The road and the ring and the gold.

We get up and drive into the boonies again. Our not so little mini bouncing along the not always smooth Russian roads and their unpredictable traffic. Six hours out and one pitstop: Kostroma. It‘s dark on arrival. In the morning everything feels kind of rushed and disorganised. We are 8. That kind of travelling is always shambolic. After a boat ride we end up driving to a place called Plyos. Covid is still causing restrictions in this little village so our lunch feels a little weird and I can sense the locals are a bit tense. It‘s picturesque. Our group splits. It’s been fun but thankfully we are left to ourselves. On the way out we stop at the weirdly named “Private Visit“ (Частный визит). If you ever pass this way go there. It‘s a charming and beautiful boutique hotel set in fantastical gardens with a quaint restaurant. Sadly we didn‘t have lunch there. Anyways. Back in Kostroma it‘s late when we arrive. So, next day we have a wander around. It‘s not as delapidated as some other towns I‘ve been to here. There‘s a nice market and some good cafes and restaurants. Normally it‘s probably full of tourists, but I think we shared it with the locals. That’s not to say it was very quiet. Then back in the car. Next stop Yaroslavl. It was once capital of Russia apparently. We walk a little. The centre is quaint. Worth a visit for sure. Seen it. Back in the car. We then drive to Rostov. It‘s not on the usual tourist route. Strangely we couldn‘t book anywhere here other than a kind of hostel place run by an alcoholic. I‘m sure Rostov has a few of those. Beautiful views of the lake and Kremlin And a certain charm, but it could do with a renovation or at least a damn thorough clean… it wasn‘t so cheap either. Anyway. You can kill a day around Rostov. And next day we did. If you want good food go to Hotel Bravis. It’s on the the edge of town but near a rather spectacular monastery. Russia has lots of spectacular monasteries. To be honest they can get a bit samey. I suppose you could say the same about any country. And that was it. Long drive home into the usual heavy Moscow traffic. Nice trip with a lot of impressions. I liked it.

Кострома / Плёс / Ярославль / Ростов – July 2020
Zeiss Superikonta A 530 / Portra 800 / Fomapan 400

All the fun of the fair.

I smashed my phone. Or so I thought. As I went down the stone stairs inside our building to go on my habitual midnight run through Gorky Park. The stairs are dimly lit. My phone fumbled clumsily out of my hands then flapped down screenside like a dead fish on a chopping board. I bought my phone cheap just over a year ago.

We have an ongoing battle – she and I.

I am anti apple. She isn‘t. She has had two phones in 8 years. I’ve had four. All cheap. One I lost in a Crimean Taxi near Yaltra. And one the battery was only a little too quick running out of charge. Another fell into the toilet. I actually still have it and it still works. Actually, I think that‘s the one with the battery problems. The current one has two sims. I need this just now having a foot in two countries.

And the current one is on it‘s second screen. It also has a dodgy power plug. Of course when I saw it had cracked, I asked myself, to repair or replace. I hate to lose an argument. I want a phone that can last forever! So, I spend all day looking for a new phone. I find rugged phones. You can drop them from great heights and even take them swimming. And, after too much online time, I find THE PHONE. I plan my great adventure to the outskirts of the Moscow Metropolis.

And, as I am about to go on this odyssey, I tell her. I had kept quiet about my phone breaking because of this running competition we have. She asks to see my phone and then strips off the cracked protective glass she had put on months ago without me noticing. The screen is completely intact.

Hmmmm….

Anyway, anyway. We went to a kiddies park. I travelled through town a little. I shot a film. The pictures don‘t always match the words folks.

Zeiss Superikonta A 530 (c.1937) / Kodak Portra 400
Moscow July 2020.

Lake Seliger / озеро Селигер

During lockdown we took a couple of trips up to Lake Seliger. It‘s about 5 hours from Moscow in the direction of St Petersburg. I haven‘t been out of Moscow very much since getting here a year and a half ago. But after these trips I can say it really is worth exploring rural Russia. Ostashkov / Осташков is the largest town by the lake. There isn‘t much else there other than some small villages and a large monastry (Nilo-Stolobenskaya Pustyn‘ / Нило-столобенская пустынь) which is something of a pilgramage site for orthodox christians.

