Changing leaves - with a Nikon D800 & Added Ektar 100 pics

[Paul Taylor]

I drove up north a couple hours to Oak Creek & Sedona, AZ. I had my old Nikon D800 w/ Nikon 20-35f2.8 & Nikon 80-400.
I also took my Mamiya C220 with a few rolls of Ektar and Gold (I shot 2 rolls of Ektar and 1 roll of Gold) which I will develop tomorrow.

It was interesting as in the 20+ years I have lived in phoenix I rarely venture up to Sedona as it is a bit "touristy." When I have been there in the past - it was always in the warmer months and it is pretty chill.

However, apparently this time of year is the time when everyone from everywhere descends upon the place. I think only about 1 out of every 8 cars had an AZ plate on it - the vast majority seemed to be from California, Minnesota, or Washington. I am sure this is only compounded by it being the start of the "dreaded snowbird" season here. Luckily I wasn't stopping in the "downtown" area as it was extremely over-populated with people. This made for maddening traffic and crosswalk behavior and I couldn't wait to make it through. Most of the popular trails were also complete overcrowded so that forced me to wander some alternate places, and it turned out well.

Anyways, here are the digital images I liked.

I managed to get the moon in this one :
DSC_2484 by Paul Taylor, on Flickr

Some cloud cover
DSC_2481 by Paul Taylor, on Flickr

And some leaves :
DSC_2475 by Paul Taylor, on Flickr

DSC_2444 by Paul Taylor, on Flickr

DSC_2445 by Paul Taylor, on Flickr

DSC_2460 by Paul Taylor, on Flickr

I will assume someone's forgotten swimwear as I seen no naked people running around
DSC_2438 by Paul Taylor, on Flickr

Some Green cacti among the red rocks
DSC_2483 by Paul Taylor, on Flickr

Interesting water lines
DSC_2466 by Paul Taylor, on Flickr

DSC_2469 by Paul Taylor, on Flickr

 

[Gary R. Smith]

It's been a while since I was there. Both times I stayed in The Inn on Oak Creek. Both times I drove up 89 to Flag. Beautiful scenery up that way. Didn't have any crystals or alien encounters.

 

[Paul Taylor]

Yeah, all the crystals / aliens / vortex crap is hilarious. Sometimes it really brings the weirdos. My wife and I stayed in a little B&B up there several years ago, that had a great view and had trail access to a few hiking paths. The owners of the property gave us the run down with heavy eye-rolling on what times of day a few of the neighbors liked to lay nude on the rocks to benefit from the “vortexes.”

The actual town is the typical mix of tourist trap junk peddlers. Tons of crystal, mediation, trinket, and art shops. It would suck being an actual artist in that town as you wouldn’t be able to compete with all the slop. It really is a shame, as if it wasn’t like this I could consider living there.

 

[Paul Taylor]

Here are some of the first roll of Ektar 100 I shot on the little trip. To my eye, most of the time - film still wins. These were taken with my Mamiya C220 TLR w/ 80mmF2.8 lens. Developed with Cinestill CS41 and "scanned" with the same camera I took the digital pics with - Nikon D800, but with the Nikon 105mm Macro.

Mamiya C220 - 10-29-25 - Sedona - Ektar 100 - CS41 - D800-2509 by Paul Taylor, on Flickr

Mamiya C220 - 10-29-25 - Sedona - Ektar 100 - CS41 - D800-2506 by Paul Taylor, on Flickr

Mamiya C220 - 10-29-25 - Sedona - Ektar 100 - CS41 - D800-2512 by Paul Taylor, on Flickr

Mamiya C220 - 10-29-25 - Sedona - Ektar 100 - CS41 - D800-2501 by Paul Taylor, on Flickr



I still have another roll or Ektar, and a roll of Gold to develop from the same trip

 

[Gary R. Smith]

Boy, that Ektar gives you some saturated color!

 

[Paul Taylor]

That is why I took a couple rolls up there - I new it would highlight the red rocks and leaves well. Such an under-rated film stock IMO