#MCRWLK with a Lomo LC-Wide and a roll of JCH Streetpan 400

A week or so ago I went on one of these “WLKs”. This particular “WLK” was “MCRWLK” or Manchester Walk for those with a preference for including all the usual letters in words. The idea of these events is quite simple, photographers go to a place, they walk around that place, chat, and take photos of the place. It’s good fun!

I’ve been on one of these WLKs before, last time it was in LDN (London) for LNDWLK 3.0, which turned out to be quite an exciting day for me, it was the day I bought my Leica M-A. On this occasion I was armed with a very different camera, yet despite it being so different, it shares one significant attribute with the the M-A. My choice of camera for Manchester is also one of the few other 35mm film cameras that can be bought new today: the Lomo LC-Wide. (Thanks to Lomography UK for the loan)

Now, I’m the first to admit that I’m far from a natural “street” photographer, but given the opportunity to go somewhere new to take photos, and I’m all up for it. Going for a WLK around MRC was really only going to result in street photography, so I thought I’d embrace the challenge with a roll of Japan Camera Hunter’s new(ish) film JCH Streetpan 400.

These are in fact the first results that I’ve seen back from this film – I bought a block of ten rolls a while back, but my comfort with HP5+ just keeps pulling me back. Unfortunately It’s quite hard for me to make direct comparison with said HP5+, as on this occasion I also deviated from AG when I took Filmdev.co.uk on a kind offer they made to the participants of MCRWLK to dev and scan the film. That being said, I am very happy with the results! This film clearly has a very nice look to it, that works very well for this sort of photography. Having looked at lots of other peoples results, it seems like filmdev have done a very good job developing and scanning it too!

So anyway, enough waffle… have a look at my attempts a ultra-wide angle street photography.

Genuinely this was the most fun I’ve had with a camera for a while – I shot another two rolls in the following 7 days, though I havent had them back yet. The lens is clearly far from perfect, but it’s so much fun to shoot with and the results, especially with this film, have a great look to them I think!

I shall be doing a full review of the Lomo LC-Wide soon (subscribe below to be notified when that comes out)… But if you want a hint of the outcome… I really love it!

Thanks for reading, and thanks to Andy, Paul and Lewis for setting up the event… I had a great day!

Hamish

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