A trip of 4,000 miles begins with a single step

[pevelg]

This June, I am embarking on a remarkable journey.

MAP MAP MAP MAP MAP MAP MAP MAP MAP MAP MAP

I am driving up to Alaska again. My first time was in March of 2006. It was on this trip that I first took my dads FED 5 with Industar 50 and first got into range finder photography. I have learned so much since that time. I am dedicating this thread to the upcoming trip, on which I am embarking on the 18th of June. Within the next few days, I will post various photos from my first trip, as well as some of my favorites from various flights to Alaska.

The gear? I am going to be taking my Mamiya 7ii with 80mm lens. Film for this camera will be Velvia 50. I will be taking my M4 with 50mm Zeiss Sonnar f1.5, the film will be Tri-X and BW400CN. I will be taking my Polaroid 600 (like SE) with FB-100C and FB-3000B. Accessories with mainly be a tripod and possible a flash. Mamiya 7ii will also have access to a polarizer and close-up adapter.

I will be driving up there with two other drivers and will be flying back.

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IMAGE 1: My brother with his digital, unaware of the RF experience. Atop Mt. Marathon in Seward, Alaska. Velvia 50 Mamiya 7 80mm with Polarizer.

 

[bagdadchild]

Wow beautiful photo!!!

I wish you a blessed journey! Sounds very very exciting! My longest trip was going overland from Scandinavia to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. I took a ferry across the Baltic Sea and then trains via Petersburg and Moscow. It was 3 full days on the train from Moscow to Kazakhstan. At the time I was only shooting a digital camera but nowadays it's mostly 6x7 (Pentax 67) and 35mm film (Contax G2, Contax T, Yashica Electro, Oly 35RC and a few others..)

 

[pevelg]

And I'm back....

2 rolls of TriX, shot at ISO 200 and will be developed by dr5chrome (M4 w/ ZM 50mm Sonnar f1.5(
3 rolls of BW400CN already developed (Pass the RF #5 camera)
7 rolls of Velvia 50, 220 (Mamiya 7, 80mm)
3(?) rolls of Velvia 50, 120 (Mamiya 7, 80mm)

Will post some of my BW400CN images later tonight. Will be a while before I get the Velvia developed and scanned.

 

[Matus]

we are eagerly awaiting your images and story !!

 

[oftheherd]

we are eagerly awaiting your images and story !!

Yes indeed!

 

[FrankS]

Is that a flash on the camera?

IMAGE 1: My brother with his digital, unaware of the RF experience. Atop Mt. Marathon in Seward, Alaska. Velvia 50 Mamiya 7 80mm with Polarizer.

[/QUOTE]

 

[semilog]

Will post some of my BW400CN images later tonight. Will be a while before I get the Velvia developed and scanned.

Looking forward to it!

 

[pevelg]

Is that a flash on the camera?

Sadly.... Yes. I have tried convincing my brother that natural lighting looks so much better, yet he refuses to believe. He is not using the flash for that particular picture he is taking, just uses it whenever taking pictures of people and using it as a fill flash.

Even more sadly, my polarizer filter for the Mamiya did not arrive from Japan until after I left for AK, so I won't get the wonderful blues from my previous trip.

I think I logged in over 5000 miles of sitting in a car (driving and being driven) for this trip.

 

[FrankS]

Looking forward to your pics!

 

[pevelg]

Turns out the Costco I used does pretty poorly with scans. I am currently rescanning the BW400CN films with my Coolscan, almost done with the first roll. Meanwhile, since I promised to post something, here are some of the salvageable scans.

Note: In image captions, the f-stop is max aperture of lens, NOT aperture at which photo is taken.

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Day 9 & 10 of trip - Seward Alaska

In comparison to my other trips, the weather was horrible. Constant rain and cloudy weather. After getting packed and then being delayed overnight due to heavy rains, we managed to get to Seward sometime in the afternoon on June 26th. The rains had stopped by then and we visited the harbor, taking it easy as we prepared for the hike up Mt. Marathon next morning. I love harbors and am fascinated by the variety of boats.

