror in the shop front so I took a selfie using my camera:

The apartments in Madrid looked really beautiful and very grand:

On our walk back to our hotel, we came across a retro sushi restaurant called Le Club Sushita. It was decorated with original 1960s furniture and walls and I instantly fell in love with the place. It had a really cool late 60’s club feel.

What was even better was the fact that they served amazing sushi which I really loved and we spent a lovely couple of hours in there.

Here is a photo of my husband I took whilst inside the restaurant. I didn’t use a flash but we were sitting near a window with daylight shining through:

On our last day in Madrid I managed to visit the Leica shop which had recently opened there.

It was a lovely shop with a photo exhibition upstairs which I was invited by the staff to have a look at. The staff were really lovely and welcoming to the shop.

Whilst there, I bought a nice red leather camera strap for my Leica which I really love:

The staff in the Leica shop also gave me this really nice Leica Pin Badge:

I really enjoyed my trip to Madrid. I had never been before and it was such a beautiful city to wander round and take photos. I would definitely visit again.

The Kosmonauts Hampstead Hike with my Leica M6 TTL and Leica Sofort

Back in November last year, I attended the Kosmonauts Photowalk in Hampstead which was organised by @londoncameraproject

At that time, I had recently purchased the Leica M6 TTL so was looking forward to taking it out on it’s first photowalk.

I also knew that I wanted to take some instant photos on this photowalk so also took my Leica Sofort camera since it’s a nice compact instant camera that doesn’t take up a lot of room in my bag.

I was looking forward to visiting Hampstead since I had never been there before.

It was very easy for me to get to by train from Brighton and I met everyone at the station in Hampstead.

The @londoncameraproject photowalks have become very popular with film photographers and this was no exception. A nice group of people turned up so it was great to meet new people who also had a love of film camera’s.

Considering it was November, the weather was fairly nice and Hampstead does have some really pretty streets with some nice shops. We initially started our photowalk around those where I took some photos using my Leica M6 TTL, the Leica 50mm Summicron lens and Kodak Portra 400 colour film:

I was really drawn to this OXO tin I found inside a vintage market we visited in Hampstead so took a photo of it:

There was a lovely Florist next door to the vintage market so I took a picture of some of the nice flowers for sale:

Next we went for a walk around some of the local streets and I took a couple of photos:

During the photowalk, we also visited a pub. It turns out that the pubs are extremely busy in Hampstead on a Saturday afternoon and we were a fairly large group, so we had to kind of spread ourselves out where we could in the pub we decided to stop at.

Whilst at the pub, I took some photos on my Leica Sofort of some of the group. I gave most of them away but managed to keep a couple. I also took one outside whilst walking around the streets in Hampstead:

After the pub stop, we headed to the woods but since it was November, the daylight started to fade in the late afternoon and I didn’t manage to get any shots using my Leica M6 TTL camera. I tried to take some using my Leica Sofort but they unfortunately came out took dark, even with the flash.

After the woodland walk, I had a knitting shop in London that I needed to visit for my Knitwear Designer job before it closed plus I still had the journey of heading back to Brighton ahead of me so I said farewell to the others whilst they headed off to another pub for some further drinks.

I’m so pleased I got to visit Hampstead as it really was a pretty place and I would definitely go back there another time to perhaps visit some of the beautiful shops that the town has.

The Leica M6 TTL and Hillvale Holiday 200 Film

Whilst on holiday in Tenerife in December last year, I decided to also take the Hillvale Holiday colour film with me.

This film is all the way from Australia and it was sitting in my film stash since I received it in my Emulsive secret santa gift for Christmas 2018.

I used this film during my walks around the resort where I was staying, which was mainly of the sea and rocks:

Here is one of my husband looking out to sea during one of our walks:

There was a marina near to where we were staying that we liked to visit:

We found a nice little restaurant in the Marina where we managed to visit for breakfast/lunch on several occasions during our stay.

On one of our visits, the waiter saw my camera and knew it was a film camera which he said he really liked.

He asked if he could take a photo of me and my husband using it and I agreed. I tried to set it up best I could for him but unfortunately I must have estimated the distance wrong so the photo came out blurry:

Overall, I felt the photos had a nice vintage feel to them. I scanned these photos after I had scanned the Kodak Ektachrome E100 film so instantly saw the difference in how the colour wasn’t as vibrant as slide film but it was nice to use up the remainder of the Hillvale film that I had in my film stash.

Tenerife with my Leica M6 TTL and Kodak Ektachrome E100

Back in December I managed to get away for some winter sun to Tenerife.

I had previously liked using slide film in the Hasselblad 500 c/m so I was keen to see what it would be like in the Leica.

I had a roll of Kodak Ektachrome E100 in my film stash for a while that I had been saving and I knew the trip to Tenerife would be the perfect opportunity to finally use it.

I decided to use the film during a day excursion to La Gomera.

I took the photos using my 50mm Summicron lens and the photos were processed at my local lab using the E-6 process.

