Walking with Ireland Analog

On Sat 29th Jan I got a chance to attend the @IrelandAnalog photo-walk, organised by @marcargentique. It was a fantastic opportunity to participate in a fun day-out, wandering through the streets & parks of Dublin City, shooting rolls of film, along with many other film camera enthusiasts.

A Growing Trend

I must say, it was great to finally get a chance to meet Marc in person, have a chat, get his reactions to the day, the film community as a whole, how social media has catapulted the community, and of course the activities underway – as we navigated the streets of Dublin city, dodging traffic and pedestrians 😉

To Marc’s credit the IrelandAnalog community on Instagram has grown rapidly, with there being a steady uptick & interest in film photography – not just capturing photos on film, but developing them too.

What was most inspiring was the diversity of attendees at the photo walk: representing many different walks of life, varied experience levels, and vastly different cameras & film choices … it was simply wonderful !

Decisions Decisions ?

Getting down to the nuts-and-bolts of photography on the day for me: I’ll admit that it was difficult trying to decide what I needed to bring for the day. Hmmm … a day in January around Dublin city when it’s mixed weather, significant differences in lighting, and not exactly sure what I might actually be photographing 🤔

In the end I decided to be sensible, and just bring the following:

1. Black & White: Nikon F80, 18-35mm f3.5-4.5, Fomapan 200 film
2. Colour: Nikon N80, 28-80mm f3.3-5.6 & 35mm f2, Kodak Portra 400 film

I know from wandering around urban-scapes, you definitely need a wide-angle to capture the expanse of streets & architecture. Meanwhile, when you’re finding yourself in deteriorating lighting conditions, you’ll need a fast prime, for myself a 35mm f2 seems to work best, as I find 50mm in the cities just too restrictive.

Variety & Lighting

Being an engineer, I’m always drawn to architecture, leading lines & anything that’s impactful. So I was hoping to capitalise on the uniform rows of Georgian buildings, the intriguing arched alleyways in-between, and of course bricks & cobblestones.

I was rapidly noticing that the biggest decisions I had to make were not about composition and subject choice, but rather light metering & exposure levels !

The variations subject-to-subject were significant: dark alleyways vs bright reflections vs bare vegetation vs strong contrasts. With both cameras on centre-weighted metering, it was all about paying attention to what needed to be truly ‘dark’ vs ‘light’, and by that I mean -1 vs -0.5 vs +1 vs +1.5 over what the meter was telling me. It was a lot of work !

In a lot of situations I was sincerely hoping hand-held 1/15 and 1/30 seconds was going to work … and the good news is that old-school sniper technique of slowing down your breathing, and gently squeezing the shutter release at the end of your exhale really works ! 💯

Breaking It Up

Of course, you can’t ignore the art and vegetation – after all, that’s what can break up the seemingly monotonous nature of the city buildings, and what makes Dublin beautiful. Admittedly January isn’t the best time to catch Dublin City in bloom, but if you look hard enough you’ll spot little nuggets of interesting compositions that pop out (even if that happens to be a Badminton shuttle-cock wedged into the gate of the National Concert Hall !)

Closing Time

By 3:30pm at Iveagh Gardens I could see that the low winter light was already starting to fade, getting swallowed up by the buildings. I knew from my phone app that sunset was at 5pm … hmmm, might there actually be a pop of orange or red in the sky over the river Liffey ??

I’m glad I decided to keep rambling further afield, swinging past Trinity College and on down to Custom House quay, as the sky was starting to light-up, and along the banks of the Ha’Penny Bridge there was some glorious colour, which my roll of Kodak Portra happily lapped up !

Conclusion

What an enjoyable day ! It was fantastic to meet new people, with a shared passion in photography, and in particular film photography. It didn’t matter what camera you were using, nor how you used it, just as long as you were there, contributing to something bigger than yourself.

I’m already looking forward to the next one ! 🤩

Before I wrap-up, I have to give a few shout-outs:

• Of course, major thanks to @IrelandAnalog / @marcargentique for organising the film photo-walk event !
• Big thanks to Alex, Juri & Caleb at http://www.printpoint.ie / @printpoint.ie for the negative dev & scans in record time !
• A shout-out to @analogue_keith and @thedarkroomlife for sharing their photos of me ! 😜🤩
• A shout-out to @#analogshootersireland and @addictedtoireland for their support

Until my next post, keep shooting film !

Paul