Yosemite in the summer on Pentax 6×7 medium format film camera
It’s been a while since my last post. I’m glad that I’m back on time for the summer. I was a big Lana Del Rey’s fan years ago. In her songs, I got the impression that summer is the most beautiful season of the year. All the summer vibes in her music are so goldenly youthful, vivid and full of lust for love. From her “Young and beautiful” lyrics, a perfect summer scene stuck in my head and I will forever looking for a summer moment in mid July, when the heat turns overwhelmed along with the humidity and the fruits are so ripe with all the juice about to burst out of their soft skin just before they turn rotten in the heat of summer. I just love how lively and vigorous but also nostalgic summer is in her mind, it’s the best suit for young and wild hearts that are full of love in the relentless summer heat.
My photos are quite different than what I posted here before, I don’t know why my “style” [if I had one] has changed but I’m glad with how it looks now. It’s a coincident when I wrote the intro for this post and realized how Lana Del Rey’s summer vibe was so similar with what I got here.
Here’s the slideshow for quick look at the series.
I like to begin the set with the photo of apples fell on the ground beneath an apple tree. The composition is not my best but I like how the apples lead our eyes from the bottom right of the frame to the top left. I like that the apple in the bottom right is out of focus giving a sense of depth in the photo.
apples on the ground
The next three photos are from an afternoon walking around my airbnb house. I was fascinated with the reddish tree trunks that look so vivid in the sun light. I like how the red and green contrast each other in these photos.
Next, I walked to a small waterfall near my airbnb house in the following morning to scout the waterfall and enjoy my time alone with my camera. The waterfall was nice but there weren’t a lot of water sine it’s summertime so I stepped on rocks that supposed to be under water to look around and go upper the stream.
How the water carved the rock into those interesting shapes
A scene from the upper stream. I like how green the bank was with many kin of grass and plant. Such a cute little eco system.
My favorite from the batch. I used the polarizer filter to cut out most of the reflection in the water. I love this photo because there’re so many things to look at, I like the fact that there’re many kind of plant around the stream and they brings so many shades of greens and yellow into the photos. I also love the texture beneath the water giving the nice pattern of purple and brown/yellow. I can remember the heat and moist atmosphere of the summer noon looking at this, and I love how peaceful and satisfied I felt when I was alone in this stream. I wish I tried with different variations of the polarizer filter to play with the reflection because I think there’re so much more in this scene that I can get out of.
On my second day in Yosemite, I went inside the National Park and visited some famous views. The first stop was Tunnel View. The view was beautiful but I wish the sky were clearer rather than misty and hazy as in the photos.
Tunnel View
A scene under the bridge
A view on the Vernal Fall hike
In the afternoon, I walked around the house again for some more discover. Here’re some photos that I like from the walk. I love the tree below because of its interesting gesture. I thought I need a wider lens to capture the whole tree but this frame still balance to me so I’m quite happy with it.
Sunset through the trees
On the following day to Glacier Point I brought my digital camera instead of the Pentax 6×7, I end up didn’t take much photos because of the hazy sky but I still got some photos that I might like. But in the end, I just love the feeling of shooting film. Lastly, I walked to the near by waterfall in the last morning in Yosemite to make some long exposures. Here’re the results.
I took these photos backlit so the waterfall is quite dark, but I like how the waterfall is nicely placed against the dark background. I like the second shot better because the rocks at the bottom feel much stronger and dominant. The orange of the rocks contrast nicely with the greens in the photos. I also like there’re some patches of sunlight peak through the branches and appear on the stream. However in the first photo, I like the sunlight’s reflection on the water at the bottom right and the sunlight hitting the leaves at the very top left of the photo, I think they add more dynamic to the photo. But over all I like the contrast in the second one better.
After these shots, I fell into a pond while trying to get over a rock to compose my next shot. My Pentax get wet and stopped working. Although it means I have to send the camera to repairman now but I don’t feel regret or upset at all, that’s my choice, and to me all will be worth it if I got some photos that I’m proud of. So, cheers for a vivid beautiful summer.
This post does not have a specific theme but just shots from the Pentax 6×7, and some personal thoughts in life.
I got myself a Pentax 6×7 MLU body from Japan last September, along with a 90mm Leaf Shutter lens. I chose the LS lens in regard of the ability to shoot with flash, I don’t feel very comfortable with the flash sync 1/30s of the Pentax focal plane body. Since I got the system, I’ve shot with it through 4 rolls of film. Of course this is not a big amount of photos I’ve made with the camera but it’s very precious to me. The Pentax is my first 6×7 camera, I wanted a 6×7 camera for roughly a year back then, since the hype of 6×7 overrules Youtube and film community on Facebook groups. I never like the design of a replicate 35mm camera for a 6×7 system from Pentax, to me it’s just ugly and unergonomic. But after doing research, I end up getting the Pentax 6×7, because (1) the Bronica GS-1 is not as good as the Pentax or Mamiya, (2) the Mamiya RB is super heavy (not all people find it too much to handle but I’m a small Asian girl, it’s of course too big and heavy for me), and (3) the Mamiya RZ is so out of my budget. So the Pentax seems like a best option. When I received the camera, it’s not as bad as I thought, I actually did like to hold it. Gradually I find the Pentax 6×7 is not ugly anymore but kinda cool, because it’s black and huge and the sound is freaking amazing[?]. I set it up with a right hand 3D printed grip for more ergonomic to handle and of course a strap as an insurance for an expensive camera.
