Topic: Summer Vacation

[02Pilot]

As those of you perusing the current weekend thread may have noted, I was away on vacation for a bit - specifically, I was in Slovenia for a week. I've got family there, so I've been back many times. I have seen all the tourist attractions and I know my way around reasonably well, so between other commitments I decided to make a concerted effort to take pictures. Lots of pictures. On film.

I brought three cameras - two Canon rangefinders (an L1 and a P) with Canon 35/2.8 and 50/1.5 and a Leitz Elmar 90/4, and my little Voigtländer Perkeo II - and thirty rolls of film (15 Tri-X 135, 5 Tri-X 120, 5 Portra 160 135, and 5 Ektar 120). This proved too ambitious, as I only managed to shoot 19 rolls over the course of the week (I'm so ashamed...). The camera mix worked pretty well: basically, the L1 got the 35/2.8 and Tri-X, while the P got the 50/1.5 and either Portra or Tri-X; the Perkeo was used sporadically as conditions warranted.

In any case, enough rambling about equipment and on with the photos. I'm going to keep this an active thread, adding to it as I work through the photos, selecting and preparing them for public consumption. Since the medium format collection was the smallest pile, I'll kick things off with some color Perkeo photos.

[ManuelL]

Great pictures! Especially like the light and colors in the last two.

[zapsnaps]

I like the juxtaposition of the sun brolly and the bloke with a rain brolly. "Nicely seen", as judges say

[Alan]

Lovely set, the detail in the skies are really nice.
I like all and looking forward to the rest :-)

[02Pilot]

Thanks for the kind words. I was particularly happy with the positioning of the umbrellas in the third one, and the sky in the last shot once again confirmed my love of medium format Ektar. Having a truly portable MF camera is really handy for travel.

I should have some Tri-X shots from the Perkeo ready by tomorrow. Stay tuned.

[02Pilot]

OK, here we go with the B&W stuff from the Perkeo. I only shot a couple rolls of Tri-X through it over the course of the week, but I still managed to get a few half-way decent shots.

First, a couple landscapes. Easiest thing to shoot with a fiddly old folder.





I did make a (somewhat foolish) attempt to shoot a few street shots; predictably, most were failures, but this one worked reasonably well.



At this point in our narrative I am forced to admit that I have a (probably unhealthy) attraction to trains and train stations. I shot the better part of a roll at the station one morning (plus a bunch of 35mm for good measure).

[Indofunk]

I love all of these, particularly the sunbeams (because I am highly jealous of anyone who can capture these mythical beasts ) and the archway (sure, it's a very predictable shot, but that doesn't make it any less impressive). Ektar is a very fine film. If I were into straight C41 color I'd use it all the time

[Late Developer]

I love all of those shots but I have a particular liking for the second but last photo. Maybe because I spend so much time commuting to / from work but that is a lovely view down the lines.

[Fluminian]

Great shots, Pilot. I like b&w shots more, but that's a given for me.

[02Pilot]

Thanks again to all who've checked in - I appreciate your taking the time to offer your comments.

To close out the MF, here's a couple of panoramas stitched together from Perkeo shots. Just messing around with techniques really, but the results were interesting enough to my eye that I figured I'd post them. They do lose something in the massive shrinkage to reasonable interweb viewing size, but such is life. (I know the second one offers a similar view to one of the B&W shots posted earlier, but that's what I saw from the hotel room balcony, so it was easy to take multiple shots in different conditions. Call me lazy....)





I'm slowly working my way through the 35mm stuff - there's a lot. I'm thinking I may try to organize things a bit more thematically from here on out; it's mostly street photography, and trying to break it down any other way seems rather difficult. In any case, once I've sorted through it to the point that I have more to post, I will.

[ManuelL]

These panoramas are absolutely beautiful.
The first one is something to put on the wall to look at and dream of the next vacation.

[02Pilot]

Thanks, Manuel. I did get lucky with the light in that first shot - about 30 minutes before sunset, and about 15 minutes after a thunderstorm.

[hookstrapped]

Love the one with the umbrella by the water.

[02Pilot]

Here we go with the themed posts. We'll start with some urban still-lifes (for want of a better term) - little scenes captured in the quiet corners of busy city streets.

[02Pilot]

Thanks, Peter - that's one of my favorites too.

[Late Developer]

02Pilot, that is a superb set of photos. Hard to pick a fave as they are all stunners - but the first one and second but last one are the ones I'd happily have framed and on my living room wall.

[02Pilot]

02Pilot, that is a superb set of photos. Hard to pick a fave as they are all stunners - but the first one and second but last one are the ones I'd happily have framed and on my living room wall.

Thanks so much - that really means a lot.

[jojonas~]

yes, the bike by the tree and the stairs are great! you've got an eye for urban still-lifes

[02Pilot]

yes, the bike by the tree and the stairs are great! you've got an eye for urban still-lifes

Thanks! At least with these sorts of subjects they don't move around while you're trying to figure out the shot. 

[02Pilot]

Been away from this for too long. Time to get back to it.

In any case, bicycles are a common sight in many European cities, so naturally I took many photos of them. So many, in fact, that I'm going to split the selections I show here into two or three posts.

[Indofunk]

Oh those last two are so good :-)

[02Pilot]

Oh those last two are so good :-)

Thanks. I was especially happy with the second one; the porthole shot took a couple attempts to get right, but I only had one chance at the second (at least without appearing like a creepy stalker).

[Indofunk]

Oh those last two are so good :-)

Thanks. I was especially happy with the second one; the porthole shot took a couple attempts to get right, but I only had one chance at the second (at least without appearing like a creepy stalker).

My "I look like a creepy stalker" filter is far too stringent. I should really relax it and take some more chances, I often see great candid street shots but I'm too scared to take out the camera

[02Pilot]

Oh those last two are so good :-)

Thanks. I was especially happy with the second one; the porthole shot took a couple attempts to get right, but I only had one chance at the second (at least without appearing like a creepy stalker).

My "I look like a creepy stalker" filter is far too stringent. I should really relax it and take some more chances, I often see great candid street shots but I'm too scared to take out the camera

It takes practice to get comfortable. I'll point my camera at almost anyone - I once pointed a camera at a heavily armed German airport security guard when asked to prove that it worked by firing off a shot (probably not a smart decision, in retrospect) - but I'll be prefocused, and I'll only squeeze off one frame and then move away. I try not to even break stride if I can avoid it. Always have an exit from the situation, i.e., don't shoot the crazy ranting homeless dude on the subway when you've still got eight stops to go.

[02Pilot]

For anyone who might be interested, I've put together a book of photos from this vacation. There's a thread in the Sales, Trades, and Promotions sub-forum.

EDIT: Fixed the link. It's working now. Sorry about that.