Berlin Calling – Part 2: the truth is analog

Summing up the digital shots of my berlin trip was quite an easy job compared to the work 23 rolls of film cause. To get this task done without ruining my marriage (scanning takes a lot of time), I divided the negatives into two blocks. Yesterday I finished digitizing the rolls of Friday (22.07.) and Saturday (23.07.)…

Unfortunately I “lost” 2 rolls by very stupid mistakes. One died because of a light leak I produced by not locking the film canister correctly and another one (Fujifilm Neopan 400 Professional) was burned at ISO100 because I forgot to dial in the correct speed.

Here’s what I could “save” into digital files:

I arrived late on friday so Enrico and I went to have some beers and a lot of lens talk (and some food of course).

OK, we had a lot of beers – so please apologize the lack of sharpness. Manual focus on a film-body, long exposure-times and alcohol doesn’t match.

the station at friedrichstr.

I’d love to kill the guy who drove into the frame!!!

arrived at the hotel “Titanic”

   

Most important: found a starbucks on my way to our meeting-point

…but shooting with a venti caramel macchiato in your hand isn’t easy, nor is it unobtrusive. Fortunately this subject didn’t move.

on the way to monochrom.com

this is Udo Walz, isn’t it??

shopping at monochrom.com

Enrico shooting THE street 🙂

book store with reflections

   
light leak 😦                              ringer system                    shopping with daddy

backyard

some bikes

walking through the frame

a nice little café

while I was shooting people in front of a flower store…

…Enrico just shot “flowers” 🙂
But I have to admit: the “Foveon X3” sensor in his Sigma cameras renders colours in such a mind-blowing awesome way – I’d also look for colourful subjects with this camera.

having lunch @Ackerstr. (shot through a window of the restaurant)

automotive family?

I think this Mercedes and my OM-4 Ti are from the same decade

this BMW motorcycle has seen some places – or at least its owner bought some nice stickers on eBay

I was struggling with a limited amount of slow film because I “only” packed 7 rolls per day into my pocket

    
we went back to friedrichstr. to meet Frank and get the photographic party started

I cant’t remember seeing a single “normal” bus in berlin

still had the Neopan 400 in the camera. although I really like this emulsion for its high contrast in dark scenes, it’s going to look a bit “flat” and grey in bright sun light 😦

have you ever tried to take a photo and “hold” a Segway at the same time? he was looking a bit overwhelmed.

nice shirt!

Enrico told me they’d LOVE to be photographed!

the sightseeing mafia forcing a tourist to buy a round trip, although he already booked one at their competitor, the “yellow line”

this important sign tells you to not have a barbecue here!

I wonder what he was looking for…

Nikon-Joe

still filling this greyish film

Enrico, checking the latest frames on his Sigma DP2s

resting on stairs

I think we walked more than 20km that weekend

wasn’t fast enough to take out my 24mm/F2.0 and run over to them, but I think this shot with the 35mm/F2.0 also works in some way

people with city maps, everywhere

yes, I did this shot on digital too – but I think “real” 24mm suits the subject better

real wide-angle 🙂

look, they found a sign they can take funny photos of!

shooting a decent wide-angle lens in berlins government district can be stressful. there are all these lines you want to align the frame to and always try to get “straight” perspectives in some kind of ways. that totally kills the serenity of street-photography but I couldn’t resist. so here are some shots I’d call “architecture from the hip”…

   
Liked the lines of those stairs. Enrico thought the same. But at least I could get a man on a bike into my frame: now it`s STREET 🙂

so many lines, again

politics can be slippery

moving forward like a swat team

more architecture, fortunately the roll was finished and I had to reload

since Frank did a lot of “person walking from A to B” shots in the past, this one is for him

can’t believe they seriously named this beer “Edelstoff”

a massive amount of light in front of the main station

looks like the guy on the left is telling some really uninteresting stuff

Enricos “Foveon couple”, the Sigma DP2s & DP1x. awesome little cameras, look at their results!

finished beer, coffee and a piece of apple cake

trying to be creative after 6 hours of street photography

hard to see but they were smiling!

altering signs by perspective

yeah, a drag race!

So far, thats the point where I ran out of film on that saturday and pulled out my digital BackUp, the PEN E-P2, to keep shooting. Those frames are mixed in anywhere here…

Although I didn’t just scan “everything” that came from the lab, I haven’t been that much selective this time. I’m sure I uploaded a few frames that aren’t the most “artistic” or quirky ones, yes, but I actually wanted to document my trip and the things I saw instead of shooting a clinical perfect “streets of berlin” series or something like that.

If there is just one frame you like, it was worth every upload.

Next step will be to scan the last 10 rolls of sunday and monday (including some colour) but I really need some distance from my scanner now!

Although I love film photography, I’m going to shoot more Digitalis the next weeks to prevent my “to be scanned-batch” of negatives from raising.

 Category: analog, photography, street      Tagged: analog, berlin, film, street

← Abandoned Facility

bokehlicious weekend →