Since it’s 6×7 negative, means that I get 10 shots from a 120 roll, I choose my subjects and compose more carefully. Still I got some ugly and illegitimate shots, but I think my first 4 rolls are not disappointed. Not just because I got myself some favorite shots but also because the experience of shooting a “professional format” with a “professional camera”. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean those professional things make me a better photographer, but it gives me the spirit of intention and fidelity in my photography work. To this point, I haven’t done any paid photography job so the purpose of purchasing a Pentax 6×7 medium format camera has nothing to do with my professional or career but simply a dedicated inquisitive nature. My enthusiasm for photography is naive, I don’t know if I can become a photographer or have people admire my work, I am doing this because I want to create something that matters to someone, anyone. I’m always in the struggle of defining the purpose of my life and if I matter to anything or anyone. The only thing I can do to keep me from beating up myself with this query is keeping creating work and hope for one day, my work will give me an answer.
First shots I made with the Pentax 6×7 is still lives in my living room, shot with Ilford XP2. The main purpose of this is just testing out the camera to see if it works properly. The object I chose was a pineapple, because I like tropical fruits and the shape and texture of the pineapple is interesting to me. After a few shots with the pineapple, I decided to put more things in the frame, and I chose 2 eggs, because (1) 2 eggs and a pineapple makes it 3 objects in the frame, odd number of subjects is more pleasing to look at in general, (2) a pointy big pineapple is contrast with the round shape, smooth texture and small size of the eggs and (3) colorful contrast neutral (but you don’t see this in black and white photos, silly me). I like the contrast in life because things contrast each other doesn’t mean they are right and wrong, or against each other, they’re just simply different. It teaches me that everything may has its own way and we don’t necessary justify everything in order to accept it, we can just be opened and accept things or people for how they are.
The next 2 rolls I shot when riding a bicycle around my neighborhood. It’s fun to ride a bicycle just wander around and go to streets that you never go before. It reminds me of the time when I was 11~12, back then I was trying to ride bicycle and my friend was helping me and keep me company every afternoon that I went out and ride for an hour or so. Gradually, I didn’t ride bicycle every afternoon for practice anymore but because of it’s a pleasure time for me to hang out with my friend and passing by streets and scenes that elicited my curiosity and a strange urge to know/understand the stories behind visual things.
The first 2 photos I took to check out the shallow depth of field of the 90mm lens. I’m not sure why I shot a lots of cars with my Pentax but can’t denied they look quite cool on 6×7. My favorite photos are the one of the golden orange car packed in front of the windows with afternoon sunlight creating a clean line of light and shadow on the wall. I like the scene and the atmosphere here a lot. However the contrast between highlight and shadow is very high, it makes the shadows are too dark for my taste. The red car below is interesting to me because 1 of the head lights is half way up, makes the car has a sense of imperfection and uniqueness – something I’m always draw to.
The baby blue car below is cute and classic to my eyes. I like the shot of the wheel from outside of the window the most. The red color from the steering wheel lock gives a attraction to the frame, also the subframe is quite nice.
Next are some shots that feel very special to me. I’m from Vietnam, and I spent couple years in Saigon for my university study. There’s a area in Saigon that I usually went to with my friend for after school hang outs, called Thanh Đa. The places I went to with my friend back then were typical old, tight, a bit messy and mundane. Aside from all those adjectives, I still cannot find a proper word to define how was Thanh Đa exactly from my mind, but it feels very Vietnamese. And when I came across this street near my apartment here, I knew for sure it’s a Vietnamese community. The old houses and the tightness feeling and the way people hanging their stuff out on the walls, that all represent an old Vietnamese’s life style that I’m so familiar with. I don’t think these scenes are beautiful in other people’s eyes but to me they feel like a sad old poetic memory.
Final is some shots taken with Portra 800 in a rare foggy morning in my town. The tree standing there alone in the field feels very photogenic. I know that converting the photos to black and white will look more pleasing for these type of minimal shots but I personally don’t like minimalism style and “minimal shots + black and white” is too cliché for me. However, with these shots I was receiving a lots of helpful advices from fellows on Discord so I’m grateful for it.
Thank you for stopping by, hope my biography didn’t bore you to death. As always, leave a comment if you want to. Cheers!
film sequence 