road trip – film sequence

I was having a hard time to write this post, because I think my photos out of this trip are not that great as I expected. But it’s okay to share them because we all know that I’m learning along the way. So I hope you learn something from here or find some inspirations somewhere in this.

My friends and me went to Sequoia 3 weeks ago. We started to drove around 8pm Friday night and got there around 12:30am Saturday. Then we spend whole Saturday and haft Sunday to hike and drove back home in Sunday evening. Back then the wildfires were not as crazy as right now (September 10th) but the area were covered by a thin layer of smoke and the sky turned orange brownish already. Not ideal for photography but that’s what I got. For the gear, I brought the same Bronica system and Nikon F2, left my digital Nikon and the Yashica T4 home because it’s a short trip and I didn’t want to bring too many cameras. For film, I had Fuji Pro 400H, and Ilford XP2 black and white 120 film, I also had some 35mm rolls of Kodak Proimage and Portra 160, and 1 roll of Portra 800 (because it’s so freaking expensive!). I never shoot black and white before, I like seeing some black and white photos but never seeing myself shooting black and white but some fellow on discord told me that I should shoot black and white to focus on shapes and contrast in my photos, [and be more careful about the composition] so I picked up some XP2 because I can develop them at home with my C-41 chemicals. My black and white photos are not special but I’ll share them here as a encouragement to others it’s okay to have bad photos, they help you to see your mistakes and improve your photography.

Above are my first photos of the trip. The first one is when we’re having lunch on the car at road side and I was framing the photo while the moto appeared and I waited for him to be on the spot I want and shot it, I wish I had waited a little more for he to come closer because he was so far back in the frame and so small. The second one is taken with the idea of document the trip and the windshield had some weird plush toys and the disposable masks that remind you of the Covid-19 era. The photo of the hollowed tree is not good but personally I never saw a tree burned inside before so it’s a new thing to me, and I guess if I live in California I will definitely see that a lot more.

The Moro Rock is an iconic sightseeing in Sequoia. Unfortunately the day we hike there’s so much smoke in the air and the view was not good at all, I had some photos taken on the rock but they’re not much to share. [And if you read the Lake Tahoe road trip post you know that I’m into forest and green scenes, not rock :)]. I hope my first photo gives you and idea of how the atmosphere was. The second I explain in the photo description. The next ones are some nice scenes I came across when we’re heading back to the Airbnb after a hike day. The green trunk photo with some dried branches is my favorite, maybe because it has a cool and poetic vibe. The last photo is definitely my thing, I like to shoot hundred of photos like this and put them together as a zine because I love the calmness and poetry in it. One thing I regret is that I should lifted the camera higher to get the whole electric pole in frame. I don’t mind cut a part of it out but in this photo I cut it right at the horizon wires, which is so annoy me every time I look at it.

Next are some shots on the second day hiking. We stopped at a restaurant in a ski resort, which is much empty now, for food and then I took these 2 shots to test out the pro mist 1/4 filter I just got. The glow is definitely nice and dreamy, but the photos are not that strong. However, I still love these 2 and think they’re pair well together. And all of the photos on this trip is taken with the pro mist filter on, but then I learn that not everything with pro mist on is good. The next two photos of the gas tanks are inspired by a photo of photographer Scott Enlow showed below. I love this photo to the moon and back. It has everything I wanted in a photo, retro vibe, old and abandoned stuff, green, foreground, midground, background, negative space, but above all of that, I love the feeling it gives, fresh and relaxed but still has some neatness and sadness. You can check out Scott @scottenlowphoto on Instagram and his website. I love his work!

Back to my photos, I like the second tanks than the first, because the first tank has a structure on top of it and I couldn’t make the composition look good while the second one is much nicer since it’s white and has green background behind. It’s not a great photo though but it’s the best I can get out of it. The next one is a effort to capture the sunlight hitting the cut off branches at the tips on the ground but it seems like I can not convey that to the viewer. It’s so contrast between the highlight and shadow and the colors really interesting in real life but in the photo they don’t work out. The photo of the table and domino pieces with some bottles and a can of coke is my favorite although I wish I could have more in focus. The scene was little dark so I had to open the lens up to 5.6. I like the feel in this, some kind of mundane everyday life scene in a suburb area. The photos of the canoe and board feel off to me, usually I like the clean or warm colors but colors in these 2 are so purplish and sad, which is not my type, and I couldn’t correct the color as I want so I try to make them look best. The second one has a stronger composition and the feeling of leaving stuff behind vibe.

