Arizona Treks

On Saturday and Sunday when we got up the air was calm and it was great for photography. We assumed it would remain the same on Monday so we put off photographing the blooming Yuccas until Monday morning. So the wind was still there Monday morning which put a stop to shooting the Yuccas with the large format cameras. That is the way it works sometimes though, not a major problem and really we had other things to shoot in the mornings anyway.

So we went to the location anyway because there were some railroad crossing shots that I wanted to get. Although I had fresh film and a changing tent, I forgot to bring boxes for the exposed film. It worked out just fine anyway because between Saturday and Sunday I shot all but 3 sheets of 4X5 film I had loaded. That pushed me to shoot the 8X10. I have not been shooting the 8X10 as much recently for a couple of reasons. The big trip in March I lost a lot of 8X10 negatives due to processing errors which damaged the emulsion. It seems that it is much easier to damage the emulsion on 8X10 than on 4X5 so I have changed the handling which seems to have solved that problem butI am still a bit leery of it. The second reason is that although most of the prints I make are 8X10, those which I really like I print in 11X14. Since I do not own an 8X10 enlarger, I am stuck with 8X10 contact prints only. Those 2 reasons have really slowed my 8X10 work down. I am working on getting an 8X10 enlarger which would make it possible to get past that issue. Contact prints have a quality that is more pleasant than projection prints but I have trouble getting past the size limitation. But with only 2 sheets of 4X5 left unexposed it was either take the time to load some film or shoot 8X10. The decision was easy enough, 8X10. But the wind was high enough that I shot 400 ISO only (4 sheets is all I carry) and work hard to open the aperture as much as possible to still get the desired DOF. It caused some compromises and there may still be some undesired movement in the plants, but there are still 2 more sheets to develop so I do not know if it was successful.

I shot the crossings with the 8X10 and then shot some of the Yuccas with the MF. We then headed back to the trailer to eat breakfast, pack up and head for home.

Bottom line is, we both really enjoyed the trip and hope to return again. The people were generally friendly, the country is beautiful, and there is a lot of variation in subject matter. From mining, to nature, to old buildings, all great subjects. Plus, it is close enough to make a long weekend trip work.

The 2 photos here are of Mogollon. A couple of the buildings you see in photos frequently. I hope to have the developing, scanning, and importing completed before tomorrow.