Since leaving Amazon - I have taken a deeper interest in shooting more film. I have seriously pursued photography as a hobby since 2005 - when I bought my first DSLR with my signing bonus at Amazon : Nikon D70. Over the next 22 years I would end up working my through many different digital bodies and lenses until eventually landing on shooting Sony. Along the way Seth inspired me to also often carry a small point and shoot film camera. Following other avid film shooters like Joe Grant inspired me a time or two to primarily carry a film camera on outings.
Film teaches you about photography in a very different way. I think it helps immensely to have had the digital tutelage about ISO/aperture/shutter speed and the instant feedback to help you improve. But film makes you slow down - and really make sure you have things right. As Joe Grant said about film in 2018 on iRunFar.
I needed to learn how to look, to observe, to pay attention to a scene, emphasizing the importance of composition. … I needed to practice… [to] … spend time learning the craft, underlining the value of the process.
So I started shooting a lot more film and I decided I wanted to try to photograph Western States but entirely on film. I built a pretty detailed plan (with the consultation of Gemini) on where I’d shoot, what camera and lenses I’d use and what film stock. My camera shelf is an expression of the N+1 philosophy - but I wanted to keep things as simple as possible. So I opted to only take 4 film cameras and 3 lenses.
Leica M6 with the Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f/1.1 lens.
Olympus OM-2S with a OM Zuiko 28mm f/2.8 and a OM Zuiko 300mm f/4.5
All three of these lenses were manual focus - so it would not be as easy as “point and shoot” or spray and pray even as I’d have to manually wind the film after each shot.
The other two camera were both point and shoot Fuji Klasse - the Standard (S) with a 35mm lens and the Wide (W) with a 28mm lens.
My rough plan and execution went as follows :
Friday - hang out at the Western States Expo for bib pickup and Pre-Race Meeting and try to catch folks to take their portraits. I had emailed a bunch of athlete managers, brand sponsor contacts and tagged a bunch of folks on Instagram - but response was limited or a flat out “no - we are not doing any more media requests”. I planned to use the Leica with a roll of Porta 400 and the Klasse 35 with Kodak Tri-X 400. Things are pretty chaotic and I wasn’t able to get that many portraits - but I was able to corner a few folks who all graciously said yes. Killian was fast and illusive, could never catch him, even though Nick Danielson tried, we just missed each other. Jim, I got lucky by happening to be hanging out with the Jurek’s who schemed with Jim to pull off this classic post. After the race briefing - I picked up my livestream equipment for my duties at Quarry Road the next day.
Saturday - I woke at 3 am and got ready and made my way to the track. I was shooting the Olympus OM-2S with the 28mm f/2.8 and the Leica M6 50mm f/1.1, both had Ilford 3200 ISO film loaded. Almost every single one of these 60 photos was a bust. Light meter kept reading the headlamps and the spot lights and everything was under exposed and dark. I wouldn’t know that though until weeks later when I got the film back from the lab.
From there I drove to Devils Thumb and setup a tripod with the Olympus OM-2S using the 300mm f/4.5 - the trick was try to catch the runners coming up into Devils Thumb and hit focus. I started by focusing on a spot (using a stump) that I could time the shot with as they runner arrived and then pull back past them and then try to snap the photo and they ran into focus. Each shot had to be manually wound, pull focus all while keeping my eye to the view finder and trying to time the shot with when they were in focus. After the fact I was happy with getting quite a few shots, but missing a bunch more as well. After the runner was past my tri-pod - I’d have my Fuji Klasse-W in my hand and run back around the bushes to the aid station and snap a few shots with the point and shoot.
