I might have tried all the color films on the market, but there are always more black-and-white films that I’ve never seen. It is a different beast. This time, I got some slower films, which suits me since I like to take landscape pictures.
Camera settings: The best thing about the Fuji GA645 is that they are fully automatic. Auto exposure, auto focus, and auto wind. Who would have thought people wanted cameras like this? Kind of surprised nobody else bothers to make these in medium format. Films are slightly expired, but I am not going to make this an ISO 25 film, so I shot it at the box speed of ISO 50.
It feels like we are getting some sunny days this winter, so I quickly loaded the PanF and shot around the neighborhood.
I love to look at maps, especially of all the places I’ve been. I did a quick compilation on the last day of 2023 and found some blind spots that I’ve never been, to or even noticed existed in Portland. The best way I could describe is playing Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom. After spending hundreds of hours, I’ll still stumble upon random things, and realize the huge regions on the map that I’ve never been to. I’m trying to notice these blind spots, one of them being River View Cemetery. Julian, Dan, and I decided to go out for a quick tour. Some famous people rest here, and the views of the Willamette River are fantastic. I do wonder though – who are the views for?
I rounded up the roll by heading to that river and managed to get a few shots before I ran out.
Overall, I thought the film was a little weak. Sure, the grains are almost non-existence because of the low ISO, and it is even less visible because these were shot in medium format. When the sun was out, the film shone a little more with the wide exposure latitude. However, when shot with more even light, the darker areas/shadows are not good. I rather have a more contrasty look. Anyway, I still have a batch of these to go through. Maybe I’ll come around to them.
Date: Jan 28th, 2024.
Issue 89. Volume 14. Chapter 1. MA216_GAW