Rolleiflex T (3) - 1986

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When I started getting mad about Photography, I read everything I could find on the subject. Of course the manufacturers catalogues were no exception.

Soon I got the (wrong) idea that I needed a LOT of equipment to make some good photographs.

I very quickly assumed that if I didn't own this and that camera, this and that lens, this and that gadget, I couldn't even breath...

As a matter of fact, photographers tend to be very gear-oriented people: we touch, feel, hear and smell our equipment. We carry things around all day, we stick those things to our nose, we look through them, we fumble around with all these levers, buttons and dials.
Not seldom we frenetically use several cameras and lenses on the very same session.

Photography can be a very exhausting physical activity.

On the other hand, very often, the most effective photographs are made when we make things simple: one camera, one lens, Not loads of stuff to care and worry about! Pure concentration!

That is one of the reasons why I like so much to use a Rollei TLR: you don't need to change your lens just because you can't change your lens!

Instead you need to learn to move your feet, change your position, change your angle, use your head and make your own decisions.

If you are lucky and clever enough, you will hopefully make the right ones...

Lisbon, July 1986

Lisbon, July 1986

Lisbon, July 1986

Lisbon, July 1986

Lisbon, July 1986

Segovia, August 1986

Segovia, August 1986

Segovia, August 1986

Segovia, August 1986

El Burgo de Osma, August 1986

Jorge, Lisbon, August 1986

Jorge and Luís, Lisbon, August 1986

All the above situations were depicted using Kodak Tri-X film developed in Kodak D-76, diluted 1+1.

It's a combination I really love for street photography!

Self-portrait, Heidelberg, 6th of March 1987

Shot with Ilford FP4, developed in Kodak Microdol-X, diluted 1+3.

I was a little sad, on this particular day. I was selling my Rolleiflex T...

Yes, the one I had used to make the photographs of the last three posts. I liked it so much, that I decided to buy a Planar model. As I had already gotten my 3.5F, I thought that it wouldn't make sense to keep the T too.
I guess that I was stupid. Should have kept both...

I was waiting for the buyer to come by and I felt the urge to make some last images.
As I was the only person around, I quickly set the camera on a tripod and posed myself in front of some piece of background paper.
Light was made with a strobe pointing at an umbrella.

(My hair and beard were still dark and young...).

Farewell my little nice lady T...

Hope you are still shooting strong...

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