Week 32: Mid-Life Crisis?

I had a two-seater, convertible sports car when I was 26.

I’ve (sort of) played a guitar since I was 35.

I’ve divorced and married a younger woman when I was 38.

I’ve had a carbon bicycle that cost almost a month’s wages since I was 40.

But I can’t ride a motorcycle, so a Harley wasn’t on the cards.

And I’ve never been to Glastonbury…

 

…but I did just buy a Leica🔴. Don’t worry, it’s an old film model, rather than the M Monochrome, or something equally ludicrous.

When it arrived, I quickly loaded a film and set to work blasting through it in a few hours. I then processed the film and scanned it on the same day. I couldn’t wait to see the results in all their contrasty, detailed glory. No more vignettes, soft corners or shortage of tone. I had bought into the Leica🔴 look…

Unless of course I was using old processing chemicals that appeared to have become contaminated with something and begun to turn a strange orange colour. The result was low contrast, grainy negatives that have taken some ‘work’ to recover.

I’m off to Poland next week with this camera and an awful lot of film. Let’s see how things work out…

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Gubbins:

Leica M6, Leica Summicron-M 35mm ASPH, Kodak TMax 400, (discoloured) Ilfotec HC for 6:30, scanned at home using Vuescan and a lot of swearwords.

My previous rolls in the 52 Rolls project are here.