Well, it happened. Two years after Fuji ended their Velvia 100 slide film stock, my supply of Fuji Velvia 100 has dried up. All gone. I have one 35mm cartridge left. And after that … all I have are two more 120-size rolls of the product. As for my 35mm stock, the only slide film I’ll have left after this will be my Kodak Ektachrome 100 film and whatever leftover AGFA Scala 200 I have hidden away somewhere.
I understand why this film has to go. Some of the chemicals used to manufacture Velvia are now considered carcinogenic in the United States, so the only stock available is on the secondary market. And there’s no way I’m paying $40/roll for this film, no matter how sweet it looks.
Plus, if I never get another fantastic Fuji Velvia shot in my lifetime … I got this one.
I packed it in my Nikon F2S (“Nikon Athena”), and gave it a push through my adventures in April and in May.
My first few shots came in Newport, Vermont, at the time of the April 8th solar eclipse. And this is what a solar eclipse looks like on film. I think that little dot in the lower right corner MAY be one of the planets. Possibly Venus.
A few weeks later, I took Athena to that photo shoot along the Sacandaga River, where the Saratoga, Corinth & Hudson Railroad made its annual run to Hadley for the “Maple in April” festival.
Damn power lines. Always gotta get in my frame when I’m trying to capture something. Ugh.
Although I did get some nice shots of the SC&H’s ALCO-5 locomotive as the train rested in Hadley, and there were no power lines in the way at that time.
Again … this is a great photo, and if I didn’t stand IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRACK to get it, I could enter the photo in competition. So there’s that, of course. 😀
And when it comes to “burning off shots,” I used up the remainder of my frames on May 12 as part of TulipFest. I kept the 55mm f/1.2 lens on the chassis, just to capture what I could at the event.
Damn. Not bad for what I can pull.
As I said before, I still have a couple of rolls of Fuji Velvia 100 in 120 format, and those are being saved for extra-special shooting applications.
But the fact that I can snag these images right here and right now … that’s just frosting on a delicious cake.
Chuck The Writer 