A M6 and two rolls of Kodak Gold

Since I started photography, I've primarily used digital cameras. I've always found it challenging to slow down and truly think about what I'm doing. I often see a shot through the viewfinder, snap it quickly, and then move on to the next, always in a run-and-gun mode.

I have some fond memories of taking photos as a child with a little Nikon film camera, and I did a bit of film photography and darkroom work during my time at university. But it was never anything extensive, and I never seriously pursued it.

Now, in an effort to improve my photography, I'm diving back into film with this beautiful 1994 Leica M6. I'll be starting with a Voigtländer 35mm ƒ2.5 color-skopar lens and hope to explore more lenses in the future.

Leica m6 & Voigtländer 35mm ƒ2.5 color-skopar

The three pictures below are my favourites from two rolls of Kodak Gold 200 which I have subsequently shot. All the shots here have been developed and scanned in a lab and I've only cropped the shots slightly.

I pass this tree when driving to work, I took this shot just before 7am on a foggy morning. I think I'll go back at some point when the conditions are better but I'll take a tripod with me and hopefully get a slightly better shot. 

I took the Leica on the three peaks challenge, I only ended up taking it up with me on Ben Nevis due to the weather. I think this is my favourite shot so far I've got with the camera, it was still fairly early (in the day and climb) here and I really like the subject. 

Another shot from Ben Nevis of some low clouds going through the valley.

So far I'm really enjoying the process and because I'm slower at focusing and getting exposure right I'm thinking about composition and subject a little bit more which I'm hoping will yield some better photography as I get bit more experienced.

From these two rolls of Kodak Gold 200 I got 3 maybe 4 shots I’m happy with so i’m looking at a 5% hit rate at the moment which is pretty damn awful.

One thing I've started to do since these two rolls of film is record the exposure settings the photos are taken on as when they came back from the lab I have zero memory of what I did, this should help me see what does and doesn’t work on this camera.

In my next post i’ll be getting some Ultramax, Cinestill and Ektar developed so stay tuned for that!

Danny.