More Svema 100 love

Over the past decade, I’ve shot a fair number of rolls of the Film Photography Project’s Svema 100 film. Manufactured in Ukraine, and still in stock from the FPP and its distributors, Svema 100 is a fine-grained, medium contrast film that is worth checking out if you haven’t shot with it. It’s on a tough polyester film base that lies extremely flat in my Epson V700 scanner, and I appreciate that a lot.  

I’ve shot several rolls more recently, and would like to share some of the images with you.  This first set was shot on my Pentax Spotmatic II, mostly along the Blue Ridge Parkway and Mt. Mitchell State Park.  If you didn’t know, Mt. Mitchell is the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi, at 6,684 feet above sea level.  You can also drive within short walk to the summit. On a sunny day, you can see a lot. However, you are more likely to find the mountain top to be either in the clouds or surrounded by lower-lying ground fog.  Mt. Mitchell State Park is around an hour’s drive from my house, and is also as far N as I can currently drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  

I used an SMC Takumar 55mm f/1.8 lens – one of the sharpest lenses you will find, and often used an orange filter with the roll of Svema 100.

I never tire of views like this.

Great view from the Porta-Johns at Craggy Pinnacle parking lot

At an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Turk's Cap Lilly

Mt. Mitchell picnic shelter detail

 It's a severe place there at times.

I really like how these came out.  I developed the film in FPP D-96 for 8 minutes at 20°C. If there is one complaint that I have, is that I find a 24 exposures go really fast for me, and would love to have a choice of 36 exposure rolls.  

At Ball Photo in Asheville. Yes, those are copies of Monochrome Mania for sale there.

Asheville Airport

Redbud leaves - wide open

coneflowers coming on.

The second set was shot on my Pentax K2 as pictured at the top.  Same developer.  Quite different circumstances, and a range of subjects. Svema 100 had no problem in subdued lighting, bright sunny days, and everything in between.  

If you are looking for a different 35mm emulsion to try, I highly recommend Svema 100. This is a film that would be fantastic in 4x5 and 120 -- if they ever make it.

Back from North Carolina

Mountain Sentinel.  iphone image.

I am finally done traveling for a month or two.  My latest trip to North Carolina, and Asheville,  in particular, was to look at potential areas where we would like to move to in 2019.  With our realtor, we examined a number of homes for sale in the Asheville area.  When we were not doing that, we were exploring the area's natural beauty.   The more we saw, the more convinced we are about making a choice to retire there.  One of my prerequisites is that the future home have space for a darkroom, and some studio space.  It's amazing how many homeowners have completely finished their basements into living spaces, which makes installing a darkroom more problematic.    I am hopeful that we will find the right combination of size, amenities, garden space, kitchen space, darkroom space, and two-car garage by the time we are ready to sell our house here in Ann Arbor.

North Carolina is certainly a great place to move for nature and landscape photography.  The western part of course, is mountainous, and such a contrast to the flat state of Michigan and the Midwest, in general.  I grew up in the Adirondacks of New York, and while I miss that state's topography, I would like to live the rest of my life where winter is not such a big deal.  We have lived in Michigan since 1981, and as much as I enjoy the Great Lakes and the Upper Peninsula, it's an 8 hour drive at minimum to Marquette.  I am looking forward to new adventures in NC and of course, being in the eastern US again.  I am doing a lot of research on the photographic community, and people doing traditional photographic processes, in particular.  The film shooting will go on!

I shot some of the new Kodak Ektachrome E100 on the trip, and will have some examples to post in a couple of weeks. I shot with my Nikon FM, and it remains a great camera for trips.  I took the 50mm f/1.4, 28mm f/2.8, and 105mm f/2.5.    I only shot 6 rolls of film during the week, but I did do a lot of site scouting, and that was beneficial. 

Now I know why they are called the Blue Ridge Mountains

The Blue Ridge Parkway just has to be the most scenic route I have been on.  No commercial traffic, which makes the drive much better.  It seems like there was an amazing view of some sort almost continuously as we drove from Asheville NE to Blowing Rock.   I look forward to being able to drive just a few minutes to the BRP and enjoy the scenery!  NC has waterfalls galore, and I picked up a copy of Kevin Adams' "North Carolina Waterfalls."  Splendid photography, and a great guide.  I look forward to doing pinhole photography at some of the waterfalls next year.

Now that I am home, I have a lot of topics and reviews that have been on the back-burner and will start putting them on the blog shortly. 

Happy Halloween!