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Street photography in Montmartre with the Leica Noctilux, M6 TTL, Kodak TX

I was in Paris in January and I went to Montmarte and the Sacre Coeur to shoot some street photography. It’s a very lively neighbourhood with many cafés, restaurants, musicians, painters, street sellers. In January there are not so much tourists compared to the spring and summer , but it’s still busy and entertaining.

I shot with the Leica M6 TTL, the lens Noctilux, and a roll of Kodak TX 400. I choose to push the film 1 stop at 800 because it was not very sunny and I wanted to have a descent depth of field for street photography.

You can see below the video and the pictures.

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Hong Kong wet market street photography : Tri-X 400, Leica M6, Noctilux

I was in Hong Kong for a week in December and a friend told me that a movie that I love, Accident by Soi Cheang (Milky Way production) with Louis Koo, was shot near the wet market of North Point. For those who know the movie that’s the famous scene when they kill the pawn shop owner at the tramway station. Last year I went to this market, without knowing this anecdote, and I shot pictures with my Sony A7R2.
So I decided this year to go there again to check if I would recognise the scene from the movie. And this time I was shooting with the Leica M6, Noctilux f/0.95, and Kodak Tri-X 400. I was not disappointed. The atmosphere is really special in this neibourhood and I understand why they shot a scene there. For example, he famous tramway “ding ding”, is passing through the market and people have to step aside every time they hear it…

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Cinestill bwXX : Hong Kong walk with the Leica M6 and Noctilux

I’m a fan of Cinestill, I shot many rolls of 800T and 50. I love the cinematic look which comes from the motion picture film Kodak Vision 3. The absence of the remjet filter makes it even more special with the halo coming from the lights and neons at night. When they announced that they would sell again the bwXX in November, I went everyday to their website to be the first to order. This film comes from the motion picture Eastman Double-X 5222/7222 Neg. Film. Which means the same concept as the 800T , but in black and white. That was very promising!The movies Raging Bull and Schindler’s List were shot with this film.
I received my rolls in December before going to Hong Kong… perfect timing.
In Hong Kong I had the chance to go on a photo walk with 2 friends who are film enthusiasts as well, Victor and Carmen from Annie Barton 1972 (high quality leather straps). We loaded our bwXX in our camera ; Carmen with the Leica MP, Victor with the X-Pan TX2 , and I had the Leica M6 and the Noctilux. We went to the harbour front of Wan Chai. This is a great location, with tourists and locals fishing or having a walk. We had a great time shooting, and when I got the film developed and scan, I was so happy with the result! The cinematic look is even deeper than the color films, it’s a little bit grainy, and sharp enough.The contrast is not too high, well balanced, and some pictures look as if they were coming straight out of a movie. This film has a strong character and the look is very special!
You can see below the video of the walk (soundtracks composed by the great Mijonju!) , and the pictures coming from the M6.

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Night Photography in Paris with Leica M6, Noctilux and Cinestill 800T

Cinestill 800T is a special film which comes from the motion film Kodak Vision 3. Consequently it has a cinematic look and it’s amazing for night pictures. We often see this film used in Asia or chinatowns in western countries because there are a lot of neons and it looks great. We rarely see Cinestill 800 pictures of classical monuments from western countries, that’s why I wanted to try it in Paris to shoot the Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde, le Louvre and its pyramid. For this shooting I used my Leica M6, the lens Noctilux f/0.95 and a tripod. As it’s a fast film, I didn’t need very long exposures, however for 5 seconds I still needed a tripod to have sharp pictures. I had a cable release as well to be sure that the camera would not move.

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Street Photography in Bangkok with Leica M6 and Noctilux 0.95

I went out for a photo walk with my Leica M6 and the lens Noctiulux 0.95. It was the first time I used this camera. The first pictures were a little bit difficult, having to set everything manually : the aperture, the shutter speed, and the focusing. Hopefully, the M6 has a lightmeter and it was pretty accurate. I tried to document the life and the atmosphere of Chinatown (Yaowarat) Bangkok, a vibrant and lively neighbourhood, which continue the tradition of an ancient way of life.
I used the film Kodak Tri-X 400 which has a great contrast and a sharp look.

