Going analog – finally…

Long time no post…

tl:dr: Analog photography has become a mostly hidden but important and satisfying constant in my photographic life, since. Not the color film photography, because for me it is much to laborious to develop, but black and white film finds it’s way into my camera from time to time and the process is well to handle in a custom kitchen lab.

Please find the start of this journey in the Going analog category

Today I finally managed to upload and publish the complete outcome of my 2017th analog adventure. And there is a huge gallery at the end of this post.

Salinas at Faro de Funcaliente

Nevertheless, I love the results of my 2017th analog color film journey. Yes, sometimes they are lacking some contrast or they appear to be a litte bit overexposed. But I went for experience, not for perfection. And this journey was such a lot of fun. I’m happy with the results, the vintage look, the lessons learned and last but not least the time spend on this wonderful island.

Observatory at Los Muchachos

How these pictures where taken (Gear!):

  • Leica M6, build in 1995 (With mostly empty batteries. So, no internal light meter…)
  • Calumet DFM3 light meter (Mostly left in the hotel. So no external light meter…)
  • Voigtländer Ultron 35mm f/1.7
  • Leica Elmarit 90mm f/2.8, build in 1964 (What a wonderful piece. Still precise and smooth)
  • Kodak Extar 100
  • Kodak Portra 400

Unfortunately, the batteries of the Leica internal light meter died during the first days of my vacation. So I faced the challenge and went fully analog, likewise leaving the external light meter unused. What seems to have worked out astonishingly well…

Crab and stones

The exposed film where send to MeinFilmLab for development and they did an amazing job. I ordered some paper prints, the scanned negatives on DVD and asked to leave the film strips uncut, so I would have the ability to squeeze them through a film scanner by myself. And this was was what I did. In some nights… Scanning 7 roles of film teaches you some docility, and patience, and Ooommmmmmmm….

Rural La Palma

But finally, the film strips where scanned and post processed in Adobe Lightroom, as there was no massive adjustments, but only minor improvements. And for sure, a slight sharpening when the image size was reduced during export. I will have to learn a lot, especially in handling the color films orange mask…

In the following gallery you may find all (mostly) accident free taken pictures, sorted by their date of exposure.

2 Replies to “Going analog – finally…”

    1. Thanks mate.
      For me it is all about doing the things in a different way, to regain some inspiration for the digital stuff and maybe some contemplation.
      And sometimes an disappointing challenge, especially whet the f*****g scanner becomes a part of the process… 😉

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