Monday, February 13th was a beautiful, sunny day. As I drove south along 209 I was looking forward to reaching my destination, a beautiful old barn I'd dubbed "The Grand Old Lady". I had taken pictures of her before, back in the Spring of 2011, but I had barely scratched the surface of the photo opportunities there. So here I was headed back to revisit her once again. But this time was different. I was happily bringing my beloved Yashica FX3 with me this time to capture her majesty. It'd been so long since I had used my trusty friend, I wasn't sure I'd have the knack I once had using it! But as I approached the photogenic old barn, instinct kicked in and it wasn't long before I spotted my first shot, the sweeping view of her as you walk up the old road that once led to her "front door".
Kodak color film, 400 ISO, midday (my apologies, I did not record the rest of my info), transferred to CD, then computer for uploading.
Oh yes . . that's the perfect pov, Ann! Aren't "old friends" wonderful? Beautiful lighting and shadows. She is a grand old lady . . do the owners mind you doing this? I've wanted to do this many times, but am afraid to go on private property. Gorgeous composition.
@karenann Thank you Karenann. This barn and the other buildings on the property are on public land now. It is part of the Delaware Valley National Recreational Park which is what the defunct "Tocks Island Project" became when it was scrapped. Most people who come to the park use the McDade Trail which runs adjacent to the Delaware River, so each time I've come here, there has been no one else around. However my suspicion is that someone is there once in a while to make sure everything is still locked or that no one is camping out in the abandoned buildings. @dmariewms Thank you Marie! @kerristephens Thank you Kerri!
@kimmistephens Thanks Kimmi! It really is- I'll be filling in others from this shoot for the rest of the week. @jml0306 Thanks Joseph- I am quite happy to be using film again. I really love this camera and have missed it. It's funny how you get used to digital in the sense you can shoot a million pictures off and not think twice. Or how easy it is to carry around a digital point and shoot. I'd forgotten how heavy my 35mm zoom was! But I do love film and I love being careful about what I take- really thinking through which shots will be the best rather than back tracking and picking out the best ones I shot. I know this film challenge was for the entire month, but finances have made it so I can do one week. I can live with that and when possible I will work with my 35mm more regularly again.
Like Karenann I am a bit leary of trapsing on someone else's property but so often tempted. When I was in real estate and had to take photos of homes ready to go into foreclosure I once had someone point a gun at me...LOL! Anyway, I admire your photography of this beautiful quaint scene and hope we see more of the Grand Old Lady. Barns make for such interesting shots....I need to find one ;-)
@michaelelliott Thank you so much Michael. I love this barn and the midday sun was really bright, but it gave the leafless trees some great shadows and made those red vents on top seem even redder. @steeler Thanks Howard! I really do miss film sometimes, so it was nice to break out that old "work horse" of mine. @alia_801 Thanks Alia! @cimes1 Thanks Carole. This barn is now situated on National Park land so I wasn't trespassing. I would be hesitant to walk up to someone's barn and just start taking pictures without permission. That's not my style. @digitalrn Thanks Rick! This one really does.
@cluvlj Thanks C and LJ. It took me a while to get the camera up and running. I couldn't find the right batteries anywhere and finally ordered them on line. I loved the feel of having that camera in hand again! So I'll be posting my shots from this adventure for a week. I do have one more roll in the camera and have been attempting to take some shots of the birds on my suet feeder. I have no idea how they'll turn out! But if I can get them on CD before the end of the month I'll post them too. I'm so glad you did this challenge!
@olivetreeann I am glad you brought up the battery thing. With the older cameras, they used to take Mercury batteries. The General Public can no longer buy Mercury Batteries, without specific military clearance. So, as you may have found out, you had to get an alternative battery. With these, your exposure value (EV) by up to 4 values. This is because there will likely be a variance in voltage. Some cameras do not have this problem (the Pentax Spotmatic being one). To avoid shooting and experimenting to find out, set a digital camera to the same ISO lens opening, shutter, and lens zoom as the film camera. See what both say, the adjust accordingly. I have found that with 2 of my cameras, I underexpose about 1 stop, and I am fine. The wonderful Batteries Plus store may be able to be more specific. They are very knowedegable on this (at least the guy I know here)
@peterdegraaff Thank you Peter! Film certainly has its own "flavor". I'm enjoying seeing it again. I'd really gotten used to digital- more than I thought I had! @cluvlj Thanks C and LJ for all that info. I noticed the different prefix on the batteries when they came (an S instead of an M) and now I know what it means! It appears my camera worked just fine with the non-mercury batteries judging from the way the pictures turned out, but I will keep all that info in the back of my mind for the future. Another interesting piece of this puzzle is that the film is older too!
@la_photographic Thank you Laura. I do see a difference in the intensity of the color in comparison to digital. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I see it!
I love this photo, Ann! Great barn and POV. I've been trying to find the right words to describe how certain film photos look--sort of a creamy, dreamy texture..? I'm really enjoying this film challenge and have learned (or relearned) so much from it. The light meter on my Pentax K1000 broke after the first roll, so I first downloaded a free light meter app on my iPhone, which works quite well. Then I learned to use the Sunny 16 rule. All of this (plus the cost of film development!) has slowed my shooting down...which is good.
@eudora I must confess that I'd forgotten most of the technical stuff from my film shooting days. Right now, I'm just going by the "green dot" but I did learn from C & LJ that the batteries are different now and that will effect the light reading a bit. So I'm trying to remember to compensate for that on the role that's in the camera now. And yes- I've been very discerning with this role. It's so easy to shoot off a million shots with digital because you don't have to print them all!
@dmariewms Thank you Marie!
@kerristephens Thank you Kerri!
@jml0306 Thanks Joseph- I am quite happy to be using film again. I really love this camera and have missed it. It's funny how you get used to digital in the sense you can shoot a million pictures off and not think twice. Or how easy it is to carry around a digital point and shoot. I'd forgotten how heavy my 35mm zoom was! But I do love film and I love being careful about what I take- really thinking through which shots will be the best rather than back tracking and picking out the best ones I shot. I know this film challenge was for the entire month, but finances have made it so I can do one week. I can live with that and when possible I will work with my 35mm more regularly again.
@steeler Thanks Howard! I really do miss film sometimes, so it was nice to break out that old "work horse" of mine.
@alia_801 Thanks Alia!
@cimes1 Thanks Carole. This barn is now situated on National Park land so I wasn't trespassing. I would be hesitant to walk up to someone's barn and just start taking pictures without permission. That's not my style.
@digitalrn Thanks Rick! This one really does.
@cluvlj Thanks C and LJ for all that info. I noticed the different prefix on the batteries when they came (an S instead of an M) and now I know what it means! It appears my camera worked just fine with the non-mercury batteries judging from the way the pictures turned out, but I will keep all that info in the back of my mind for the future. Another interesting piece of this puzzle is that the film is older too!