The Oregon Garden
Late last week I took a trip down to Silverton Oregon with a friend to visit The Oregon Garden. I didn’t expect to take many photographs as we really just wanted to check out the beautiful gardens and landscaped pathways before it got too hot into the season but I decided to take my Hasselblad along with me anyway and a few rolls of film. I’ve done a lot of photographs with this particular friend in the past and I knew she would be happy to pose for some images if we came across anything particularly cool.
It’s a little tough to see on a computer monitor or a phone screen, but the flower plant that is at the center of this image is covered in caterpillars! There are probably at least twenty of them crawling along the stems and flower tops of the plant. We thought it was such a cool sight that we just had to take a picture. I love the way the image turned out and I plan on making an extra large print in the near future so one can see the details of all the little hairy caterpillars walking up and down the plant stock.
We had to work really quickly when making this photograph because even though we arrived at the gardens as early as possible there were still other patrons around. The last thing we wanted to do was cause a scene when other people paid money to get in wishing only to relax and have a nice stroll in the early morning air. Getting into the scene, metering, focusing, and exposing about six frames took all of three minutes tops. It’s really nice when I can work quickly with someone I have a lot of experience with as we tend to find a creative rhythm very quickly.
Film stock used was Fomapan 100 which I’ve been getting reacquainted with over the past several months. It is still one of my favorite black and white films thanks to its classic monochrome look. A touch grainy, but not too grainy, which is a characteristic that is entirely subjective but absolutely suits my taste. I’m thankful my local camera shop, Blue Moon Camera and Machine, seems to have it in stock most of the time.
Camera: Hasselblad 500c/m with 80mm f/2.8 lens.
Film: Fomapan 100 in medium format. Developed in Rodinal.
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