Savannah 2012 - 4x5, 6x17, and 35mm

Finally finished developing. scanning, and editing these. I have a lot to do in the darkroom printing some of them but that'll come later. I had the pleasure of spending 3 days in Savannah two weeks ago for the Georgia Music Educator's Association conference assisting with the All-College Band. When I wasn't engaged with them I was out hitting the pavement with my 4x5 and other cameras all through Savannah's historic district and of course River Street.

I almost always bring my digital SLR on trips like this but this time I made the decision to completely forego digital. I think my photos turned out better than they would otherwise (not necessarily because digital is inferior, but having to focus on the film shots and not fumble with yet another camera kit).

Well I'll get right to it. Make sure to hit "Read More" when you get to it to see more photos!

The first day was busy so I did not get out till after sunset. Here's a shot across from a bar that is always hopping. I used a Schneider 210mm Symmar-S and took eight exposures each 1/2 a second long to get a different effect:

The next day I got up early to shoot. Here is a shot in the famous Colonial Park Cemetery. It was a bit blustery so you can see some movement in the moss to the left. I used a Nikon 90mm f/8 for this:

Near this cemetery is St. John's Cathedral, one of my favorite Catholic churches. Here is a shot of the interior with a 150mm lens:

I also ventured to River Street and took some candid street photos using my Nikon SP equipped with either the Voigtlander 21mm or Nikon 50mm, 85mm, or 135mm lenses. Here's a couple of the best shots:

 

Lot's more after the break!!

Color Film Bonanza - with 35mm and 4x5

The last few days I have spent the evenings scanning a couple of 35mm rolls of color negative film and developing some color 4x5 images. The 4x5 sheets are a menagerie of shots from the last few months, but mostly a few recent shots.

I discovered an interesting quality from some cheap old Kodak Gold 400 film. This is normally stuff I wouldn't touch for serious use, but when I did some color correction in Photoshop it ended up being some really nice film, much to my surprise. It was probably 10-15 years old! I received it along with an old film camera I bought on Ebay.

Here are a few shots from the roll to illustrate how good this old expired stuff can be. All shot with my trusty Nikon SP and 28mm, 50mm, or 85mm lenses. Yes, there is some blue/magenta color shifts in the shadows areas, but to I kind of liked that. After all, shadows are naturally a little blue. But they have a "look" to them that is very interesting to me:

Next are some photos from another roll of 35mm, also expired. This roll is from Fujicolor 100 film, which I have posted before. This stuff is only slightly expired, and for most things is really pretty nice. I have found that underexposing a hair is better than overexposing, unlike most negative film. I totally guessed most of these shots and 95% of them came out fine, even if underexposed by a couple stops!

This roll was primarily to test out two new lenses. I found a deal on two Voigtlander lenses for my Nikon SP - a 21mm and 25mm. They are very close in focal length but I wanted to try them both, so I bought them both. I might resell the 25mm at some point. The Nikon 28mm I have is going to be sold as it is superfluous (and not as great a lens as these modern designs). Here are a few shots, mostly with the 21mm lens, taken around VSU on a rainy day. As you can see, this film tends to be a little warm in color, unlike the expired Kodak Gold:

4x5 film shots after the break!

Savannah in 4x5

I haven't had a chance to shoot much these last few days due to other obligations. However, I wanted to post a few photos I took over Labor Day a couple months ago in Savannah, GA. Many of these are color, a welcome change to all the b&w on this blog I'm sure.

These first two images were taken on Velvia 50 transparency film. The photo of the door was taken with the Schneider 90mm f/8 lens while the street scene was taken with a super-wide Schneider 47mm f/5.6 XL lens, the equivalent of a 13mm lens or so on 35mm!

This next image was taken on Fuji 160S and converted to b&w with the Schneider 58mm XL:

Finally, here is an image of the Westin hotel on the other side of the river taken with the 90mm again and cropped to a panoramic format. Taken just as the sun was setting:

These were the best 4x5 photos from the trip. I unfortunately forgot my whole bag of black & white film on this trip which is why I took so many color photos.

More photos on 35mm below.