Going away
A few weeks ago S and I absconded to Barcelona. We had two and a half days which meant being selective about our itinerary as well as my load-out. My main reason for going was Mies Van de Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion, S’s main reason for going was the Joan Miro Gallery, and we couldn’t leave without seeing Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia. (We were also celebrating our anniversary).
The intern was going to work out of another studio for the week, which meant the trip could be dedicated learning as much about Gaudi, Miro, and Tapas as the time allowed.
The traditional and nebulous question of ‘which camera shall I take’ was considered from multiple angles for a period of about two weeks. Advice was sought, purchases were considered, and eventually the decision was made. (It changed again the night before we left).
I was going to take a 5D mkIV with a 50mm for general use, a 16-35 for architecture, and the Leica with a 50mm for film stuff. I picked the Leica because it was relatively small and light, and because it had half a roll of Portra in it from September which was making me feel guilty.
We drove, we bussed, we walked, we flew, we bussed, we walked, we checked in. Nine hours after waking up I was eating Jamon Iberico in a square in which Christopher Columbus was welcomed home from the new world.
Beach Dominos – Leica M4-P / 7Artisans 50mm f/1.1 / Kodak Portra 400
Downdraft
After drafting multiple large and meandering essays about the trip as a whole I have come to the conclusion that it should be a series of shorter and (relatively) more coherent posts.
Anyone who reads my blog knows that I’m a committed Kodak Portra user. It’s flexibility, colour, and predictability smooth out my rougher edges and give me a detailed and versatile negative.
One of the things that I considered purchasing for the trip was a roll or two of LomoChrome Metropolis XR. It’s in the wild now and I dallied briefly with the idea of shooting the trip on it. I eventually made the mature decision and filled my bag from my stash.
I took some Portra, to compliment the half-roll already in the Leica, some Pro-image 100, and a roll of Lomochrome Purple XR 100-400, (hereafter referred to as Purple).
In October I went on the London Camera Project / Lomography Photowalk around London. When the lucky dip for free film came up I got a roll of Purple. (For the uninitiated Purple is a C41 film whose chemistry shifts colour reproduction around a bunch, and looks generally quite purple).
This stuff is a real departure for me. A half-shot roll of Portra can be redeployed easily, but everything said that this would need a considered approach.
Georg Kolbe’s Alba – Barcelona Pavilion
Leica M4-P / 7Artisans 50mm f/1.1 / Kodak Portra 400
Georg Kolbe’s Alba – Barcelona Pavilion
Leica M4-P / 50mm f/1.1 / Lomochrome Purple XR 100-400
Stashed
It sat in my film stash for 5 months, beckoning me and warning me off. I’ve considered loading it on a few occasions but never quite spooled it. I dislike stranded rolls, they make me tense and I haven’t had many chances to shoot a film that likes sunlight and greenery.
I loaded this film after we’d been to see each of the things that we really wanted to see. I loaded it for our final day, to get it shot, to see the pictures, to find out what it this stuff looks like for real.
When I shoot digital, I shoot raw and uncompressed, I use the best glass available to me. This is because I want the light I capture to to retain as much useful detail as possible. The RAW file, much like the negative is the foundation of the final image, not the image itself. By adding what is an effect at the negative level, some options later on are reduced.
Tree – Fundacio Joan Miro
Leica M4-P / 7Artisans 50mm f/1.1 / Kodak Portra 400
Street – Barcelona
Leica M4-P / 50mm f/1.1 / Lomochrome Purple XR 100-400
Verdict
The short version is that I can make Portra purple if I want to, but I can’t make Purple look like Portra. I don’t dislike what Purple does, I’m just not convinced that I want to do it very often.
The question I found myself asking is, would I like these pictures more If I had shot them on Portra. The answer, in more than a few cases is yes.
I’m clearly not who Purple is for, and I might never have shot it had I not had a free roll, but I do have to push myself to try new things. There is a danger of stagnation when you fail to experiment. My allegiance to Portra does me no favours. It allows me to be lazy, has a nice but popular look, and it does most things well enough that I rarely have to travel beyond its borders. It may be easy to give up your passport when you have so many attractions at home, but you still miss out.
In the meantime have medium format Cinestill 800, Ilford Ortho, and the new Ektachrome waiting in my stash, each of which were either pre-ordered or crowd-funded and yet they remain unshot. It’s time to get the lab coat out, and for the moment LomoChrome Metropolis can wait.
Addendum 15/6/2020
After this post went live I rewrote it as a “5 Frames with” for emulsive.org. Once that post went live I received feedback that suggested my images were, shall we say, bonkers.
They were right, you can read about what I learned here.