I returned a couple days later from my earlier visit for another early morning. I went back to a section I think of as special where I photographed the fallen tree earlier. I had seen a path on this earlier visit I wanted to explore however on my way there I was exploring a clearing and accidently found the other end of the trail I was looking for! It was one that went to a deer stand. There are many dead-end trails that lead to deer stands here.
I explored the local clearings and assessed some potential images when the rain started up. Much like the last trip it was a light rain and seemed not intent on hanging around. So again I sheltered, this time under a silver birch and brought out coffee and a granola bar and soaked in the surroundings (as the surroundings soaked me!), enjoying the peace and rich smells of this peaty forest.
When the rain let up I walked over towards the fallen tree and found a brown fern I liked the look of. I took one 4x5 photo with Astia using the 150mm lens. With the rain still falling it was fraught with falling droplets from the trees above moving the leaves during the exposure. At one point the rain picked up again so I broke mid-shoot and waited. I resumed and tried to increase my odds of getting a good photo by shaking the tree sheltering the ferns to buy some time before more drops accumulated. Eventually I got this first photo before loading my SINAR film holder for a 6x12 version in Velvia 50.
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| Fuji Astia 100 4x5 150mm |
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| Fuji Velvia 50 6x12 150mm |
I have struggled getting the exposure correct on Velvia 50 and surprisingly my problem has been under exposure. My inclination has been to try over-exposing by stop but I have been wary of blowing out the highlights. I have always metered at box speed (ISO 50) with the highlights in zone VII on my spot meter. Recently though I was re-reading Ken Rockwell’s comments on Velvia 50 and was reminded he suggested exposing at ISO 40 which is about 1/2 stop over-exposure. I did this with the above image and it came out well. With other images I took this day I always metered at ISO 40 but also tried a stop of over-exposure bracketing as well. In all cases this extra exposure was a disaster so my best plan is to stick with ISO 40.
While waiting for the second bout of rain to pass I saw another composition for the fallen tree and made another image of it once I finished with the fern. Again a 6x12 on Velvia 50. This image gives some extra context compared to my original image.
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| Fuji Velvia 50 6x12 |
I spent the rest of the morning exploring the forest until I found this rotting log with a rich palette of colors both on the log and in the background. I tried different films (Astia and Velvia again) and different lenses (150mm and 90mm).At one point the sun broke through so I hurriedly made a couple of extra exposures.
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| Fuji Astia 100 4x5 90mm lens |
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| Fuji Astia 100 4x5 150mm lens |
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Fuji Velvia 50 6x12 150mm lens
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| Fuji Velvia 50 6x12 150mm lens |
This last one I like the best. The film and lighting convey the full palette of colors of that morning best. I packed up and stumbled on another trail that lead me exactly to the spot I first sheltered a few hours earlier when all this started. Weird I should end up back in the same place exactly.
This was another good day out. I made some decent images at least technically and my mistakes were fewer. I think I got better with the Velvia 50 film. It is also easy to see the relative differences in the two films Astia and Velvia. Both are transparency films and I processed the scans to be close to the actual transparencies. Velvia exhibits its famous saturation while Astia picks out the yellow hues well. The second one of four of the rotting log above exhibits this effectively.
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