5 Frames with Kodak Portra 400 in a Pentax 67

These photographs were captured by me in Carmel, California for my sister’s wedding. Development was done by thedarkroom.com but I scanned all of these on a Nikon Coolscan 8000 at 4000 dpi. All shots are handheld and the lighting was golden hour or just before. The timeframe is November, so there is quite a bit of windy cool air so moving hair required shutter speeds above 1/250s. This Pentax 67 and meter head were examined, cleaned, lubed and calibrated the year prior by Eric Hendrickson and is one of the most reliable medium format cameras I own.

It is an absolute pleasure to use and although many complain about the weight, is not an issue for me. I’ve lugged this around for hours while vacationing. The 2nd generation 105mm Super Takumar lens was deep yellow when I purchased it, but 4 days under a UV A/B cold LED lamp removed 99% of the coloration. It is important to note I had to fly with this camera in a thinkTank Retrospective 10 V2.0 bag. TSA-Pre allowed me to kindly ask TSA to hand-check the many rolls of film I had to take with me. Along with Kodak Portra 400, I carried other Kodak film stocks including: Double-X, TMAX-400, Portra 160 and Portra 800. I found Portra 400, during golden hour, to be the most pleasing and kept within my 1/1000s shutter limitation in available light.

I shot many of these wide open but I also believe in stopping the lens down. Too many photographers use the Pentax 67 and 105mm at minimum focus distance, wide open aperture and the photos have no depth. This shot of my sister and new brother-in-law is wide open with enough distance to have more than just her eyeball in focus.

A portrait of her bridesmaid and husband. The lens is stopped down to f/8; the 105mm Super Takumar, even stopped down, can produce an extremely pleasing background; the depth of field and transition to out-of-focus is so natural and not abrupt.

Diana at close to minimum focus distance and lens stopped down to f/11. The sharpness is so good from the Coolscan 8000 that the “Ray Ban P” logo is clearly seen on her sunglasses.

The wedding occurred at Mission Ranch in Carmel, California. The far background is Carmel Bay and in front is the sheep pasture where they roam around and stare at the wedding participants during the ceremony. The lens is stopped down to f/8.

Through the reeds, across the sheep’s pasture and out to Carmel Bay – the lens is stopped down to f/8 with focus on the reeds.

Although I did not use this camera during the ceremony as I was a participant, the shutter noise would have been distracting. The Pentax 67, used for situations like this, is best before and after the ceremony. I hope you enjoyed the article and please feel free to leave comments or ask any questions. Cheers! — Scott

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