Some time ago (mid August) I went to Stockholm to photograph.
I had gotten so much input from looking at other people's photos and watching videos by King Jvpes and Eduardo Pavez Goye that I felt a strong urge to practice some of what I'd picked up.
Practice makes...
1/
I wouldn't say that the pictures amount to much but at least I got to practice some things I'd been thinking about. First thing was using a wide angle lens. I use the Meyer-Optik Görlitz 30 mm for my SLRs. There is a challenge in composing wide since there are a lot of variables you don't get with say 50 mm lenses.
When on my trek around Stockholm City area - which is large due to the fact that it is built around water and on islands - I scouted places where I could stick around for a bit. Some places I circled around a few times, others I stayed put to catch people walking by. That one's tricky. I didn't get anything wortwhile doing that - I think I'll do some digital burst-photography in some of the spots later on, though. It takes a lot of practice and missed exposures to hit the right moment when catching people moving past you.
2/
The second thing was I used a waist level finder. That makes you more stealthy when composing pictures around people, which is a very good thing. The Görlitz lens being so wide has a major depth of field so I didn't have to look closely when composing, just look at the focus ring. I liked using this finder a lot, and have loved using my TLRs recently. Soon I have to try them in this kind of environment too.
3/
The third thing was an absolute first, and was 100% inspired by Eduardo's '21 rolls in 21 days' project of June 2019. He used black & white Kodak 3200 ASA film for his street photography project. I owned two rolls (sort of) of 3200 ASA film. Both expired, actually. One was an actual Ilford Delta 3200 film, the other an Agfa Vario-professional-something meant to have an extremely wide exposure range. Eduardo exposed his at 800 ASA because he found them to be at their best with that amount of light. So I did too.
The second thing was I used a waist level finder. That makes you more stealthy when composing pictures around people, which is a very good thing. The Görlitz lens being so wide has a major depth of field so I didn't have to look closely when composing, just look at the focus ring. I liked using this finder a lot, and have loved using my TLRs recently. Soon I have to try them in this kind of environment too.
3/
The third thing was an absolute first, and was 100% inspired by Eduardo's '21 rolls in 21 days' project of June 2019. He used black & white Kodak 3200 ASA film for his street photography project. I owned two rolls (sort of) of 3200 ASA film. Both expired, actually. One was an actual Ilford Delta 3200 film, the other an Agfa Vario-professional-something meant to have an extremely wide exposure range. Eduardo exposed his at 800 ASA because he found them to be at their best with that amount of light. So I did too.
4/
The fourth thing - apart from using one of the two high-ASA films - was mounting my Helios-44 lens on my Olympus Pen F camera. The Helios is a 58 mm lens which on the Pen - a half-frame camera - equals approximately 87 mm in normal 35 mm country. That's very close to my sought after perfect focal length that I'll ever come (on my budget). It's even better than my other half-frame tele camera the Canon Demi C which reaches a 75 mm equivalent.
So, number four was practicing proper tele-photo use in a big city environment. I loved it. It is great fun to compose "tightly cropped" pictures in an environment with so much details and planes of information.
After finishing the roll of "800" I loaded the Miranda with some 400 ASA film. I didn't expose the full 72 photographs with the Pen F in Stockholm so finished the roll off in another city three week later.
The fourth thing - apart from using one of the two high-ASA films - was mounting my Helios-44 lens on my Olympus Pen F camera. The Helios is a 58 mm lens which on the Pen - a half-frame camera - equals approximately 87 mm in normal 35 mm country. That's very close to my sought after perfect focal length that I'll ever come (on my budget). It's even better than my other half-frame tele camera the Canon Demi C which reaches a 75 mm equivalent.
So, number four was practicing proper tele-photo use in a big city environment. I loved it. It is great fun to compose "tightly cropped" pictures in an environment with so much details and planes of information.
After finishing the roll of "800" I loaded the Miranda with some 400 ASA film. I didn't expose the full 72 photographs with the Pen F in Stockholm so finished the roll off in another city three week later.
... makes...
I didn't love using the 30 mm so much. It is really good for capturing large stuff or swathes of landscapes. But my using it on the streets trying to compose with details and light was difficult for me. In retrospect I think the ideal would be to have two cameras with 30 mm lenses. One with the waist-level finder and the other with an ordinary prism finder. Because I did find compositions but sometimes couldn't make them because the camera-to-eye angle was too awkward.
The other thing composing with the 30 mm was of course that almost every time getting close enough was a hassle. Either because I didn't dare intrude on people, or I didn't come close enough to the subjects for them to stand out in a composition.
...decent...
Here are some wide angle photos:
I didn't love using the 30 mm so much. It is really good for capturing large stuff or swathes of landscapes. But my using it on the streets trying to compose with details and light was difficult for me. In retrospect I think the ideal would be to have two cameras with 30 mm lenses. One with the waist-level finder and the other with an ordinary prism finder. Because I did find compositions but sometimes couldn't make them because the camera-to-eye angle was too awkward.
The other thing composing with the 30 mm was of course that almost every time getting close enough was a hassle. Either because I didn't dare intrude on people, or I didn't come close enough to the subjects for them to stand out in a composition.
...decent...
Here are some wide angle photos:
I did a lot of exposures for the highlights, which is my thing at the moment.
And 87 mm tele:
Thanks for reading this post! Don't hesitate to comment or check out my Instagram at #ourbooksmalmo. Visit my Etsy shop getOurBooks where there are cameras aplenty to choose from!
Thanks for reading this post! Don't hesitate to comment or check out my Instagram at #ourbooksmalmo. Visit my Etsy shop getOurBooks where there are cameras aplenty to choose from!
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