Adventures of a Quantum Cowboy

Spring poppies bloom in the Antelope Valley.

No wicked witch here to add a bit of danger, but the colors at the poppy reserve a couple of weeks ago were fantastic. The Antelope Valley California State Poppy Reserve blooms every spring in an explosion of wildflowers, mainly in the yellow, orange, and purple range. The orange ones are, of course, the state flower and Dorothy’s bane, the poppy.

There’s a fair amount of wind out there during the day, so unless you get out there real early, plan on using fast shutter speeds and Image Stabilization if you’ve got it. During the blooming season, there is a fair amount of traffic out there, and you’ll find it impossible to get shots without any people in them (again, unless you get out there early morning). However, in a lot of the ones I took, the people added a great sense of perspective and scale, so it really isn’t all a bad thing.

The flowers attract plenty of interesting insects and beautiful butterflies on the leeward sides of the hills, which means the birds that eat them are around too. Bring both a long and a short lens because of this. Landscapes traditionally call for wide angle, but this and every other shot on the roll are with my 70-300… its a matter of framing, and if course Image Stabilization is a bonus. The circular polarizer really makes those clouds pop against a darkened blue sky.

Only three uploaded for now, more on the way as I get them through the scanner and PSPXI for cropping, straightening, and some sharpening to compensate for my crappy scanner…. no saturation boost necessary for these colors! Superia is great at getting true warm colors anyway, so I hardly ever need any at all, unlike the XTi, which needs some fiddling in post-process.

Get out there fast, the blooms won’t last long!

Camera: Canon EOS Elan 7ne
Lens: Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
Film: Fujicolor Superia 200
(circular polarizer)

Antelope Valley California State Poppy Reserve
Lancaster, CA

Camera: Pentax ME Super
Lens: Pentax-M 50mm f/2.0 manual
Film: Ilford Pan-F 50
1/125s at f/8

We started the day early, leaving Palmcaster around 6:30am. I knew sunrise was at about 7:30, but wasn’t really looking to catch the event itself… that magical morning light that photographer always rave about on forums is what I was after. From previous experience, my Nissan Sentra I knew was not the best offroading vehicle, so this time around I managed to convince my friend Andrew that we should take his truck and try it out on the rugged roads of the Red Rock backcountry, on the CA-14 just north of the California City junction.

About the time we reached Mojave, everyone in the truck (Andrew drove) was in a bad way for some breakfast and coffee, so we stopped and acquired a hefty supply of both. When we arrived at the cliffs, full and caffeinated, the soft light of the early to mid morning was perfect. We left the truck in a clearing and began walking the blasted terrain.

It was like an alien world… dead silence but for a slight beeeze and the occasional conversation, fantastic rock formations, and all over specimens of those hardy yet beautiful species that want to live enough to thrive in the desert. A large part of the park, especially near the cliffs, was closed to visitors due to raptor breeding season…. note to self, bring the telephoto in the summer!

I chose this photo to blog about because you can see the range of capability for the film. There are some possibly more interesting shots on my Flickr gallery.

I LOVE THIS FILM!!!! Note the wide range of tonal detail; exposing for the middle tones, this film gets you true black in the crevices at left, and a nice luster on the brighter cliff walls at right. What grain you might be able to make out probably reflects more on the quality of my scanner than the film, as the prints I have are brilliant.

Ilford Pan-F 50 cost me $7.50/36 at King Photo. Post-processing true black and white film is more expensive than normal 35mm color film. If I recall right, it was about $12.00 for developing and a contact sheet, and something like $1.30 per 4×6.

I just bought another roll…. can’t wait to use this film again!

Red Rock Canyon at dawn.

Last month I took a trip up to Red Rock to try out this new film I found, Ilford Pan-F 50. But wouldn’t you know it, I left the film at home… Doh! Luckily I had taken my XTi along as a sighting/backup body, so I was still able to shoot. Here is one of the better ones.

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Lens: Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM
Red Rock Canyon State Park, California

Last weekend I made up again, remembering the film this time. Scanning as I type this, so stay tuned….

Sorry no posts in awhile, its been the month from hell so far.