High Desert Garden

This was a scene I captured out at JTNP (Joshua Tree N.P.) just last week. My brother Tom found this large barrel cactus as we were hiking in the area. Enlarging this image shows all kinds of other cactus dotting the entire hillside. Thank you for taking the time to look and any comments are appreciated.

Wista DXIII 4x5
Schneider APO 90mm
Singh Ray 2 stop soft ND
Fuji Provia 100F

Very nice paul. I love the color of the barrel cacti and the palpable textures in the scene. Sure is fun to just head out into the desert roaming around looking for little discoveries to find such as this.

Nice little garden scene! Ain't nature grand!!!! I like this.

Not sure what it is, but somehow something always looks a little off to me when I see a blue sky shot with Provia. I have been trying all the films, Provia, Velvia 100, 100F, Astia and now the new old 50. Despite the slowness and reciprocity issues of 50, I like its color palette the best (by far). Sorry to go off on a tangent on your posting, but the image brought all the thoughts to mind.

Well Harley, you now know where I'm at. I shot Velvia 50 for 15 years unitl it's original stop date a while back now. I thought the Velvia 100 was the answer, UGH, I barely shoot it now. I have fallen into using Astia, Provia, and Velvia on a 1-2-3 punch. On this scene all three had the cactus right on, but the Velvia was magenta throughout everything else. Of the three, Provia seems the most natural to me. I have since ordered Velvia 100F to try as a last resort to going back and trying 50 again. Two reasons I have not tried the newer Velvia 50, one is will Fuji be true to it, and for how long, secondly I have not seen it in Quickloads? I assume you must be using standard loads as I know you use B&W too. I'm trying not to resort to that, as I'm the worst standard load person in the world. Anyway, let me know if you have heard of or know of access to the Quickloads. At this point in time I'm trying to get better with the Provia overall, as I like it over the rest so far.....Thanks for your comment too!!

Paul,

I have been buying QL's of the new Velvia 50 for a couple of months. I get them from Samy's in Santa Barbara. They also give me a great deal on the film. You should be able to order it through their website or I would be happy to stop by the Santa Barbara store and get you some.

p.s. I tried Velvia 100F and found it to be the worst of the lot. I shoot Astia for high contrast situations and Velvia 50 for almost everything else. I occasionally shoot B&W. All in Quickloads.

Thanks Harley for the follow up information here. What B&W are you using in Quickloads?

I generally use Acros. I have used a little T-Max 100 (a friend loaned me a Readyload holder). I have one heck of a time scanning B&W on my 4990 with Silverfast Ai. Might be pilot error, but I have tried scanning it as a B&W neg, color neg, color positive and the results are lousy. I get far better results from the Epson software, which generally is not that great. Not sure what the heck I am doing wrong.

Thanks Harley for all the good information. You might ask the folks at Samy's the next time you stop there why the main web site does not show the 50 Velvia in QL's......take care!

i do'nt know Paul, not really feeling this one. its a lot of the hillside but nothing jumping out at me either, the sky okay but doesn't add much either. i like the red barrel cactus though, adds some color to the scene.