In fall 2024 I attended a conference on the island of Corfu. The main reason for the stay left only little time for taking photographs and I had to rely on the smallest camera I have: the Rollei 35 S. Loaded with ILFORD FP4 plus, I carried it with me most of the time. The only accessories were a set of filters (yellow, orange, red, polarization and an ND which was not used plus a lens hood for the 40 mm f2.8 HFT Sonar). Even though the camera has a built in light-meter most exposure settings were more or less guessed, particularly when filters were in use.
The gallery starts with a photo of a statue of Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford. This is to honor him for founding the Ionian Academy, the first modern University in Greece in 1824. The Old Fortress in Corfu City makes a nice background for the white statue. Printing the image needed a little dodging and burning as indicated in the print record below. Usually I start with a 18×24 cm print and the split grade times for the 00 and 5 filters are shown in the left column in the print record below, which I always keep on a whiteboard. Indicated on top is the height of the negative carrier above the easel in this case 46.0 cm and in the top row the printing date, the negative number and the f-stop during printing. The corresponding times for the final 24×30 cm print are just calculated from the times previously determined for the smaller format. The green and blue numbers at the sketch of the image indicate the dodge (negative) and burn (positive) times in 1/12 of an f-stop. All images were printed on ILFORD multigrade RC glossy paper.
The gallery continues with six photos taken during a (too) short guided tour through the gardens of the Achilleion, a palace built for the Kaiserin Elizabeth of Austria (Sisi). The imposing Bronze Statue of Achilles was commissioned by Kaiser Wilhem II who purchased the compound in 1908 and spend the summers there. The print only received a little burning on the left side.
The image of the statue of the Dying Achilles needed some cropping to leave out visitors on the right and due the increased enlargement it shows quite some grain-structure; however, I think it somehow suits the motive. A disturbing bright spot within the leaves in the background was printed down with heavy burning as shown in the print record.
Printing of the next two statue images was straight forward. The rather dynamic Statue of the Runner appealed to me most in a backlit scene. Exposure was more or less a guess, but the negative turned out well printable.
Right before leaving the gardens, I passed by the statue of the Kaiserin at the entrance of the palace and I got lucky with the lighting of the scene, a few minutes later shadow would have covered the statue. Due to the simple light-meter of the camera, I used some bracketing and took a few shots of the scene, somewhat under time pressure, because my group was leaving. Anyway, the prints turned out as I had visioned the scene on this sunny day. The defects in the walls next to the statue of Sisi are part of the somewhat morbid character of the Achilleion, which is in need for substantial renovations.
In most cases I don’t like graffiti that much, particularly on old buildings. But in case of this Street View of Corfu City, the graffiti goes well with the chaotic wiring on top of the right side wall. One of the shops on the left side had a very bright floodlight at the entrance, which needed a burning of more than two f-stops ´(which might not even be enough).
The final eight photos of the gallery were made during a short (~45 minute) walk up the Old Fortress of Corfu City. Starting with the Bell Tower which is a straight print without any dodging or burning. The bottom with the rope and the right side of the Canon image were slightly burned with the 00-grade filter while the Second Canon was again a straight print. Walking further up, the scene within the Tunnel caught my attention. The sun coming in from the top created some interesting reflections on the polished cobblestones.
Exposure of the hard negative was on the soft side with 15:9.2 s for grade 00 and grade 5, respectively. The left wall and the floor reflections were dodged a little during the grade 5 exposure.
The Dead Palm Tree, the Lighthouse and the Building with the shadowed wall in front are straight prints, only the sky above the Boats received a burn with soft grade of 5/12 of an f-stop.
All in all, I was once more very pleased with the performance of the Rollei 35S and the high quality of the 40 mm Sonar lens. Even though I missed my spotmeter a couple of times most (half guessed) exposures turned out quite well.
