Kodak Ektar in the Zero Image 618 Pinhole

Pinholing is fun, and some fantastic results can be had with a colorful film like Ektar. Get it processed professionally and order some optical prints while you're at it.

These were taken on a day in early May last year on our way to Portland. We stopped for a quick hike up the Rowena Plateau Trail where we ran into some balsamroot in full bloom, then ended up along the waterfront for the festivities happening there.

Balsamroom in bloom in the Columbia River Gorge.

A sternwheeler on the Willamette River.

This was a one minute exposure. Those people really were that still for that long.

Columbia Inland

I love shooting color negative film, but don't always trust myself with developing it myself. Time and temps are supercritical, and my color scanning workflow can sometimes give me results I don't want. I only send my most important and most promising color film out for development.

Cliffs in the Wallula Gap of the Columbia River, SE Washington state.

I recently shot a roll of Kodak Ektar in my C220 medium format camera because 1) I needed to test out a new 180mm f/4.5 lens and 2) the clouds were looking really, really nice that day. This wasn't a roll that rose to the level of important/promising.  So, I broke out my bottles of c-41 developer. This was a batch that had been mixed together 6 months ago or so--the outside recommended limit--and had about 8 rolls of 35mm film through it already.

McNary Dam

For the most part, I was pleasantly surprised with the results. A few frames I wasn't able to quite get the colors I was looking for, but had some nice images from others.

Hat Rock. Development streaks duly noted, and another reason to send out your film.

I'm shooting more color film in the Zero Image pinhole camera these days, and I won't necessarily send all of that out. When I can't, I know I should be able to get at least acceptable results by doing it myself. Usually. Hopefully. And hey, there's always the b/w conversion trick when it doesn't work out the way I wanted it to.

Ektar converted to monochrome. 

Winter light = Ektar time

For me, the best and longest-lasting light for landscape photography occurs in the winter months, roughly Dec-Jan. Of course, that might be different depending on where you are at in your hemisphere. But it's ideal here in the inland Pacific Northwest. That afternoon sun just hangs around as pleasantly as an old childhood chum who's come to visit.  It never gets more than 45 degrees above the horizon, and it takes a good long time to go down.The only problem is, where I live, we can get low-hanging, lifeless clouds for much of that time. Or fog. Or just ice without snow. Just not ideal times for color film photography.

But once in awhile the landscape gods smile down on us and treat us to some fresh snow and a nice, sunny day with a few clouds overhead. That was the case for me just before Christmas of 2017. School was out, and snow had fallen throughout our region, a good 6-10 inches on the ground depending on where you were. I had spent the morning paying a visit to my mom, who lives about an hour away, and was lucky enough that I brought my camera with about a half roll of Ektar left in it.

Ektar can go really blue in the shadows while leaving sunlit areas with good colors. It was cold out, after all.

Some morning cloudiness had given way to sunny skies and clear conditions, so I took advantage of the situation and left mom's house to take the long way home. Having brought my 4WD pickup along, I managed to make my way through some snowed-over gravel roads that made up most of my trip that afternoon.

I love the comp here, but I scanned a lot more turquoise than I should have.

These images represent about 2 and a half hours of cordial light and lengthy shadows, something you're never going to get around here in the summer months.

I'm getting the hang of developing c-41 myself at home. For the most part, my colors are coming out well. When they're not, it's a result of my scanning, which I'm still trying to improve and perfect. And in the end, my goals for these images aren't scans for the computer screen, but optical prints that get physically handled. That is what I have in mind now when I'm shooting.

We might or might not see any snowy weather the rest of this winter. Temps are supposed to be well above freezing for the forseeable future, but it's only the beginning of January. There's still time. If we don't, I'm glad I had the chance to get out and burn some Ektar. And if we don't get any more snow, I'll be patiently waiting for spring!

Summer rewind: Kodak Ektar

As we begin to finish up 2016 (thank God) I realize there were a lot of film images that didn't make it onto this blog. Specifically, some summer time photos taken in the Corvallis area got left behind. These were taken on Ektar 100, and self developed:

I've never understood why it's called '26th Street' when it's actually on Monroe. Oh well. 

Centro Cultural César Chávez

South end entrance, off of Western Boulevard

A common mode of transportation. This one had been sitting there for awhile, I think. 

Outside Valley Library.

Benton Hall, aka the Music Building. 

Summertime=Colortime

This isn't doing me much good sitting in the freezer. Time to get out and burn some film. #believeinfilm #filmphotography

A photo posted by Rick Scheibner (@hermistonphotos) on Jun 15, 2016 at 12:35pm PDT

I've been hoarding some color film since last year with the idea of shooting just that over this summer. Several rolls of 120 and 135 in, I'm ready to start processing. This is the roll of Ektar from that trip. Not great light, but this was more of a chance to burn it, develop it myself, and see how it went. I have no reason to complain, especially since it sat in the first pre-soak water longer than instructed, due to an error on my part. These were taken at Wallula Gap in SE Washington State, and Hat Rock Park in NE Oregon.  More pics coming as I get them developed.