American Southwest Days, 7-14

After leaving Death Valley, I drove to Mesa, AZ where I stayed with my sister, did some work on my in-laws house, bought an iPhone, and took a few photos. While in AZ, a Shen Hoa 4x5 camera and Calter N 210mm lens found their way to my doorstep. I can tell you, I was excited.
After using the Crown Graphic I was surprised by a few things, how ugly but amazingly easy the old Graphic was too use compared to my new Shen Hoa, and how much I instantly loved my new camera. It is a work of art all on its own. 

After a few days of anticipation, I finally had a chance to take the camera out. I drove out to Saguaro State Park, AZ and hiked for a few hours, not really knowing what I would find. I came over a little knoll, and was greeted by this view and decided "this is it". It seemed like a good fit for the 210mm Calter. It's a short telephoto on a 4x5. It equates to about a 70mm on a 35mm camera.

Weaver's Needle and Saguaro. Shen Hoa 4x5 with Calter N 210mm Lens. Shot with TriX320 b&w film.

All and all, I am pretty darn happy with this picture, and also recognize it as a learning experience. Some opportunities have to do with camera operation, and some just with photography composition.

What do I like.
  1. I made it. Completely manual. With a wooden field camera.
  2. I metered a difficult shot perfectly and got dead on exposure. The highlights are held and the shadows aren't blocked.
  3. The detail, sharpness and contrast are out of this world. (you can't really tell that from looking online)
  4. It will forever remind me of a completely awesome 10 days I spent with my family decompressing from 4 years of pharmacy school.

What I can learn.
  1. Better composition. What is that stupid light colored branch in the lower right hand corner and why did I lop off the top of that cactus? Other minor things are I don't like the way the mountains look as they leave the right side of the frame. I need to remember that telephoto lenses will foreshorten and flatten perspective. This three cacti look like they are similar distances from the camera, but the one on the right is about 20' and the middle cactus is about 45' and the left is 30'. I wanted more of a feeling of standing "among the cactus".
  2. Planning. From the time I set up and focused to the time I snapped was over an hour. When I set up, the cacti were side lit - top to bottom - and were much more interesting. I was thinking I would take this picture a little later than I did (so the sky and foreground would be closer in exposure), but then realized the shadows were creeping up my cactus.  I had to shoot or I was going to lose all the interest in my foreground element. 
  3. Making pictures with sheet film is hard. I exposed a lot of 4x5 negatives on this trip. You are not going to see very many because most of them had technical difficulties, ranging from incorrect loading of film, to double exposing, to forgetting the dark slide so there was no exposure. You get the idea. I now have a checklist.
  4. B&W is all about luminosity. That sky was pretty amazing in color - bleh in B&W. 
The other thing I learned when I was in AZ - Barry Goldwater was an amazing photographer. 

Next up - The Grand Canyon and Sedona!




 

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