 Yo what up welcome back to another episode of I finally got all my film back from a trip that happened Basically four months ago. Will this be the catalyst that springs me into developing my own film instead of relying on a lab to do it? probably not Well, you may have heard about a recent trip I had coming up to Portland, Oregon But what you may not have heard is that a certain pandemic was and still is sweeping through the nation So we had to cancel and with it cancel a trip to the legendary Portland vegan strip club I'm just as bummed as you are So a new plan was hatched to put rubber to asphalt and drive up central California to the Sierra mountains and see what's good with All that fresh air towering mountains and abandoned buildings Caleb also agreed to come along so that this video would have more sex appeal If you haven't already seen his two videos from this trip his channel is called bad flashes There will be a link in the description so we had our plan But what cameras do I bring as you may know choosing what camera to bring on a road trip is one of those things that even Socrates and Plato couldn't answer much less someone like me who has an IQ equivalent to a loaf of bread Eventually I settled on bringing the dynamic duo the Mamiya 7 and the contacts T2 All I knew was I wanted to shoot medium format and I knew we're gonna be doing some hiking and exploring So the lightweight six by seven setup on the Mamiya 7 was ideal the insane amount of sharpness that comes with the 80 millimeter F4 was just an added bonus. So with that we hit the road in the swagger wagon, which is my 1990 second generation four Along the 395 highway we found some cool abandoned buildings. I just had to shoot. I loaded up some HP 5 and we got down to business to defeat the Huns I Shot my HP 5 at 800 ISO, which is one stop underexposed I did this because I wanted to add a little extra grainy contrast to the photos, especially considering the subjects This roll ended up having some light leaks every once in a while The Mamiya 7 will not wind a roll very tight Which maybe because I anxiously wind the film advance too many times after the roll is done The light leaks actually worked very well in some cases like this shot where they kind of perfectly frame the pole Which might have been a stripper pole should we have gone forth on that aforementioned Portland trip? Always get the feeling like For all my black and white needs I brought my go-to illford HP 5 But I also decided to try out some illford XP 2 which is a uniquely C 41 black and white film for all my color work I shot port for 400 and sent a still 800 T though the 800 T was mostly for shooting at night I also brought along a wild card film ectochrome 100 for 120, but we'll get into that a little bit later We stayed in Lone Pine for the first night and after we got to the hotel Disinfected the entire room and settled in we headed out to go shoot Alabama Hills, which is one of my favorite places to shoot I shot with Porto 400 rated at 160 ISO for some sweet over exposure as the Sun went down I shot closer and closer to box speed for that extra range The sunset was pretty romantic and I got to share it with the one I care about the most. That's right My Mamiya 7 Unfortunately earlier in the day Caleb had his Pentax 645 Just utterly die on him So like a good friend I told him just deal with it just kidding I wrap my arms around Caleb the sweet baby boy and whisper it into his ear Just use my contacts T2 for the rest of the trip So yeah, that's it for the contacts T2 shots for this video as we drove through town at blue hour We noticed a lot of hotels with cool neon signs and we just had to shoot them. Frankly. It was out of our control The next morning we woke up at the ass crack of dawn actually before dawn So naturally we kind of felt like it is too early for these shenanigans Admittedly staying up till 1 a.m. The night before chugging whiskey Gossiping about film cameras and about how Kyle McDougal is the goat was also part of the reason Anyway, just like the Donner party on the Oregon Trail It was time for us to hitch up our wagon and hit the trail northwest Well, maybe not just like the Donner party because we didn't have any cattle We had some time to burn so we aimlessly walked around town until we couldn't take it anymore And we hopped in the car to check out some other spots So we hit this lakeside trail in what seemed like gale-froze winds After being constantly barraged with kicked up dirt that honestly started to feel like enemy shrapnel We finally arrived at this cool little beach that had these perfectly vertical rock formations If you're into geology, this is probably very interesting to you nerd Where I obliterated my portrait I switched to illford xp2 and again, I rated it at 800 If anyone out there is wondering I shot most of these shots at f11 because I found that the already sharp Mamiya glass is even sharper at f11. Anyway, we got back to town and took it easy in the hotel I loaded up the Mamiya 7 with some Cinestill 800T and took a shot of the toilet before we blew it up And if after that sentence you're still down to watch I commend you Anyway nighttime fell upon us and we went out to shoot some more So there I was taking a shot of this hotel lobby and a guy pulled up in his car obstructing part of the frame And while initially I was ready to punch him in the throat I actually think it ended up working out great making the composition and the story in the photo a bit stronger The next day we headed to a lake where it was literally colder and windier than the ice planet Hoth Are you ready to check it out? You have way more energy than I do Like an eager beaver. I loaded up the Mamiya 7 with some HP 5 While I did my best to get some long exposure shots The wind was kicking up some frozen lake water that was splashing my camera the lens and my nearly frost-bitten skin At that point I was right or die for the shot though I figured at the very least if I kept shooting some explorer would stumble upon my perfectly preserved frozen carcass Desperately clutching the Mamiya 7 at which point future scientists will study for years Why this primitive human decided to use an outdated technology and ultimately die of overexposure to the elements just for a photo that When developed was compositionally not that impressive So we hopped on the first train out of that town and headed even farther north Stopping only once to consider if we should keep going over the mountain pass because the conditions were getting worse And the past might close on the way back. So we said it. We're young dumb and broke from buying film cameras So let's just do it This is probably the most fun shoot of the day in my opinion We stopped at this abandoned house as it just started snowing I threw some XP to in the Mamiya and blasted through it in no time as the snow started to fall harder We raced up through the past and back to town like the Millennium Falcon in my favorite movie solo Star Wars story There was one more abandoned building along the way and so naturally we found ourselves shooting at it Again, I powered through a roll of HP 5 rated at 800 Back at the hotel Caleb and I thought it would be a good idea to drink whiskey on a completely empty stomach So yeah, we got drunk really really fast As the sun was starting to go down I figured now's as good a time as any to shoot some of the new at the time actor chrome for 120 You made a mistake bro asking me to do this I'm not really a slide film guy, but I was kind of drunk. So anything goes I guess of course I rated it at 100 though I was tempted to shoot it at 3200 like all the pros do then we headed out for one more round of night photography Of course, I was back on that Cinestill 800T goodness The next day the fun was over and it was time for us to head back to Corona Angelus Where reality was waiting to slap us back into gear or quarantine for four months as we'd find out But we couldn't resist stopping at one more location that we had spotted on our way up the other day I shot with my last roll of XP2 Inside one of the buildings I stumbled upon this perfectly placed boot on a mattress that just made for the perfect composition And I swear to Zeus, Aries, Poseidon, Matt Day, etc. that I did not place it there That's all it was nice to escape some of the craziness that was starting to happen as coronavirus ramped up at the time And now I'm back with some photos that I think don't entirely suck It was really hard for me to choose but ultimately I think this is my favorite photo from the trip I like the pastel colors of the Portra 400 and the framing on Caleb I mean, he's just standing there, but he evokes so much emotion, right? So yeah, that's it. I hope you all enjoyed and are staying safe out there. I'll see you on the next one Unless of course I get killed by a volcano before then Peace