This past summer I was doing a lot of work with color negative film. Kodak Portra 400 speed film to be exact. On the day this photograph was made working with 400 speed film was probably not the best of ideas. It was hot, bright, and the sun was incredibly high in the sky as early as 9 o’clock in the morning. Pretty much all the conditions one doesn’t want when working with color negative film, especially high speed color negative film.
Kodak Portra photographed with a Mamiya C330 TLR camera.
So the best option I had on the table at the time was to take some shelter in an abandoned barn and work with the heavy shadows the structure provided to the scene. I was really thankful I also decided to work with my Mamiya C330 TLR that day as the standard 80mm lens on that camera has a tendency to flare very easily. Sometimes that isn’t such a great thing, but in this case I was able to take advantage of that characteristic quite nicely. In the top image especially I think the flare ads a little bit of punch and warmth to the image that just isn’t present in the lower image.