30-50-80 - Photos from Ship Island

This weekend I finally developed the last roll of images from my "30-50-80" trip in October. I just hadn't been able to get that done, and then I ran out of FX-39 developer, but finally I did it so now I have all the images scanned.

On the first full day we went to Ship Island, off the coast. I went once when I was very young so I always wanted to go back. There is a small fort on the island. Here are some photos from the fort:

There are big cannons on top of the fort, but one of them was apparently blasted apart by thieves (with dynamite!) who thought they could sell the scrap iron, or something like that, but the pieces were still too huge and heavy to take:

A couple more from around the fort and/or island:

 

All of the above were with my 4x5 and 6x17 cameras, with my 47mm, 90mm, and 150mm on the 4x5, and also the 90mm on 6x17. I also carried my Pentax 67ii and a 105mm lens (yes, it was a heavy pack!) and shot a few rolls on the ferry boat:

It was kind of a big deal when my mom made her way to the front of the boat since she is a bit scared of boats:

 And here's some on the island:

 Here's my uncle with a tiny horseshoe crab we found:

And finally here's Meagan and I:

That's it for ship island, I'll post more from the trip later.

Wanderlust Travelwide 4x5 @ U.S.S. Alabama

Back in October I shot a bunch of film in Mississippi and Alabama, but never posted anything except a short preview. I got busy and had so much film that I just forgot! Anyway, I wanted to post a few things from that trip to catch up.

First, the day I was leaving for the trip, I actually received my Wanderlust Travelwide 4x5 camera. For those who don't know, this is a new production 4x5 camera designed to be a small, lightweight, fixed-lens camera. It was a Kickstarter project which I backed a couple of years ago that was finally released, after some design problems. It's a really nice camera and lends itself, as you'd expect, for travel.

I took it with me on my trip and ended up shooting quite a bit at the U.S.S. Alabama with it. I did not want to bring a tripod onto the ship (if they would even let me) so HP5+ film on a sunny day allowed me to shoot handheld easily. Here's some images:

 

And I took one photo on Velvia 50:

Overall this camera was really easy to carry and shoot. The auxiliary rangefinder and helical, once calibrated, worked perfectly. For a MSRP $150 camera, I couldn't be happier.

The only downside is my 90mm Angulon spontaneously developed separation, which ruined a couple of photos due to really bad flaring. I switched out to an old Super Angulon I have with a rough rear element to try, but I haven't shot anything with it yet. I'll probably take it out the next time I go canoeing.

While there I also had my Leica M6 in my pocket with Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens. I shot mostly inside the U.S.S. Drum, a submarine parked next to the Alabama. It is really dark in there and even with 400-speed film was a challenge. Here's a few of those shots, and also some inside and outside the Alabama and aircraft hanger:

 

 

 

 

That's it for today, more soon.

Lake Lanier / Chattahoochee Flooding, + Dahlonega

I was in the Atlanta suburbs around New Year's and went by Lake Lanier a couple of times. The water was extraordinarily high due to record rains. I took a variety of photos at the lake, with either my Bessa R2S and mostly a 21mm f/4.5 Zeiss Biogon or 3.5cm f/1.8 Nikkor, or the Rolleiflex:

And here's Meagan and I in the woods near the dam:

We also went walking near the Chattahoochee River down near Roswell. It was flooding up under this overpass which made for an interesting reflection photo:

I also did an experiment with stitching 3 photos together to make this:

It didn't work out all the great because the center image was blurred a bit, but you get the idea. I should've had my 6x17 with me...

Anyway, I took some other photos while on this trip, up in Dahlonega. Meagan started a new job at the University of North GA, and we drove up there to give her a go at the drive. I had never been there so we walked around and I snapped a few pics:

We found a nice little coffee shop near campus, which served baklava and Turkish coffee! I had never seen someone make Turkish coffee, but I bought a nice copper cezve last year and have been trying to learn myself. Here's Meagan with our treat:

Perfect for the cold winter day in north GA!