Canonical shot of the Mission

 When I went to San Luis Rey Mission in Oceanside, CA, on Labor Day, Sept. 7th, I took my 8x10 pinhole camera. As noted in a prior entry, I exposed several shots. One of them was this one, the canonical shot of the mission framed by the fountain in front. I am sure everyone has done this, each time I have gone there is a photographer getting this shot either with his cellphone or with his or her digital camera. I have seen this done with the Santa Barbara Mission too, but I wanted to do it with the 8x10.

I remember waiting for a long time because there were people standing in front of the church. I wanted it to be a clean shot, with no distractions, but the more I waited, the more other people joined in. So I had to just take the shot as it was, even though at 4:30, as I found out after taking this exposure, they closed the church down and people left the entrance way. 

Setting up the tripod was a little tricky. I needed a high vantage point because I was aiming to capture the reflection of the mission in the water of the fountain. However, when I did so, I noticed that the breeze made the tripod wobble. There was nothing left for it, I was going to have to take it that way. The other thing I didn't like was that the white facade of the church just faded into the white gloom of the ash clouds in the sky. Yes, the fires were in full force by then, and they had lowered the temperatures significantly so we no longer had the inferno we had had on Sunday when we hit 115 degrees in southern California. If it wasn't a record, it should have been. But that Monday, it was about 15 degrees cooler. It was still hot but the slight breeze that was wobbling my tripod was also refreshing us slightly.

I set up the exposure and withdrew the dark slide. Once again, this was Arista 200 film, taken with an 8x10 pinhole camera, focal length 120mm, f500. So, I had to wait for two and a half minutes, with the camera wobbling. Holding down the tripod would not help, from another photo video of someone using the Harman 8x10 pinhole camera, they had emphasize, whatever you do, do not touch the tripod nor try to stabilize it while taking an exposure. You will just make the blur worse.

If I could, I would have wanted to use some kind of filter to try to darken the skies, but it would not have worked. No Red 25a because the sky was filled with an ash gloom, it was not open sky, so it would not have darkened. The result is that the church facade is lost. 

Here are the negative and the crude inversion I performed.

I am pleased with the negative, it is certainly dense enough, but that sky, that sky! The church just fades into the whiteness of that ashy gloom. 

I should have converted it to monotone but I love the tone it has here. 

I probably should not even have been out in the open, air quality was probably not very good. I know, I know, I was taking risks, I was in a public place while we are in a full pandemic, and even though most of us were wearing face masks, some like to not wear them. Also, the air quality must not have been very good. Case in point, this is the air quality reading for the city where I live, for today, Saturday, Sept. 12. It says we have unhealthy air, and the conditions on that Monday are the same that we had today.

I had to get out, and I am glad I took that photo. Who knows when I will go there again, but I want to try that same shot, this time, with an 8x10 camera with a real lens. But I don't own one yet. Still, I spend plenty of time looking at listings for used cameras. The WillTravel 8x10 printed camera with the 121mm Super Angulon lens is the one I want, because I want to shoot wide and because I want the point-and-shoot convenience. That is what I have most appreciated about my 4x5 Travelwide, the point-and-shoot convenience and the lightness of the camera. I have a Busch Pressman 4x5 Model D but there is no way I am taking that anywhere when I go out. The weight will bend me down and break my spine, unless I want to do what Edward Weston is supposed to have done, which is travel by car (he didn't even drive himself, he had others drive him) and just choose spots that were close to where his car was parked. He is supposed to have said that if the composition were not 500 (or so) feet from his car, it wasn't worth it for him. Very funny, but I know what he means. I will not be lugging a heavy 8x10 camera setup, and I do want to hike, so I will wait for the WillTravel point and shoot, whenever it is offered for sale.

That is it. I have some 4x5 negatives drying in the bathroom. Tomorrow I will scan and share those.