Last are some shot on the road and hiking view. The last two is actually a waterfall without water. We came in the dry season so there’s no water to shoot a long exposure for silky waterfall like last time. Better check the waterfall next time before carry the tripod on a hike 🙂 . I cannot feel the beauty of rock so to me this 2 photos are not beautiful at all but here to demonstrate the atmosphere.

And here’re the only roll of black and white in my career, so far 🙂 I know I should shoot black and white differently than with color photos but sometimes I just take the shoot as color negative and yeah, of course the subject is not well separated from the background, or you cannot tell what is the subject either. There’re so much I have to learn here.

Thank you for making it here. I appreciate any comment and feedback in these photos, or if you want to share something just leave the comment. Cheers!

I had a road trip from LA to north California last month, stayed in Lake Tahoe for 3 days and San Jose for 1 day. I took this trip as a photography opportunity more than just a vacation time. I always love nature, especially forest, there’s something in the forest and trees that I feel like I belong to. I still remember the feeling of being alone in middle of the woods with just grass, woods, leaves, water flowing in the creek and birds on the branches, I felt a sweet lonely happiness there. And photograph forest on film was a thing I wanted for so long. If you like forest as me, I hope this post and photos from here will inspire you and warm you.

Back to the technical side, I knew I must prepare the equipment for the trip, because I wanted to make some long exposure of the waterfalls and the lake Tahoe in sunrise or sunset (I know this sound cliche but I haven’t do this before so worth trying). I bought a 10 stop ND filter for my Bronica ETRSi 75mm lens. I thought about other ND filters with less stops than the 10 stop but since I just can buy one, I decided to buy the 10 stop because it’s better to have longer exposure than don’t have enough time to make the water look silky. I also bought a polarizer filter for taking photos of the water, of course. I already have a cable release. I brought a bunch of batteries for my Bronica, Nikon F2, and my digital camera (I used digital camera for long exposure test shot). And a steady tripod is crucial! I also want to have a wide angle lens on my Bronica but when I decided to buy it, there’s nowhere can ship it to me before the trip, so I tried to make the best out of the 75mm lens. For film, I used Fuji 400H, Portra 400 and Fuji 160 NPS expired (which is not so good) for 120, and Fuji 400H and Kodak ProImage for 35mm.

massive cloud lit by setting sun. Nikon F2

Here’re some photos on the first hike day.

Next is some scenes near my Airbnb, beautiful sunset light on these houses, I was walking to the lake to take my long exposure on the water at sunset but couldn’t help myself not to stop by these scenes. These were shot on tripod at 1/30-2s.

Of course next thing is sunset shots on the lake. Nothing so fancy here but I like the long exposure that give the water a nice texture to it, it’s not totally flat but still blurry and has dimension for light to fall on.

And 3 night photos that I like a lot. I had to wait in front of the liquor store for 15′ to get the shot when no car or people get in between my camera and the store, but I think the one with 2 cars parked in front is quite nice. I like the suburban vibe here pretty much.

More photos from the neighborhood in the morning.

Next day, I woke up at 4:30am to walk to the lake with my Bronica, digital camera and tripod for the shot I came here for, long exposure at sunrise. These photos turn out not bad but I honestly not a big fan of long exposure water, it’s just look so flat and lack of dynamic to me.

i wonder if the 10 stop ND filter make the photo less saturated. exposured for 15s

Last is series of photos took on the last hike in lake Tahoe. On this day, I hike to a waterfall with a plan for a nice silky waterfall photo but when I got there, the sun is so high right behind the waterfall. The sun shine direct to my lens made it really hard to look into the viewfinder to compose. First time working with 10 stop ND filter in backlit situation and million droplet falling to the camera made me did a very rush job and honestly I didn’t have high hope for these photos at all. But these came out quite nice.