Around 1 - I left Devils Thumb and drove the dusty and bumpy road back to Forest Hill. Somewhere in the dust my tire hit something and as I pulled onto the paved Forest Hill road my tire went flat. I pulled over to the side and turned on my blinkers and got out to see about changing a flat. I crawled under the truck (a Dodge Ram 1500 rental) and there was a full size tire “screwed” into some fastening device under the truck. But I couldn’t find a jack or anyway to get the tire. Nothing in the back seat, nothing under the truck, nothing in the bed. So I stood there on the side of the road, there was no cell service - no way to call anyone. A lady stopped in her van with 3 kids and a “trunk” full of luggage - she was crewing her husband who was running and she was heading for Forest Hill. She saw my livestream vest and pulled over and offered me a ride. I grabbed my camera bags, film and the huge box full of livestream gear and climbed into her front seat with it all on my lap.
At Forest Hill - I arrived after the lead men had ran through but the lead women were still to come. I was able to catch a few photos with the Fuji Klasse-W but I was majorly distracted trying to find a tow truck to fix the flat or tow the truck so that I could get to Quarry road by 4pm. After calling 5 tow trucks, being told yes and then an hour later being told no. I texted Billy and asked him if Tim Tollefson (who I had seen at Devils Thumb) would want to drive me out to Quarry Road. Tim texted me- we met and he graciously agreed to drive me and the gear out to Quarry Road. We had the gate code and we drove the old gravel road that was rough in a couple of places but his trusty Subaru got us through. Hal Koener and Scott Jurek run the aid station - and this year Jenny Jurek whipped up the Quarry Pitt theme, which was a playful nod to the Circle Pit and added a self effacing bit of levity. The lead men were running hot - ahead of course record pace and we barely got the live stream camera set up before Vincent came running through.
The top men and women all came through in blurried pace of succession. The aid station swarmed each one and got them ready to get on with the last 10 miles. After seeing the top 10 women - Tim and I left to drive back to the High School. As we walked back toward the track - Puppi was curled up in a plastic chair beside the road with his crew - looking very tired. Tim crouched down to congratulate him on an epic historic 2nd place sub-14 finish. Back at the track - I called AAA for a tow truck and watched a few of the 10 ten women finishers and wandered around the field where the runners took a well needed break. I got to see Jeff Browning cross the line just after 11pm, breaking the 50 year old masters finishing record.
Finally at 11:30 pm AAA called and said they had a truck coming. Just past midnight the Tow Truck called saying he was coming into Auburn from Colfax. BUT he said he’d have to meet me at Forest Hill grocery store - but he couldn’t give me a ride - as he had someone else with him that he needed to go tow after me. He was worried if something went wrong with not being able to change the tire - I’d just be stranded 40 miles down Forest Hill road. I saw Scott Sowle on the field and asked him if he’d be willing to drive me out there; he graciously agreed. We arrived at 1 am and rendezvoused with the tow truck, and it took us another 40 minutes to do the long drive out to where my truck was flat and because I left the flashers on was now completely dead. We unlocked the car with the physical key hidden in the fob, jumped the truck and then the driver found the jack and the extension rods to lower the tire under the passenger front seat. (!?) By 2 am he had the tire changed and I was on my way. It was an hour drive back to Auburn and there was only a couch in the AirBnb. I was dead tired - I’d been awake 23 hours and I didn’t feel like trying wake up my brother-in-law at 3:30 am - so I called the airport - changed my flight from Monday to Sunday at 6:15 am that day and flew back home.
It was nerve wracking having the TSA hand check my 14 rolls of film instead of putting them through the scanner. And even more frustrating when one roll triggered a security check, which they firmly informed me and reaffirmed with a supervisor meant they had to put that one roll through the scanner (it still turned out!).
I mailed the film off the theFINDLab on Monday and waited patiently over the 4th of July weekend to get the scans back. Not knowing what I’d get. I shot 14 rolls of film at States, 2 of those were the partials - finished on the way there and after I got returned. There were 689 scans of Western States; in the editing process - I marked 242 of them as worthy of review. 184 were worth a 2nd look. I narrowed that down to 56 - 4 star and finally picked 38 to feature on my website - you can see all 132 on Smugmug.