It was a good hike in general, nice steady 30-45 minute walk up the incline on fire roads until you get to the very long steps down.
Hasselblad 500C/M • Kodak VPH400
Slow and steady down the 999 steps, with some wonderful views along the way.
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| Hasselblad 500C/M • Kodak VPH400 |
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| Hasselblad 500C/M • Fuji RDPII |
Most of the area is over grown with lots of rusted out parts of former buildings and equipment fill the grounds. Plus a lot of layers of graffiti covering everything.
I decided to take my Hasselblad out for this adventure. It's a 500C/M with the older C mount 80mm F2.8 Planar and older A12 back. I've had the camera for about 14 years, originally for doing commercial work. I hardly shoot with it anymore, but thought taking this little tank on a nice long hike would be a good change of pace. I also brought my modified Holga (done by Randy at Holga Mods, 2ft min focus, F5.6/8 mod) plus some very expired films. I used 12+ year expired Kodak 160NC Portra for the Holga and 12+ year expired Fuji Provia RDPII chrome film and some super old 22+ year expired Kodak VPH400 color negative film (rated it at 250) for the Hasselblad. Got some interesting results and color shifts with these films. The Fuji film was thin, with a warm/magenta cast, but still had a lot of information and detail. Not sure if rating the film slower or processing differently would change that, I also suspect the development time could have been longer. The really old Kodak film probably should have been rated at 200 and even pushed a tiny bit in processing. They were a bit dark and had a very blue green shift in color. A lot of this can be corrected fairly well, and yet still show that its a aged film.
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| Power Station • Hasselblad 500C/M • Fuji RDPII |
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| Back of the Power Station • Holga 120CFN • Portra 160NC |
Power Station • Holga 120CFN • Portra 160NC
I found that using the Hasselblad out in the field like this was a lot more fun then I had expected. Good padded neck/shoulder strap and carrying in hand at the same time was a good balance for not much wear and tear on my back/shoulders/neck. Also, packing a light backpack was essential. For once, I traveled light and only brought what I needed.
This was a cool photo adventure with such an interesting mix of history and nature. I recommend going in the morning though and taking your time. It's a great hike, with beautiful views. So close yet far away from L.A. There and back with some time to wander, shoot and have a quick lunch break all in about 4 hours. We did miss the old iron gate entrance and water tower. The walk back up of those steps was a thigh burner! Great work out, but tough.
