My Kiev 60, bought off of eBay and used to shoot 120 film, has a winding problem.  When it’s winding correctly, it has the power to take some pretty awesome images with a depth and feeling that I can’t reproduce with my current digital lineup.  I’ll be able to afford a Hasselblad (film or digital) someday, but for now, my quirky Soviet baby is good enough!

However, its winding problem has resulted in some interesting “beautiful mistakes”. I’m the kind of photographer that enjoys having little control over my shooting situation, but a lot of control over the final image produced through my processing, so the unpredictable nature of using my Kiev 60 has resulted in some unique images that could not have been planned that way. Here’s an overlap from my Kakaako PowWow project that made an interesting composition:

I just got my most recent roll of 120 back from the lab, and while I was pleased to find that I’d managed to get nearly all 12 exposures onto the roll accurately without overlap, I somehow ended up shooting more than 12 shots until there was no more film left, resulting in my favorite image from the roll:

Couldn’t have meant to do it if I tried, so it’s my favorite beautiful mistake thus far! However, film is expensive at $20+ for development and scanning, so I’m hoping to perform surgery on my Kiev soon now that I have some test paper to experiment with.  I’ll try to document that process when I get around to it.

 

Check out one of my favorite photographers, Oleg Oprisco, who also shoots with a Kiev!