It is very much feeling like warmer weather is just around the corner. I won’t deny I’m excited and thrilled at the prospect of getting outdoors with a few rolls of film and just enjoying a little bit of nature. I haven’t made enough of a point to do that lately and some sunshine will really do me good.
Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Rollei RPX 100 medium format film.
I don’t know if this is the result of being cooped up for too long with COVID, spending too much time at work, or just the fact that I’m changing with my old age, but I’ve been feeling more and more like working with landscapes over people. That is quite a shift for me. While I’ve always liked getting outdoors I’ve never thought of myself as a particularly successful landscape photographer. Getting older, I realize one of the huge reasons behind that is the fact that I’ve always been intimidated by other far more famous and well known landscape photographers.
Growing up in California, every photography and art student is bombarded with the ghost of Ansel Adams (among others…) and my technical skill, not to mention levels of patience, will always pale in comparison to him. However, it is really silly to let something like that stop me from trying and from gaining enjoyment working with outdoor spaces.
This image was made late in the afternoon on Sauvie Island just a few short weeks ago. All the trees are bare on the island right now which meant the environment felt incredibly flooded with light. The air was cold for sure, but you’d never know it looking at the images. It was fun to work with, especially as the sun dived lower and lower toward the horizon casting some long shadows across the ground from the largely naked trees.
For film I used a couple of rolls of Rollei RPX 100. I absolutely love the tonal range of RPX 100. There is a very cinematic look to it. It feels like I’m capturing single frames of some 1970’s German New Wave movie. Deep black and bright whites manage to creep into the negative in equal measure. This stock seems like it was born to be paired with Rodinal as well and even when exposing a negative directly toward the sun, as was the case here, I still get nicely exposed frames. It’s an expensive film stock unfortunately, so it will probably never fully replace my tried and true Ilford HP5, but when I’m in the mood to splurge a bit I like working with the Rollie stock.