Providence Canyon Camping Trip 2013 - Part 1

The last weekend in October, I went camping near Providence Canyon with some friends and students from the VSU Photography classes. I shot a lot of 35mm as well as 4x5 and some medium format.

Here's some 35mm snaps, made with a Nikon F2 and 2.1cm f/4, 3.5cm f/2.8, 5cm f/2, and 10.5cm f/2.5 lenses:

 

Most of those were done just walking around the first evening and some fun snaps around the campfire. The second day I shoot 4x5 and some 120 during a long 8-hour hike. Images were taken with various lenses including the Schneider 47mm XL, Nikkor 90mm f/8, Voigtlander 15cm f/4.5 APO Lanthar, or Nikkor-M 300mm f/9. I also used some of my precious Velvia:

Well that's it from Providence. We also stopped in some small towns on the way back to Valdosta, which I will post soon.

Providence Canyon, 8x10 style

Yes, I'm still alive, if anyone was wondering!

I've been swamped with "real life" lately, working on a great number of projects, both personal and professional, as well as starting up my summer job that I have done every summer for 8 years now (working at an instrument repair shop.

Anyway, as I mentioned last post, all last week I was out of town in various locations. My first stop was Providence Canyon. I decided to lug my 8x10 all over this canyon system because I wanted to try a new lens primarily, but also because I'm crazy. My load was somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 pounds or more.

Well all that and I only took two shots. But they came out really well. When I get a chance I'll be contact printing both of these. So I also took my nice shiny new D800E as well. I didn't really take a single outstanding shot on the D800E. As much as I try, I just can't quite gel with digital shooting landscapes. I think the tactile experience of shooting a large format camera, along with the act of composing the image on a huge piece of glass, just works for me better.

Here are the shots. The first is taken with a 210mm f/9 Graphic Kowa lens that I just picked up. I really like this lens as this is my favorite focal length on 4x5 (kind of like a 28mm on 35mm cameras). The second is also with a newer lens that I got at a great price, a Nikkor 120mm f/8. This is a super-wide (equivalent to 17mm) lens. Both were shot with some HP5+ film I was given. I have seen some photos from HP5 before and I've never liked them. I still don't like the film really after shooting these but it's not too objectionable, especially since they'll be contact printed. I simply don't like the clumpy grain structure. I must admit it scanned very well though:

More images from the rest of my trips will be incoming shortly, so stay tuned...