Faceless

Marjam

My magical friend Marjam turns a year older and wiser. Happy birthday, Marjam!

I took the picture in the evening in very low light, without a flash on a Kodak 400 TX film, hence the grain and the lack of sharpness.

acros 100 - you've gotta love this film!

People look at you as though you are from another century when they see you with a film camera, it takes about an hour to develop a film, dry it and scan it, you don't know what will come out. But than you get this.

And you know you have the most fantastic hobby in the world!

This is Acros 100 - the best film I have come across so far! In Rodinal it comes super soft, no grain, wonderful tones. I just love it!

Di Lieto - final edit

So it might seem to you you have seen this before, however, this is Di Lieto's final edit. It has been indeed a painful process. Painful because I have shot a lot of stuff. Really. There are pictures I love and there are pictures that can be put together to make a lot of sense.

My story started with the bread. It was supposed to be a story about the bread. Gradually Giovanni came in, eventhough he has been extremely great, helpful and supportive I have found it extremely hard to point the camera at him and make the story about him and not about the bread. However, he is an important part of the bread story since he is the person making the bread. He is also important since he makes all those breads by hand. Really, he does. And me being who I am, I believe you leave a bit of your soul in whatever you make with your own hands.

Each time I tried to put a proper portrait of Giovanni in, I felt I need to get him out. I like having him half-hidden and half being there. This is how I know him at the moment. I think this is another reason why it was hard to take portraits of him and make the story about him. I don't just yet know what his story is and I didn't have the time to get to know him.

I have truly enjoyed the experience and I am ever grateful to Giovanni letting me and becoming my friend. I hope to be able to get the story further, because the bakery is indeed a great community place with an amazing family feel to it.

With this I am off to my three weeks of summer and home and will be back with more stories in September.

From 18% Gray

From 18% Gray

From 18% Gray

From 18% Gray

Editing

I have realized that anyone can take a good picture. Seriously. The issue is editing whatever you have shot. It is so bloody difficult.

I am so stuck on editing the Di Lieto photo project that words can't possibly describe. After deciding the story is about the bread, my tutor ever so nicely asked, can she please, see some more people on my pictures. As most of my stuff was close ups - hands, bread, flour flying around, people with their back, people hidden behind piles, people out of focus...

So I thought well, I can do this, I can point the camera in the faces of people who I barely know and who after all feel comfortable with me. Well, I now have a bunch of "pictures with people" in them.

The issue is whenever I start editing, I end up with the pictures with no people in them! I somehow want to hide the people from the bakery and I can't figure out why. I have a guess it is I feel I don't know enough about them or I just want to keep them for myself. No idea.

Altogether it is a pain!

On another note - I have now mastered the drying process! Yes! The answer was very simple - photo flo! And you simply forget about drying marks. So now I have clean negatives I can focus on other stuff, like composition for example or editing for a change!

Di Lieto - first story draft

It is now two weeks after my first to Di Lieto visit and I have shot 11 films. One came underdeveloped, three have been developed with the wrong amount of developer, four have been over developed, three came out as they should may be.

You live you learn. It has been a very exciting process, not only in terms of actually being out there and putting myself out of my comfort zone when I had to talk to strangers and be nice and make sure I am not in their way. When you watch the same process over and over you start wondering - what is there I still haven't seen in this, so where is my story, what else can I shoot, can I climb up there, where do I stand.

It has been very difficult for me to find new angles, take portraits and ensure everyone is comfortable around me. And I am not even going into all the technical stuff, like proper metering. Looks like with the Pentax which has a faster lens and altogether better meter than the Zenith is simpler to use inside, when there is not enough light.

Now the sifting through and selecting the pictures that would make it. My great friend Alyssa is so good in this. She is may be the best photo editor amongst my friends. And I am so crap in this. The editing process is as important as actually taking the pictures.

Here is my process of picking up 20-30 pictures out of 300+. I sorted them in different themes: kneading, mixing, baking, people, equipment etc. Afterwards from each group I picked up the ones I felt I like best and put them all together. Than came my brilliant house mate, who not only doubles as a model, but also now doubles as a photo editor.

This is how the draft looks.

Di Lieto - test pictures

I thought no drying misfortunes this time. I will share something I have been working on for past few weeks.
I started a Documentary Photography Course at Zoom-in which is another reason why I love SW9! It is smack on my door step. Also compared to the ridiculous fees at St. Martin's this seemed like a great value for money.

Our assignment in the first week was to shoot portraits, relationships and people doing something. I only managed the portraits and the pictures in the previous post are the some of the good shots. Below two more of my brilliant house mate who doubles as a model :).

This is a great Acros 100 film. I love it! It is smooth, does great in low light and gives beautiful depth! And of course Sasha is a great model!

Now, Di Lieto. It is the Italian for the happy one. It is the family name of the guys who own the place. And it is a part of my assignment for the next class. We had to come up with a story and shoot it. This one seemed nice and sort of easy and I thought will get me totally out of my comfort zone, because it meant going and actually asking if I can go and take the pictures. To my greatest amazement the guys said yes! Di Lieto is a family run Italian bakery, which sells brilliant bread and is run by two brothers - Giovanni and Luigi! You can't get more Italian than that!

So there I was 6 am, very nervous, without any idea what exactly I am going to do. I had to go back again. And I am still go back again this week. Overall, this has turned out more of an adventure than I thought. You know most of the people I know including me will look at a picture and will say - oh I love this! Simply because the picture is of something beautiful or the person on it is smiling. So I am currently sitting with over 100 pictures and I need to decide which will make it. And they need to feel well together, not just be good as a single image. They need to make a story, be different in terms of pace, distance, composition, things they say... Quite challenging because this is out of my normal very linear and logic way of thinking. Yes, I am boring, but I love it. 

Drying misfortunes continued

Will, I ever get this right?

This time we have water marks! Yeah! Not too much wiping, so the hard water did its best to leave marks. I have bought now a bottle of Photo Flo and it will hopefully save me from more drying disasters....
Yes, I am talking about the white spot in top left corner...

Not quite black and white

This is to remember I should not be using the Fuji 100 film. Ever. Again.
This is why - flat colours.

This is quite striking compared to the Fuji Superia which back in autumn has given me this. Well, ok, this was also shot on the Zenit. The above by Pentax MeSuper, but still....