Helsinki 1

First series of pictures from our Helsinki trip. I tried to capture there the city’s architecture. There are some notable buildings:

• Second picture is the exterior of the Amos Rex museum
• Fourth picture is the Kansallismuseo
• Fifth picture is the front of the Helsingin tuomiokirkko, the city’s Cathedral.

Photo details

This trip was the first time I used the Rollei 35S, which was perfectly adapted to travel due to its pocket form factor. I found the images really sharp, the Sonnar lens is impressive. The fact that it is a prime lens forced me to move around the structures I wanted to shoot to get the angles correctly.

The film used was a Kodak Tri-X 400, which gave this singular grain over the pictures, even on white buildings on a cloudy sky in the fourth image.

Helsinki 3

Last series of pictures from our Helsinki trip. Some other great pieces of architecture:

• Second picture is the Finnish Parliament (Eduskusta)
• Third picture depicts the Vesikko submarine, it was taken on the island of Suomenlinna

Photo details

I had to edit the plane wing picture to remove some stains and noises, which I normally don’t do because they are part of the picture when doing film photography. But since they were quite large, I had to work around to make it viewable.

Rollei 35S + Kodak Tri-X 400.

Abandonned hotel in the mountains

Second part of the ‘abandonned hotel in the moutain’ series: a hotel on top of the mountains, built in the 1920s and closed since 1994.

Inside: a pool, dancefloor, kitchen, rooms, and more. There is a second building which unfortunately burnt down.

The place is quite well known from exploration enjoyers, hence some artists beautifully decorated some of the rooms.

• The first picture shows a graffiti of a masked man
• The second picture depicts a fully decorated room with music scores, pins, and typewritten letters. There was a red rope going from the entrance of the building up to this room, which was very enjoyable following to discover this little exhibit.

Photo details

First part of my BGC PHC-50 film roll. The Yashica ZoomTec 90 did a great job getting shots of this piece of history atop of the mountains.

Its portable form factor and its sturdiness were a plus for this kind of visit.

The roll used (BGC PHC-50) was a great choice considering the low light inside the buildings. The integrated flash from the camera was used for almost all my interior shots.

Abandonned hotel in the mountains

First part of the ‘abandonned hotel in the moutain’ series: a hotel on top of the mountains, built in the 1920s and closed since 1994.

Inside: a pool, dancefloor, kitchen, rooms, and more. There is a second building which unfortunately burnt down (last picture).

Photo details

First part of my BGC PHC-50 film roll. The Yashica ZoomTec 90 did a great job getting shots of this piece of history atop of the mountains.

Its portable form factor and its sturdiness were a plus for this kind of visit.

The roll used (BGC PHC-50) was a great choice considering the low light inside the buildings. The integrated flash from the camera was used for almost all my interior shots.

Helsinki 2

Second series of pictures from our Helsinki trip. This time, it is consacred to the University’s Botanical garden (Kaisaniemen kasvitieteellinen puutarha).

Photo details

For these pictures, I had to play with the focus ring on the Rollei 35S, to get the focus on objects not in the infinite range. It is a bit imprecise, but some pictures turned out great.

Rollei 35S + Kodak Tri-X 400.

Abandonned convent

A small convent in the alsacian wineyards. Besides a cat that scared us at the end, it was a very calm and relaxing visit. Lots of small empty rooms, a chapel, kitchen, interior garden.

Last picture was to finish the roll: we stumbled across some hang-gliders flying.

Photo details

Second part of my BGC PHC-50 film roll. I think the blacks are really deep, and the 50 ISO + use of flash really made these look dramatic.