only another mechanical device

Back on track (and Tokyo trip!)

After some time I have been away from Tumblr, I’m finally back and ready to post some new photos. I recently developed three black and white rolls, one shot with my Ricoh GR1s (amazing little camera!) and the two other ones shot with my Leica M6, both street stuff and my usual almost meaningless cityscapes.

I’ll be setting up a queue so that the best photos from the bunch will be posted while I’m in… Tokyo. That’s right! I’m leaving for Tokyo in 4 days! It’s my first time in Japan as you might understand I’m fairly excited, also because this is my first solo trip so far away from home.

I decided to travel light and bring my Minolta CLE/Nokton 40mm combo and my Ricoh GR1s. So if any of you tumblr friends from Tokyo spot a tall Italian guy looking totally lost in translation, with a cute small rangefinder hanging on his neck, please come and say hello. I’ll be delighted to meet you! Also, if you are in Tokyo and would like to arrange a photo walk or even just meeting for a coffee (or a ramen!) please contact me, that’ll make me super happy!

5 May 2013 · 15 notes

Anonymous asked: «Belle foto :) posso farti qualche domanda o ti disturbo? Da quanti anni hai cominciato a esprimere questa passione? Che obiettivi hai? Hai instagram? Grazie e ancora complimenti per la tua galleria <3»

Non mi disturbi affatto.
Saranno sei o sette anni ormai che fotografo con una certa costanza.
Per quanto riguarda gli obiettivi: ho un 40mm f1.4 e un 50mm f2 per Leica M. La mia Ricoh GR1s ha un 28mm f2.8.
Per altre informazioni, mandami pure una mail, ciao!

1 May 2013 · 5 notes

davidemariaferrari asked: «How do you have your negatives scanned? They are very high quality. Congrats for your work though, it's amazing. Cheers.»

Thanks Davide, I use a dedicated 35mm film scanner, a Canon FS4000US.

22 Apr 2013 · 6 notes

A rainy day in Via NazionaleRome, March 2013

Another “less seen Rome” photo.I’m thinking of making a project out of these pictures.

Happy Easter day everyone!
I know I haven’t posted anything for a while now, and I’m sorry for that. I had to move to a new place (again!) and I was very busy for that. I’ve sold some of my less used lenses and cameras and I’m planning to further shrink my collection until I’m left with only one film and one digital camera, plus maybe one compact film camera to carry everywhere. I had an hard time letting go some of my lens, but I’m convinced it was the right thing to do, since I wasn’t using them anyway.
Today’s photo shows a portion of a little park near the place I used to live till one day ago. I used to walk along this park on my way to work every morning during the past few years. Now I live in a different neighborhood so I guess I won’t see this park that often anymore. In my life, I have collected many of these little parks, they come and go like everything else in life. I miss them all.

Anonymous asked: «Hi Stefano,I like your work and camera collection:).. I was curious to know what films you use and are the photos PP'd because they seem to have same look and are shot using different cameras.. so just curious to know. Thanks, Dan.»

Hi Dan, I usually tag each one of my photos with the film I used for it. Just visit to the permalink page and you’ll see the list of tags. Lately I’ve been using Kodak Tri-X 400 a lot, both at box speed and pushed at 1600. I don’t heavily post process my photo, but I do make some adjustment in terms of contrast and curves.
Thanks for your comment!

31 Mar 2013 · 2 notes

tariqyasmine asked: «Hi ! I just stumbled upon your blog. Great photo-journal ! I'm relatively new to Tumblr so I'm happy to finding people like you. Keep up the good work and looking forward to seeing more of your shots! Best wishes. PS. If you don't mind answering (no pb. in you dont want to), can you tell me what's the theme you are using ? Thanks.»

Thank you so much and welcome to Tumblr! I like your photo blog as well!
The theme I’m using is a custom theme I made myself.

13 Mar 2013 · 6 notes

Somewhere on the highway, on my way back to my hometownFebruary 2013

Piramide metro stationRome, February 2013

justcallmeacat asked: «Hey, I was wondering if you had a Flickr, or if you would check mine or my photography tumble out? The URL is mikalacomptonphotography. Thanks so much! & I really enjoy your work! Photography along the lines of photojournalism is my favorite!»

Thanks! My flickr is flickr.com/photos/stm although I’m not using it that much anymore. The funny thing is that I’ve been recently given a pro account as a christmas gift from flickr, so I could go back in time till 2006 and see the first photos I uploaded there: I’m amazed by how much my approach to photography has changed in these years.

2 Mar 2013 · 9 notes