Something From The Rollei

When I first started shooting medium format again last summer, it was after a 10 year hiatus.  This time around, I wanted to experiment with a Rolleiflex TLR.  I'll admit to being a little surprised at just how shallow the depth of field was with the 3.5E Planar I bought!  But this was a welcome surprise for sure given my shooting style.  Wide open, the 75/3.5 Planar is a lovely lens.  This Corvette was shot on Fuji Pro 400H, nice for the summer evenings.

Classic Lincoln

Another from this past summer cruise season, great looking Lincoln with such nice color.  Kodak Ektar 100 is such a nice film to use for this type of environment.  The somewhat slow 100 ISO is perfect for me when I want to shoot late afternoon into dusk and take advantage of fast aperture lenses.  Shot with the Leica 50/1.0 Noctilux, close to wide open.

Point Pleasant fencing

Easy to forget in December that New Jersey has beaches, but they are certainly worth a visit.  The lighting, clouds and lack of crowds can make for interesting shooting.  This was shot on Kodak Ektar, and with the Leica Noctilux 50/1.0.  Even stopped down a little bit, the lens retains typical characteristics  - vignetting and bokeh.

The Mini

One of my preferences for shooting with high speed lenses is the ability I have in challenging environments, such as busy streets or social scenes.  This Mini was shot in downtown Somerville (as many other cars I post) on a late summer evening.  Kodak Ektar film renders the colors nicely and the body and lens combo was a Leica M rangefinder along with the Noctilux 50/1.0.  One of the things I enjoy about shooting film still is the fact that Leica lenses render differently on film than on their M8 or M9 digital bodies.  Still very tough to achieve this look on a digital sensor, regardless of what one might read on various fora.

Street Shooting...my way

My personal take on street shooting is a different subject matter than most, for me it's cars and the details that stand out to me.  This really jumped out at me, nice color combinations as well.  As is usual, the Leica  Noctilux is my lens of choice for isolating subject matter at near dusk or even into a darkness.  THis was with the new Kodak Ektar ISO 100 film, an emulsion that I've been very happy with since I've started using it.

Somerville Noir

It's been awhile since I last posted on here, and in that time frame I've experimented with a Leica M8 (digital) and a few Rolleiflex TLR medium format cameras...long story short, I sold the M8 and bought a nice Rolleiflex 3.5 E Planar.  The Rollei proved to be a surprising re-entry into the medium format world for me and meshes nicely with my shooting style.  This shot was done at likely an 1/8th of a second, f3.5 with Fuji Pro 400H.  Pushing the edge at what I can handhold and some post processing involved to deal with the exposure.