Image: I’m in my trolley, thinking of life. A kid, just woken up, listening to Estonian folk music and thinking of life.

Equipment:  Pentax 645 NII, Pentax-FA 75mm f 2.8 / Kodak 400VC 220

Viljandi Folk – the biggest folk music event in Estonia. It sure has been a great event – meeting friends, listening to great music, playing, singing and dancing along. All and all a very chilled out event. But, I must admit, the prices have gone up. I sense a bit commercial intrusion here, I hope it fades and everyone can enjoy the event.

Image: The guy with a skimboard obviously.

Equipment:  Pentax 645 NII, Pentax-FA 75mm f 2.8 / Kodak 400VC 220

I don’t know about before but this year skimboards really hit the beach. Seems like a pointless sport for a by-stander but it really is addictive. And, you don’t have to have skater’s background to hit it!  I got myself into this after Aloha’s Skimfest 2010.
The board of choice is Pakalolo Mental Classic L – floats well, heavy enough for windy beaches and good quality. For flatland skimming only, but that’s all you can do in Estonia. No waves.

After discovering that my borrowed Kiev 6C is broken and cannot be fixed I started searching for a new camera. On my path Sten laid this gigantic rangefinder Rapid Omega 100 (manual here).  I must admit this is one kewl camera – size as the first thing, 3 accessory adapters on top (for a dumbuser like me they all looked like flash attachments), not all settings have a dedicated knob – you just have to have a pen with you to change it. And when using, winding the film looks more like reloading an machine gun. What it’s famous for is the quality of lenses, that was what I tried to test, but failed miserably due lack of experience with (studio) flashes – not setting the right flash sync mode. Lucky enough, co-worker also did some shots and he succeeded. Shots are found here: http://www.nahui.eu/RapidOmega58/. As seen, the lenses are great, but I decided not to become an owner of this camera because:

1. I’m a fan of shaft viewfinder
2. It was not well kept
3. Price tag of 5000 eek (Body, 2 lenses)  seemed too much

But, now to the educating part – what was that I got wrong when shooting with the Rapid?

The thing is, there are 2 flash sync modes on old cameras. These are “M” and “X”.
The “M” – is meant to be used when using old magnesium bulbs as the light source. These achieve their maximum brightness with a delay, so the flash sync is triggered just before shutter is opened – by the time the shutter is completely open, the bulb should have achieved it’s maximum brightness.
The “X” – is meant to be used with new electronic flashes. When the sync is triggered by the camera, they give their maximum instantly, with no delay. So, when using this mode, the flash sync is fired when the sutter is wide open.

So my fail was sticking to “M” but using electronic flashes. By the time shutter opened, flash had already fired, which means I got zero of that light on film.

Due the fail, I did not get great test shots but I did get one akward shot combining various mishaps – camera not winding film + flash sync fail. I did add a few stops of exposure digitally to see an image at all.

Image: A result of a couple of fails – artistic Mihkel

Equipment: Rapid Omega 100, Hexanon 58mm f/5.6 @ f8(?) / Fujicolor Reala 100

Full set @ NONE

Got my last film out of Kiev 6C and about to give the camera back to its rightful owner.
Among all the things about the film photography I love the excitement of developing – once the film is full, you never remember what should be on it. So you’re waiting for it to be developed like a little kid waiting for a Christmas present. Fun!

Image: Local David Hasshelhoff on Hobulaiu 2009

Equipment: Kiev 6C, MIR-38b 65mm f3.5 / Fujicolor Reala 100

Full set @ http://www.tiblu.com/img/mediumformat_Kiev_6C_2009_6/

As everyone knows I’m a very fashion-aware person. I like to observe Fashion TV, get in touch with the latest trends and dress accordingly.

NOT! I think it is not about the looks, it’s about the practical aspect of the clothing. You have to have enough pockets to fit your living, they can’t restrict your movement in any way and if you catch fire, you have to be able to quickly remove all. Finally – they have to last forever. Right now I find my 1969 East Germany military pants are just the right choice, they really are, except for traveling. You get stripped in the airport for sure and when you visit Berlin you get a lot of stares from angry geezers (as happened on my trip to see Red Hot Chili Peppers live in Wuhlheide, Berlin 2006).

