Vacation: July 2025
In July, I decided I needed a short vacation to burn through a few rolls of film. Here are the photos I brought back.

After a fairly frantic period at work, I realised I needed a short vacation to recharge my batteries. For reasons that are irrelevant to this post, I had to limit my photo hunting grounds to a radius of approximately 100 km from my place of residence. I visited three towns: Bytów, Frombork and Lębork. Note that the featured photo is from Olsztyn. More on this at the end of the post.
I decided to go with my Pentax gear. I used a trio of lenses: a wide-angle, a standard one and a telephoto. The wide-angle was my old 24 mm 1:2.8 Cosina. It's worn and battered, but still very capable. My standard lens was the SMC Pentax-M 1:1.4 50 mm, undeniably my favourite fast fifty. It's sharp, and its minute form factor makes it a great travel companion. The telephoto was an Auto Chinon 135 mm 1:2.8, a sharp and acceptably small piece of glass, with an added bonus of a built-in hood.
Tuesday: Bytów
In Bytów, I decided to shoot my Pentax P30N. I loaded it with a medium speed, high contrast marvel of aerial reconnaissance photography: the Rollei Superpan 200. It was the first time I used this film, but I knew what to expect since I'm already familiar with Rollei Retro 80S and Rollei Retro 400S. I'm not great at black-and-white photography, so most of my shots were fairly uninteresting. Here are a couple of my favourites:




Bytów
I've had a not-so-fun experience near the end of the visit. My camera's shutter release had been a bit sluggish all day, which I attributed to the batteries being low. At a certain point, the shutter's front curtain opened, but the rear one never closed. This ruined three frames of my film: the current one and the two adjacent ones. I always carry a set of spare batteries, but here's the kicker: one of my spares had bulged like a balloon. With just one battery, and apparently not a very fresh one, I managed to make the camera close the rear curtain and work somewhat well for the rest of the day. Next time, I'll make sure to inspect the expiry date on the spares I take with me.
My favourite photo of the day was of this staircase. It leads up towards a Teutonic castle. I found the texture of the zigzagging stone retaining walls interesting, contrasting with the surrounding vegetation and with a stark difference between the sunlit and shadowed parts of the scene.

Thursday: Frombork
A deluvial rain forced me to spend all Wednesday at home. I took no photos, but planned a trip for the next day. On Thursday, I went to Frombork.
This time, I took my Pentax MX with me. The lack of fresh batteries was a non-issue since the MX is a mechanical camera. The overcast sky promised muted soft light, and the weather forecast indicated a chance of a drizzle. The conditions were fitting for a faster film. I loaded the camera with a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus and started shooting. Sadly, I didn't manage to finish the roll since I spent a large chunk of the trip in a museum of medicine. The light was very dim there, and finding compelling compositions in a museum can be a challenge. Here are a few of the photos I managed to take before I was forced to head home.







Frombork
No portfolio shots were taken that day. I haven't had a chance to visit Frombork's monumental cathedral, so I'm already considering a follow-up visit.
Friday: Lębork
My first goal in Lębork was to finish the roll of HP5. It took me less than an hour. The town turned out to be filled with mediaeval architecture, so there were compositions wherever I looked. Surprisingly, some of my best photos came from the dimly lit interiors of the fortified towers around the town's centre. I was forced to shoot wide open at 1/30th or 1/60th of a second. These aren't speeds I'm comfortable with when shooting handheld, and the wide-open aperture meant I had to compose specifically for shallow depths of field. As soon as I finished the roll of HP5, I switched to Ilford XP2 Super.
I created a few interesting shots; here they are.






Lębork
Lastly, there's this photo of a beekeeper's mask hanging on a brick wall. It lacks excessive detail and is free of distractions. The main subject is interesting enough to create a story and force the viewer to ask questions. Who's the owner of the mask and garments? Are they taking a pause from work? Eating, sleeping? Is it a permanent pause due to retirement or having passed away? These unanswered questions, together with the strong sense of three-dimensionality of the scene, make this shot my absolute favourite.

Weekend: Olsztyn
During the weekend, I visited Olsztyn, where I shot the few remaining shots of the XP2 roll. I chose the Urania hall as my main subject. It's a recently rebuilt sports and expo hall with some interesting architectural features, mainly the lattice facade that I found perfect for abstract shots. Sadly, I didn't come back with much else. There was one photo that stood out, and that's the one I used as the featured image at the top of this post. Here are a few of the remaining ones.



Urania hall in Olsztyn