Medium Format

24May

Santa Barbara

Back when I was putting miles on the Evo to break in the new engine, part of my travels brought me back to Santa Barbara. I don’t usually get out there much, but it always feels relaxing spending time there since it’s much more chill than Los Angeles. This was also during some big fires east of the area so in one photo the plume of smoke can be seen rising over downtown. After getting there I took a break to just walk around downtown and shoot some of the area on Velvia. I always love Velvia for scenery, it’s going to be a sad day when Fuji also decides to stop producing it.

Smoke rising over downtown Santa Barbara

Granada Theater

Spanish style entryway

Whitewashed buildings in the shade

Possibly Santa Barbara Town Hall

Old Courtyard

16Feb

Medium format back on my 4×5 camera

I don’t use my Horseman 6×9 medium format back on my large format camera enough. I really love the results I’ve gotten from it in the past even though on this roll I only got 4 out of 8 shots that I think were ok. The 6×9 aspect ratio feels really natural for a lot of types of shots and at times I miss having my Fujifilm GW690 camera still too. Despite it only being a fixed lens range finder with no meter, the results were always extremely sharp and it made it very quick to setup and grab shots that I can’t do anywhere close to as fast with the 4×5.

These few photos from the roll still came out well enough, though I still want to get the next results sharper or with perhaps better control over the depth of field. I have a roll of Kodak 500T in the back now that I’ve been waiting for the right nights to bring out and shoot with. Hopefully I can get some good semi-foggy nights and car stuff shot with it. In general I haven’t been using my 4×5 enough for the past few months, but that should change as I have some projects and travel lined up this year.

Downtown Los Angeles shrowded in fog at night

Downtown LA at dusk on a rainy day

Guy stands on part of Vasquez Rocks which dwarf him in size

Skies rapidly turning pink in Joshua Tree National Park

16Nov

Around Manila on Fujifilm Pro 400H

These are some photos from a few rolls of Fujifilm Pro 400H from my trip with Zab to the Philippines earlier this year that I finally developed. My developing has been a bit slow since I’ve been waiting until I have enough rolls to maximize the useage of a batch of chemicals. While we were there I mostly spent time shooting slide film, which I posted in this blog post, but I ended up shooting a couple rolls of 400H when I wanted to get shots in low-light situations and of her and I. Generally, I find negative film to be more flattering in color to people than slide film since it handles various lighting conditions better. It didn’t really help me in hiding my kind of out of shape figure though, what can I say though, the food was really good.

Macro photo of a stack of magazines in a cafe

All different kinds of meat at a night market

People getting different kinds of juices at a night market

Looking down the row of all the food options at a night market

Cheese and Meat Dynamite Rolls

Outside in the redlight district at night

Zab and I standing outside the main walls of Fort Santiago

Zab and I sitting on a ledge near an inner wall at Fort Santiago

Zab and I standing in one of the garden areas at Baluarte de San Diego

Random intersection on a quiet day in Makati

Interesting building that is being torn down or built, I'm not sure

People walking around in Makati

A pile of Filipino Pesos

Another new building being built in Makati

A pedestrian bridge going to the mall in Makati that has art painted by different artists all across the ceiling of the walkway