Сталин

From "Russia in War", pen and ink, by Feliks Topolski

Скаут Русский 1914 г.

Bad picture, good scout, helping the old woman back in 1914 Russia.

9 май

Украïна

Yes, I know, this is about going to Irkutsk. But while Jeroen was testing his Еликон in France, I was "wrestling" with Алексей Голобородко on my draw-blog, not very successfully so every now and then I had a little "intermezzo", and this girl from Украïна was number six (drawing!)

Very peaceful.

http://sportzeichnung.blogspot.com/  for the Russian and Italian drawings.

Еликон 4 in France

I had a short holiday in France and decided to bring along the Еликон 4 to find out how it would be to make holiday snapshots with that camera, as I will be doing in Siberia! It turns out nicely, with all the flaws and pitfalls that come with this sort of photography! For instance, transportation of the film has to be done with great care, otherwise the images will overlap. Also, do not transport after making a picture, since the shutter release button has no lock and it will trigger when put in your pocket! Vignetting is moderate when the aperture is not totally open, and the lens is quite sharp but it is easy to forget to set the distance, and since it is not completely a point and shoot camera, result is not always as expected.

Film used was Fomapan 400, developed in HC110 for 6 minutes which is a bit to much, but the result is not too bad:

Замерзанная водка

Put a glass of водка in the freezer and look at the

nice crystals that are formed.

(The picture isn't great, but that's Sony for you. It can't be me, because I drank it afterwards...)

Приходил сегодня: ФОТОН

I still remember my pride in the sixties: the Cornet VX electronic flash on my Lubitel.

This one is the seventies Фотон, and it still works, which I consider a miracle: no batteries, you are always attached to the socket. Yes, the cord is 10 feet, but after some  водка one easily tends to forget that, so not many survived.