Tuesday, January 28, 2014

"faros" once more

There a some iconic places in every city, so called "must see" or "must be", included in all city guides. Patras has of course it's own as well. Ag Andreas church, old port, fortress, Psila Alonia square or lighthouse are just few to mention. It became obvious for me that I have to "reshoot" all of them with my Rollei now. This probably means some repetitions of photo's subjects that had appeared here before - sorry for that - but it is simply a must :-D Today, the lighthouse. No real need to write a lot here again about the place itself.


Photo: Rolleiflex Automat w/Tessar 75mm f/3.5, Kodak Tmax 400

Thursday, January 23, 2014

"highlands"

Psila Alonia square in Patras. The name can be translated to "highlands". One of the most popular places to go for a walk with a kid or a dog, or coffee or lunch. Full of green and shadow in the summer, and sun as well if needed in the winter.


Taken during rainy winter weather (it's actually January 1st) from one of balconies on the square for a nice panoramic view from above.

Photo: Rolleiflex Automat w/ Tessar 75mm f/3.5, Kodak Ektar 100.

Friday, January 17, 2014

vespa christmas charity ride

On December 15th, 2013 there was a charity ride organized on old vespa scooters. Here the bikes were waiting for the riders, next to fully painted old building with various grafitti. Taken on Riga Fereou, outside of Onisimon cafe.


Photo: Rolleifles Automat w/ Tessar 75mm f/3.5, Kodak Tmax 100.

Monday, January 13, 2014

christmas carousel

This year's Christmas decorations in Patras where really nice. Specially plateia Gewrgiou looked very christmassy and offered a lot of fun for the kids. This one is a long exposure (~4s) looking at carousel in full motion and moon in the far background. The gentleman in front of me was also impressed :-D


Photo: Rolleiflex Automat with Tessar 75mm f/3.5, Kodak Tmax 100, developed and scanned at M. Alexopoulos (www.amfotolab.gr)


Wednesday, January 8, 2014

slowly abandoning digital

My first camera that I paid for with my own money was digital Nikon D70s, back in 2007. At that time this model was already 3y old and fairly affordable even for me. Digital photography was already dominating and I didnt even consider going analogue (both for performance and cost as well).
But, having spent last 6y or so, shooting pretty much only digital, I have started to get to know more and more about photography in general and somewhere in time I've started to be tempted by analogue and film techniques. It was the pinhole photography that came first! After browsing in internet some amazing efects that could be achieved with home made, matchbox camera obscura, I wanted to try it myself! And I loved it from the start: the "building" of the camera itself with several failed results, through the first tries, the waiting for prints, fixing the "construction" and recalculating exposure times, all till some first successes... great experience.
But soon it was not enough. Long exposure times limited me to specific shooting only. As I was already in love with film, I wanted a real full manual analogue camera to really learn about photography. I was lucky enough to find in my father's old stuff, hidden deep in old boxes, russian camera FED-5 with Industar lens 55mm f/2.8. Full manual, great for learning. Despite being 40 years old it still gave me some nice results and I kept taking it more and more often together with my digital Nikon.
Just few months ago, I got a crazy idea of trying out medium format. And this is actually where analogue and film can still come out cheaper than digital! As the prices of MF digital cameras are out of this world for me, the reasonable option was to look for some antique on ebay for few euros and repair it for another few euros to become operational. This way, in December 2013 I became an owner of Rolleiflex Automat with Tessar 75mm f/3.5 from 1938 :-D No need to mention that I fell in love immediately...


I have already posted one photo from this camera last week (from Psila Alonia square, top of stairs, looking to Trion Navarchon pedestrian str) and several others from FED-5 throughout the last year. Today is the icon of Patras, Agios Andreas church at night with about 4s exposure. Doesn't it look great on film?
As I shoot more and more often with both FED and Rollei now, I noticed recently that I do not carry my digital Nikon's at all for walks around Patras! I am not saying I will abandon them completely but I am thinking of posting here only photos from my new-old toys :-D

Photo: Rolleiflex Automat, Kodak T-max 100, developed and scanned at M. Alexopoulos (amfotolab.gr)

Saturday, January 4, 2014

3 admirals from 3 cameras

Trion Navarchon is pedestrian street in Patras, starting from the lighthouse down by the coast and going up until Psila Alonia square, ending with stairs. The name translates as "the three admirals".

One of my favourite views in Patras is exactly from the top of the stairs, looking down the pedestrian road to the lighthouse. Today, the very same view from three different cameras: german Rolleiflex Automat from 1938, russian FED-5 from 1970s and japanese digital Nikon D70s.
Photo: Rolleiflex Automat with Tessar 1:3.5 75mm, Kodak T-max 100

Photo: FED-5 with Industar 1:2.8 55mm, Agfa RETRO 100 (expired)

Photo: Nikon D70s with Nikkor 1:1.8 35mm