A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my thrift store find, the 1950ish Kodak Duaflex II. After the trip into Eastern Oregon, I finally got around to taking all of the shots.
Like with the Kodak Brownie, I need to learn from my mistakes.
I first started shooting with it at Larabee State Park, near Bellingham, Washington. We saw tons of purple star fish on the beach.
The first mistake I need to correct actually comes from scanning. At first, I thought the strange lines were from the film – FujiChrome Velvia 100. But they’re reflections from the film edges. For some reason, this film curls up and, if you don’t check it, this is the result.
This was taken at some overlook on old US 30 along the Columbia River.
Well into Eastern Oregon, we stopped at Sumpter. There will be more photos from here, but this one is of the dredge used to dredge gold. It would scoop up a whole mess of rocks and then people would search through them for gold. The discarded rocks would be left strewn all over the ground. They’re still there. It’s pretty obnoxious.
Sumpter also has the Sumpter Valley Railroad. I’ll write more about this on Hey I’m Over Here. We were given a tour of the facilities. I was pretty thrilled.
These are original ruts of the Oregon Trail near Baker City. It’s tempting to rescan all of these now that I know why I get the lines. Perhaps I will.
Another mistake. This time in John Day. I wanted a shot of the “No Running” sign at a local pool. I couldn’t get close enough, but decided to take it anyway, even though the tree was in the way. Dumb on my part.
This is one of the most amazing museums I’ve even been in. Thankfully, we were allowed to take photos of the inside. This Chinese doctor’s office/general store was closed in 1950ish and not reopened for another thirty years. Since then, it has been restored, but left completely as they found it. We got a ton of inside photos with Sarah’s DSLR.
This was a test to see how the camera and film would react to shadows over a sign. Both did alright, but not great. The reflection lines are distracting. I should rescan these.
On our way home, we stopped in the town of Spray. It’s not a ghost town by any stretch of the imagination, but it does have some photogenic abandoned buildings.
To close out the roll, here are two huge mistakes. First, this is an accidental double exposure of what would have been two really fine photos. The first was of a Union Pacific freight heading east along the Columbia River. The second was of the Stonehenge anti-war monument along the same river. It’s a real shame. In my excitement, I forgot to advance the film.
This has an other-worldly feel to it. But it’s not supposed to have that. It’s simply a photo of Mt. St. Helens. Prior to taking this, I tripped over a hidden line of barbed wire and fell pretty hard. The wind was blowing and the strap got over the lens (I assume). It’s a real bummer of a way to end such a fine roll of film.
Overall, I do not like FujiChrome Velvia as much as FujiChrome Provia. I’m out of Velvia now and have only Provia (and a few other random ones). I’ll stick to that from now on.
