Long live shutter therapy!

Following my post about the 11-day trip to Switzerland, reality has set in. I’m now facing the heavy burden of editing over 500 photos (!) split between digital files from my Hasselblad and five film rolls from my Voigtländer Bessa T!

I decided to tackle the black & white images first. Color is complicated. Dealing with white balance, color balance and saturation requires a lot of patience and experience.

My lack of both doesn’t help…

A few days ago I finished processing a roll of color film in Digital Negative Pro, looked at the results, hated them and deleted everything.

Black-and-white is much easier. What I am sharing today is the first batch from a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400.

Rain

I loaded it into the Voigtländer on the day we arrived. We were in Bern and it was raining. The bad weather dictated the mood: rain means black-and-white.

On that first day in Bern, I used the Leica Summilux 50mm lens in the Voigtländer. Looking at these images now, I really like them. A 50mm lens brings the viewer closer to the subject. It is refreshing because about 90% of the other photos I took in Switzerland were wide-angle landscapes. This 50mm field of view is a welcome change.

Mid-roll change

I shot 18 frames in Bern with the black & white Kodak Tri-X 400, but the next day the sun came out and I wanted to shoot colour instead.

With digital, you just flip a switch. With film, what do you do?

I used this old trick.

I took a shot of the film counter with my iPhone to work as a note that I shot that roll up to frame number 18.

I carefully rewound the film, making sure to leave the leader tip outside the cartridge.

I pulled the roll out, put it in a safe place and loaded a roll of color film.

I shot color happily for most of the trip.

Fast forward to the end of our vacation. We were in Lucerne and the rain returned. It was time for the black & white Kodak Tri-X 400 to make a comeback.

I loaded the half-used roll back into the camera. Put the lens cap on, stopped the aperture down to its minimum f/16 and set the shutter speed to its fastest 1/2000. Covered the front of the lens with a cloth just to be safe.

Then I fired off 18 blind frames. Shot one extra frame for safety to avoid a double exposure.

In other words, I manually advanced the film to my desired position. Just like that, I was ready to use the rest of the roll.

My wife had no idea this was possible. Most people today probably don’t. Hey, I started shooting film when I was a teenager. I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve.

Old school, good school!