Another photo mission from late autumn 2021. It was the time of year around here that the leaves have all changed colours and have mostly fallen off the trees. The leaves that were still hanging on, are all brown and grey. The grass and ground are grey. Pretty much everything natural is devoid of colour. The snow is coming soon but hasn’t hit us yet.
On an unusually warm day in November I packed up my camera bag with my trusty Nikon F80, the F4 and the Lubitel 166B. The two 35mm cameras were loaded up with colour and black & white film respectively and the Lubitel had a roll of something in it that I had loaded so long ago I forgot what it was… That is a story for another day.
Not really knowing what to expect I headed out looking for this building that I had driven by so many times over the years on my way snowboarding. I hadn’t been that way in a few years. I had forgotten how far it was. I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get there. Heck I wasn’t even sure if it was still going to be there! I did know that the light should be good late in the afternoon and that I had an afternoon to spend taking photos!
Away I went up the old 105 in Quebec in search of something good (or so I hoped). It was sunny in the city so I was excited for some dramatic shots. As I got further north the sun faded into the clouds and I noticed that there wasn’t much colour left anywhere. Everything was some shade of grey or brown so I had made up my mind that I was going to shoot black & white film and that the colour film would be wasted on a day like today.
I had a roll of Kodak TMAX 100 that I wanted to try out so that was the film stock of choice. On the side of caution I usually like to over expose my shots a little bit and set my ISO to 80 on the F4. I have had good luck with the internal light meter before so that is how I set all my exposures.
After driving for at least an hour and almost giving up I finally found the place that I had been looking for. An older abandoned building on the side of the highway that had these teardrop windows that always caught my eye driving by. It looked completely baron and unused and was perfect. I got in a few shots, got some odd looks from people driving by on the highway while I was at it.
I had noticed a few other interesting spots on the drive and quickly hopped back into the car to check them out before I lost the good daylight. A few more spots on, and just off the highway.
I found an old Motel just off the highway and got a few pictures in before I was told to get off of someones property. I tried to explain I was taking photos as I was waving my Lubitel around but I think there was something lost in translation. So I took it as a good time to leave.
The next stop was an old service station where I got a few more shots in before I got to the end of the roll. I did take some shots with the F80 and colour film but haven’t gotten them back from the lab yet. Another story another day!
I’m happy with the results. Good exposures, crisp photos and fine gain. So fine that it’s almost not there! I pushed up the contrast in post as per usual. Film processing and scans here in Ottawa at Galaxy Camera.
That is it for now, take care!
Jeremy
Dusty Negatives 