FILM IN THE DESERT: ESCALANTE Pt. 2
September 22 2021
Last time I shared some landscape photos from Escalante, which are what you would expect to from a beautiful desert location. But one of the other fun things about Escalante, and small towns in general, is the antiquated and untouched rural architecture.
There’s probably something metaphorical about the obsolescence of film representing those kinds of structures… something old and largely forgotten being used to capture something else old and forgotten.
There are so many of these old buildings around Escalante and all over Utah. One day I would love to go on a dedicated photography trip, with one goal in mind, to capture as many of these vintage structures and scenes as I can.
Most of the time when I’m traveling it’s with friends and family and not necessarily to take photos. Most of the time when I travel I just have a camera to document the trip and snap a photo when I get the chance, but traveling to take photos would be a cool and different perspective. This visit to Escalante was a family trip. We had an Airbnb by the Escalante River and spent most of our time hiking and hanging out. I took some pictures along the hikes and was able to get some portraits of my siblings but didn’t get to explore and document the town as I would have liked.
That was a shot of the Escalante River on a fresh roll of non-expired Portra. I know, non-expired film is a treat for me. And Portra too! I was really indulging on this trip, but I knew that I would have some portrait opportunities, so I wanted to test the emulsion out.
I don’t want to take too much time away from the travel to talk about the film stock, but I was not as blown away by Portra as I was expecting. After hearing so much about the film I thought I would be more impressed, nonetheless it was fun to shoot, and I was happy with the results.
I will say that the latitude of Portra saved me on this shot. I haven’t done too many backlit photos and I didn’t properly meter for the shadows on this one so when I got the scans back my sister was totally dark. There was enough detail in the shadow that I could pull it back up while keeping a pretty accurate exposure in the background. I really like this shot because of the dreamy colors that the sun created as it set through the field behind our Airbnb.
While we were down there, we got some awesome sunsets so I dragged my sisters out almost every night for mini photoshoots. I was excited to shoot some portraits in a beautiful setting since it’s something that I don’t normally do.
I quickly realized how difficult posing a model was. I’m used to shooting stationary objects and only having my own mobility to find the best angle, but when shooting people they can move too… I know, mind blowing. But seriously this adds another dimension to composing a photo, and for me this dimension was a nuisance. I’m sure modeling and posing subjects would get easier with practice, but taking portraits isn’t something that I do a lot of. I’ve definitely begged my fair share of people to go out and shoot with me, but at a certain point it’s just easier to go shoot buildings and houses alone.
I think this shot of my sister came out great and it wasn’t that hard to compose since the shot of the chairs is one that I would have taken with or without her. This shot felt more natural for me because I was just taking a photo of an interesting scene with a person in it. The interest in the scene wasn’t dependent on how I posed Piper, rather the scene was interesting, and Piper added to it.
Whatever I’m trying to say has proven to be very difficult to convey through words, but basically, I like the photo of Piper in the chairs because it fits my style landscape of photography and isn’t a dedicated portrait.
As far as gear for this visit I primarily used a black Nikon FM2 that I had purchased locally a few weeks earlier. The FM2 is a better built and fully mechanical Nikon SLR. It’s similar to the FG with the controls but it’s very stripped down without any Aperature or Program modes. I’ll review it in a later post because it has quickly become one of my favorite cameras ever. I also brought my FG along with in case I needed to shoot in conditions that would make me nervous to use the FM2. I didn’t use it too much, but it was nice to have as a backup and less valuable alternative. I also had Portra in the FM2 which was exciting because I rarely shoot Portra because it’s so expensive, but this roll was purchased for me so I figured Escalante would be a good place to use it!
Hopefully I’ll be back in Escalante again to shoot more of the old buildings. This post became really focused on portraits, but I would love to share some of the old charm from the small desert town. See you next time!