Schrammsteine | Between pixel and grain

maipenquynh on 24. May 2023

„Schrammsteine“, that’s a rock formation in Saxon Switzerland (a national park). Not far from where I used to live. As often is the case when you live in a place and the beautiful thing is only a stone’s throw away, you postpone visiting this beauties until later. Until later suddenly means „goodbye“ and beauty is at least 10 stone’s throw away. And so I am writing this text with some kind of nostalgia.

Most probably I remember the name of this rock formation because I took a photo of it. I was very excited about the picture – more excited than I usually am anyways – because this was the first film I developed by myself. I can’t describe it very well but I’ll put it this way: How happyyyyy I was when I hung the developed film up to dry and then discovered „die kleinen Schrammsteine“ on the negative. Joy oh joy!

And even if the photo itself is okay and the motif is not special, the photo is a nice reminder of „I was here!“ And also of those days when I called Dresden my home and Saxon Switzerland was just a stone’s throw away.

Camera + lens: Olympus XA2
Film: Agfaphoto APX 100 (probably; my film is still in the photo lab for scanning)
Developement: self developped (2022#1)
Scan: Charlie Engel Lab 2.0

Harzer Teufelsstieg und Brocken | Sunny 16 #2 (Set 5/6)

maipenquynh on 5. August 2022

Nach Strandurlaub sind wir auch ein bisschen aktiv geworden und waren im Harz und sind von Schierke zum Brocken hochgewandert, den Teufelsstieg entlang.

Ich bin keine großartige Wanderin, meine Kondition ist so lala, aber meine Gelenke sind ganz gut. Das war auf jeden Fall wichtig für den Teufelsstieg, da die Stufen doch etwas größer waren. Ich hatte mich irgendwann gefragt, ob der Brocken so heißt, weil so viele Brocken zu überwinden waren, bis man oben war. Aber wohl nicht, denn der Brocken selbst ist halt … ein Brocken. Auf jeden Fall war der Teufelsstieg abenteuerreich und hat mir gut gefallen.

Wie so oft ist die Natur dann auch immer besonders beobachtenswert beim Wandern und wir haben sehr viele verschiedene Schmetterlinge beobachtet (eine Gewisse Person kennt sich sehr gut mit Schmetterlingen aus, was das Ganze dann einfach spannender macht!). Und Pilze sind auch ziemlich abgefahren!

Hard facts! Kamera: Minolta Dynax 9000 , Minolta AF 50 mm f/1.4 | Film: Kodak T-MAX 400 | Filmentwicklung & Scan: Fotolabor Görner Dresden

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North Sea | Sunny 16 #2 (Set 4/6)

maipenquynh on 27. July 2022

For the next two sets, I’ll take you on my last summer vacation.

It was the first time that I had vacation at the North Sea. It was boring in a nice way. We were on the beach, I barely touched the water. It was mandatory to rent a bike and I enjoyed riding around the island where we were. The island’s vegetation is different from the mainland’s one, and sea buckthorn was a thing there (not my thing at all) and seagulls were there, too, of course.

Taking photos on the beach with all that sand around wasn’t the smartest idea, especially when your hands are all over with sunscreen. Afterwards one is always wiser, right?

Another thing which also wasn’t very smart, was to photograph sand when the film itself was ISO 400, meaning that the film is very rough-grained. So looking at the picture of the sand, I’m not sure whether it’s a sand grain or a film grain that I see.

But that doesn’t hinder me to dream myself back into the strandkorb.

Hard facts!

Kamera + Objektiv: Minolta Dynax 9000 + Minolta AF 50 mm f/1.4
Film: Kodak T-MAX 400
Development + scan: Fotolabor Görner Dresden