I went a little overboard when I made my slide film purchase. On top of the 35mm film box I also bought two packs of the Kodak Ektachrome E100G in 120 format. I’ve had it for a while, but I haven’t had much time to shoot lately. After doing battle with the DMV, I went out to my favorite spot in the city to take in some nature and shoot some slide film.
The botanical garden in Golden Gate park isn’t as much fun in the Fall/Winter, but you do get to see squirrels in full winter fur.
My 35mm camera has a built in meter, so getting exposure was less of a challenge. However, my Yashica D does not, so I was taking exposure with a hand held light meter that I used in film school. This, combined with the lack of latitude of the film stock made for a really challenging photo shoot.
I love the way this looks, but this is a good example of how challenging it is. I exposed for the bright part of the bark, but you lose detail in pretty much everything else.
This was more of a focus challenge, as I think the Yashica D has to be at least a meter away from something to be able to focus on it properly.
It still amazes me how sharp you can get things in focus with this camera. The lens is 80mm, but because the film is so huge, the depth of field is pretty tiny.
This almost looks like it’s underwater.
This is my favorite out of the whole bunch from this shoot. I absolutely love the colors and the way you can see the light through the clover leaves. I mentioned last time I shot this stock that the colors were more life-like than with negative film, but I think this shows that it could be “larger than life” as well.
Squirrels are hard enough to focus on with a normal lens. With the TLR focusing system, it’s almost impossible.
Who says we don’t have real Fall in the Bay Area?
This film’s treatment of green is pretty good. Once it warms up again I need to take some up to the Muir Woods and see what it can really do.
I’m noticing that the bokeh of the lens of this camera is football shaped. I hadn’t really noticed it before. It’s also pretty swirly. I’m not entirely certain I like it, though.
I like to believe that this hat belongs to the same person that left their pink shoes on the beach at Crissy Field.
Most of the botanical gardens looks like this at the moment.
There are, however, some small splashes of color.
I feel like the background is rotating around the focus point here.
There was a ray of light shining right on these flowers and I couldn’t pass it up.
Enlarged to show texture.
Good old California native plants.
This is another example of the background swirling around the focal point.
After shooting through four rolls of this film (2 35mm and 2 120), I think I really like it, but it is extremely difficult to shoot. If I had more control over the light (aka wasn’t being stupid and shooting in broad daylight) I think I could make some better images. I still have many more rolls of this stock left, but I think I need to shoot some black and white film next.
