For the second roll of film this year, the challenge was “Full Manual.”  This is pretty easy since I am shooting on a 60 year old camera, so I just went for a drive up The Gorge with Cody.

I love how this project gives me a chance to be super critical of all my photos.  I hope I learn something from taking the time to critique each one. 

f16 1/60
First photo of the day wasn’t really that exciting.
No clear separation between layers of hills, light not that great, no real subject.
I just thought the way the clouds were obscuring the peak was interesting.
That doesn’t really translate though.

f11 1/250
I pulled over just so I could take a photo of this van.
I love the one yellow hubcap.  The weird shape.
Moderately happy with the framing, the van is an obvious subject
It is in an interesting location.
B+
f22 1/60th

I really like the light on the building on the bottom right
And the shadows hide some interesting cranes
Good layers and clouds.
Not a terrible photo, though it is missing something.
A Godzilla perhaps.

f4 1/500
Best photo on the roll.
Codymon is looking crisp.
Good depth of field.
I like the framing, I am pretty happy with this all around.
What’s he lookin’ at?

f22 1/15

The bright white spot is the sun.
It was making some interesting rays
But I obviously didn’t capture that.
Minimalist photo, and unexciting photo.
I like how the blue looks though.
Shot this whole roll metered at ISO 320, so that is a good note to self.

f16 1/30th

I messed this photo up.
I was rushing to get the lady in red in the shot.
But I accidentally shot at 1/30th instead of 1/60th.
This led to a bit of blur that I didn’t intend.
Though the blur isn’t as bad as the fact that I clipped the ice cream cone.
The ice cream cone is the best part.
Photo had potential, it could have been better with more patience and attention to detail.

f22 1/15
This whole photo is askew.
As if the world is bending to the will of the tree on the hill
And not the other way around.
Another foggy/no good light/no subject/not interesting photo.
Note to self: stop shooting fog unless lit in an interesting way.

f16 1/4

I wasn’t smooth with my shutter release and I bumped the camera.
This photo was ruined due to my error.
This weird Sears could be a lot better if I had a steady hand.
I am using a tripod, but I gotta be careful wit the slower shutter speeds.

f22 1/4
I should have taken a step back.
The R being at very edge bothers me a lot.
I think I learned two important lessons this roll.
1. Fog/low clouds are hard to capture well
2. Don’t clip the subject of your photo/take more time composing the shot.

f22 1 Second

I really loved this scene, so I spent a lot of time on it.
I was careful to frame the sign and the door
I was careful to make sure the buckets of compost weren’t clipped.
This is a really weird restaurant entrance.

f5.6 1/60th
Meh…
Not exciting or interesting
If I take photos of people I have to get closer.
I also should maybe not use a tripod in the middle of the street.
If I worked on my timing the guy outside could be slightly more to the right.
That would make the photo a bit better.
But it really isn’t that interesting or great. 

f11 1/15

Last photo turned out pretty okay.
I should have shot at f22 1/4 to smooth out ripples.
The color is pretty good, as are the branches of the trees to the right.
It is pleasing but not super exciting.

Overall I had a great day shooting photos, and I feel like I learned a little bit from the experience.  I really enjoy shooting film, and look forward to doing it all week.  I can’t wait for the next roll!

My goal this year is to shoot 52 rolls of Kodak Portra 400 film on my borrowed Hasselblad 500 C.  There are similar one camera, one lens, one film, one year projects, but this is mine, and I am going to do my damnedest to stick to it.

Each week will be themed according to the rules of Dogwood Photography.  There is also a group on Reddit that I will be submitting these to, though I am trying to work a week or two in advance just so I have time to develop my film.

There will be a lot less curation on these photos than on my bird photos.  Wanting to document my whole process and learning curve.  I am assuming there will be weeks where I get no good photos…

This week I also tested shooting all photos metered at ISO 200.
This is supposed to make them brighter/vibrant.

So. This week’s challenge/theme was photos of complementary colors.
The friendliest kind of colors.

f8 1/30
This ended up being the second photo of the roll.  The first photo was lost to a loading error.  One of my many lessons I am assuming I will learn shooting 52 rolls of this film.
Blue/Orange and Green/Red complementary colors. 

f16 1/8

For some reason I thought red and blue were complementary.
Meh… close enough.

f16 1/8th

Some lady came out of the building to ask what I was doing.
I told her it was an art project.
Orange/Red and Blue/Green

f16 1/4

Goal here was to get a bit of car movement to actually make this orange/green photo interesting.
Though I do love the details the Hasselblad’s medium format give in the brick and the tree.

I may end up focusing more on pleasing colors/textures in the future.

f4 1/15

Red and Green booths really caught my eye
This place also has Street Fighter two.
El Burrito Loco #3 (My favorite neighborhood taco shop)
I learn here that if you shoot blue in the dark it just looks black.
I shouldn’t be surprised

f5.6 1/60

This woman perfectly matches this laundromat.
I learned another lesson here though:
I gotta keep my head up when taking photos.
3 seconds after she passed there were two women holding vacuums that walked by.
That probably would have been a better photo (shrug emoji)

f5.6 1/30th

Happy about how vibrant this is.
Though it is pretty boring.
And slightly askew.

f5.6 6ish seconds counted in my head

I just really love laundromats I guess.
This was supposed to be orange/blue, but the blue of the building went black.
You live, you take notes, you learn.

f5.6 and cable release malfunction

f5.6 30 seconds

I took two photos due to the first not working the way I wanted.
I have a cable release that doesn’t quite work, so the first photo is probably 1/15
The second photo, the release triggered and didn’t fail,
so I was able to do a 30 second exposure.
Not really sure which one I like better.
The second one is growing on me,
seems a bit more interesting, and the wood texture is nice.
Also, it is better aligned in the frame.

Week 1 is done.  I sure learned a lot with one roll of film.
Let me know if you have a favorite photo!

Click Here for Week 2