Another small city trip

First time going fully analog on a holiday trip

Since I made the switch from digital to analog not so long ago, this was the first time only shooting film on holiday. And I loved it. The excitement of not knowing what you’ve got until the film is developed never ceases to amaze me. I’m definitely going to keep this up in the future. And since I develop the films on my own, it’s not even that expensive… Just a little tip : Check your film stock before leaving and make sure you have enough because in some countries/cities they are ridiculously expensive (10 euros for a roll of Portra 400 in Antwerpen….). Other than that, it was really enjoyable. Read on if you want to know more.

Ghent

I spontaneously went to Ghent last monday. The weather was announced alright and I wanted to visit a city I’ve never been to. Off I went. Since I’ve never been there, I didn’t really know too much what to expect. Once arrived, I was positively surprised about what this city has to offer. Not only tourist attractions but also some beautiful architecture and some lovely narrow streets.

Some really impressive churches made up for some nice shots.

The tram rails and it’s electrical supplies make a somehow boring street look a lot more attractive.

Street

As it was Easter-Monday, there were lots of people in the streets. This resulted in some interesting captures. The light was great ! The sun was out and it was quite cold. Unfortunately on arrival I noticed that I had run out of my beloved Ilford HP5 so I had to use another film. Some weeks ago I bought some Kodak Tri-x 400 and never used it, so the time had come. I shot it at box speed, and I must say that I’m quite surprised how clean the film turned out. I still prefer HP5 since it has some kind of special grain which gives a magical look to a shot (especially for street photography). I developed it in some new LC-29 and the pictures are perfectly sharp and not grainy at all. The following pictures are my favorite ones.

This is something you see quite a lot in Ghent. It’s a really cycle friendly city !

Apparently I wasn’t the only one interested in this shot…

Color

No I did not only shoot black and white film on my trip. Although I prefer those pictures, I’ve got some interesting ones on color film as well.

El Ron de Cuba…

And another bicycle shot

Don’t think about what others might think of you

And the interior of the church

The interior of the church

No, I’m not into the religious stuff. I just find the churches extremely impressive as buildings. And they usually are really photogenic !

Some words about the city

I must admit, I really enjoyed visiting the city. Although many people were extremely unfriendly (in shops, restaurants, cafés and so on) the architecture and the streets were really lovely. I don’t mean to hurt anyone by saying that people weren’t friendly but it’s just that I don’t like being treated that way if I’m supposed to spend money in a shop… If I ask anything in english, I really don’t like getting an answer in flemish. I mean it’s obvious that I can’t understand their language or why would I ask in english ? Enough rant now…

It is quite a small city so I wouldn’t recommend staying more than one night since you may start feeling bored… But if you wish to, there are some interesting museums, so you could also stay longer if you’d like to visit them. I went to Antwerpen the day after, so I stayed a night. I’m going to post another article on Antwerpen on another day this week.

Sorry…

for the inactivity the last weeks. I just really didn’t know what to write about… Nor did I know what to take picture of.. I really did not feel inspired at all.. But this has changed.. In the last week I came up with three photography projects I’m going to focus on in the future, as well as some topics to write about. If you wish to, stay tuned for that ! And yes, I ordered some Hp5 😉