Following the Raisin River

On the last day of 2012, my buddy Marc Akemann and I went for a short photo trip.  My aim was to photograph some stretches of the Raisin River and the towns that we stopped at along the way.  We started sort of in the upper stretches in Manchester (Michigan), traveled SW towards the headwaters at Onsted State Game Area, and then to Dundee, where one of the mills that Henry Ford built still stands.  The Raisin River watershed is roughly the size of Rhode Island (with nowhere near the population density!), and the river is about 150 miles in length, meandering N from its source into Washtenaw Co., and then E and S again, finally emptying into Lake Erie at Monroe.

Raisin River watershed, courtesy of  River Raisin Watershed Council

Since it was December 31, we didn't have a lot of daylight, and it was largely an overcast day, which was good because of the snow and ice.  I decided to try out some 30+ year old Panatomic-X that I recently spooled up from a bulk roll, as well as some oddball film called Varicath II, which is a cine film for medical imaging.  Its ISO is rated from 6-25, and I shot it at 25.  The old Panatomic X was shot at ISO 25, but because the negatives were thin, I'll probably shoot the next roll at 15, just to see if there is a big difference.  Finally, I also shot Arista 100 Premium, which I think is actually Kodak's last run of Plus-X.  

Working from close to the source (but not chronologically) to Dundee, here are some images from our little foray.

Not too far from the sources of the Raisin in Onsted State Game Area.  This is across the road from Michigan International Speedway on US-12.  Arista 100, Nikon N90s with 24-120mm Nikkor.

Downtown Manchester, viewing from the bridge. The impoundement is largely iced over. 

The Raisin has many impoundments along its route.  Most of the mills have been deactivated or removed. This is the spillway in downtown Manchester. Shot on Panatomic-X, Nikon FM2N with 35-105mm Nikkor.

The dam in Dundee, MI.  Both images were shot on the VaricathII  film.  The close-up was shot with my 180mm ED Nikkor lens, the wide view was taken with my 24mm 2.8 Nikkor.

By the time we finished up at Dundee, we were running out of light.  We'll have to hit Sharon Mill and also Monroe to wrap up the set.  There is a lot to be discovered along this river, ranging from the natural habitats to the interactions of humans and industry and agriculture.