During the excursion, we were driven up into the mountains and here are some photos I took of the landscape:

We were then driven to a dense forest area in the mountains and I really liked the green moss that was growing on the trees so was keen to see how this would look in a slide photo:

I was really impressed with the vivid green detail the photo produced. I also took one more in the shade, which looks completely different and not as vivid:

For lunch, we visited a restaurant in the mountains and sampled some of the local food and wine. We were entertained by the restaurant staff doing a demonstration of their local language called Silbo Gomero (also known as El Silbo). It’s basically a whistled register of Spanish which is used by the inhabitants of La Gomera to communicate across the deep ravines and narrow valleys within the island. It was fun to watch.

Inside the restaurant was this really cool view point that I knew I had to take a photo of:

I then took some photos of the views from the restaurant:

Here is one of my husband admiring the views from the Restaurant:

Here are a couple of photos I took at another view point on the way back down the mountains:

La Gomera was a beautiful island to visit. If I was to go again, I would like to spend a bit more time around the local marina and square which looked really interesting but I only got to spend about an hour there since this excursion mainly focused on time spent up in the mountains.

I didn’t manage to use up all the film whilst on this excursion so took the final remainder photos from my balcony where I was staying on the mainland in Tenerife:

I really do love slide film, especially when processed under E-6. For me, the bright vivid colours are just amazing and I also love the feel of the photos. They remind me of a 70s holiday brochure.

Whilst I still have some other colour 35mm films to use in my film stash, going forward for the Leica M6, I think the Ektachrome E100 will most certainly be one of my go to films for colour photography from now on.

Photos from my Leica M6 TTL camera with the Ilford HP5 Plus 35mm film

The next black and white film I decided to try out in my Leica M6 TTL camera was the Ilford HP5 Plus 400 35mm film.

Here are some photos I took near Brighton Pier whilst walking my dog, Daisy:

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Here are a couple I took of Daisy on the beach:

Here are a couple of random pebble/debris shots:

I spent the afternoon at Brighton Marina and used up the remainder of the film there:

Overall, I really liked the dark and moody feel of these photos. I had taken the photos on a cloudy, overcast day and I think this helped the effect.

I used the 50mm Summicron lens. Again, I was impressed with the crisp detail produced in some of the closer shots, like the beach photos with the pebble detail.

Next week I will be blogging about the results I got from using Kodak Ektachrome e100 in this camera which I’m really excited about sharing with you.

Leica M6 TTL and Kodak TMax 35mm Film

The next film I decided to try in my Leica with the 50mm Summicron Lens, was the Kodak TMax 400 black and white film as I knew I had achieved nice results from that film in the past with other cameras.

I decided to take a walk with my dog to St Ann’s Wells Gardens in Hove and try out the film there.

It’s a nice, quiet place to walk in winter time and I knew I still had to get to grips with getting used to using a Rangefinder camera again and improve on my focusing skills.

Here is one of Daisy I took using the camera and film:

Here is a small selection of photos I took whilst on this walk:

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I quite like the lighting effect of the way the sunlight is shining through on this one:

Whilst I suppose the next photo I’m about to show is under exposed, there is something about it I really like. I think it’s the dark contrast of the tree/plants against the grey sky which has come out in a striped texture on this negative. To me, it looks like a really old photo taken years ago. I also think it has a tropical feel about it:

Overall, it was nice to try out a black and white film in the camera which didn’t have too much contrast compared to the JCH film. I really liked the crisp details I got from the camera.

After this film I decided I wanted to try out an Ilford black and white film. I look forward to blogging next week with the results.

Leica M6 TTL and the Lomochrome Purple 35mm Film

For the second roll of film that I tried out in the Leica M6 TTL, I decided to use the Lomochrome Purple 35mm.

In the past, I’ve really liked the effects of this film so was keen to see what it would look like when taken on the Leica camera.

I initially went down to the local Pavilion area in Brighton where I took these shots:

After taking a couple of the Pavilion, which in my opinion, were rather limited with the amount of the building I could fit in due to the fact I was using the 50mm Summicron Lens, I decided to take some photos of the local plants since I knew the green works quite well with this film:

I still think at this point, there was room for improvement on my focusing of this camera, however, I was quite impressed with the detail of the following photo I took:

I then walked back home along the seafront and took some beach/wave shots:

I was keen to get this film developed asap so decided to use the remainder of the film up in my garden. I was quite drawn to the table and chairs at the back of my garden so took a photo of those:

My cat Robinson loves a lot of attention from me when I’m at home so he came out into the garden and I took a couple of photos of him:

Again, I wouldn’t say the focusing on these two photos was particularly great but there are some nice purple tones in them.

Whilst there were some fun shots taken from this film, I knew that I needed to try out some ‘normal’ style films out in this Leica camera.

I questioned whether I should leave the LomoChrome Purple effect film for my Lomography camera’s rather then use them in my Leica.

Therefore at this stage, I still didn’t feel I had seen the full potential of what this Leica Camera could do.

This made me excited about what film to use next and see what the results would be like which I shall blog about next week.

Until then, stay safe everyone.

Leica M6 TTL Camera and JCH StreetPan 400 Film

When I first got the Leica M6 TTL camera, I knew that I wanted to try out a black and white film in it.

