Spring

I received an email from Ivan last Sunday. He wrote about Germany, about going to London, about his plans... and about Spring. He was saying something I always say about Northern Europe and Spring: How you can clearly tell when Spring has finally arrived.

There is a day. A day in which the sun is shinning and everybody is smiling. A day in which you break away from winter and start feeling different. A kind of rebirth after winter. Everybody hit the streets, lay on the sun, sit down outside the pub with a beer... and girls change their clothes and their expressions to the point that you barely recognize them any longer.

For a southern soul it's all pretty amazing to contemplate for the 1st time...

My 1st "real" spring day was in 1999, St. Patrick's Day, in London. The day I took this picture. The day I took Valerie's pictures as well.

I woke up early today. I was reading something from Kyoichi Katayama, looked out of my window and saw that our garden tree is finally blossoming. And thought about Ivan's email. And thought about you too...

Valerie

Must be that the end of the year is quickly approaching, or maybe it's just nostalgia... but I've been visiting my archive files lately. The result are the last 2 images I've posted. This one, is a portrait of Valerie.

I'm posting it because this picture stands out as my ideal of what a perfect portrait is. Absolute charm.

Not that it really matters but, Agfa Scala B&W slide film, a Pentax Super A with a 50mm f1.4, and Joe's Basement developed it...

PD.- If by any chance of destiny you're reading this and you happen to know Val, send her my regards!

London cab

My always faithful Contax 139Q and Zeiss Planar 50 f1.4. Tri-X and D76. Why am I writing all the tech specs? Maybe because I'm about to mix some D76 powder again...

Chemical heaven.

Vladas

I've thinking for sometime now about shooting B&W film again, and today I spent the day browsing through old film scans. It's a long time that I don't shoot any film, at least a year and a half, and I do miss it. Sergio, a fellow friend photographer, donated me his lab a few months ago, so I guess that I don't have any excuses left!

So tomorrow I'll pay a visit to Sergio and see if he still has some D76 powder left... I'm lucky enough to have a freezer loaded with Agfa APX film, so it's time to give all that film a good use.

And just for nostalgy sake, I'm uploading an old portrait of Vladas, a much missed friend from my London days. BTW Does anybody remember Joe's Basement in Soho? That was the place where I used to take my film to be developed... Oh boy, how much do I miss those cool film days.