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Saturday, 21 October 2023

Black & White photos from the Pacific Crest Trail in 1982

 

Camp with Larry Lake by Chicken Spring Lake in the High Sierra

Sorting through old film prints - I have boxes and boxes of them - I was delighted to come across some black & white ones from the Pacific Crest Trail, which I thru-hiked in 1982. Back in the 1980s I always carried two cameras, one for black-and-white, one for colour, (and in case of breakage or failure - on the PCT one of them failed about half way). 

Somewhere in Southern California!

The prints are on glossy paper and good quality. The film was Ilford FP4, ISO 125. I digitised them by photographing them handheld with the Sony a6700 camera and Sony E 35mm f1.8 lens at f1.8 and 1/15 second at ISO 125 (out of nostalgia for the original film!). This isn't a good combination for high quality images, though processing the raw files in DxO PhotoLab 7 did improve them (and this latest version of PhotoLab is far better for monochrome work). 

This time I just wanted an idea of what digital versions of them would be like. In future I'll use a tripod and aperture of f5.6 or f8 and spend more time on the processing. For now I have to get back to seeing what else I can find in those boxes.

View from the tent in the High Sierra (just below Muir Pass I think)

As always it was wonderful to see these photos again. I'd forgotten I had them. 

Larry Lake fording a creek in the High Sierra






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