Death of my xPan

I’m currently on a cross Europe adventure, visiting 8 countries and hoping to take many great photographs. Then as I walk out onto Piazza San Marco in Venice, raise my xPan to my eye, press the shutter and….. Nothing. The mighty xPan was dead. I had a feeling something was wrong as on the last roll it started to make some horrible squeaking noises, but I convinced myself it was the new kind of film I was trying, or maybe the cold weather. Anyways, I’ve been mourning the loss ever since. I’ll send it in to Hasselblad for servicing when I get home, hopefully it is repairable.

In tribute to my xPan, here are some of my shots on Flickr

And here is my all time favorite shot taken last summer in Paris…

Photo of the Week

This week’s photo is from a trip to Berlin last November.  I really liked the subway and train system and took many pictures.  I was a bit disappointed that what I thought had been a colour roll was actually a black and white.  Many of the shots just didn’t work in black and white, however this one, with it’s contrasty architecture, really lends itself well to it.

 

Taken with my Hasselblad xPan, 45mm lens, Kodak Tri-X, developed in D76.

52 Create – Film Strips

52 Create, my attempt to do one creative project/week for the entire year.  So far all my projects have been out of wood (and most will be too), but for this one I thought I’d run with an idea I’d had for a long time.  While in Paris last year I was thinking that a fun way to display photos would be to print them onto a strip of paper and attach them to the spool in an empty film can.  You could then roll them up into the can and sell them as a set of photos.

 

I ended up printing the photos on a sheet of 8.5×11 photo paper and then cut into 35mm strips.  I fit 9 photos on a strip with a 2:3 ratio, and 7 with a 1:1 (square) ratio.  Made the background of the strip black and typed the name of the set on the end of the roll. I then cut the paper to look like a film leader.  I decided not to add sprocket holes as I thought this was a bit tacky.

 

I like the effect, and I think it could be a really great seller on my Etsy site, but I’ll need to redo these.  The dpi got screwed up in photoshop so the resolution is really bad.  I’d also like to put a little more work into the photos used on each strip. Right now they are sorted by camera and by colour/BW, but I’d like to give each “roll” a theme in the future.  I think this would add strength of the photos.

Photo of the Week

With yesterday’s talk of lomography cameras and double exposures, the picture below came to mind.  It’s a double exposure (by accident in this case) of the Paris city hall as well as the Invalides.  It’s an interesting juxtaposition, and could have some sort of double entendre if you were up on politics I would assume.  As said, taken with a holga (glass lens) on Kodak 400VC.

Photo of the Week

It’s been a while since I took this shot and it took me a little bit to figure out just where this had been… It was a field of poppies in Chantilly, France of course.  We were there on a visit to the chateau (which I highly recommend, I liked it even more than Versailles, certainly nowhere near as crowded).  It’s fall in Paris right now, and the leaves are turning and this summery scene was what I needed to see today…. Taken with my xpan, 45mm lens, expired Kodak E100.

 

Le Chiottisme – Outdoor Photography Exhibit

I went to a very unique photography exhibition the other day in Paris called “Le Chiottisme“.  It was an outdoor exhibit with the pictures having been blown up to roughly a metre wide.  It was put on by the Paris society for water treatment in celebration of their 40th anniversary.  What was the focus you ask? Toilets…

It was a very interesting look from different perspectives about toilets in the world today.  There were photos from Willy Ronis and Robert Doisneau, but also from other more recent photographers.  The photos ranged from comical to ones that really provoked you to think about how others in the world are affected by differences in sanitation.  Some of the photos from second and third world countries truly shows how lucky we are. The exhibit was along the Canal Saint Martin by the Basin d’Arsenal, unique and enjoyable, just how I like them…

Photo of the week

This week’s photo is from my “abandoned bicycles” series.  It’s really quite sad to see all the once lovely bikes that have been left chained up, never to be ridden again.  These bikes are all over Paris, and every few weeks the city crews go by with a pickup truck and cut them free, hauling them away to the dump.  Some are bent, some are missing wheels, but all of them were once a great ride.  Taken with my Agfa Optima on BW film.  Added a slight vignette in PS3.

SX-70 video

Awesome video of the sx-70 Land Camera from the Eames Office. Nothing more needed to say, click on the link to have a look…

video here

via Cool Hunting

F stop watch

Looking for a gift for the photographer in the family?  Look no further, the F stop watch is a analog watch that features hour numbers in f stop increments.  The face of the watch even looks a bit like a lens!  Seems like a bargain at only $35…

Les Rencontres Arles, 2010

Being in France during the summer, it would seem a shame to not go and see Les Rencontres Arles, the world famous yearly photography exhibits that take over the small Southern French town of Arles.  Unfortunately, it looked as if it was simply too much money to go down for only a few days as the hotels were pricey.  While I would have loved to hop on the train and stay in a hostel for a few days, soaking in the photography, my wife and 11 month old daughter needed me in Paris, and splitting up the family at this point simply could not work.

In the end we decided we would all go down to Marseille while my wife had a brief break from school.  She then surprised me with a one day return trip to Arles.  While my two favourite girls roamed the streets and played in parks, I immersed myself in the wonderful world of Les Rencontres Arles.

For anyone who has never been to Arles, you do not know what you are missing! The town on it’s own is beautiful and extremely photogenic.  There are old roman ruins and a great coliseum, not to mention an old town square and a fantastic Saturday market.  The photography exhibits are spread throughout, held in old churches, abandoned railway stations and old hotels.  There are dozens of locations and many more exhibits to be seen.  I bought a one day pass (25 euros) and managed to see about 20 exhibits (there were close to 60 in total).  Admittedly, some of the exhibits that interested me less I went through rather quickly, with so much to see I couldn’t be bothered to waste time with those that I didn’t like.

While I thoroughly  enjoyed myself, I had a few criticisms. While the scope of the entire  exhibition is very large, with many exhibits, I found it overwhelming. There was simply too much and the quality didn’t always seem to accompany the work.  Some exhibits had far too many photographs, they became repetitive and made the better photographs less powerful than if they had stood on their own.  Finally, there were several exhibits that weren’t photographs at all, more sculpture than anything else.

It was definitely worth the money and I’m glad that I went, however I don’t know if I’d return in the future. I think I’d be happier going to several exhibits in Paris over the span of a few weeks and to only pick ones that I would enjoy.  Nothing in Arles approached what I had seen at the Willy Ronis exhibit in Paris, although you can’t expect to see photos of this calibre on every gallery wall…