Canonet 28, 40mm f2.8, BW400CN (Costco Scan), One of the many fishing boats docked at the harbor.

While not clear in these photos, the water has a strange color to it.

Canonet 28, 40mm f2.8, BW400CN (Costco Scan), An odd little shot that I like, looking at the water along the docks.

Framing was somewhat difficult to a non parallax corrected viewfinder, something I did not realize until taking the camera on the trip.

Canonet 28, 40mm f2.8, BW400CN (Costco Scan), A boye covered in clams.

Canonet 28, 40mm f2.8, BW400CN (Costco Scan), These sings are found nearly everywhere there is water, usually with complementary life jackets near by.

Nothing else really was going on this day. The majority of the mountains were covered in clouds, offering little visibility. I forced my self to get up early the next morning as usually the cloud cover would dissipate by then. Such was the case and I took a large number of MF photos which I plan to stitch together into a panorama. By the time we were ready to hike Mt Marathon however, the rains started again and would not end.

Canonet 28, 40mm f2.8, BW400CN (Costco Scan), Two of my brothers at an ice cream shop escaping the rain and wondering if would let up. It didn't.

We ended up packing our bags and leaving early.
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I'll continue posting as I get more pictures scanned and developed. I should have the BW400CN rescanned by tomorrow and will post some more pics.

 

[pevelg]

Brief update:

-All BW400CN film scanned... Need to move files to a different system for processing as my Mac Mini is a little underpowered for editing lots of photos.

-Since doing this trip, I am once again planning on switching my equipment around a little. I find it too difficult to work without a meter so the M4, though a gem to use, has to go. Most likely will replace it with a M8. I was also thinking of selling my 80mm and 150mm lenses to help fund the M8 and then get the 50mm Mamiya lens. Well...

Today I got my 120 and 220 films back, all Velvia 50....

There is NO WAY I can let go of the 80mm lens. I went and purchased the Nikon glass holder for the Coolscan and that should arrive Monday and I will start scanning the MF film then. Meanwhile, here is a teaser using the stock holder.

Scan settings: Silverfast, Multi-Exposure, DPI-2000, IT8 color calibrated with Kodak IT8 target, briefly processed in Silverfast HDR, auto tone and GANE. Picture? Taken out of a MOVING car!!! 😀 This is dawn of "DAY 2," just as we entered Montana.

 

[marcr1230]

Nice photos Pavel. Why Wasilla ?

 

[pevelg]

Nice photos Pavel. Why Wasilla ?

I have family in Wasilla which equals free sleeping quarters and free food! 🙂

To see the town that Palin hails from, obviously. I heard you can see Russia from there as well. 😀

I even fished on the Russian River. Didn't catch anything though. 🙁 However, on one of the pics I took while hiking Lazy Mountain, you can indeed see Russian, be it in imagination or reality.

 

[pevelg]

DAY 2:

After entering Montana and taking the photo above from the car, we stopped at what we thought was going to be a gas station. However, for some strange reason, there were horses walking around the gas fillers, grass growing everywhere. Abandoned station apparently. We crossed a little creek coming to the station were we decided to stop and stretch our legs.

Mamiya 7ii, 80mm lens, Velvia 50. Creek.

After this we traveled to Lolo, Mt. I lived here as a child for about 7 years. My favorite place on earth. The bitterroot river ran a couple miles from our house and we always fished here as children.

Mamiya 7ii, 80mm lens, Velvia 50. A little pond prior the river bank. We also fished here for bass and sunfish. In photo are two of my brothers who shared the burden of driving this crazy trip.

DAY 10

Here is one of the photos I mention earlier from Seward. I forced myself to awake around 6am, having gone to bed in the tent around 3 am, to get a picture of the mountains without cloud cover. About 60minutes later cloud cover was extensive.