Taking twelve photos of the medium format sometimes takes a long time, especially when you have film loaded in a few cameras which you want to test. Besides taking photos with the traditional camera it’s completely different when comparing to the digital when you can take 12 shots in a few minutes.
The B&W film which was loaded in Rolleiflex was loaded in mid October, and just a few days ago I’ve managed to take last shots on that film and give the film to the lab for the development. During that time camera traveled a lot with me – it was with me on the Caribbean, and in Poland: Sejny/Posejnele, Łódź, Żyrardów, Gdańsk and few other places when I even didn’t unpacked the camera from my bag. It was mostly because I seldom found the right moment worth to register it on the medium film. Usually it was easier to use digital or the 35mm film camera, and I didn’t want to waste the 120 film in Rollei. During that time I usually took one or two shots on each location, that’s why taking 12 exposures took me almost 4 months. Well, i think it was worth waiting, but I just regret a little bit that I took just a few frames in Posejnele near Sejny – the landscape, atmosphere, people (friends) were for sure worth shooting a few rolls of film. The only explanation I have that the lightning conditions where usually difficult, and the most interesting things were happening in the evening.
Below you’ll see a few photos taken at the Samań Lake in Posejnele. At the lake there is traditional polish sauna called ‘bania’ (very similar to that common in Russia) which is prepared in old traditional wooden house which was transported from different places. Of course to warm compartment in bania is used wood and you cool down by running into the lake – it’s interesting thrill in November – when you take into account the water temperature.
I hope to return there in spring to shoot more rolls of film there (which might be difficult to catch a good light before afternoon when spending time with friends in the evening).
All photos were taken with the TLR Rolleiflex Auto 3.5 loaded with the B&W Fomapan 120 400, developed in the lab and later on scanned with Epson V500.
Behind my back what you can’t see there is a bania which you’ll see on the next photos.
Smań Lake
The farmer (landlord) – Paweł with his friend dog Major in front of the bania house waiting until fireplace burns up.
Paweł in front of the bania house.
Friends in front of bania. The team delegated to burn up the bania for the evening. The last member of the team (included for the registering the moments mostly) is on the second side of the lens. Unfortunately.
I also took two photos with self-timer but it seems that it’s broken, those shots are completely black – probably self-timer mechanism didn’t trigger the shutter.
I really like those photos at the Samań Lake, they really nice, I really like that atmosphere from those photos.
The ‘bania team’ (in polish the title has double meaning :) )