When:
Just a year ago I went to a landscape photo course two hours drive from me. It was organized by Eduardo Blanco, nature and landscape photographer, he does lots of excursions in Spain and all over the world, nice guy. This course I attended was 1 day only, the thing is I had to do night next to the meeting point at 5:30am so we could catch the sunraise.
Where:
The place of this course was Las Bárdenas Reales, a national park in south of Navarra, I knew the place because my uncle was living in a monastery nearby and we could hear the jets... How come airforce jets where passing nearby? Because they have a training field (with targets) next to this National park.
Las Bardenas Reales is basically badlands terrain, few bushes no trees, hot in summer cold in winter and lots of wind and in summer rains due summer storms. This kind of strong rain and the wind made the job over time giving us the actual landscape. It's very unique for Spanish landscape.
From 6:00am to 6:00pm with cars going from spot to spot, getting out, doing photos, get back to the cars and continue to the next. Big stop for a lunch in a nearby restaurant.
The gear:
As usual the week(s) before I was deciding the gear to go with, I wanted some colour photos but my main idea was BW and as I got the car I went not with everything but quite a lot.
- Mamiya 6 with 75mm and 50mm lenses and two stocks, Ilford HP5 for beginning of the day and later Ilford Delta 100, silver oxide batteries.
- Super Isolette as backup, empty.
- Super Ikonta 530/15 loaded with Kodak Portra 160, this is 70mm film hand loaded in a 116 film camera, negative is 6.5x11cm, no perforations.
- Leica CL with 40mm lens loaded with Kodak Ektar 100. This camera came two weeks ago and I set the speeds up to 1/250th correctly (I thought).
- Kodak Retina I type 117 as backup loaded with Kodak 5222.
- Plaubel Makina II with 100mm Anticomar f/2.9 with 4 Ilford Plates R.10 (panchomatic) expired in 1964, there were the second lot from the box (4/4/4).
Tripod and handheld Sekonic light meter.
How it went:
First spot was nearby hills for catching the sunrise over the mist, nice place and I set the tripod with Super Ikonta ready for the sun to raise and doing some nice photos. Sadly there were clouds in the east and there was no sun at all, no pinks or any typical sunrise we expected. Anyway I made a photo with the camera and there I realize the shutter ring (Compur) didn't go beyond 1/25th, I lost a frame trying to solve it but I couldn't, the photo I finally did is not much of my taste.
So I took the Leica CL, mount it on the tripod and make a couple of shots at low speed and again photos are quite dull. I tried to shoot with the Retina but I saw the first lens of the viewfinder was missing so no way to compose, one camera down.
Then we move down to the valley carefully because the mist was really thick and we arrived to the iconic "monument" of Bardenas Reales, meanwhile I was driving to get there I couldn't look around for what was expecting us.
It was absolutely gorgeous, breathtaking views around and I had this thrill of getting a new toy as a kid has, pure happiness. I put the Mamiya 6 on the tripod and I took some shots.
We were there pretty long time rounding the place for different angles and when everyone finished I asked the group to stand together and I put Makina II on the tripod, checking light, opening T, focusing, organizing people left and right, closing T, setting speed and aperture, cocking the shutter and the self timer, removing the screen, putting the cut film holder, removing the dark slide, pressing the cable shutter release, running and kneeling in front... anxiety, holding breath, no one blinking, barely hearing the self timer, 'bzzzz' and... done! Everyone happy.
We went to different spots here and there, I finished the roll and changed the stock to Delta 100 with Mamiya 6 and I loaded Super Isolette with HP5 just for doing something with it. Some photos made with Super Isolette and HP5 before lunch.
Sun was up and Super Ikonta with this shutter problem... I did all photos at 1/25 and f/32 and even that they are badly overexposed, sun was harsh and the terrain was giving one stop more. Second cameras down...
Leica CL was working non stop in every spot, I was happy with the handling and when I finished the roll I didn't put a second. After getting the images I saw my old Kyoritsu 500 doesn't detected the first curtain bounces so all photos have a nice dark line in the upper side of the photo. This bouncing happens only in 1/125th... precisely the speed of my ISO and my most used speed at all. Third camera down...
After lunch I took few more photos, only when the sun was starting to go down, this next is done with Super Isolette:
The people:
We were 12 attendants plus Eduardo as guide and organizer, when I subscribed the course he was really surprised I was doing only film but he was fine with it, curious as he said. Myself was a bit shy, rest of participants had really big cameras and lenses half of my arm, Canon was the king as I saw.
I was very welcome indeed, they were making questions every time I was taking another camera out, asking about them, if there is still film selling, how old is this camera, etc... and I felt in my terrain, I got confidence among them and I just did my thing, probably as they, enjoying photography as much as we could and by the smile I remember in my face I enjoyed a lot!!
Conclusions and thoughts:
- Just get one stock and one camera plus two backups just in case...
- I got only eye level cameras, curious as I have much more cameras with WLF than eye level ones. But I think it was the right call for landscape.
- Probably next time I will get TXP-320 in 220 film I have in the fridge, I want that look for next desert photos.
So this is it, shooting with customers cameras after fixing and doing family life let me few opportunities as this one for going out with the aim of just photography. This year I got no dime for going again, hopefully I will do 1 day courses or trip for just shooting and enjoying the process.
Thank you for watching,
Alex
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