On holiday with a Rolleiflex

Long term readers will know that I’m not normally a big fan of “one lens” photography, preferring a few focal lengths when I’m out and about.

With a Rollei TLR you don’t really have an option which is probably the main reason my 2.8F, lovely though it is, doesn’t see a lot of use. A few weeks ago, however, we drove down to Balsall Common, not far from Coventry, for a few days to see our daughter and her partner and, not really sure how much time I’d have for photography, I just packed the Rollei, my Sekonic meter and a couple of rolls of HP5. 

I’ve often thought that the Rollei might make a good holiday camera. There was a time years ago when we went to Paris and I took the Rollei along with a Pentax DSLR outfit - and took not a single shot with the TLR. I’ve been to Paris four times and haven’t even got one negative to show for it, something that bothers me a great deal.

Anyway, back to Balsall Common and the 2.8F. The Rollei excels at photography within a certain focusing range. It’s not bad close-up but is really hard to beat in the 10-60 feet range and, fortunately, that’s where I happened to take most of my pics down south.

Under those circumstances, it’s hard to think of a better camera. Great lens, big neg, not too heavy and quite compact. It wasn’t even much of a burden bolted to a tripod and carried over the shoulder.
I had two trips out into the countryside with the camera. The first was spent following my usual M.O. of driving around looking for pics - a completely thankless task in the country lanes around Balsall Common where 6ft tall hedgerows line the roads and prevent you seeing much of anything.

For the second trip, I went to Temple Balsall, an old part of the world just ten minutes from Balsall Common where the Knights Templar used to hang out, parked the car and then spent a great couple of hours soaking in the history and atmosphere and snapping merrily away on Braunschweig’s finest. That was a much better idea than trying to spot picture opportunities from the car. I won't go into the history of the place but you can read about it here.

Rather than photographing the buildings which, in the absence of mist, I always think look just like record shots, I went a-wandering in amongst the nearby trees - part of the ancient Forest of Arden - and tried to capture some of the "Green Man" atmosphere.

I got speaking to the church gardener who said the Temple Hall next to the church dated back to 1140 - that’s the year, not twenty minutes to twelve. My gob was well and truly smacked. Apparently, a Masonic lodge convenes at the hall a couple of times a year with its members dressed in traditional Templar robes complete with swords. He couldn’t say if they then embarked on a package holiday to the Holy Land for some fisticuffs with the locals.

The “lanes” around Balsall Common are very narrow with occasional fords crossing the tarmac. If I lived in the area, that’s where I’d do most of my photography. There was one such road called Magpie Lane which I just had to explore. Halfway along it, I rounded a corner to see a 17th century Tudor house. What a sight.

In an adjacent lane I crossed a ford and stopped to get a shot of it. It was my favourite photo from the trip - that's it at the top of the post. This pic was taken on a tripod in the middle of the road but the lanes are mercifully free of traffic outwith peak commuting hours.

The Rollei performed faultlessly on its holiday apart from a little flare shooting into the light but it’s a 60-year-old camera and I don’t have a hood for it so that can be forgiven. I developed the two rolls of HP5 I’d exposed in Rodinal, one at 1+50 and the other at 1+25. To be honest, I wish I hadn’t bothered with 1+50 as the midtones came out more like mud-tones, horrible and flat. The pictures here are scans - no prints done yet - and the flatties needed a bit of work in Photoshop to give them some oomph. The 1+25 film was fine with a bit of snap to it.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of roaming around with just one fixed lens camera. I wouldn’t hesitate to repeat the exercise - especially if I ever get another crack at Paris.