In May of 2015 I went with my wife and family to celebrate 5 years of marriage in the same wonderful location and resort that hosted our wedding. I decided that instead of bringing my DSLR, or even a more convenient Film SLR that I would pack along my Mamiya RZ67 ProII, a few film backs and lenses and about 15 rolls of 120 film. Kodak Portra 160 and 400, Kodak Ektar 100, Kodak Tri-X 400, and Ilford HP5+, FP4+, and PanF+ film made the trip with me. While this meant I shot a lower quantity of images, the huge 6x7cm negatives this camera produces do justice to the beauty of the area and the fun we had on our trip. Presented here are a few of the images I brought back with me, and I hope you enjoy them as I do!
Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil
This was a sculptured fountain I found at the resort. Shot with my Mamiya RZ67 ProII on Kodak Portra 400, developed back home by myself and scanned directly into Photoshop via VueScan Professional where I converted to monochrome and processed for the look I wanted.... I envisioned this as three glowing faces in the midst of a black wall, and ended up with really great detail and vibe with just a little processing.
Out To Sea
My view from the besch outside the resort. Shot with my Mamiya RZ67 ProII on Kodak Tri-X (rated at 400), developed back home in HC-110 and scanned directly into Photoshop via VueScan Professional. Lightroom was the star of this show, allowing me to get very close to my final look. Exported from Lightroom into Photoshop I dodged and burned the clouds and water, and set a slight color cast by eye. I did some very minor spotting, only removing large dust spots and scratches while leaving many smaller "flaws" alone... I liked how they looked in the test prints, so I left them in!
Out To Sea II
The same pier seen in "Out to Sea", I had noticed that during low tide there were additional details that couldn't bee seen during the day. One morning I went out to the beach at 5:00am to catch the tide coming in with the sunrise (dumb luck made them coincide this day) and saw the growth on this broken wooden support post. I set up the tripod in the water, and lowered the camera to just a few inches over the sea, metered and opened the shutter. Taken with my Mamiya RZ67 ProII on Kodak Portra 400, developed by me once I got back home, and scanned into Photoshop via VueScan Professional. Even though I shot this at a fairly wide aperture (f/5.6) I wanted to bring out the details in the wood and water, so I used Photomatix to tonemap the image and blended it with the processed original at a low opacity. As with "Out to Sea", I left many of the small flaws from processing the film intact as I feel they add to the "vibe" I like for this project.
Retired
Every afternoon we held a poker game for a few hours, and my friend Terry (who was on the trip with us) always took the opportunity to smoke one of the wonderful Cuban cigars from the shop close by the poker table. I always brought my camera with me to the poker games, since I often ended up going out after a foolish bet or two, and still wanted to have something to do! Shot on my Mamiya RZ67 ProII with Kodak Ektar 100 film, developed by me at home and then scanned directly into Photoshop via VueScan Professional. The slight back focus was a happy accident....I like the comtemplative look in his eyes and the out of focus majority of the face supports the "lazy day" vibe of the photo. Color rendition on Ektar film is just lovely, as is highlight retention....the bright area in the background was pure white on shots taken with my digital camera.
Cabana Relaxed
Kandice relaxes on Richards' Row: The line of beach chairs we reserved for the family every morning at 6:00am! I shot this with my Mamiya RZ67 ProII on Kodak Tri-X film, rated at ISO 400. Developed at home in Kodak HC-110, scanned directly into Photoshop via VueScan Professional. This is an almost exact reversal of the negative....the open shade provided by the cabana (like you see in the background) made for soft light and open shadows, so not much processing was required.
