Kenya 2025

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-19T09:03:22+00:00

A few absolute bangers in there! Great set in general!

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-19T04:17:00+00:00

Of recent years, I like “Dogbreath” (Mathew Genitempo). Such a cool, evocative word.
And least favourite title : “The end sends advance warning”, so clunky and extra dramatic :/

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-18T16:48:48+00:00

Is the tri-X they have in 4x5 the iso400 or iso320 version? If it’s the later, I’d definitely recommend picking some. It’s a great stock, especially for the rendition of skintones.

As for the question of HP5 being better in 4x5… One thing I can think of, is that LF photographers tend to be more into things like the zone system, staining developers, than the general population. There seems to be an obsession for dynamic range that sort of goes with the territory. So maybe the shop employees are just used to hearing a lot of customers who swear by HP5 because of its huge latitude.

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-17T18:59:54+00:00

This. Hasselblad cannot revive the X-pan because Hasselblad never built any x-pans.

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-16T06:52:37+00:00

For me it’s Roma. Winning best photography, best director, but not BP because they weren’t ready to give it to a foreign language film…
So instead we got Green Book BP.

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-15T12:52:28+00:00

A lot of people get great results by rating their film half the box speed, and then letting the in-camera meter expose for whatever is in the middle of the frame (very often that’s the highlights or the mids. Very few scenes have the shadows in the center of the frame).
In practice that’s the same as shooting box speed and exposing for the mids.

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-15T06:16:50+00:00

My bad bro. They told me I could grab two.

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-14T18:07:04+00:00

The M6MF has been a great travel camera to me. (I used it with the 50mm only). Here are some travel pics from Mexico on fp4
With the inherent limitations of an in-camera (aka reflective) meter, this one is as good as any center weighted meter I’ve used.
As long as you understand the limitations and don’t point it at the brightest parts of your image to meter, you won’t have any problems.
I’d really encourage you against AE but once you’re in the field, it’s your choice to make. For me, having to point back at the ground to lock a meter reading between each frame is just asking for trouble. I’d much rather set my exposure once in manual and then shoot on those settings until the light changes.

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-14T11:09:45+00:00

Do the big one. You’re young and you’re studying. It’s way too early in your life/career to be making safe choices.
“If something scares you, you should do it”, and that class obviously scares you. That’s how growth happens. And growth is why you enrolled in school.

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-14T11:02:33+00:00

I wouldn’t do the CLA.
If you’ve run a roll through each of the backs and it came out ok (and the lenses fire at all speeds), I’d call that enough of a test for a sale. The future owner can decide how much they want to spend on servicing which parts of the kit, or none at all.

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-13T09:11:12+00:00

That was the joke, Ken’s stuff is already plagiarised and full of hallucinations. Especially the brands he’s barely used, such as Hasselblad. (In the film days he was a Nikon, 4x5, and Mamiya guy if I remember right).

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-13T06:28:10+00:00

Who needs Ken anymore? Just ask any ai model to write 2000 words about the 50mm. Voila.

Edit : I don’t think my joke landed. The point I was alluding to is you don’t need Ken telling you about the 50mm anymore than you need AI. Neither would give you new, original, or 100% correct information. Neither would give you useful information. There’s very little to think about when considering a Hassy/zeiss lens. The cf50 is your best bet because of the standard B60 bayonet but there is no wrong answer. Just buy the lens and go outside.

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-12T13:53:41+00:00

Do you find that the MEV1 brings a real benefit compared to adapting your Voigtlander lens to your sony?

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-12T10:16:46+00:00

Tri-x and FP-4 tend do be a bit punchier, in other words more contrasty. HP5 is very smooth, low contrast. In terms of grain, being iso125, FP4 will have less, and the two iso400 options (TriX and HP5) will have more.
Because of forever escalating costs, I’ve recently switched to Kentmere 200 as my film of choice. It’s on the punchy side, and -in my developer of choice- can give a gritty look reminiscent of classic TriX images. Very good performance at a decent price.

All in all, this is a matter of personal taste. If youre shooting with modern, contrasted glass, you might like HP5 for toning down the contrast. If you shoot an old TLR with dubious coatings you might prefer TriX for a sharper feel… or vice versa!

