TexasGirl Photography

We are back home again after another amazing summer camping road trip. This year marked number 5! Five years in a row, 5 incredible, distinct adventures. I still feel like I need to pinch myself, I am so grateful that we are able to make those journeys and to travel that way. For 2022, we went to Colorado, having heard through the grapevine that Lincoln National Forest was closed because of fires, and that’s the one we would have headed for had we gone to New Mexico. It was meant to be: Mueller State Park, which we had been longing to revisit, had spots available, as did a new place we hadn’t tried in Cañon City. We made our reservations and hit the road.

All of this, however, is just a preface to me talking about cameras (OF COURSE!). I always seem to have a lot of mishaps with them, especially on road trips. Part of it, I’m certain, comes down to the fact that I insist on bringing so many pieces of gear along for the ride. There’s plenty of room in the truck, and I don’t like the idea of being in an incredible situation and not having the right tool along to make the most of it. This is the fun of film cameras – right?? Being able to make so many different types of photos, completely in-camera, no post-processing required, using a variety of film stocks, cameras, and lenses. Sure, if I just brought along my digital it would be a one-stop-shop. But have you, film enthusiast that I assume you are if you’re reading this, compared digital pinhole to the Real Thing? IT JUST AIN’T THE SAME.

So, yeah. I encounter a lot of problems. I forget what film is loaded. I load things incorrectly, in my distracted haste. I leave lens caps on (GAH I just can’t get used to range finders).

Sometimes, as in the case of exhibit A above, the camera malfunctions for no reason I can think of. Why did this photo in the pack come out blank? Who knows!

What you see above now is my attempt at catching the critter with my Widelux, which I also had to hand, having been kneeling down in the grass there with a pinhole camera on a tripod. It was my stillness in that moment that made the (I think) prairie dog feel comfortable enough to emerge and check me out – then eventually scamper off down the hill. It turns out I hadn’t loaded the film properly, so it’s a little dreamy around the edges. It turns out that the elusive ground-dwelling-rodent moved and became an indistinct blob. It turns out that I managed to capture the curvature of the earth. I guess I just wasn’t meant to make that photo!

Fortunately, I don’t always get it wrong. What you see above was another beautiful moment brought on by my stillness as I messed with cameras (pinhole, again), but this time the film was loaded correctly, the deer held still, and YAY I didn’t flub the development.

The greatest margin for error, however, always comes with the passenger seat photos, made literally on the fly and often through the glass of the window if I don’t feel like rolling it down. I can’t help myself; I can’t just sit there for hours looking and not making photographs. In years past, I have used a film camera; trial and (especially) error has made me better at it and given me some decent results. A lot of the time, however, it’s a miss. Timing is difficult at 50plus miles per hour on the highway.

This year, I decided to mainly photograph from the shotgun position with my digital camera. I used the Lensbaby Burnside 35 lens that I’m crazy about (feels like a film lens since it’s manual focus) and made pictures to my heart’s content, not worrying about whether I had actually collected the moment or not since really it was the process itself I was after.

I will admit that I’m pretty happy with the results. And, to that end, here I am presenting you with a bunch of digital photographs that showcase some of my favorite things that I spied as we drove along. Digital isn’t really my jam, but the Lensbaby lens at least gives me something that feels more organic, less perfect, more moody. . . . .

This was a long post! If you made it to the end, high five! Catch y’all next time; thanks for reading and looking!