I snagged some B&W rolls of New Classic EZ400 when they had a mini-sale, recently. I always enjoy shooting this film, as it delivers punchy, contrasty images with pleasing gain and good retention of detail. I thought that it would be fun to shoot local farms on a particularly cloudy day.
Cloudy days with light punching through the clouds are typically a good opportunity to shoot in black and white, as there is not much interesting in terms of color, yet there are interesting shadows that the rays of light can create on the landscape.
Farm irrigation systems
I ran out just before sunset to finish a roll of film that was sitting in my camera from the weekend, and was able to shoot for ~1 hour with the waning light to close out the last ~20 or so shots left on the roll. Even you only have a short amount of time, push yourself to make the best of the time, since even getting 1 good shot is rewarding in these scenarios.
Ironically enough, the clouds started to part the further the sun went down, and I was rewarded with an incredible sunset, with vivid colors spreading across the fields and lighting up the horizon. This would have been useful to have some color film stock on me, but, that's how it goes when you're shooting vintage-style. There's no fixing in post and you get what you left the house with - and that was my Nikon F3 from 1980, with B&W film 🎞️
Rather than focus on the beautiful colors on the horizon that I couldn't capture, I turned my camera toward the light reflecting off of the metal structures, which I figured would look cool in B&W.
Always great getting out for a bit and getting some fresh air - even better when shooting some film and enjoying the local sights. I'm planning on taking my more modern F5 with a roll of color to shoot the Fall foliage this weekend, so keep an eye out for more local NJ rural goodness here soon 🍂 🍃🍁
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