A familiar route for a sunny Saturday roadtrip…
Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only real cure is to load up some film in your best camera and shoot like a bastard - a slightly modified quote but relevant to the mood in these photographs.
Driving east on Interstate 90 past Snoqualmie Pass brings you to the “other side” of Washington I find relatively prettier than the rainforests and the evergreens to the west. Home is where the heart is but home - western Washington, being more accessible round the year presents less interesting and less exotic subjects to me for creating photographs. The Fall season is about to peak in Washington but the foliage was starting to turn yellow and orange around high elevations, so I embarked on a solo road trip last weekend to capture the early season on film as well as digital photographs.
iPhone 16 Pro Max
Hasselblad X2D
Hasselblad X2D
iPhone 16 Pro Max
iPhone 16 Pro Max
The terrain changes very quickly after driving down the east slopes of the Cascades, from mountain side consisting of densely distributed streams and creeks flanked by perennial trees to gentle hills covered with sagebrush and farm animals. Signs of fall quickly changes to either late summer or early winter, for there is no distinct fall season in these parts.
Kodak Portra 400, Nikon FM3a
iPhone 16 Pro Max
Kodak Portra 400, Nikon FM3a
Kodak Portra 400, Nikon FM3a
Hasselblad X2D
Many hours fast forward - a sunset and a moonless night sky. The wind stopped briefly for the sunset before changing direction and get colder in absence of the sun.
Hasselblad X2D
This was not the first time I have been to these locations and likely not going to be my last trip. With every year adding more photographs of familiar locations the timeline starts to blur and makes it difficult to place a timestamp on a photograph. But there will always be a special place in my heart for these mountains and the wide open land beyond them, not too far from my home.
Beautiful spring day in the city.
A Lubitel-166 Universal made in the USSR in the 80’s - I bought this camera from an Amazon seller from Ukraine in 2022, it took months to get it delivered after transit delays (due to the war in Ukraine). Once I received the unit, didn’t shoot with it until now. I had put a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 in it many months ago to get my father-in-law into analog photography but he couldn’t find time to shoot. After kicking off my home film developing workflow I was hungry for exposed film to put in the tank to develop therefore, I finally took the TLR camera out.
There are no light leaks, I am particularly impressed with the sharpness of the images, especially since I was guessing focus over a somewhat broken focussing system.
When I rebooted analog photography in December of 2022, it was inevitable I would get down to developing film at home, at some point. Today. I finally got to that point…
I ordered the Ars Imago lab box and CineStill DF96 monobath that came in earlier today. The first roll to go into the daylight operable lab box was a Fujifilm Neopan ACROS 100-II. But unfortunately, it came out not that great - the developed negatives strip had purple stains. But it added an effect I loved on certain shot, like the one below.
I was unsatisfied with the result, had to shoot some more to test and give it another shot. So in the afternoon I ventured out with my trusty Pentax 6x7 loaded with a roll of HP5. Few hours later I had shot through the roll, and it was ready to go into the lab box. This time I agitated the film in the soup for 9 minutes (instead of 6 in the previous attempt), followed by vigorous rinsing under tap water for a much longer duration. The result was very satisfactory: although there are purple stains on the film edge (that I believe was due to the film edge in contact with the spool), the images came out clean.
There are “some” stains in the following images but not as bad as what I got in the first round. Once I run out of the monobath I’m going to invest in individual developer and blix/fixer to have more control on the process.
It’s really beautiful here in the Pacific Northwest when it is not raining.
Shot on Kentmere Pan 100 film.
Graffiti is not always art, it can be the result of vandalism.
Shot on Kodak Portra 160.
Shot on Fujica GM670
1/15 sec at f/8
1/8 sec at f/8
1/8 sec at f/8
1/2 sec at f/8
1/60 sec at f/8
1/60 sec at f/8
1/80 sec at f/8
1/60 sec at f/8
1/60 sec at f/8
1/60 sec at f/8
I cannot articulate in words the feeling that brewed inside me as I was setting up this shot. First, there was no sun until the last few seconds when it peeked through the clouds and lit up the trees in the background. Then it was a difficult composition with the “Wide” lens.
It appeared to me as if the trees were mourning the death of the fallen one.
Fujica GS645W | Ektar 100
Shooting with film at night has never been this much fun.
Seattle and Port Townsend
10 sec at f/5.6, CineStill 400D
10 sec at f/5.6, CineStill 400D
30 sec at f/16, CineStill 400D
10 sec at f/5.6, CineStill 400D
Nikon FM2 | Lomography Color Negative ISO 400
1/500 sec at f/8
1/125 sec at f/2.8
1/250 sec at f/8
1/250 sec at f/8
1/250 sec at f/8
1/125 sec at f/8
1/125 sec at f/8
1/125 sec at f/8
1/250 sec at f/8
1/250 sec at f/8
1/250 sec at f/8
1/60 sec at f/8
1/125 sec at f/8
1/125 sec at f/8
1/250 sec at f/8
1/125 sec at f/4
1/60 sec at f/4
1/125 sec at f/4
1/125 sec at f/8
1/250 sec at f/8
1/500 sec at f/8
1/500 sec at f/8
1/500 sec at f/8
1/500 sec at f/8
1/250 sec at f/8
1/250 sec at f/8
1/125 sec at f/8
1/250 sec at f/8
1/500 sec at f/8
1/125 sec at f/4
1/500 sec at f/8
1/500 sec at f/8
1/250 sec at f/4
1/125 sec at f/4
1/250 sec at f/1.8
1/1000 sec at f/1.8
I have been shooting 120 film for a while but did not have a 135 film camera until now. Well, I started photography with a K1000 but that was long time ago - a period I would like to erase if I can.
To fill the 135 format gap I bought a Canon AE-1 Program and shot two rolls (few photographs here) with it. It’s a really nice camera that featured a “point and shoot” mode as well. Then I found a Nikon FM2N in excellent condition - I had to get it. Paired with a 50mm f/1.8 AIS pancake lens and a roll of Kodak Portra 400, drove to Washington Park in Anacortes to test it out.
I waited very patiently for them to take to their wings, as I stared through the viewfinder of my (new) Nikon FM2. The wait was probably a minute but it felt longer.
They finally flew off…