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Polaroid 250 & Fujifilm FP-100c in Paris : the most beautiful monuments

I shot with my Polaroid 250 and Fujifilm FP-100c the first time this September 2017. The weather was nice most of the time, with clouds and a little rain sometimes. It is difficult to control the exposure with the 250. It is automatic, you have to rely on the internal lightmeter ; there is an optical sensor close to the lens. As my model tends to underexpose the pictures, I placed a piece of paper on the sensor and made a small hole in the middle. This way, the camera think that it’s darker than it really is, and make a longer exposure. There is as well a dial around the lens “darken-lighten” that you can adjust. I used this dial usually to darken when my pictures were overexposed.

It was a really fun to shoot with this camera and the peel apart film. Every time you pull out the picture from the camera, there is a surprise, you never know how the picture is gonna look like. and when you start to peel the negative apart from the positive , when the picture is sharp, well exposed and well framed, it is a delight to see the result showing slowly. When you succeed, the result is usually beautiful, the FP-100c is one of the best instant film ever made. Unfortunately, they are not produced anymore and they are difficult to find and expensive.

you can see below the videos that I shot during the photowalk, the scan of the pictures, and the scan of the negatives that I reclaimed.

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Photowalk with Rollei 35 and Agfa Vista Plus in Bangkok Thailand

I shot a roll of Agfa Vista Plus 400 with my Rollei 35 in Bangkok Thailand. I shot some street photography, urban landscape, monuments, and night pictures with a cable release and a tripod. It was a lot of fun.

I love the “seventies” look of the Agfa, it gives a vintage ambiance to the scene. I bought the roll for 185 baht (5.5 USD) at Siam TLR camera store in Ploenchit. That’s where I bought my cable release for less than 8 USD. The owner is very friendly. He repairs himself the cameras in his shop.
The Rollei 35 is easy to use, but sometimes you can forget to focus, because when you look in the view finder it looks fine. With a rangefinder, you can’t forget to focus because you see that the 2 squares are not aligned in the viewfinder when you frame. With the Rollei, it’s a distance focusing, the settings you do have no connection with the view finder. Besides, you need some practice to evaluate the distance.

To meter the light, I used 3 different ways ; the Sunny 16 rule, the meter of the camera, and an iPhone app mylightmeter pro. I was surprised to notice that vey often the Sunny 16 rule gave the exact same result as my app ; surprised but reassured that it was the right exposure. compared to this methods, the meter of the camera tends to underexpose. But in fact, now that I see that many of my pictures are a little bit overexposed, I think that I should have followed the indication of this lightmeter.

You can see below the video and the pictures.

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Amazing views of Bangkok skyscrapers from Bayoke Observation Deck

You can enjoy great panoramic city views of Bangkok from Bayoke II Observation Deck, 84th floor. It’s the second tallest building of the city, after Mahanakon Tower which was build recently. The price is 350 baht per person. It’s a 10-15 minutes walk from CentralWorld.

I choose a sunny day to go there. However, if you plan to go there to take professional pictures, you have to be there from 4pm to 5pm . The rest of the time the revolving floor is moving which could make you picture less sharp, even if you shoot at a high speed. This makes of course impossible any long pose picture at night time… I’ll need to find another roof to take panoramic night pictures.

Most of the pictures feature Rachaprasong, Siam, Ploenchit, and Sukhumvit.

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Street Photography in Paris : le Marais,Odeon, Notre-Dame, St Michel, St Germain

I shot these pictures in Paris in November 2016, with a telephoto lens : My Sony A7R2 and a Sony G Master 70-300mm . It was a very interesting experience because usually I shoot street photography with a 50mm lens or a 24-70mm. A long lens gives you a different perspective and you can shoot with a different state of mind. You see things that you would not see otherwise. I edited them in Lightroom, and I choose black and white because it helps to focus on the subject, there is less distraction.

Paris in black and white has a unique look and it enhances the romantic aspect of the city.

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