It's been a while since I've found the time to blog. It's been a busy couple of months, but hopefully things are getting back on track.
After a successful bidding war on eBay, I finally received my Rolleiflex. Since it came from Germany, it took FOREVER to arrive, and without an English manual. Google is a wonderful thing, and within a couple of minutes of searching I was able to download a PDF of the original manual in English.
I recently shot my first roll and I have to say that I miss film! Part of the fun of photography is the anticipation of seeing what you got after it's developed. Digital is great, but because it's so immediate, and the number of shots you can take are virtually unlimited, I have found myself falling out of love with it as it's becoming almost too much about the technology and less about the art.
Shooting just 12 frames of 120 film with my Rolleiflex easily took me over an hour as I was much more deliberate knowing I only had a few shots to work with. I feel like there's a stronger connection to the artistic process for me with my new friend and that is making me very happy.
I have to admit that I was very afraid that the film would come back all black, but it didn't. And in fact, the meter is bang on - I would even argue that it exposes better than my very fancy Canon. And there is a buttery richness to the images that just doesn't happen with film.
Here are a few of the test images I took using Kodak Ektar 100. Other than converting the high resolution scan to B&W in Photoshop, I did not adjust them. I am pretty impressed with the Rollei...can't wait to get out there and do some more shooting. I bought a bunch of different types of film to try. This could get expensive (which is about the only downside to film I can think of!).
Jake - a very uncooperative Golden Retriever
Cricket - getting into the catnip
Daisy - doing what she does best...plotting world domination.
