Thursday 31 January 2013

A Vintage Leica at The Shard

Taken at The Shard, London Bridge, on Saturday morning, 26th January 2013 from the Observation Floor.The Windows were being cleaned at the time.The camera was the Leica 111f with a 20mm MIR lens and an exposure of 1/500 and f 11 on Kodak T-Max 400 developed in D-76  1:1 for 10mins. One concern at this site is the use of X-ray screening at the admission level. This appears to be similar to Airport security and I forgot to try and ask for a hand search (the staff are without exception the most friendly and helpful) neither did I take an X-ray protection bag. However there appears to be no fogging but the light was difficult with really brilliant haze clearing into a fine day as the morning went on. For anyone thinking about the effect of screening at this late stage of silver photography I have found the commercial lead screening bags very good. I still try to mail exposed film home to myself from abroad to avoid double radiation in airports of unknown quality, with the package clearly marked. Folklore has it that 400 speed films are risky in a screening situation.More to follow on the Shard.

Thursday 17 January 2013

View from Rochester Castle


From Rochester Castle 1999
Leica 11 and Original Elmar f3.5
Probably influenced, unconsciously or otherwise by 'View from the Berlin Radio Tower' by
Moholy-Nagy 1928 which is about the time this Leica was made!  

Friday 11 January 2013

Vintage Leica in Europe

Mahon Street Scene 2006
Leicaflex SL Summicron f2.0
Mahon Fiesta 2009
Leica 111f Summaron 35mm
Damme, Flanders,
Leica M2  Summicron f2.0 Taken from the flat roof of the Church tower which will appear in a later posting