It was winter time so ideally, I wanted to use an ISO 400 film. I had liked the effects of the JCH film in other cameras I had used it in and thought I would try it first.

All the photos were taken using a Leica 50mm Summicron Lens.

I went to my usual spot where I like to test out new (to me) camera’s which was my local cemetery.

I like the peace and quiet there so I can fully focus on the camera and get used to how to use it.

I must admit when I first went to use the Leica, I did struggle getting used to to using a Rangefinder again.

For a couple of years, all I had been mainly using, was SLR’s and it had been a while since I had used a rangefinder camera.

I was slightly nervous whether the light meter would work and knew until I had the film developed, I wouldn’t know.

I decided to get the film developed at my local lab instead of developing it myself.

There are a few that came out quite dark and some, blurry, whilst I got to grips with using a rangefinder again:

You may also see a black line going through some of the photos. This got me into a major panic that there was a fault with my camera.

I checked online about this fault but couldn’t see any problems with the camera that had possibly caused this.

I knew that I would have to see when I got further films developed if they would have this problem.

Since getting further films developed, I’m pleased to report that it doesn’t appear to be a camera fault and I’ve discovered this line tends to appear in my photos when I get the film processed in an hour rather than waiting a couple of days. I’m not sure why that is at my local lab? perhaps it’s to do with the quicker time of drying them?

Unfortunately I don’t quite know enough about film developing to know the answer but perhaps someone reading this blog may be able to shed some light on the reason?

Here are a couple where I was quite impressed with the detail:

Overall, I think some of the photos came out ok for my first attempt at using this camera. Although I can’t deny it, I felt somewhat deflated after seeing the black lines in some of the photos.

Also, I realised that I perhaps made the wrong film choice when trying out this camera for the first time. The JCH film is very grainy and contrasty and I don’t think the way I shot it, showed the full potential of what this camera and lens combo could do.

I look forward to blogging in the next few weeks about other films I’ve since used in the Leica and my verdict on using them.

Leica M6 TTL Camera

Towards the end of last year, I treated myself to a Leica M6 TTL camera.

I had been toying with purchasing a Leica M analogue camera for a while but kept talking myself out of it, especially after I purchased my Hasselblad.

However, after using such beautiful quality camera’s such as the Hasselblad and the Olympus Pen FT, it kept drawing me back to wanting to own a Leica M for my 35mm photography.

After lots of research I decided I would like to own a Leica M6 TTL version. The main reason I wanted to own an M6 model was because it has the built in light meter.

I had originally thought I would like an M6 but in the end, I preferred the larger dial on the TTL and also the way it syncs with the flash when using one. Plus, it also has a circle in the light meter reading to show when the exposure is correct.

I also felt the way the dial turns with the light meter reading was more intuitive than the Leica M6 which, is the opposite way to the arrows in the viewfinder.

Lastly the TTL has an ‘off’ dial which is handy for the battery and I also wanted a newer Leica M6 so knew the TTL would have been the most recent of that series prior to the release of the M7.

The other great thing about the M6 TTL is that there are 3 x different viewfinders (.58, .72, .85) which links to the magnification you require in the viewfinder since it’s a rangefinder so you won’t actually be focusing the whole image, just the little square in the middle of the viewfinder.

I had tried out the .72 rangefinder in a friends leica so I was able to gauge what would work for me and decided on the .85 magnification since I mainly wanted to use a 50mm lens with this camera.

The different types of magnification work better for different lenses and I had read the .85 isn’t particularly great with 28mm lenses since you lose those lines in the viewfinder but I hadn’t planned on using that size lens anyway since I tend to use my Hasselblad (and soon my Intrepid 4×5) cameras for more serious landscape photography.

Deciding that I wanted both the classic chrome body along with the .85 magnification proved somewhat difficult to find. There seemed to be lots of black models for sale with this magnification but not chrome.

After several months of trawling through various vintage camera dealers and looking on eBay and gumtree etc, I finally found a camera dealer in France who had just what I was after.

I had read good reviews online (in french!) about this camera dealer so took the plunge and purchased the camera.

I was very excited and I certainly wasn’t disappointed when it arrived in the post. It was exactly as I expected so I was really pleased.

After toying with getting a cheaper 50mm lens which I know are quite good, in the end I decided if I’m purchasing a Leica M Camera, I may as well also get a Leica lens. I plan on making large prints in my darkroom so hope the picture quality/detail will still be good when printed to a larger size. In the end I decided on a 50mm Summicron lens and the main reason I decided on the Summicron version was because I had seen some great shots taken by other photographers on instagram using this particular lens and also, it was within my budget. I ended up getting a version with a built in hood since I figured that would be more suitable for me as I do find it a bit of a pain with my other camera’s when I have to keep adding on and physically removing the lens hood.

Since using this lens, I am certainly pleased I purchased one with the built in lens hood as it has been really convenient when taking photos.

I look forward to updating you all over the next few weeks with what films I’ve tried out in the camera so far.

It’s certainly been a very exciting few months for me using this camera!