When photography is your goal (I won’t say dream) job, you can’t stop photographing. At least I refuse to, because it really makes me happy. In December I went on an impromptu trip back to my beloved California with my friend Doris. I brought my old friend, my Hasselblad and film, with the best intentions. It was only 2 days into the trip but I was finding it safer to not miss anything by using my DSLR. And then on Sunday during our trip to Joshua tree it happened. I am out in a “field” of Joshua Tree as the sun is setting (reference photos below for quotes around the word field) and my memory card runs out of space. I run back to the car and bring a few back with me. Then my battery dies….really?! I run back for the backups. As it turns out since it was the end of the day and somebody (who?!) may have not charged them back up the night before I am not left with enough juice to shoot. So off I run to the car for my Hasselblad, film and light meter (a what?). Now here is the trick with film, especially with a medium format camera, you have to get more discerning about when and what to shoot. Because one roll (12 images) costs $20 to process and get digital scans. Now I am sure there are cheaper labs out there but I tend to choose quality over quantity. But, something funny happens when money is on the line. You start to really consider and/or recognize a good shot (I wouldn’t say I am at the recognize stage yet). This is good because hard drive space is always at a premium and though I am a harsh editor with my images I know I still have way more than I will ever do anything with.
All this being said, having spent the time shooting my beloved Hasse I plan to take a breath while shooting with my DSLR, which in the long run will mean less time in front of the computer editing. So here I present my images with as little editing as possible to show the magic film has on its own. The second image has NO editing changes, it is literally the file that the lab sent me….I mean I edited the file size to fit the blog but that is it. The other images have minor curve changes to bring a bit more warmth and or contrast (except for the B&W image). This is the closest I will come to exposing myself online;).
And for those who care to know: Film: Fuji Pro 400H, Lab: Richard Photo Lab (they are awesome…really)
As a side note I ended up losing the memory card with all my Joshua Tree images and this is all I have left of the trip. So thank goodness for film, a manual camera and a lab that treats your film like gold.
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