Hasselblad 500CM | a life developing

No Sleep Till Brooklyn

I have been busy scanning my rolls of film from our trip to New York. When I started to scan my roll from our trip to Brooklyn, I was reminded once again how much I love Ilford HP2. It is definitely my favorite black and white film. It is so flexible, you can shoot two or three stops under or over and it will still deliver beautiful results. I put this roll in at 2 in the afternoon and the last shot was taken around 8:45pm after the sun had set.

Hasselblad 500CM | 80mm Carl Zeiss Planar | Ilford HP2

While I have visited New York several times in my life, I have never crossed the bridge to Brooklyn. Luckily for us, we have a wonderful friend there who wanted to meet with us and show us around. I fell in love instantly! What a beautiful city. The views of New York’s skyline can’t be beaten!

Hasselblad 500CM | 80mm Carl Zeiss Planar | Ilford HP2

I am not a fan of the tripod (something my husband would love to rectify this year) so this last shot of the New York skyline was handheld. And while my Hasselblad is much easier to hold steady than my Mamiya 645, I was still impressed with the results. I thought for sure the last shot would have been rubbish but I was pleasantly surprised.

Hasselblad 500CM | 80mm Carl Zeiss Planar | Ilford HP2

I had so much fun exploring Brooklyn, and for me, exploring is always a little better with a camera in hand.

For more from some of my photographer friends and what they have been up to this month, hop on over to Alison and Vanessa’s blogs.

A Walk by Rainer Maria Rilke

Posted on June 6 by Staci Lee

A Walk

My eyes already touch the sunny hill.
going far ahead of the road I have begun.
So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;
it has inner light, even from a distance-

and charges us, even if we do not reach it,
into something else, which, hardly sensing it,
we already are; a gesture waves us on
answering our own wave…
but what we feel is the wind in our faces.

~Rainer Maria Rilke

Hasselblad 500CM | 80mm Carl Zeiss Planar | Kodak Ektar 100

I am taking a wonderful online class, Poetry as Therapy by Jenneth Graser. I can’t stop thinking about this poem that she shared the first day of the class. It holds so many truths for me right now. I am especially drawn to the line, “So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp”. What is grasping you right now in your life? What is the thing you can’t grasp that you continue to walk towards?

If you are interested in the class, follow the link above. It is free and offers daily poems and journaling prompts.

my hope tree

Posted on March 10, 2017 by Staci Lee

Each year the Japanese Magnolia blooms in late January or early February and each year I document it with both my digital and film cameras. I love my hope tree, who right in the middle of winter and while empty of leaves, blooms the most glorious large white flowers. The symbolism isn’t lost on me.

Hope is an odd emotion. Poems have been written about it and songs have been sung. When you speak about it, it evokes positive emotions of contented expectations. And while hope can come with bits of joy or eagerness, you don’t usually get to hope without going through despair. Despair comes in and breaks your heart and tries to crush your spirit and just when you think all is lost, hope tiptoes into the room.

For Equilibrium, a Blessing:
Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,
May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.

As the wind loves to call things to dance,
May your gravity by lightened by grace.

Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,
May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.

As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may you be about who you become.

As silence smiles on the other side of what’s said,
May your sense of irony bring perspective.

As time remains free of all that it frames,
May your mind stay clear of all it names.

May your prayer of listening deepen enough
to hear in the depths the laughter of god.

John O’Donohue

“Truly, it is in the darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us.”

Meister Eckhart

While my tree blooms once a year, hope is something we need to hold in our hearts all year long. Life doesn’t bring us pain and regret once or even just twice, it comes again and again and again. If we stop and listen carefully, we can hear the light steps of hope come in and bring us a taste of lightness and rest. We can feel the warmth of spring’s sun in the middle of winter’s cold.

Is your heart in the middle of a long winter? How do you find hope in the midst of despair and sadness?

*All images were shot with my Hasselblad 500CM on Ilford XP-2.

5 on 5: february

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Staci Lee

To be honest, I never thought I would own a Hasselblad. I have a fantastic medium format camera in Lucy, and the price of a Hasselblad is well out of my budget. Then, in the beginning of February, some dear friends gifted me James. He is a beautiful black Hasselblad 500CM. I cried. I don’t mean the sweet type of crying where the tears well up in your eyes. I mean the ugly, your body shaking cry.

I can’t tell you how much I love shooting with him. I can’t seem to remember to take out the dark slide, but I am sure I will get it one day. All of my favorites from February come from him. They had to, right?

There are some amazing photographers I get to do this project with. Start with Second Spring and then roll through the rest of the circle.