Portra 800

This roll picks up where the last one left off. It has a little bit of Swimwear Department with a good chunk devoted to Big Bill. After that there are a couple pictures from Carlsbad Caverns and a few Milky Way pictures I took just outside of Santa Fe.

Overall, this roll’s a bit weird. While I do like a lot of the Big Bill pictures, it’s also missing a fair chunk. It’s quite difficult to take good Milky Way pictures due to something called film reciprocity. The gist here is that in addition to the normal light and time reciprocity where one stop of exposure is a doubling (or halving) of the amount of shutter time, when exposing for long durations there’s additional stretching of how long it takes for the film to register light when there’s a low amount of it hitting the film. The darker the scene and the longer the exposure, the more this ramps up and it ends up being a bit experimental. That said, this is in contrast to digital where sensors have noise and additional issues when they’re exposed for a long time creating additional heat based noise. Ultimately, neither medium is amazing at this kind of thing though digital may have an edge due to the malleability of it and the fake-ness of digital ISO.

Looking at these Big Bill pictures I kinda wish I shot them one stop faster. A good chunk of the pictures I labeled small here are mostly due to focus and motion issues that shooting one stop faster probably could’ve fixed. It’s always a bit difficult to tread that line of wanting to go slow enough to create meaningful motion but not enough to blur completely or make it difficult to hold straight. That said, I also do always say that I don’t mind things being a bit blurry. For example, the Big Bill picture on the left side is one I really enjoy. The blurriness is really interesting here. It almost creates a halo like effect which is definitely not on purpose but also quite unique. Looking at these pictures, a lot of them are 2 subject which is a bit sad. Big Bill’s a lot of fun and there was a lot of space for me to work with 3 or even 4 subjects. It’s definitely the case that some of the upcoming rolls have a bit more flexibility on that front due to the use of other lenses.

Moving onto the pictures from Carlsbad Caverns I only really want to talk about the two larger ones. This pair was taken with the fisheye lens at a large opening in the caves. There’s a stopping point with a set of bleachers before a winding descent. I was really curious to take a long exposure as people were descending to see what would happen. The left picture is definitely more interesting. The group going down used their lights significantly more and their trail of lights can be seen lighting up the railings as they descend. Ultimately I probably don’t care for the second picture as much. However, it does provide a contrast. I didn’t quite realize how long the exposure would take and I think that it’s actually brighter than I expected even though I shot it for a bit over a minute at the narrowest aperture of f/22.

Lastly are the 4 Milky Way pictures I took. I want to say these were taken with the 50mm lens considering there isn’t much barrel distortion. I actually went out 2 nights to take Milky Way pictures because I wasn’t sure how they turned out. I want to say these are from the second night though I’m not entirely sure about that. For context, these pictures were taken the night(s) before the annular solar eclipse as every eclipse is flanked by nights with very little to no moonlight which makes for great stargazing weather assuming you’re in a place for it. With that in mind, I talked to the receptionist at the motel I was staying at in case they knew of any places around Santa Fe. Thankfully, he was very helpful and pointed me in the direction of a pretty secluded area about 20-25 minutes outside of Santa Fe off a dirt road that was absolutely gorgeous. Even though I don’t really know much about the night sky and it’s an overwhelming thing to me, it’s also an awe inspiring sight and I’m glad I made my way out on a couple cold nights to see the stars I usually can’t see.