Some images from awhile back on kodachrome. Sure wish Kodak would bring it back.
Grand Canyon – storm clearing.
Capitol Reef. Also storm clearing.
Author Archives: rdjohnson50
One day I got the idea to go around town and find all the wall Murals on the sides of buildings in town. Not a big town, one main street & maybe 10,000 or so, but lots of murals. I did this over two days. First outing was at sunrise when the light is soft and there are no shadows. 2nd outing was on a cloudy afternoon.
All of these are taken with a Canon G7X point and shoot camera mounted on a monopod. I keep these in my car at all times.
Taken on first day:
Taken on 2nd day:
I got out my Calumet 4×5 camera to play with some film I haven’t tried yet. I also ordered a new 4×5 camera (An Intrepid 4×5) that will be light enough for me to carry around.
In the old days I sent out all the Large Format color images for development. But now I wanted to try C-41 color processing for Negative film at home. It’s not any more difficult than Black and White, you just have to keep the Developer solution at a steady temperature of 102 degrees F. Anyway I managed to pull it off.
First I tried some Ilford HP5 Plus 400 black and white film. New for me but I do like the result. Shot with 210mm lens and two Flash heads.
When shooting 4×5 nothing is automatic like in Digital cameras. It all gets done Manually. Focus, Aperture, Shutter Speed, metering. I do use my digital camera as a test shot to verify I am not way off on my settings.
I must say this Mannequin head has really paid for itself in making test shots for Portrait photography. Using the same lens and Flash I switched to Kodak Portra 160 color film. I made an exposure, changed scarfs, and shot another to get as many colors as I could.
In comparison here is a digital image.
I am really impressed with these scans and love the color palette that Portra has. But, by it’s name it was made for Portraits. We shall see about the rest.
I have yet to perfect the scanning process. I use an Epson V800 scanner and run SilverFast software. It will take me a bit to optimize the settings.
So now film has a promising future with this new Camera.
This is not what I expected as I thought the clouds would light up at sunset but as an HDR it turned out anyway.
A little wider angle.
A few cars from last nights Cruisin Grand. I brought my chair, tripod, Canon 5D Mark III camera, and a 135mm lens and set up on the curb.
An early Ford:
Bugsey w/ eye lashes:
My favorite old car. But not as good without his wife:
OK, not a car, but he looks interested:
Very interesting drive on Sunday into some desert Canyon’s. The desert flowers are still in full bloom and the weather is gorgeous. What else can you ask for?
The target on Sunday was Canyon Sin Nombre or “No name” canyon and Arroyo Tapiado where the mud caves are. I have driven neither before. First was this Ocotillo plant on Hwy S2 close to Sweeney Pass which is also close to where the canyon starts.
The sign to mark the canyon entrance reads only if your driving south to north and we were driving south but stopped at a lookout where I saw this sign.
The trail got tricky real fast and I tested the Renegade for the first time. I had to use 4×4 low and Ann had to spot me to get through some rocks in the trail. No pics of this section as I was too focused on just getting through which we did. This was just prior to the rough section.
After that it was fairly easy going for the rest of the day. But the geology was interesting.
We reached the end of Canyon Sin Nombre and then headed up Arroyo Tapiado to find some mud caves. This is a very interesting trail with high side walls and a zig-zag trail that went for miles.
The truck in front of us shows the scale of the trail side walls.
I was so focused on driving over rocks, around bends, that I never noticed any mud caves. I suspect they are in the small slot canyons that would run off the main trail. I am pleasantly pleased with the performance of the Renegade in these canyons. This is why I bought this vehicle. No way you can do this with a two wheel drive street car like my old VW Golf.
We didn’t finish the full loop of Arroyo Tapiado and will do the whole loop on another trip. We turned around at the 19.5 mile mark of trail riding and drove back to the Highway (S2) on Vallecito Creek wash. It was a fun day.
Drove out to Split Mountain yesterday which is on the Fish Creek Wash in the Anza-Borrrego State Park in San Diego county. Beautiful day as the summer heat is a bit away.
Some pics from the drive – Here is the entrance to Split Mn:
Interesting geology in the rocks:
We drove up Fish Creek for about 5 miles before turning around.
Sandy and I made a trip to San Juan to shoot some photo’s.
Yesterday I bought a new car. A Jeep Renegade TrailHawk which has 4X4 off-road capabilities. This will allow me to get to more remote locations for some improved images (I hope).
I now dare to go down muddy gravel roads without thinking about getting stuck with the old front wheel drive car.
It was a rainy day but the clouds were breaking making it a magical sky.
Now I can drive down these 2 track roads without any worry. More to come….
The rain is ending today so I went out to catch some breaking clouds. This is a valley a short distance north of town.
Yesterday my back yard looked like this. Hills are turning green.
rdjohnson50 