Alcove in Laguna Beach
Saturday, September 5, 2009 
Alcove, Laguna Beach, 2009Or this could be called: Large Format Success... Finally!
The Chamonix is proving to be more of a beast than I initially thought. The difficulties stem from the fact I don't get it out enough but this image is from a stack of negatives I developed this week that, in all honesty, I had put off simply because I thought they would not be worth much time and effort.
I had worked this scene for a good two hours. The movements, upside down backward image, and static nature of composing the image are not yet second nature to me. I exposed four sheets of film that day and used the Efke simply because it's cheap, and I had a box of it that needed to be used. I really thought of this an exercise and wanted to get out and photograph one early Saturday morning.
So I decided to mix up some chemistry a few evenings this week and develop the film not expecting much. But I saw this come out of the fix and thought I might actually have something. I have to air dry the negatives so I waited patiently to see if my initial thoughts were, indeed, correct.
The raw scan looked like crap. This is Efke 25 and their quality control is less than stellar but somehow it works for me. It's got an old feel to it that I really like. Combine that with the fact that I got the composition correct and I've got a large format image I'm proud of, finally.
It might have been sharper but the more I look at it the less I think so. I need to print it out to make sure but I think it will look even better on paper.