Kodak Gold 200 // Mamiya rb67

Okay so back in December, I picked up a five-pack of Kodak Gold 200 in 120. I’ve been playing around with Alex’s RB67 and i took it upstate when i visited Harlie’s family for Christmas. Before that I took a photo of my father. (See below)

MY DAD

I really love this one. The separation of him from the background is satisfying. I also think he looks very distinguished in this, very healthy and strong.

I also went to the park and took some photos there before heading upstate.

This is the house i grew up in. Weird to think that but, here it is.

While it's not the most technically impressive photograph in the world, I think with time I may look back on it with a sort of somber reverence. I think to anyone else looking at this photo it might seem rather mundane, but to me, it's emotional and evocative of a very large portion of my life. Strange.

I spent many summers playing on this basketball court that was at the house that I grew up in the particular day was very cloudy gloomy. I think it was the day before Christmas or it was Christmas day I forget.

Then i started driving upstate. Ans here are the the photos i took along the way.

Some Church I’d driven by many time before on my way to Harlie’s mom’s house.

Another church i always see. I just love photographing churches

A different angle of the church above.

Some barns and silos

I really love this one. Maybe my favorite on the roll (that isn’t a portrait of my dad). I edited the photo to accentuate the sky a bit—sure its exaggerated, but in a way this is a photo/representation for how I wish the world looked in this moment. The sky is colorful, with the hues of pink and purple. I don’t know. I love it i think. A pretty great one to start off the year.

So christmas at Harlie’s was fun. Got some slippers. the next morning we had to drive back tot he city. Before really hitting the road, i knew there was one spot i wanted to stop and take some photos. So i went and what i found was a foggy vista. i was in awe and needed to capture it.

This tractor was in the middle of this dry field with all this fog behind it. It was way out in the distance I had to walk maybe 50 yards to get this close. I was so nervous that the owner of the land was going to come out with a shotgun and tell me to get off his property. Luckily this didn't happen not the most interesting photo, though I do think that there is some mystery in the fog perhaps one might wonder where is the rest of the horizon?

I have a love-hate relationship with this photo on the one hand it very much represents what it looked like to be standing there but on the other hand, it feels a little bland. I'm not sure if my shooting technique is to blame here or if it's the camera or if it's the scans from the lab, but the building is very soft. From a distance, the photo seems fine but when you zoom in I'm losing that detail that everyone is boasting about when they talk about medium format maybe it'll grow on me, but my hopes aren't very high.

Overall, my experience with shooting medium format at least on this camera has been pretty hit or miss. I think I was maybe expecting a bit more wow factor when I came to seeing my scans for the first time and lately I haven't been feeling that I come away, pretty mildly enthused, most of the time I think the medium format lens itself best to portraits that are close-up. It's the detail that I crave the most and frankly I'm not seeing it in these. Later on throughout the year, I'm hoping to get my home scanning process up and running. I'm curious if my scans at home are going to deliver different results from the ones I get from the lab. Time will tell.