Two from a recent trip up the Eastern Sierras. Mostly shot digital but drug the Mamiya 7 out for a couple of nostalgic rolls of T-Max 100 with a 25A filter. One up at the Schulman Grove of Ancient Bristlecone Pines in the White Mountains east of Big Pine and the other from Bodie in direct sun. Metered with a Minolta Flashmeter 6. The Mamiya has a built in meter but it sucks. Both shot with the exemplary Mamiya 7 50mm 4.5 at f/11.
Peter Figen wrote:
Two from a recent trip up the Eastern Sierras. Mostly shot digital but drug the Mamiya 7 out for a couple of nostalgic rolls of T-Max 100 with a 25A filter. One up at the Schulman Grove of Ancient Bristlecone Pines in the White Mountains east of Big Pine and the other from Bodie in direct sun. Metered with a Minolta Flashmeter 6. The Mamiya has a built in meter but it sucks. Both shot with the exemplary Mamiya 7 50mm 4.5 at f/11.
Gary - I drop the film off at Schulman Photo Lab in L.A. and have them process only, normal on these. I'm pretty sure they're using T-Max RS developer in a dip and dunk processor. The I drum scan on a Howtek HR8000 but I scan fairly flat to not clip anything, then into Photoshop for final toning and manipulation. It's getting to the point where I'll have to start processing myself again. The turnaround is too long now but since I wasn't in a hurry it didn't matter. I do want to experiment with Adox CMS20 in 35mm but it needs its own soup. That should be interesting especially using the trio of new Canon tilt-shift lenses which are simply the best lenses I've seen in years.
Back when I was young and foolish I actually did quite a few portraits on 4x5 film. Here's independent documentary filmmaker Bonnie Hawthorne (Dreaming of a Vetter World) when I shot her for Monterey Life Magazine a lifetime ago. As you can all see from the notch code for the 4x5 film, the three "v" notches indicate that it's Tri-X. Mostly likely developed in D-76 or possibly HC-110 and scanned on the venerable workhorse Howtek which has been spinning all summer long.
I spent a good chunk of the summer scanning images from my high school yearbook for the 45 year reunion that happened a couple of weeks ago. I was the principle photographer out of three and still had a filing cabinet drawer full of the original proof sheets and negs that have followed me around for nearly half a century. No one could believe I still had all that shit from back then, but I scanned about 120 images, posted them to the FB page for the class and made prints for the event. I also found some old shots I had forgotten about including this snapshot of a very unique pine tree hidden on a side road in Pebble Beach. I only wish I had the appropriate human to wrap around this, but this is what will have to do. 35mm Panotomic X. Yeah. Panotomic X. ASA 32. This is what we used prior to T-Max 100 and no one could believe that the "new" T-Max film could possible be better than this old emulsion. We were wrong.
This one was taken from a moving boat with 160 film speed so it's a bit blurry but I really liked how the sky looked that evening, the sun was going down and I timed it so to take the shot right when the sun was being the tower.
Reclamation. Get off the beaten path, wander the roads that are seldom driven, often tar and chip or gravel, and one can see nature reclaiming it's rights over once was farm houses and barns. My wife and I enjoy exploring back roads and this day found some old abandoned farm houses and barns starting to be reclaimed by nature.
I had/have a tumblr blog with nothing but this kind of decay, all captured on film but haven't updated in probably a year or so, need to keep updating as I have tons of this stuff. If anyone is interested, here it is. If not, just don't click it Abstaining From Forgetfulness
Spent 24 years there, 4 in Tuscaloosa.
