Mercury 625

10. January 2016 ~ by Julian ~ Leave a comment

I guess analog photography is a bit like life. When you thought you’d seen it all, something new comes along to potentially ruin your day.

That was why I was totally excited when I’d made it to roughly 15 exposures on the last roll and was pretty sure that the shutter hadn’t been stuck. So good, so far, right? And I couldn’t possibly rip another roll of film in half, right? What else could possibly go wrong? Oh well… The Rollei is almost fully mechanical. But, of course, the light meter needs a small battery. You will notice it’s empty when you point your camera at the sun at 1/60th of a second shutter time and aperture wide open and the meter still says you’re under-exposing by a good margin.

So, whenever I had the Canon with me, I would take a test shot to determine what settings I would need. For a few others, I used an app. Most of them, I just eye-balled. They all turned out alright, I guess, which was a very pleasant surprise. I’m a bit disappointed with this recent batch, I must say. I don’t really know why. Maybe because I decided to shoot more, and less deliberate than before. Maybe because I’m realizing that I really shouldn’t use 400ASA film stock when all I shoot is bright daylight scenery. Or maybe I’m just having a bad day. Be that as it may, I’ll just dump them all in this post (except for a few I took twice for whatever reason) and tell you the amazing story…

…of how we took Albert to Granville Island in his stroller.

Along the Stonewall, towards Burrard Bridge. We took the ferry from there.

That sculpture is maybe an Inuksuk (a stone landmark originally set up by Inuit and other native people of the arctic regions) and maybe called The Madonna. Which probably means, it’s only an imitation of an Inuksuk, or an Inuksuk given a totally inappropriate name by some Western intruder. To be perfectly honest, I never read the sign post next to it. I will, in the future. And tell you more about it. 🙂

This is Granville Island. I remember it looking more interesting in real live. Because that bridge is quite high and towers over the island really impressively.

We spent the afternoon there, shopping birthday presents for Albert. The sunset was nice, of course. Did I mention that we have lots of those? 🙂

Albert saw his first digger on one of our walks. He was fascinated by the thing, and we had to stand there for half an eternity while he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. 🙂

Also: ever-repeating images of my favorite bridge next to the Lost Lagoon. Oh, and of the Lagoon. Coming right up.

Take good note of that camera bag. When I looked through the scans and saw this, I thought ‘Oh well, yeah, it’s not like I botched an important shot of a fleeting moment never to return…’ Just you wait.

I’ve yet to take a good picture of those mountains. I remember under-exposing this shot (and a few others) to get them clearer in the shot. Apparently, the guys at the Lab thought they’d make up for my ‘mistake’ and get the trees perfectly well lit. Once we’re back in Stuttgart, I’ll buy a scanner and get proper, large scans of these and see what I can get out of them. 🙂

A tree. Why not. I’m sure you’ve never seen one, so you should be excited. ‘Cause now you have.

‘…welcome to Miami… ‘ Palm trees. In winter. Whaddayasay. Also: sunsets. Did I mention…?

Mum? Dad? This is the Sylvia Hotel. And this is what happens when you don’t use the cable release for shooting long exposures.

This was when I realized that the battery was empty. The test shot’s in the older post. 🙂

Oh yeah. The camera bag. It’s not like I botched an important shot of a fleeting moment that… ah dammit, Lojek, pay attention where you hold that thing, will ya?

Spot the racoon. Yeah, I know, it would help if it were in focus. But then, that would also be easy. So…

This was the stormy day, when we went to the other side to watch Christmas trees and took that flashy selfie. 🙂

And this was the first day I realized that there were mountains! Right there, on my way to work! I’d never noticed them before, at least not consciously. Instant wanderlust, that’s for sure.

More mountains. And the Skytrain. What a lofty name for the thing. 🙂

Lunch break with Daniel, Rudy and Mei. And mountains.

Yeah, this one’s useless, too. You see, there’s mountains over there. Admittedly, they were in clouds and hard to see. But you could see them. Promise.

No mountains here. I always get to a point where I decide to just snap pictures nobody in their right mind would snap, just to fill the roll and get it developed already. Patience might just not be my strong suit.

Which is the reason for this…

…and this (no point in trying to look cool and adventurous in this jacket, by the time you’ve locked your bike, it’ll be mostly dry)…

…and this (although this has mountains and the Cirque du Soleil, at least).

Burrard and Granville Bridge at night. Another case for the scanner. 🙂 But I wanted to try a few long exposures.

Beautifully wrong colors. 🙂

‘Dammit, the counter has been showing 36 exposures for at least three shots now, could it just…’ Snap. Rrrrrtsch-cllllick. ‘Ha. There we are.’ (This is one of the few accessible windows at work, in the kitchen area.)

After all this, for some reason I can’t remember and knowing full well that the New Year’s Eve fireworks were approaching fast, I decided to put in a roll of black&white film. Not the best idea I ever had. And it turns out, I’m not the best judge of exciting light situations. Also… yeah. 400 ASA. I’ll have to go shopping before I take any more pictures with the Rollei.

My fascination with those mountains was still in full swing, especially because their peaks are now covered in snow. And that on the left is still the Cirque du Soleil. It’s gone now, though. You can only watch other people do gymnastics so long.

I took the bus to work for a few days. That entails a 10-minute walk along False Creek. That’s why I had so much time to shoot pictures. 🙂

This looked decidedly nicer live and in color…

This, too. The Lost Lagoon, all frozen over.

I keep trying to shoot interesting photos of people at the beach. There’s times when you can see dozens of them, all shooting selfies. I want to capture that. Well, this is not that shot, obviously. Neither is the next one.

So, then there was the fireworks. It’s… interesting in black and white, I guess. Something different. I don’t think anyone has tried this in the last five decades.

Oh yeah, the cable release can get stuck, too. In which case, this happens.

They’ll have had the best view from that boat. 🙂

That brightly lit floating barge on the left is a gas station. Just so you know.

There were a few miserably foggy days. Nice light, I thought.

Doesn’t really come across, though, does it?

Every year, on New Year’s Day, thousands of people go swimming in English Bay at temperatures around 0°. They call it the ‘Polar Bear Swim’. I went there and found… crowds. Who would have guessed?

And then, finally, on another perfectly foggy day, we went to Lighthouse Park, because the weather report told mean lies of clear views and sunny weather. The bastard.