I posted my First Attempt with my Hasselblad last week. Truth be told it was my second attempt. The images I posted last week were shot the second day I had my Hasselblad on Ilford XP2 which can be proceed in 1 day as it uses color photo processing vs. these on Ilford B&W that need to be sent out and takes a few days. I was reading all of the forums about how Ilford 3200 is really 1600 and you shouldn't shoot it at 3200. Honestly I get really confused by camera forums. Experimenting is the best option always in my opinion. I would love to hear other people's opinion but I went ahead and shot these rolls at 3200 and I think they came out really good.

I am still learning to focus this machine. I shot for rolls and ended up with 14 keepers. Some other shots were OK but either were duplicates or just didn't fit into the flow of my blog post. 14 keepers from 4 rolls with 12 exposures each gives me about a 30% hit rate. Looking at some of my later rolls coming in this seems to be improving. All of this is a learning process for me that I will continue down...

I picked up my film in Shinjuku at the massive Yodobashi Film Depo. My first few shots were pretty sad...but is what the first few rolls produced.

Today’s configuration: Hasselblad 501cm with a Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm f/2.8 shot on Ilford 3200.

Coning off the employee exit... I was about to enter but the cones made me uncomfortable and gave me a moment of pause. #missionaccomplished

Nathan continued on with me for the evening...

After a bit of practice I began to get the hang of it. I think I spend 5 minutes framing, focusing and exposing this shot...

Same with this shot. I had to wait until they got bored with peace signs and silly smiles to release the shutter. I love these bars in Shinjuku. In the summer and fall they are outdoor standing bars. You can stand on the side walk and eat and drink and people watch the shoppers in the electronics district. In winter they drape these heavy clear plastic covers over the doorways to keep the heat in which make for fantastic 'fish bowl' shots.

Nathan and I stopped to watch this scene. These two young girls were with a very interesting group of guys. After I snapped a photo one of the girls after over to ask us what we are taking a photo of. It turns out they were Japanese idols in a band called 'Kiss and Cry' and the guys where their fans... It was a very funny scene. I tried to search around for their site or videos but I couldn't find. If anyone knows them and has it send me so I can link to it.

Her idol pose...

A street side fortune teller... (safely coned off)

We walked over to Golden Gai and explored a bit... I couldn't figure that place out in square format. It was very dark as well so focusing was a big challenge for me.

Shop windows seem to work well in square format...probably better if I actually center the bar.

I was trying to focus on light on the top of the taxi and blur out the background but I was too slow and the driver thought I was photographing him. I thought this turned out to be a pretty funny photo.