When I returned from Brooklyn I decided to send my M9 off to the Leica service center in NJ.  It was acting all wonky and I wanted to get if fixed up before we go away this winter; also I was getting frustrated with its out-of-calibration rangefinder so the time had come.  While the M9 was vacationing in New Jersey I decided to shoot some film, which I had not done for quite some time.

The religious folk were out doing some preaching in Boston Common.

Shooting film is an interesting experience and so different from digital.  There are the obvious differences like you can’t preview your images and you have to wait a long time to see what you did.  And then there are some less obvious ones like forgetting what photos you took and the loss of control you have with regard to the final “look” of the photos.

There are pigeons everywhere in the city.  I don’t really like them, they remind me of rats with wings.

I was shooting with a 1974 Olympus OM-1 with a 35mm lens (all bought on eBay for $99).  The honest truth is I don’t really know how well the camera works.  For instance I am not sure of the meter, it seems a bit inconsistent.  And for film I selected one called Rollei Retro 400S.  I read about it online and liked the look of it: medium contrast, not to harsh, big grain but not soft looking.

Some asian ladies practicing Falun Dafa.

It took me about two weeks to shoot the one roll of film.  That sounds pretty sad, but with winter approaching and the days getting shorter there is really not that much time to get out and shoot.  So I shot some on my walk to work in the morning, some on my way home, and some on the weekends.

Some images from around the South End.

I used to process all of my black and white film myself.  But since I don’t have the space for a darkroom (or even a mini-lab with just chemicals for film processing) I decided to send it off to get processed and scanned in one pass.  Worked out okay just took a long time to come back.  Next time I think I will have it processed locally and scan myslelf.  If there are any keepers I will send them away to be professionally scanned.

Here are a couple of shots from the Back Bay.  The first I like to call “Sandy’s Reveal” because Hurricane Sandy prematurely took the curtain down for the Copley Square Hotel.  The second is of a church down an alley on Newbury Street.

After I finished this roll I did re-load with another roll of the same film, and then with some Fuji NPH 400 color film which is still in the camera.  I am really anxious to see how that comes out, and to see if my second roll of black and white is better than the first.

A fitting end… the view out our back door onto our porch.

You will be happy to know that the M9 is back from the shop and in good working order.

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