Timeless Hues in Big Sky Land


A close look at the old photo of ribside caboose 991847 reveals all of the caveats of photography from a previous generation.  No autofocus to help achieve a modern camera's clarity; slide film that saturates and leaves a tell-tale grain; no hyper-sensitive digital chip to rescue the contrasts of darks and bright whites.

But like other old photos from ages past, there is something striking.  The colors are robust and speak of a grand summer day from years ago.  The orange caboose, though faded, still captures the imagination of passersby.  Perhaps it is on its way out of town, bound for the summit of the Rockies as the tail to a westbound XL Special?  

Though the image is flawed, it seems to be timeless - at least to the one who shot it all those years ago back in Three Forks.

Comments

Pat, Marcus & Alexis said…
I'm often quite struck by the color in slide film. Amazing, very often.

Recently I've come to appreciate more and more the qualitative differences in various models and generations of digital cameras. I shoot Pentaxes and I've always liked them, but I did think that my last 35mm film Pentax was not as good as my earlier ones. In contrast, my newer Pentax DSLR is noticeably better than my first one, although they are both very good cameras (and Pentax DSLRs can take the old 35mm glass). I wish I could afford the new full frame Pentax DSLR.

Anyhow, very much enjoy this blog.
7/16/2016 06:59:00 AM
Chris Walker said…
Leland, have you seen these yet?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/124078743@N08/albums/72157644881004221/page1

An Awesome journey tosay the least.

Chris
in New Zealand
7/28/2016 02:28:00 AM
LinesWest said…
@Pat, Marcus et al.
Thanks for the nice thoughts. I've been using Pentax forever, starting with an old (even then) Spotmatic, then a refurbished LX. The LX was magical in its way it measured light and gave wonderful results. I never tried the newer bodies until the K10, but even now that I'm running a K3, I still find the old slides taken by the LX to be amazing. Of course, the "soft focus" of the ribside caboose shows the obvious challenge of manual focus! I never heard enough good things about what came after the LX to try another film body though.

@Chris
Thanks Chris, that is a great collection! Much appreciated.

-Leland
8/06/2016 02:13:00 PM
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