Splashes of color/I miss you, Fuji Velvia 100

Post #500, I suppose that should be a milestone!

It’s been all black & white film for a while, time to throw a splash of color into the mix.  These pictures date back to Fall 2020 but I didn’t get them developed until nearly a year later and then forgot about them til recently, as the aspen trees are changing color once again.  I mostly was using the Nikon F shooting Tri-X but brought out the F2A for whatever color film I was using since it was almost always going to be a different ASA and I wanted the meter to do more of my thinking for me.  As it turns out I don’t ever trust the meter and ended up overexposing quite a few of my shots.  These were the most usable.

I miss Fuji Velvia 100, while I do have a propack or two in my freezer but I may never use them.  It’s sad that Fujifilm makes so little film these days though honestly I’m surprised they have any left to sell considering some of my previous predictions.  Considering how the price has kept going up (upwards of $30 for one roll of Velvia 50) it’s likely that they’re just wringing as much as they can from their existing stock.  It’s possible every roll of Fuji that I shoot from here on out will just bemoan Fuji and their treatment of their film customer base over the last decade or so, but really it all was summed up by the last paragraph of this post.  Velvia 100, I miss you.

The end of FujiFILM?

I used to love Fujifilm, and during my early years as a photographer I was shooting Fujicolor 200, Superia 400, and Velvia 100 if I shot color at all.  But if the rumor mill is correct, Fuji might not be making any more film, ever.  We’ve all known that Acros II was being manufactured by Ilford and I’ve read recent news that Fujicolor 200’s new data sheet is eerily similar to Kodak Gold 200’s, inviting speculation that it is now just rebranded Kodak film.  Fuji shut down their film production plant in 2020 during the start of COVID-19 and it’s anybody’s guess whether it will ever reopen.  Knowing how Fuji has continuously axed one film after another over the last decade I think that it’s entirely possible that Fuji’s brilliant colors have finally faded.

Why I loved Fuji Superia
Why I loved Fuji Velvia & Provia

Reading Jim Grey’s tribute to his favorite film made me want to do the same but the fact is that I haven’t shot it much since those two posts above.  And I don’t think I’m going to continue to support a company that stopped supporting me a long time ago.  Unless something radically changes at Fuji with regards to their attitude toward their photographic film business it will be Kodak for me, thank you.

TV Birthday 1

.

Abstract 1

Animal-related.  

.

.

Zoe

An impromptu photo session after Church potluck with my pastor’s youngest daughter, Zoe.

Ain’t she purty?

Grandpa/Grandson diptych

A couple of choice photos from my nephew’s recent 1st birthday.

I finished up that roll, dropped off a couple rolls at Cameraworks to be developed, bought a lens, and went to the zoo.

Peak construction, Pt.III (in color)

I heard recently that the old summit house on Pike’s Peak has been closed “indefinitely,” though I think they mean permanently because they’ve been working on tearing it down.  The new summit house has is supposed to be finished by the end of Spring.  I knew this was coming so I was taking as many pictures of the old place whenever I got the chance.

Part I is here; you didn’t miss Part II, it is all black & white and has yet to be developed; chronologically though I shot all that stuff before this, which was in part to retest my F Apollo’s shutter after leaving it cocked overnight, plus putting nearly a whole roll through the chrome F2 that I picked up around the same time.

I hope that the pictures are useful someday and I already miss what the place used to be.  As more and more people come to the 2nd most-visited mountain in the world the more sanitized and Disneyfied it’s become, to be more palatable to the lowest common denominator of consumers.  Now I’m seeing a lot of railings and walkways, pavement, fences, guardrails: things demanded by poor drivers and idiots to make them feel safer.  By the time the construction is finished I fear there will be nothing left of the natural mountain.

Road to the Peak

Well actually this is the road from Pike’s Peak, but whatever.  This is the last view of the summit before reaching the toll gate in Cascade and Ute Pass.

2020 was an exceptionally dry and hazy Summer/Fall with quite a lot of forest fires, you can see that here with the amount of smoke in the air.

After surviving 2020 we all deserve a drink…

…so here are most of the pics on my blog of people drinking/celebrating, or are otherwise alcohol-related.  No particular order, just whenever I happened to remember another shot I added it to the bottom.  It turned out to be quite a few posts over the last 7 years and I’m sure I still missed some!

Here’s hoping that 2021 is the year we can get back to drinking together.

(Another reason to celebrate…this is post #400 for me, and first since my 7th Anniversary!)

What happened? Pt. II

Actually I can make a pretty good guess: just past the car is a narrow section on Gold Camp Rd, pretty much one-way, and that car had a disagreement on the right of way, probably with a big pickup truck.  Guess who won that argument?

.