It's back to Palm Beach this week to the garden at the Society of the Four Arts with my Rollieflex and Kodak Portra 400. Some of my shots were on the thin side, but the Portra 400's latitude saved the day.
Next week..... I'll start shooting and developing some B&W. Stay tuned.
This week I took the Bronica ETR 645 camera out to Grassy Waters Preserve in West Palm Beach. I shot in the later part of the afternoon and loaded the camera with Kodak Portra 400. Next week I'll dig different cameras out of storage to mix things up a bit. This is a tried a true walking around with a camera for the day setup. This is a rock steady camera that isn't too big or weigh too much for a medium format camera. What can I say about Portra 400? Great colors out in nature. I love it in golden hour and it has great latitude. I meter a lot, but it's nice to know if I forget and I'm in the ballpark there won't be a lost shot. Here are a few of the photos.
For week Four I went back to Flagler Memorial Fountain on Palm Beach Island. This time armed with a Fuji 6x9 rangefinder. It is sometimes called the Texas Leica because it looks like a giant 35mm rangefinder. This one was built in the 1970's. the 6x9cm negative is wonderfully large and the camera produces a wonderfully sharp image. It notoriously has a bokeh that not as soft and buttery as people like or i think this would be a much more popular camera. It's big, but it is quiet to shoot and the framing in the rangefinder and focusing are great. I really love knocking around with this camera. It does only get 8 shots to the roll so it does forces me to think about what I'm doing since between film cost and processing it amounts to 2$ each time a click the shutter. as opposed to $1 for 645 with 15 shots per roll.
I rated the Ektar 100 film at 64 iso it was punchy with rich but accurate colors. I enjoyed this film / camera combination and will use it again. Shadows are open and neutral and highlights held nice detail. As the cheapest Kodak 120 negative film I found I am very happy with it.
