Pretty Phil

Continuing our colourful Autumn adventure in Yale, we drove back along the country road heading for home, and noticed a little side road branching off towards the river. Heading down to explore, we were greeted by the sight of a secluded rocky beach on a bend in the river, where craggy ochre cliffs – near gold in the evening sun – rose up from the fast-flowing milky green waters of the Fraser. Brilliant yellow cottonwoods ringed the beach, reaching up delicately into a vivid blue sky, and further in the distance the gently domed mountains were covered in snowy pines. We spent time here soaking it all in and taking photographs, before I wandered to a far corner of the beach where I could make out the tantalising glimpse of a stream running down to the river. This little spot was my favourite of all…a Cottonwood tree lay across the head of the stream, sadly fallen but still with a full covering of golden-yellow leaves. The stream meandered down over river rock waterfalls, between sandy mini-cliffs, carrying with it a colourful surge of autumn leaves. A very special little place to finish our Autumn adventure in Yale!

All photographs on Contax 645/Kodak Portra 800/Canadian Film Lab

These photographs are from an amazing little spot about twenty minutes away from our home in Hope; a short, scenic drive north through the Fraser Canyon to the tiny one-time gold rush boomtown Yale. Christian found out about this location chatting to our hairdresser…she told him about a little backroad that forks off the main highway, going over the train track and ending up at a spectacular high overlook above the milky green whirling waters of the mighty Fraser River. This occasion was our second visit, and we seem to come here on days of extreme weather! On our previous visit in August (photos as yet un-blogged) the sun was beating down onto the almost shadeless spot, baking us in 35 degree heat. But on this November day temperatures were hovering around freezing, and the sun at first peeped out only occasionally from the soft clouds, disappearing altogether at times behind the mountains on its low wintery journey across the sky. As mid-afternoon arrived we felt we’d lost the sun for the last time, but round the bend in the river to the south we could see a little beach bathed in sunlight. Those photographs will follow in Part 2. All images captured on Contax 645 with Kodak Portra 800 and developed/scanned back at my lab, Canadian Film Lab.

It’s difficult finding time to work on my own film at the moment, much less time to put together a blog post. It seems I might end up doing things in reverse order, since these are my most recent shots (captured earlier today, no less!) and I have literally hundreds of film photographs going back months and possibly years, that have yet to see the light of day. I’m excited at the thought of getting to them; of reliving the memories they will evoke. But putting together a spontaneous collection from today’s walk whilst it’s still fresh in my mind has been fun.

It’s a long weekend here in BC and indeed across Canada, as on Monday there is a national holiday to celebrate Queen Victoria’s birthday. Which is a rather charming concept for a British citizen living in this beautiful land (in the UK, strangely enough, Victoria Day does not exist). With this long weekend some glorious weather has rolled in, bringing with it a host of campers, hikers and holiday-makers, and introducing a new, lively feeling to the sleepy town of Hope. Ever since we moved here we comment as we drive or walk about town, how many quirky and beautiful features hide around every corner, and how great it would be to spend some time wandering with our cameras. So today – until we got too hot – we did just that.

It has been a long time since I’ve had a proper outing with my Rolleiflex. It’s a camera I love but which I find more challenging to use than my Contax 645 or my Canon AE1, and I’ve had some struggles trying getting results I’m happy with. I seem to either produce photographs I really love, or ones that I’m very disappointed with. But it’s a lovely, lightweight camera for photographs on the street…and with its unusual appearance, for some reason I feel less conspicuous wandering along commercial and residential streets with it than I do with a more conventional looking camera (I should say, my ultimate aim is to never feel conspicuous when I’m out taking photographs on the street, whatever camera I’m shooting with!) It probably goes without saying that this was a day crying out for Ektar and even though the saturation on some of these might hurt your eyes just a bit, I think it was the right choice. With my Rolleiflex skills a little rusty I set out with low expectations for my photographs, and because of this I was a little more free and relaxed choosing and taking my shots. I’m happy to say that my slightly haphazard approach paid off and resulted in a set of images I’m really pleased with. The final image is included because I love azaleas so much, and this vibrant pink colour in particular, and also because a gigantic fuzzy yellow bumblebee flew into my shot and he’s there if you look hard enough among the bright blooms.

I may just have mentioned before how much I love shooting my Canon AE1 in combination with Kodak Portra 800…but I’ll have to say it again! I find the richness of colour and detail so beautiful to my eyes, as well as the rendering of soft and golden winter light and the gorgeous greens. The weather has been very cold here over the past few weeks, but just recently it has nudged back up above zero. Whilst we haven’t let the bitter temperatures deter us from heading out to shoot, it was certainly much more comfortable on this particular day, and the evening sunshine looked very promising. Thacker Marsh is a beautiful and peaceful spot very close to our home and it has quickly become one of our favourite places in the area to stroll and take photographs. The sunlight was simply magical, whether directly lighting the trunks and branches with warm, colourful light or creating drifts of golden mist and making every little detail of moss on twigs stand out in backlight. There were many little moments of wonder and discovery, and I feel so lucky to be able to go back there again any time to see and feel more of the magic of this place.

All photographs shot on Canon AE1 with 50mm 1.8 lens (with a new lens hood!) on Kodak Portra 800 film and dev/scan Canadian Film Lab