Three Cameras At The Sunday Afternoon Wabash River Mural

One night after dinner we were saying our midwest goodbyes when I saw that the light was pretty good on the Sunday Afternoon Wabash River mural on the side of Bernadette’s Barbershop on Main Street. I had three cameras with me so why not have some fun with one of my favorite murals in downtown Lafayette? This scene was painted by Zach Medler who has had work of his on the blog before. It is inspired by Seurat’s “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” which is one of my favorite all time paintings. I have made many images of this mural and the area around it. It was fun to feature it in this way with three different cameras.

Fuji AX-3 With Portra 160

It probably goes without saying that Portra is one of my favorite film stocks. I think that it is a common favorite for a lot of film photographers. I really like how it renders the colors in this scene. With the Fuji I have to think a little differently than normal because I only have a 50mm lens for it. I think that the 50mm lens was perfect for the close up of the mural, and the lens worked just fine in portrait mode to get everything into the frame that I wanted.

Sears TLS With Ektar 100

On this photo walk I was realizing that my light meter on my phone was not giving me the readings that I thought it should. Here I did some bracketing with that in mind. I still think that I overexposed a little here. The images still look good to me though because I was making them on Ektar 100. If Portra is my favorite film stock then Ektar is right behind it. I had not planned this photo shoot when I left the house, but with these two film stocks it seems like I could have. I really like the colors here too. My 35mm lens for this camera allowed me to pull back a bit on the scene to show you more of it.

Sony A7RIII With Sony 24-105mm Lens

As I say in all of these this is my go to walk around setup. I really love the versatility of the 24-105mm lens . It was the first lens that I bought when I switched over to Sony. I really like how this pair works for me so it is a good control in the three camera setup. I know what I am getting so I can compare the other cameras to it. I think that I get a little more to work with in post as well with this setup. The details really come out very well.

Conclusion

This might be one of the harder ones for me to decide. I really like what I was able to get with the Portra 160. The colors are very much what I like. In fact when I saw the photos on my SmugMug site I thought that I made them with my Sony and had applied my preset to them. I think that the lower resolution works a little better for the close up of the mural as well. Too much detail takes away the painterly look. The Sony images look good as well. I think that a couple of Ektar images came out well too. I think that overall I like the images made with the Fuji loaded with Portra. The Fuji has quickly become one of my favorite film cameras. Loaded with my favorite film it just works. Which one is your favorite?