Tioga State Forest
April 22, 2021
1 hour and 21 minute exposure on 120 Kodak Ektachrome
Above is my first ever photograph of star trails on medium format film. This image was taken in Tioga State forest facing east/northeast. As you can see from the video below, the weather was not ideal for most of the night. Despite that, the clouds dissipated right before the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower.
At 3:44 in the morning I got out of bed and set the camera up on a tripod with the wide angle 35mm lens. I’m using the giant Pentax 6×7, which is not great for long exposures because the battery drains while the shutter stays open! The wizards’ work around for this is to line up the shot, trigger the shutter with the lens cap on, remove camera from tripod, take out the battery, replace the camera, and remove the lens cap. Now we’re taking a picture!
I went and cuddled up under my heated blanket until 5:05am. I fumbled my way back out to the camera, replaced the lens cap, put the battery in which closed the shutter, watched for a few shooting stars, and went back to sleep.
It was dark and cold so I put the battery back in backwards. Very professional. Luckily the above photo made it out! The next frame was a waste as a result of my mix-up, 1/10 of the roll ruined. Still, I was quite happy with this capture. If you look at the top center you can see a blue horizontal line. This meteor must have been bright to show up on an hour and twenty-one minute exposure!
Shot on 120 E100 film. Pentax 135mm lens with extension tubes fully extended. Pentax 6×7.
Reid Menzer Memorial Skatepark
May 1, 2021
The first two images below were shot with the same camera and film as above. The final three images are from the tiny Pentax 110 auto using Lomography Peacock slide film. All of these images have had level adjustments and the 110 film has been color corrected somewhat.
Please consider donating to the skate park!
