Columbia River Gorge with the Mamiya RZ67

It’s been raining something fierce here in the Portland area for the last few days. I don’t mind so much. I rather like the rain. It gives me a great excuse to curl up on the couch with my laptop, put on some very warm socks, and get caught up on editing images and watching movies. Over the next couple of days I plan on diving into a John Cassavetes box set I bought some time ago and will develop at least three rolls of film.

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Photographed with a Mamiya RZ67 and Ilford HP5 film in 120 format.

I often don’t give my landscape photography the attention that it deserves. I’m keenly aware that it is less popular than the art nudes and figure studies and long ago I made my peace with that. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy doing it though. Heck, as I get older and more grumpy and have less of a desire to be around people I often enjoy doing it more. Landscape photography gives me the excuse to do something solitary without feeling lonely. There is something rather profound and good about that and I feel lucky to have a hobby that allows me to experience such a state of being.

I dragged my Mamiya RZ67 up a rather steep trail in order to make this particular image. I’m not the most physically active person on earth but I’m certainly not out of shape either. The trail up to this foggy hillside was a series of switchbacks that seemed to take forever, especially considering I had my Mamiya RZ67 with me (not a light camera…) a couple of lenses, a couple of film backs, a tripod, and a healthy amount of water and snacks. I don’t think it helped when you consider that it was a very foggy day and I couldn’t see the top of the hill where I was headed so I had no idea how close or far I was.

As always though, in the end it was worth it.

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Landscapes on Sauvie Island with the Hasselblad 500c/m

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.

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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.

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Oregon Badlands

This image goes back a long long long way. Over a decade ago perhaps? I’m not really sure. I am at that age where everything seems like it was “ten years ago” when really it was probably a lot longer than that.

The image was made on a day trip out to the Oregon Badlands which are just outside of Bend more toward the center of the state. Oregon is a funny place in that on the west side of the Cascade Mountains it is green and damp and rains a lot but on the east side of the Cascade Mountains it feels more like a desert, or at the very least like the grand plains that one sees in an old western film. The trees become brittle and dry, the ground dusty, and the light harsh and intense.

It can be quite a change for a photographer who is used to overcast skies and more or less perpetual doom and gloom.

Still, change can be a very good thing and it is always fun to exercise the creative brain with new location and new situations. Due to the fact that the light was very bright and the sun more or less straight overhead, I exposed my roll of Fomapan 100 back to ISO 50 in an attempt not to blow out the highlights. I succeeded with this particular image, but not for most of the roll.

I still consider one image out of a roll of twelve to be a victory though.

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Mt. Shasta With The Hasselblad SWC

About six months ago I took a trip to Mt. Shasta to help out a friend with some content creation for her small business. While the main focus of my trip was not for my own work, I of course took some rolls of film and a film camera. After all, I haven’t been traveling much this past 18 months thanks to COVID and so any opportunity to get on the road I’m going to take it. I thought the Hasselblad SWC would be perfect for the occasion because it is relatively small and it more or less forced me to just be content with one lens. The vast majority of my traveling camera bag had to be dedicated to video gear.

This image was taken very early in the morning. We headed out onto a trail before the sun was even up or any coffee shops were open (seriously, I was craving coffee the entire hike). Despite the early morning hour it was also blistering hot already. I started out the hike wearing a heavy coat and was desperately wishing I had left it in the car by the end.

I made this exposure hand held at 1/250th of a second and f/11 focused at infinity. With the Hasselblad SWC that more or less means an infinite depth of field. It may be hard to believe, but I was also only about eight feet away from the figure in the center of the frame. I’m still often blown away by just how wide of an angle and how much information it is possible to put in the frame of that 38mm Biogon lens.

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Pinhole Photograph with a Zero Image 6x6

It’s been a little while since I’ve put any focus in my pinhole photographs. For some reason this morning I woke up with the desire to change that.

According to my notes this was a five minute long exposure. I recall the scene being very dark as I was standing in a dense forest on a very cold winter day. I’m surprised the leave in the center of the frame came out as sharp as it did.

Not that sharpness is ever really my goal with pinhole photography.

I’ve always liked the Zero Image camera. Granted with pinhole work I tend to prefer something larger, like 4x5 or 8x10 sheet film. But the Zero Image is a great little design that comes in very light in weight that works perfectly when I’m carrying other cameras. I have the Back To Nature version, which I actually think looks nicer than their regular model even though it is cheaper.

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