Some of my regular readers might be wondering why I am updating my blog so seldom in  the middle of the wedding season in Europe.

Well, apart from being extremely busy taking pictures, I have a new time-taking hobby: the darkroom. I decided to fully enjoy the analog photography while its still possible.

Unlike my digital setup, which is top-notch and completed without compromises, the equipment I am using for making black and white photography is fairly spartan. This is because I do realize that the future of photography is fully digital, I am making analog prints only for a special and unique experience. Darkroom skills these days can hardly be monetized or even appreciated by most people. It is hell lot of fun though and it reminds me that I was fortunate to be born in very interesting times of technological revolution.

I would like to thank my friends: Petr Chytil, Anna Kazanova and others, who provided me with equipment and technical advice during my beginnings as well as my flatmates for their patience and understanding when I was occupying the bathroom.

The picture being enlarged above was taken by Gleb Kolobov, whom I am also trying to “infect” with the passion for analog printing.

Earlier this year I got a Leica M6 with two lenses: Summicron 50/2 and Nokton 30/1.2 because I wanted to see what all the “Leica buzz” is about.

I’ve already published the results of my first experiments with it some weeks ago. Encouraged by positive response and fact that the new camera actually seemed to help me to take different pictures (more on that later) I continued to use it for photographing my friends, family and some street scenes.

Here is a  new collection of pictures I took with the M6 this spring:

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PS. I recently replaced the Summicron 50/2 with Zeiss C-Sonnar 50/1.5 and many of these pictures were already taken with it.

Many photographers, who moved to digital from time to time feel a need to prove themselves that their basic photography skills are still relevant and they can still shoot on film with all its constraints (limited number of frames, low and fixed ISO, etc).

Here is my take:  a series shot with Leica M6 + Nokton 35/1.2, Kodak Porta 400NC. The models are my Kyrgyz friends: Alima and Azamat.

For some pictures I used a video light with umbrella for a fill (Lowell Id-Light).