A Coffee with…No. 3 – Şan Güneş
We are trying to get around the World, so this time I had a virtual coffee with Şan Güneş from Turkey. Şan is a some random computer engineering student, free software enthusiast and also happens to do some caffenol development. He also states that the Kebab that you can he here in Germany is different, but way better then the one in Turkey.
Caffenol: Hey Şan, I made some fresh turkish coffee with plenty of sugar. While I boil it a third time, please introduce yourself.
Şan: Hello there! My name is Şan and I’m a student who lives in İstanbul, I just started photography a year ago as a hobby.
Caffenol: Anything else you want to add about you as a person?
Şan: I never call myself a photographer, photography is just a hobby for me to spend some free time and have a chat with people about it. At least for now…
Caffenol: What do like about photography in general?
Şan: I started photographing with my dads Canon FTb, and only shot analogue since(Except for few moments when I didn’t had the opportunity to carry a film camera with me). I’m mainly interested in the action of taking photos, rather than the final result I get – this is the reason I shoot film with the manual mode. Photography makes an ordinary person to get out of their home and have a little photography walk in the town, which is pretty fun and opens up your horizon.
Photographing is a good hobby, it’s not as ingrate as playing a musical instrument where you need to practice so frequently!
Caffenol: How did you get into caffenol?
Şan: So I decided to develop my films one day, and while watching tutorials about film developing I came across a caffenol video! That was it, why
buy a ready developer when you can create your own? It’s like planting your own vegetables instead of buying them from the store. So I actually started
developing films in my bathroom with caffenol. I like preparing my caffenol and spending time on it. If I ever wanted quality and rapidness I would just shoot digital.
Caffenol: What kind of gear do you use?
Şan: I got a Canon FTb and a Nikon F90 from my dad. A Praktica MTL 5B and a Zenit 19 which I bought. I have a variety of M42 lenses which I sometimes use with an adapter on the F90. I also have some Smena cameras(1, 6, 8, 8M, Symbol). I got a Canon G9 which I take with myself when traveling, because of it’s small size and capabilities.
Caffenol: Which is your favorite camera/lens combination at the moment?
Şan: Praktica MTL 5B and Carl Zeiss Jena Tesar 2.8/50 – It is my first camera which I bought. I simply LOVE the massive sound of the steel curtain, and the looks of the peoples faces when they hear it. This massive “tank” camera makes me feel safe while photographing in empty streets. Also the lens is a very sharp one for it’s price.
Caffenol: Which caffenol recipe do you use?
Şan: I use the Delta-STD recipie, so far it was good for me. I may try other recipies in the future.
Caffenol: Where do you buy your ingredients for caffenol?
Şan: Carl Skull from the caffenol facebook group sent me some washing soda from the UK for a good price when I couldn’t find it anywhere locally. Nowadays, except for the coffee, I buy them from the Internet. That’s the cheapest place where I can find them.
Caffenol: Do you shoot Auto-Mode, A-Mode, S-Mode, P-Mode, M-Mode? Autofocus or manual?
Şan: I shoot in M mode. If the environment is too dark for me to focus, I use autofocus.
Caffenol: How do you scan your Pictures? What kind of tools do you use for post processing?
Şan: I don’t have a dark room, I scan my negatives with the HP Scanjet 4070. I can’t achieve a nice quality but it’s okay for most of the time. Sometimes I give away my films for scanning, I use Photoshop to play with the brightness/contrast of the image.
Caffenol: How do you educate yourself to take better pictures?
Şan: By examining other peoples work and discussing my pictures with my family.
Caffenol: Among your works, which one is your favorite? Why?
Şan: I like the shadows and the patterns on the walls in this picture. It was taken in Hagia Sophia which poses for photos perfectly, even if you don’t know what you are doing with your camera.
Caffenol: Any other shots you want to show?
Şan: Sure!
caffenol:
color film:
Caffenol: What is the one thing you wish you knew when you started taking photos?
Şan: I’m really new in this, and I probably still don’t know that thing yet!
Caffenol: Where can we find your work? (Flickr, tumblr, personal website, facebook, etc…)
Şan: You can find most of my work on my Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/antarktikali/
Caffenol: Thank you very much for this very interesting Interview! Even if you are at the beginning on your photographic journey, I can see from your work that you have a lot of fun. Keep exploring and just remember that the only thing that limits you is yourself and not the gear you use.
Şan: You’re welcome, thank you, too!
You know, that you can be featured on caffenol.org, do you? Just mail me. Message me or DM me and we get your stuff on the site!
1 Comment
theblindpoet · November 18, 2012 at 9:43 pm
I really love reading about other peoples journeys with photography and caffenol…………tis a wonderful thing…………..I am about to develop my 1st Kodak Portra film in caffenol std…been on my wish list for a long time……..so today is the day.