FEATURE
What does he have to say about "Mineral Flow"?
"'Mineral Flow' was shot on Plus X several years ago in
Yellowstone National Park. I had misplaced the roll of exposed film
and ran across it about six months ago when I was taking the
aforementioned B&W course. I decided to develop it and see what was on
the roll. Unfortunately, I had been processing TMax and developed the
Plus X as such. I don't recommend this unless you want large grain.
It seemed to work out OK, although, I don't think Ansel would approve.
Its been a while since I shot 'Mineral Flow' but as I recall
I used a polarizing filter as it was very sunny and there was a lot of
glare coming off of the hot springs. I would have to say that I used
my trusty 35mm lens for this shot. This is not based on memory, but
a) because its my favorite lens and b) just from looking at the photo.
I didn't use a gray card in this case, although I sometimes do, but I
did overexpose by 2 stops (if I recall correctly). I also didn't
bracket, although I sometimes do. I like to print on Oriental paper,
grade 2 or 3 depending on the negative. "Mineral Flow" was printed on
grade 2 and I didn't do any dodging or burning on it."
Cameras
"All of my equipment is Nikon. None of it was purchased new --
I picked it up used when I worked at the camera store. I shoot with
an FE which I like because it enables me to use the aperture priority
mode when I'm shooting wildlife which allows me to concentrate more on
the subject. The FE also goes to full manual when I have more time to
think about exposure.
"My favorite lens is my Nikkor 35mm f/2. If I'm going somewhere and just want to take one lens, that's the one I pick. I also own a Nikkor 28mm f/2.8, a 55mm f/2.8 macro, a Series E 70-210 (I couldn't afford the 80-200 Nikkor) and my most recent acquisition is a Nikkor 500mm f/8 mirror."
Film preferences
"I have different approaches to photography based on whether or
not I'm alone. Often times I am traveling with another person (or
people) and I am less inclined to try different lenses or exposures
when I am either holding someone up or I'm lagging behind too far. As
a rule if I find a great shot I will stop and take the time to set up
the tripod (Bogen 3020 with a ball head), I'll bracket, and in the
case of black and white shoot with different filters. Sometimes I'll
borrow my father's FE and use one camera for B&W and the other for
color. This is the ideal situation for me. I find that if I only
have one camera I'm afraid to load up with B&W for fear that a great
color opportunity will appear. There are much fewer occasions where
color would not be appropriate but B&W would. I have tried the old
'rewind the film but leave the leader out so you can reload later'
trick and shoot two different films in the same camera, but that's so
time consuming that its easy to miss a shot.
"I generally shoot color slides. I like Fuji film and have been using Fujichrome 100 for years, but I recently played around with Velvia which I love. The colors in Fuji seem to be more true than Kodak, and the Velvia is even more saturated than the regular Fujichrome."
Dr. Euan Taylor, Vancouver, Canada
ertaylor@unixg.ubc.ca
