Partagas

Another shot from the lot with old trains and buses next to Partagas the famous cigar factory in Havana. I've burned a lot of film here :-)

Bench

Father and son

Paris

Will be posting some shots I took in Paris in the next few days

Muscle

Call of the Sea

A little more than a year ago I moved from the coast to the city of Utrecht. While cycling late one night (drunk) I saw this poem. All of a sudden, bamm! there it was, larger than life. Painted on a building somewhere in the middle of the city. 

It translates into "Call of the Sea" and it's about a sailor that has chosen to change into a quiet landlocked live, but describes how after hearing the first autumn storm, he knows he someday will set sail again.

It was kinda bizar to see this poem pop up out of the blue, it felt like somebody had somehow put my feelings into (medieval) words an painted them on a building, I knew it had to be an omen! I felt like I had to buy a boat and set sail with the first autumn winds! (Those feelings might have occurred due to the alcohol, and a natural lean to romanticising, dramatising and exaggeration). 

Anyway, I had to go back an take a picture of it. 

First blood!

Err.. I mean: first shot.
A pre surf shot from the first roll out of the F3. I had some wasted frames because of issues with knobs and stuff that I had set wrong and didn't find out about in time. The shots I did get however are mint.
Never before had images from the scanner that were so rich in tone, from white to almost true black, without digital rendering.
Maybe I got lucky, but if it's due to the camera/lens I'm really happy.

I can't wait to pump up those muscles and go out and shoot some more. Rambo-style!

Though shot (Nikon F3)

The other day I posted about some of the cameras I would like to own. Well, I can cross one off the list. I managed to find a very affordable Nikon F3 on the net a while ago. It came with a Nikkor 28-85 zoom and the motordrive cover was missing. I've replaced the zoom with a fast 50mm prime, found a new cover, and was ready to roll earlier this week.

First impression: I already have a Canon A-1, and at first I couldn't help but noticing that the Nikon is in no way as refined as the A-1. The biggest problem I have with the Nikon is how hard it is to read the info in the finder. It's ok in broad daylight, but really sucks in low light situations. There is a light to illuminate the info in the finder, but it's highly impractical and hardly gives enough light. Nowhere near the Canon in this department.
Then there's the flash mount. There's some weird Nikon specific flash connector on the rewind knob. Why?!
The camera also feels heavier than the A-1, and I definitely feel that the Canon (with action grip mounted) is nicer to handle. Furthermore I'm left-eyed, and the advance lever pokes in my face when I try to get my left-eye to the finder.

However after shooting my first roll, I had already started to like the F3. It's coarse alright, but it also feels rock-solid. Just like the body, the 50mm is built like a tank. It has heavy metal adjusting rings and looks and feels though as nails, and focussing is super smooth after all these years.
With the F3 it's a bit like in that Rambo movie. They offer him a whole arsenal of all the most advanced technical weapons and he gets mad and insists that he wants a Kalashnikov AK-47. Cause that is the weapon all the poor bad guys in the jungle have, because AK-47's are indestructible and heavy reliable, and everybody in the jungle should have one. The F3 is like that.

If Rambo had been a photographer, he would have had a F3.