FROM MY BOOKSHELF : 'Soplame lo que viene' by Carla Leon

I have collected many photobooks along my many wanderings and thought of featuring on my blog some gems from my collection.
I was lucky to get the last copy of this moving photo-book 'Breath me what Comes' by Carla Leon at a Paris Photobook Fair. The photos were taken two years after the last journey she did with her late father on the road of the river valley of Cajon del Maipo. The barren rocky landscape and the bilingual poem in Spanish and French evoke beautifully her feelings of loss and longing.

Portraits with Mamiya 645DF

Portraits of Talia and Leila

I shot these portraits of my favourite models, my twin daughters Talia and Leila using the Mamiya 645DF ( I can still bribe them with a chocolate muffin but I know it won't last long...). I am trying out a lot of different cameras to decide on an upgrade  and wanted to try out a high end digital camera to test possibilities so I borrowed one from the university where I lecture. At the moment, I am still using my Mamiya 7II and Fuji 645zi for commissions and exhibition quality prints plus a range of Nikon digital cameras for smaller scale projects. These cameras always produced amazing quality at the same time as being light and versatile. 

Talia in Sunlit Room 1 © Leslie Hakim-Dowek 2012

I loved the clarity of the pictures and the rendering of skin tones and colour subtlety is certainly of beautiful quality but I expected the battery juice to last a tad longer. The latter plus it size and weight would place it firmly just for studio use for me so  I will keep looking for the best possible combination of image quality and versatility. 

Leila in Kimono Top © Leslie Hakim-Dowek 2012

 

Talia in Sunlit Room 3 © Leslie Hakim-Dowek 2012