I’m still testing out this Kodak Panoram 3A camera – a camera so ancient, its tech support was probably authored by George Eastman himself. This camera is supposed to give me super-ultra-wide photos on 120 film stock (well, with a special modification to the camera’s interior chassis), and the last time I tried it out … the camera DID work, but the results were kinda meh.
That being said, I’m not one to give up. And in this case, I wanted to see what the camera could do if I photographed a grove of sunflowers at sunset.
And I know just the place.
Herrington’s Pumpkins has a sunflower farm in Buskirk. They offer patrons the opportunity to walk through the sunflower farm, take pictures, clip some sunflowers, all that fun late summer stuff. Heck, it’s where I captured my eventual award-winning photo A Bicolor Sunflower.
Damn, that picture still resonates.
So anyways …
I drove to Herrington’s Pumpkins and set up the Kodak Panoram 3A. After previous experiences with the camera, I knew I could get two, maybe three good shots from a roll.
Oh, look. Sunflowers. Lots and lots and lots of sunflowers.
All I have to do is wait for the family in front of me to get their photos and move on.
And then all I have to do is wait for the NEXT family to get THEIR photos and move on.
This seems to be a trend.
Lots of end-of-summer pictures, lots of family pictures, lots of families, lots of pictures. Meanwhile, I’m patiently standing in the field, with flies buzzing around my skin and face, knowing the opportunity will come in time.
Now normally, I would simply take the pictures and, if possible, digitally crop or edit out anyone in the photo. But because the Kodak Panoram 3A has a super-wide view, I have to make sure that everybody in the field is out of my camera focus. All it takes is one blue shirt in the middle of yellow sunflowers, and my photo is ruined.
I shot two rolls of 120 slide film and hoped for the best.
Now normally I would ship my film off to The Darkroom in California. But I’ve kinda had some mixed results with their product, and I wanted to find another E-6 processor if I could.
And thanks to a tip, I was able to source an E-6 film developer in Rochester, Edgar Praus Photography. What the hell. Let’s send him the two reels of 120 E-6 and see what comes back.
And the film came back – developed – and full of images like these.
Okay. Much better. I’m on the right track. Look at all those sunflowers.
A few notes, though.
First, the sun MUST be at my back when I take these pictures. The left edge of this photo is completely blown out by shooting near the setting sun.
And I must maintain a long distance – at least a few meters – from my subjects. That one sunflower on the left is too close and too blurry. And I can not adjust this camera’s focus – it’s one size fits (mostly) all.
But – I could crop this down to a more manageable image if I chose, and these shots are a good example of “if at first you don’t succeed, try try again.”
So this camera is NOT a failure.
It’s just going to take some more time to get the shot I want out of it.
And I’ve got plenty of time.
