photography

Dad here, he’s such a Shutterbug. Mom? Same.

Gee, I wonder where I got it from.

photography

This one time mom and I drove up to Alaska, and the guy in town who develops c-41 had old chemicals, the shots turned out bluer than the blues, and I even had to pull the big lever to put the jeep in 4wd a few times (so, soooooo satisfying)

 

photography

Here’s the wrap up May Festival (La Féria de Barillas) pictures. So many great photo opportunities, and way more importantly I’m starting to learn how to not bring along my camera sometimes. In the Féria the town showed all it’s colors, the ones I like and the ones I don’t like. So many parts of Mayan heritage and equally so much trying-to-be-western, so many fat men who’ve never ridden a horse wearing cowboy clothes and so many malnourished children in expensive parades. So many smiles, too.

I’m somewhere between right and judgmental gringo and wrong.

 

photography

part II:

Nikon F3; Zeiss Planar 50/1.4 and Dad’s Nikkor 28/3.5 (except for a few shots I took with an E series 50/1.8); no photoshop.

(part I is here: http://wp.me/p11VMI-j0)

Roll 1: Kodak Gold 100
I have previously dissed on Kodak film. It’s for chumps? Real camera nerds use Ilford for black and white, and pro-grade Fuji for color, right? Well, this roll saved the day. I had decided to bring one roll of film–and absentmindedly grabbed an already-exposed roll. Smooth move dave, smooth move. As the dice fell, a nearby gift/souvenir shop just happened to have film. What film was it? Kodak Gold 100. Kodak, I apologize; your film is everywhere, you rock.

Roll 2: Fuji Pro 160S
I like this film. Nothing really super crazy, just good color and grain.

Roll 3: Fuji Sensia 100
The jury didn’t even have to go out on this one: I <3 slide film. It is beautiful. If I had to take a camera, lens and two films for the rest of my life, it’d be the F3, a 35/1.4, and Sensia 200 (or maybe the Kodak slide film, I haven’t tried it yet) and Ilford HP5+. Done deal. Actually that doesn’t sound like a half bad plan anyways…

Roll 4: Fuji Superia 200 (another one of the old rolls of film from pops)
Nothing too crazy here, same reddish vintage-looking hues from the 7-year aged film. This roll was halfway used up when we left, so it had only a few trip shots worth posting here. Why call it roll 4? Because I didn’t realize until a moment ago that it was the first, not last, roll I took on the trip; water under the bridge.

Without further ado, here they are:

roll 1 #10. Chips and salsa and hummus and apple pie and coffee, at the top of a 3.2 mile hike. All baked by scratch at the tea house up there, baking supplies helicoptered in once per season, fresh supplies hiked in weekly. The staff (a family) lives there five days per week. Yes, awesome.
#11. Yummy in my tummy :)
#13
#15. This view is even better while having the aforementioned chips and salsa and hummus and pie and coffee.
#26
roll 2 #2. A train boiler blew back in the day, sending this piece (over 500 lbs) on it's way to where it sits now. The railroad tracks are 130 meters away. Egads.
roll 2 #3
#4
#5. Awesome man riding his bike through the rockies with a guitar.
#8
#11
#19
#24
roll 3 #3
#5
#7. This was taken with a prime lens, a 50 for that matter...this required me to get closer to a nasty spider than I like to get to spiders. Especially the nasty ones.
#10 Up and to the right, you can see some of a glacier. Once and a while pieces would calve off and their thunder would roll down the valley. Awesome.
#17
#18. Pops sacking a few sweet macro shots. Mom is a total shutter bug, too. Go figure.
#28
#35
#36
#37. Slide film is awesome.
roll 4 #9
#11
#12
..and that’s it. It was a great* trip.
*”great” is overused. I mean great, actually great.
photography

Here are some more color shots–same old color film, same real nice slightly reddish vintage tones. I saved one roll of it for a special occasion, and I’m going to buy some film this week to sock away for a few years down the road. Nikon F3, e-series 50mm; no photoshopping or cropping.

clover flowers at the home field
(took this one 5 years ago with mom's point and shoot 35mm)
favorite cafe near home, shot 1
house number
the bikes, just before we hit the mountain (I definitely screwed up this scan--get a negative scanner soon, Dave)
fiery in the rearview mirror
old screen
photography

After shooting a roll of color film, it seems to me that it’s great for making pretty pictures, but those pretty pictures don’t really say anything. Sorta the idea that Ted Grant gets at about portraits:

“When you photograph people in color, you are photographing their clothes. When you photograph them in B&W, you photograph their souls. ”

Regardless, I’ve got a lot of work to do before I am someone to opine one way or the other about what different photo mediums are good for what all. This is nice, because “work” means taking more pictures :).

All were shot with (again, grand thanks to my pops for letting me borrow his camera!) a Nikon Nikkormat through a Nikkor 50mm f1.4; the film is Kodak Ektar 100, rated at 100. Kenmore Camera did the developing, and I used an older/cheaper Canon flatbed scanner to scan the negatives (less $$ than having it shop-done, but my word it took a lot of time. I’m going to start shopping for a good negative scanner soon).

(I forgot to keep track of exposure # when I scanned them, hence the “scan #” labeling. Smooth move David, smooth move.)

Here are seven of them:

scan #10
scan #12
scan #16
scan #19
scan #23
scan #27
scan #33