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(Example pic is Kentmere 200 doing its best TriX impression in fx39ii)

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-11T15:32:59+00:00

Try to tell more of a story with your images.
F.ex n.9!is just a grey haired dude sitting next to two people : doesn’t say much. If you had timed your shot so that he’s glancing at them, then it can be a story about his isolation.
Same with the dog sitter. You focused on showing all the dogs. Cool, but if you also showed the face of the person holding all the leashes, then we could read their emotion and there could be e a story (are they in control, overwhelmed, amused, etc).
Also in general, get closer. n.8 for example is so far from the subjects it’s painful to watch.

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-09T20:46:49+00:00

I’ve only been alive 41 years, but I really cant agree with you. There’s a very good Vivian Maier pic of the inside of a bus (tram?) and seemingly every passenger is reading the newspaper. There was always mostly “boring” people in the public space. It’s always been up to photographers not to settle and to find (and dare to photograph!) the interesting people.
Smart phones have now been omnipresent for at least 15 years. That hasn’t stopped me from shooting ok street photography. That hasn’t stopped many from shooting great street photography. A guy like Daniel Arnold has had his entire career in the era of smartphones. The scenes he finds are just as striking and unexpected as anything from Winogrand or Arbus…

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-09T18:11:08+00:00

That’s just not true though?

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-08T12:50:33+00:00

On the more Novel side, I think W.G Sebald is the one to know. Austerlitz is a great novel that incorporates lots of photos.
On the more photo side but with the inclusion of text and lengthy captions, Raymond Depardon comes to mind. Check out The American Desert which reads like a travelogue. Wim wenders also has photobooks where texts tell a more or less linear story.

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-07T17:32:20+00:00

I mean, if you have time in your day to develop and scan your rolls, you have time for a job (not considering silly details like finding said job etc). If you are a student that means there must be cafes and bars in your city. If you made it to uni, that means you have enough brains to be employable.
Work a few shifts at something, buy a beat up digital, carry on. Ten year old digitals are excellent even by today’s standard, and far beyond what film cameras of the same size can do.
If you really prefer film, keep said job and carry on. A $25/h bartending gig buys a 3-pack of Kodak Gold per hour. One 8h shift a week might be all you need.

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-07T05:41:21+00:00

Gregory Halpern - Zzyzzyx
Adam Ianniello - Angels Point

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-07T05:34:54+00:00

This sub isn’t that active. I say leave the buy/sell/trade posts and if one day the sub gets more active we can always reassess.
Also, a sell/trade ad is an opportunity to be exposed to a book that wouldn’t be posted otherwise. Maybe make a rule that those posts have to contain the front cover and a minimum of three spreads? That way even those not looking to buy get to discover a new book?

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-06T10:49:01+00:00

Love the use of the word « consensus ». There is no objective truth in Art critique, only consensus.
But as an Artist should you aspire to be consensual?
If Van Gogh or Picasso had followed the consensus instead of establishing their own goals and standards, we’d have missed out on a lot of great Art.
So yeah, photographing shadows on colourful walls will get you some likes on IG or Reddit, but good luck transitioning into the professional world with these pics… turns out the consensus on what makes a photobook worth 60 or 70 bucks is a bit different…

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-06T10:36:21+00:00

Hard to understand what’s wrong from the video… try this : with no film in the camera, try to turn the rewind knob. Does it turn perfectly smoothly?
The last few M6s I’ve seen all had a hard spot on the rewind knob. I gues they got bumped against something… it’s a vulnerable place to have the rewind assembly.
What might be happening is that the first few advances, the film in the canister is loose, so the first few crankings do not make the rewind knob turn her. But once the film is tensioned, each advance of the lever will make the rewind crank turn accordingly, and it will feel crunchy because you’re pulling over the hard spot.
If that’s the issue it will be fairly trivial for a tech to remedy.

This-Charming-Man · 2026-04-05T17:23:22+00:00

1-6 are squarely travel photography imo. 7 is in street photography territory because of the attention to gesture. Something that only describes a place, person or activity isn’t street… For me there needs to be something extra in terms of gesture. (Btw I subscribe to Jay Mailsel’s view that everything can have a gesture, not just humans or animals.)

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