Coq gaulois

This is to give you a hint where I spent the last three weeks.

Roof

Picking up some common themes like birds and looking up.

McD

While we're talking about things I did for the first time, this one's from the first ever slide film I exposed "in earnest" - a roll of Ektachrome 100VS. So, I'm obviously a) still experimenting and b) still playing with color. And, yeah, let's just forget what I wrote here...

Working the situation some more

As promised. A few days later, but still the same building. Now with more birds, though, and without a street lamp.

And this was the first time ever I've used Rollei RPX 400. I'm not sure yet if I like it or not. (As far as I understand, someone bought the rights to use the name. The film is not manufactured by the famous German camera maker.)

The photo was slightly cropped and I worked quite a bit on the tonal values of the sky.

Working the situation

I have an ongoing debate with Olaf about working the situation during which I quite vigorously took up a position against chimping and argued that you can't take the same photo twice anyway.

Of course, I went over the top a bit for the sake of "philosophical clarity." While I generally like Eggleston's attitude of shooting each subject only once, I certainly sometimes try different viewpoints, angles, f-stops, or distances. And there are even cases where I return to the scene of the crime later and pick up where I left.

This is one such example that I already worked on about three weeks ago. It's the same building and I used the same camera, the same lens, and the same film to take a photo from almost the same place. But enough things have changed (including the house itself) to definitely make this a very different picture. Whether that makes it a new one or only a variation of the old one, I'll let you decide.

I'll likely work this "situation" even more...

Fake bird

It's time for a window view again.

Landing

Another one from the dove day.

Hen

Hamburg on February 26, 2010.

M7, 35mm Summicron, Tri-X, Rodinal.

Liberty again

Yet another way to photograph the Statue of Liberty. A picture I'm publishing now because it is related to the one of from last Monday in several ways. And it's also one I like in spite of its obvious technical flaws.

M4-P, Tri-X, 1998.

Blur

Lisbon in 1999. This is a picture I had selected several times and then turned down again because it is blurred and wasn't properly exposed. Still, there must be something to it because I look at it over and over again. I've now finally decided that I like it.

M4-P, Tri-X.

The Birds

The shadows look slightly threatening, don't they? This was taken in Hell's Kitchen on March 16. I think I'm going to start another mini series - this time about pictures I took in New York last month.

The M7 with the 35mm Summicron, Tri-X in Rodinal.

Welcome

This is how you are (sometimes) greeted when you're entering Oslo's airport Gardermoen.

Taken on February 17, 2010 with the M7 and the 35mm Nokton. Film was Neopan 400 developed in Rodinal.

Lines

Overhead contact lines near Hamar's railway station, to be exact. And a bird - which made the shot for me.

February 13, 2010, M7, 35mm Nokton, Tri-X, Rodinal.

I'll be out of town again for a couple of days (and I'll hopefully take a bunch of photos while I'm away), so no new entries for about a week.

Bird watcher

I didn't take notes, so I don't know who this guy was. But the doves really liked him...

Lisbon in 1999, M4-P, Tri-X.

More doves

Another one from the dove series. See the old post for the story and the technical details.

Lots of dead chickens

When I was in London in 1996, I also went to Brixton and there I found a market hall where I took lots of photos. One of the things I did there is something I don't do often - I asked people whether I could take portraits of them. The picture I eventually liked most is this one with the guy proudly showing off one of his chickens.

Incidentally, I promised to send him a print but managed to lose his address. On the off chance that somebody who reads this blog knows this man, please let me know how to reach him. I'd really like to send him the photo as promised and maybe he'll be pleasantly surprised to finally receive it almost 15 years later...

This is from the time where I really took lots of notes, so I know it was March 28, the shutter speed was 1/60, the aperture was f/5.6, the camera was the trusty Leica, the lens was the 35mm Summicron, and the film was Tri-X, developed by myself.

Dove above NYC

New York in 1998.  We were on the Empire State Building looking at the city from above, and this dove did that as well. Although it was probably more interested in gathering food from all the tourists up there. Anyway, it agreed to sit for this portrait and I hope it doesn't mind that I publish it here.

M4-P on Tri-X, as if you hadn't guessed that by now.

When doves eat

The photos I've shown so far were from several different venues, but none of them was from Hamburg where I live. Time to change that. Here's one that I took in December 1995, about a year before I moved there.

I was near the city hall when I spotted an odd couple feeding birds (mostly doves) out of about a dozen plastic bags they had with them. There were times when they were literally covered with birds but they seemed totally immersed in this activity, enjoying it very much. I was attracted by the strangeness of the scene and shot more than a roll of Tri-X in maybe half an hour. The two were aware of what I was doing, but they didn't seem to care or maybe they even posed pretending not to pose.

The net result definitely was more than one photo worth keeping, so I'll likely show more of this scene in the future. Camera was the M4-P with the 50mm Summicron.