Holme Late November: Two Weeks of Change

I returned again this morning before dawn two weeks from my last visit. Even as I walked the trails by my headlamp I could see the place was radically different. Hardly a leaf left on a tree, though the aspen by the roadside is hanging in there. I had hoped for frost or mist or fog but misread the weather report and had instead a humid morning with light thin clouds and was entirely overdressed for the temperature. 

I just bought a box of 48 sheets of expired Ektachrome 100S that the seller says was stored refrigerated so I decided to take the risk. Part of the reason to be out was to ascertain the quality of the film. 

I walked a great distance in the dark and ended up on the western edge of one of the lakes. The sun was coming up through clouds and I thought I would try again a lake-side image again. I haven't had too much luck with these as it is difficult to find a place free enough of foliage to get a got composition. 

As I set up for this photo there was an awful ruckus behind me from the west. Then from above the treeline row upon row of loud geese V'ed their way directly overhead out over the lake before banking right and circling around and coming from the south again right overhead. The noise was frightfully loud. Again they turned east out over the lake then banked again and at this point I got out my phone to record their final approach and landing. 

I then made one image on Ektachrome 100S. I used my new focus knob scale to estimate the aperture required. It needed about 7mm focus difference between far and near focus points. I used my rule of thumb of f45 for this and dial the focus halfway between the far and near focus points. I used a GND and had to expose for 12 seconds. (210mm)

Image Review

This is the first of all of the disappointing images I made this day. It is a little underexposed in the shadows. I though I metered it correctly but I may not have taken the exposure up 2 stops to compensate for the GND filter. This is the first Ektachrome image. The color seems workable but I am concerned about what looks like a light leak on the right edge that may in fact be due to the age and storage of the film. 

Image over Lake 210mm f45 12" GND Ektachrome 100S

After this photo I went further east and the tree cutting I had seen started two months earlier has become more advanced. So much so that a scene I photographed then has all the trees removed and I could not identify exactly where I took that photo. Here it is when I saw it before it was all logged out. 

These trees are all gone now!

I headed further west  and found a small island of tall grass turning yellow. I circled and found a composition I liked. Rather that the mass of grass I found a few outliers with some nice form. To capture the yellow better I opted for Astia and used the 150mm lens as I couldn't back up any further. I had about 8mmm of focus range and so I set the aperture f32 2/3 (looking now it should have been f22 2/3) This left me with 25 sec shutter speed with the GND. 

Image Review

Very disappointed in this image. The worst flaw is that during the 25 second exposure the wind moved the leaves of the grass. I don’t recall this happening but 25 seconds is a long town. The second issue is the left stalk gets lost in the same colored grass in the background. This was something I specifically hoped this composition would avoid. 

It was shaping up to e a really nice morning. With light up the color was strong despite the lack of leaves. The open canop and iffuse light from the thin cloud cover would make the mosses show an acid green. Anywhere some leaves were still present shown brightly in amongst the white tree trunks. 

I walked further and started to make way way back to the car. I was aware there was rain coming later in the morning and a breeze was picking up. I found one of the few holdout birches that had not lost all its leaves. The tree trunks underneath should another nice dimension. This I shot on Ektachrome 100S at f32 2/3 at 1". (210mm) 

Image Review

The scene looked better than the picture. Nothing ties this all together and it is a complex mess. The exposure and focus are good. The film was the second sheet of Ektachrome and in this image exhibited a light red/magenta tint which I could correct for. More disturbing is the ‘light leak’ on the same edge. I may experiment with the Ektachrome some more but it seems it will be relegated to practice film or resold for Lomography fans. 

Nearly back to the car and I saw a larch that had turned yellow. Larch are easy to identify this time of year as they are one of the few deciduous conifers. I have noticed two of them in Holme Fen. This one I posed next to green confer boughs hoping the contrast would look nice. I again used f45 at 1" on Astia. I had to wait a long time before the wind let be release the shutter. I don't think the air moved the whole time I was packing up!.

Image Review

This larch image doesn’t work.The color contrast don’t come out between the larch and the pine like I hoped. There is no other element of interest either. Focus and exposure are good. 

On the way back I met a number of dogwalkers. It started to rain as I pulled the car onto the road.