Ostashkov must have been a real pearl when it was built in the 1800s. It has beautiful architecture in its centre and you can see that once it was a prosperous place. Years of communism and then the corrupt recent government have not been kind to it unfortunately.  Russians don‘t really appreciate some of the cultural heritage they have. Which is strange given their strong nationalism. Most of the old buildings could easily disappear altogether if someone doesn‘t take action. Some have been renovated and are cared for. But the delapidation does add a special and unique atmosphere to the place. The lake itself is big and quite beautiful with some great areas of solitude and nature. There be bears here!

It looks like Russia is making moves to relax its ridiculous Visa program. Hopefully more tourists coming  and their Euros/Dollars will motivate the locals into caring better for places like this.

I took some pictures on expired film. The black and white film (Ilford and AGFA) expired in the mid 80s and early 90s. The colour (Kodak Porta) expired around 2011. I used my Zeiss Superikonta A 530. A 4.5 by 6 folding camera made in the 1930s.

 

Zeiss Super Ikonta A 530

I have quite a lot of cameras collected over 10 years and this is my favourite.

I love middle format. But the square 6 by 6 format is not quite right for my taste. My eye has grown up with the typical 3 by 2 that nearly every modern photograph has. I do have 2 6 by 9 cameras: one folder and a Fujica 690. Somehow 6 by 9 as a format doesn‘t quite work for me – and it only has 8 shots on a roll. I always wanted to try out either 6 by 7 or 6 by 4.5 but never stumbled upon an affordable camera with that format until I found a small Zeiss folder in a junk shop. It was 70 Swiss Francs. I played around with it and liked it‘s ergonomics. But ultimately held off buying it until researching a little more.

Zeiss made middle format folding cameras from the late 1920s up to the 1950s. I already have two of their 6 by 6s – a Nettar and a more modern Super Ikonta. The Nettar was a budget camera with a lower quality lense. The Super Ikontas tend to have rangefinders and a better lense quality. You can pick these cameras up relatively cheap and the best thing is they can fit in your pocket. Taking a middle format camera like a Rolleiflex or a Hasselblad around with you can be a bit of a pain to be honest – and they are expensive. But middle format folding cameras are even more portable than many small format cameras and suprisingly durable. The three I have from Zeiss and the one from Voigtländer are all over 60 years old, light tight and working.

When I went back to the shop, the folder I wanted had been sold. So, I hunted online and found a good looking Zeiss Super Ikonta A 530 complete with it‘s original leather case on eBay for 100 Euros. It soon arrived from Austria in perfect working condition.

It looks beautiful. If you did want to leave it on a shelf, it really makes a nice ornament. Of course I want to shoot film with it. This one‘s over 80 years old. From a bit of research it was made between 1930 and 1937, pre WW2.

It has a coupled rangefinder, but you use a seperate viewer to find your range. Mine is very accurate with focus. The patch is not the easiest to use in some lighting situations, but it‘s OK.

The lense is a Carl Zeiss Jena 7cm Tessar 3.5 which stops down to 32. Good quality old lenses like these have a special look that I really like. The lens is uncoated which can make shooting into the sun a bit hit and miss. I‘m trying to find a hood and a coated uv filter for mine. Wide open it can be rather soft, but this doesn‘t bother me too much. The middle to smaller apertures are nice and sharp.

The Compur shutter goes from 1 second to 1/300 and has Bulb and T settings. So, it‘s quite useable for most situations. The shutter speeds on mine seem accurate enough. It has a cable trigger socket on the shutter.

There is a socket for a tripod. It‘s the old style of thread, so maybe you need an 1/4 inch to 3/8 inch adapter. They are easy to find online.

There is no way to connect a flash. The camera has no light meter. There is no mechanism that stops multiple exposures.

I had a problem winding the film at first. I was guessing how far to wind it. I know 6 x 4.5 should give me 16 shots a 120 roll and I was only getting about 12. So I found a tip for this on a forum somewhere:

There are two film viewholes on the back of the camera. You should wind the film until 1 appears in the left (1st) window, take your shot, then wind until 1 appears in the right (2nd) window, take your shot, then wind until 2 appears in the first window… and so on until your last shot with 8 in the 2nd window. This gives perfect spacing and 16 shots on a roll. Seems obvious once you know it.

I‘ve had mine for about 4 months and lately it‘s all I want to use. I like to take it everywhere with me. I don‘t see me ever wanting to sell this camera. Amongst all the over priced Hasselblads, Rolleiflexes, Leicas and Contax Ts this is a real find. If you see one that works at a good price, grab it!