Category: Carlsbad

Fuji Film Samples and a Rainbow

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The same week as the previous post I took some shots with the GX680 using some Fuji films. This week I got a roll of Fujipro 160NS negatives and Provia 100F slides processed. The first scan had one a little wonky and I asked to get it rescanned, but they did all of both rolls a second time. I actually think they came out better the second time, and I don’t know why. Something to consider going forward, I guess.

I’ll just dump a few samples here. Look at the file names to see what film they were taken on.

I don’t mean to make too many conclusions just yet, but first impressions are that I LOVE Provia 100F. It isn’t over the top extra like the Velvia 50, which I also love, and the extra stop of speed is welcome. It’s not posted here, but I took a shot of sleeping tiger up one stop and it is very washed out with an ugly color shift, so Provia doesn’t have any better exposure lattitude than Velvia, but I expected that. The negatives are nice, too. I wasn’t sure the first time I tried 160NS, but it’s kind of growing on me. I’ll post more samples of it later.

And this afternoon I made the mistake of not going out with the camera. It was raining and DARK grey so I stayed at work, but minutes before the sunset the clouds cleared out. The sky was spectacular, I could have killed the roll of Velvia I am dying to get developed but still has 3 frames to go.

I did catch some shots of a rainbow that ran from end to end and was as intense as I’ve ever seen. I actually ran inside to grab my 20mm because I couldn’t get both ends in frame at 24mm, but it was dying out by then. Still fun, I go three or four years at a time not seeing one, and almost never as intense as this.

More snapshots from around town

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This is a roll of Ektar. Like the previous Portra 400, it’s just snapshots from around town, taken during my evening walks. The dredging photos are all unique, I was experimenting with hyperfocal distance and framing on those. The duplicate shots on the seawall are just cropped to see what 8×10 vs 8×12 looked like.

I was using a Nikkor 28-105 AF-D lens, which I got for dirt cheap. It’s a walking around lens, not the highest of all quality. It’s much more prone to lens flare, and it’s not quite as sharp, as my 28mm prime. Yet it’s sharp enough, and from 35mm up not distorted. In fact, it’s a good bit lower distortion than the newer zooms that replaced it.

If I’m shooting only landscape at 28mm, I can grab that lens. but for random street shots, I’m sure not complaining much about something that only cost me $85. It’s truly a bang for the buck bargain.

Portra 400 in the VIllage

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Walking around the Village on a bright, sunny afternoon, burning film just to see how the colors come out. Most of these were taken over the same wonderfully warm weekend, Friday and Sunday. This is all Portra 4001, 135, from the same roll.

My last attempt at Portra I shot +2/3 of a stop, but I accidentally forgot to set the camera to overexpose on Sunday, which I genuinely meant to do as my last experiment with that produced better scans than shooting at box speed. Especially on the more contrasty photos like the Cantina, where I could have used a little reach into those shadows. The picture of Fiesta Liquor taken on Friday is +0.7 and scanned nicely. I could have gotten away with more. The beach shots definitely would have benefited from a little extra, it’s easier and less grainy to pull back a highlight on Portra than to try and recover something in a shadow.

Speaking of… One thing I’m noticing in 135, the grain is a lot more apparent. I’m cool with it on the 6×8 negatives, but these tiny little baby negatives certainly suffer for the higher speed.

1. The B&W photo is from the same roll, I did it in the photo shops just to see how it compared to actual black and white film. I uploaded it by mistake but, what the heck. Might as well share.

The Village and along the seawall

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One of those days. You know, the ones everyone not from here think happen every day. They don’t, and when you get a February day with warm sunshine, unlimited visibility, and a gentle breeze you go out and enjoy it. I parked along the coast highway, walked the seawall to the jetty then back to the village, then walked the bluff back to my truck.

I tried to hit the driving range, but it’s so popular with the ‘rona that Arturo and I couldn’t even get a single spot, much less two near each other, without a long wait. Walking along the beach is almost as good.

The pictures if Pig Liquor and Neimans are for comparison. I intend to shoot them with film as well, I’ll eventually see what Ektar looks like, at least in 135, but if I can get an afternoon like this during the week when there are fewer crowds I’ll give it a shot with Provia 100F and maybe Velvia 50.

North of the village is a little park on the Buena Vista lagoon. I was walking there just to get some exercise and see the view of the lagoon along the coast highway at the Oceanside border, but since I was there I decided to take some pictures of the dogs that people bring most evenings. I tried to take pictures of the labradoodle named Buddy, but getting down on the grass seemed to mean you wanted kisses, so he was too difficult. I’ll have to try again when he is a little calmer.1

I also took close ups of the doors in the tree. No place better to dump the photos than here.

1. Maybe in four or five years.