One of the benefits of living in Las Vegas is that within less than an hour’s drive you can be in a photographically rich location that can make you feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere. It’s a beautiful desert countryside with unique shapes and plant life and if you have a camera with you, you’re sure to come back with some striking imagery.
Color or Black and White
Most photographers who do a lot of landscape photography tend to shoot in color. It’s often the rich colors of their subjects that draw them to that genre in the first place. It will probably be no surprise to anyone who has followed my photography for any brief amount of time to know that color is not my medium. I’ve shot at Red Rock Canyon (the name kind of implies that it should be shot in color) and surrounding areas a few years back. But that was using digital cameras and this time I wanted to shoot it again, but using Fujifilm’s Neopan 100 ACROS black and white film. The look of film always gives the photos kind of a historical look. A timeless look. The photo could’ve been shot today or fifty years ago.
Needed a Change
Another reason why I decided to go out of town to shoot some landscapes is that I’ve been doing mostly street photography, day and night, and I was starting to get a little bored with my locations. I thought nature would be a nice change of pace. It definitely gave me the change I needed.
The Film Experience
I loved framing and taking the shots; advancing the film to take the next frame; and although I knew what the framing would be and how the exposure should look of the shot I just took, there was no little screen on the back of the camera to verify my shot. That’s one of the main things I love about shooting film. It’s the excitement of taking the film home, developing it and then comes that moment when you’re hanging the negatives to dry and you get an idea of what you really got that day.
So here are a handful of shots that I got from this experience. I’m not what I would consider to be a landscape photographer. There are some people that can really do magic with that genre. But, it definitely gave me that refreshing feeling that you get from breaking up your routine and doing something different.