Anyway, all that does not stop me from stepping out of the box and seeing some fashion shows.  A friend studies in Euroülikool and they organize some shows to display the works of the students. I’ve been there about 3 times. I must say, I haven’t seen any practical things there, I would even say they sacrifice all to beauty. Some of the clothes stop your normal movement, why would you wear something like that? All and all, it’s nice to see how peoples mind fly totally different way on the same subject.

Now we come to the shot, my first “fashion shot” of a friends collection. She wanted some shots and I had 3 frames left in my Kiev 6C. We went outside and I was desperately looking for a great background for the shots – bang, there it is – an old Russian T40 tractor right there in the middle of the city. What are the odds for that? I took the shots but I think they look a bit lame. Firstly cause I’m not very good at telling people what to do. They did whatever they wanted on the shots. Secondly, the weather – boring gray sky, not enough light for smaller aperture etc. So, some middle-class shots.

Image: Piibe’s very patriotic collection for the summer of 2009

Equipment: Kiev 6C, MIR-38b 65mm f3.5 / Fujicolor Reala 100

Full set @ http://www.tiblu.com/img/mediumformat_Kiev_6C_2009_4/

Oh yeah, I discovered a defect on my Kiev, if you look at the full set, you can see white splashes on the pictures, it indicates that my mirror does not flip up correctly when taking a shot.

That’s it, that’s it, that’s it, the new kit is Kiev 6C, Vega-12b 90mm f2.8, Mir-38b 65mm f3.5 provided by Sten. I must say it is one wicked camera – it looks just like a regular 35mm film camera but it is double in size. It does scare people.
In fact, the camera got me stripped in airport security check – I had to lay out all my stuff on the table, sneakers off, lenses off, caps off, bag empty. They checked each of the item individually. I do remember the face on the lady carrying out the check when she took a look at the Kiev 6C – she was speechless and searching for a viewfinder which I opened up (shaft, not prism) for her after noticing the confusion. After seeing the image from the finder, she was satisfied. As a last thing they searched for traces of explosive materials from my bag. I guess it wasn’t just the camera – I do wear 1960s Eastern-Germany military uniform pants and a jacket.

Got first shutter releases during my trip to Prague and London. Although there were a lot of tourists I loved Prague, it has some “mojo” for me that Rome and Paris don’t. London was obviously different experience – way bigger in size = more people, more rushing and it was my first time there. Lucky enough, I had an excellent companion for the trip – a co-worker from London office – Rita.
Prague: we had great fun navigating the city, eating huge amount of meat, some tasty potato cakes, some chillin’ in Hard Rock Cafe, out with her friends from Portugal in Lebanese restaurant and taking photos while at it. Basically I was there to confuse, she was there to fix it all up. Oh, tube (metro) always confuses me.
London: working from the office at the day time, evenings touring the city and stayed at co-workers for the night at co-workers. Staying in an apartment with a Portuguese, Creek and Estonian = great fun and well fed. Places that I liked the most – St James’s Park, Regeant’s Park (very cool view on the city at night), Victoria Embankment Gardens, Camden markets area, the Tube. I must say I wasn’t all excited about the Big Ben or Tower Bridge or Buckingham. What I did like a lot was the variety of people – very-very different cultures/personalities living together – quite inspiring environment though it does not show in the pictures. I think I took altogether ~20 pictures on the 9 day trip.

Yet again, failed to make long story short. Thanks again to Sten for the scans.

Image: Ladies hunting their ice-cream by the Thames.

Equipment: Kiev 6C, Vega-12b 90mm f2.8 / Fujicolor Reala 100

Full set @ http://www.tiblu.com/img/mediumformat_Kiev_6C_2009_2/
(some shots are in next post…)

NB! If the film packaging says: “Load in dimmed light” – do that or face the consequences.