I\'ve been on a bit of a film binge lately. I was down town shooting with my Rolleiflex 2.8E a month or so ago... anytime the Rollei comes out, I can barely walk 10 feet without someone stopping me to talk about the camera... Some times it\'s people who have never shot film, and are just intrigued by the interesting look of a TLR... other times it\'s old time shooters who have fond memories of shooting with Rollei\'s and appreciate the iconic status the the Rollei TLR\'s attained. On this particular day I was shooting in a very narrow alley way, and an older guy stopped dead in his tracks when he saw me holding it. We immediately struck up a lively conversation on all things photography and mostly pining over our shared love of film. He shared stories of shooting punk bands and bicycle racing in the 80\'s... both of which are also near and dear to my heart as well. This was also the first time I had ever taken a flash on a light stand and umbrella with me while street shooting... So after 10 or 15minutes of chatting with this guy, I asked if he would let me take his portrait... I quickly set up my flash and took a couple of frames... he then said he might have some accessories for the Rollei at his place, which were of no use to him... he lived close by and I was enjoying chatting with him so I walked along and we continued our conversation... The guy was older, I don\'t know exactly, but I would say ~60-ish... and living on medical dissability cheques, so he was living a fairly modest life. As it turns out the small apartment he was living in was an old commercial darkroom, which he still had set up and used occasionally. His place was full of his art work and photographs, which I thought were very original and well executed. He was a really fascinating character and we shared a good energy. I was very impressed with his work, and happened to have a box of prints in my car a couple blocks away, so I went and grabbed them to show him. I figured that even though our techniques and style were different, he would appreciate my work, as I tend to shoot a lot of multiple exposures and more creative stuff than just straight photography... Indeed he was very receptive of my work and was genuine in his appreciation... I took one more frame of him as he was showing me some of his work in his place. I was already running behind schedule, and had to get home, so I thanked him for his time and left him with one of my limited edition hand printed fibre prints... I left feeling totally charged from such a positive experience and while it seemed like a random meeting at the time, I was convinced after the fact that I was meant to meet him.
These are the three frames I shot of him. These are with a 1956 Rolleiflex 2.8E on Rollei Retro 400S film processed in D76 at home. The first two frames were lit with an SB800 on a stand w/ an umbrella and the third was shot w/ natural light in his apartment... I don\'t remember exactly, but I think the 3rd one was shot at around 1/15 of a sec @ f2.8
Oct 28, 2013 at 11:34 PM
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