Holga Panoramas

Holga Panorama 1

The Holga cameras are a fun diversion. They are inexpensive to purchase, shoot 120 film and have a single lens similar to the Kodak Brownies of old. Since the lens has just one element, you get a very soft focus. The panorama version of the Holgas uses two frames of the 120 film … so you get 6 shots per roll. Developing is where things start costing money … well, after the $10 per roll of film, that is. There is an extra charge for processing the panoramas … so it you get high res scans, the cost comes in about $40 per roll for the processing … which brings the total to close to $10 per shot. Almost enough to make me want to start processing the film myself. Almost.

The above view is of the lighthouse at Point Wilson on Fort Worden from the dock of the Marine Science Center. Below is the view in the opposite direction showing the driftwood that has accumulated along the beach.

Holga Panorama 2

High in the Olympics

High in the Olympics

While I have been posting a lot of shoreline images lately, I really prefer the high country in the Olympics. Of course, this time of year, they are totally snowed in. One must dream of summer … although even in August, there is still snow.

And, even if snow-free, this area isn’t easy to access. You need to hike at least 15 miles to get to the trailhead.

(Please note the hiker on the trail in the lower left)

A Surprise Panorama

View from Happy Lake Ridge Trail

I was going through and organizing photos from the film days and found that there were a couple of photos that I had taken that could be combined into panoramas. This one was from a hike along Happy Lake Ridge in the Olympic National Park. The view is across the Elwha River valley over to Hurricane Ridge.

The Happy Lake Ridge trail is seldom hiked … even less since the Elwha Road washed out adding miles to access the trailhead. It is a nice loop trail, the upper end dropping down to Boulder Lake and then out through the Boulder Creek Trail and the (undeveloped) Olympic Hot Springs. With the wash out of the road, there are several miles of doubling back to get to the parking lot… but it is still mostly a loop.

Hart Lake Sunrise

Hart Lake Sunrise

(more found images from my archive file) Hart Lake is in the upper Duckabush Valley, and is much less visited than the Heart Lake in the upper Sol Duc. Hart Lake takes over 20 miles of hiking to get there, so there are many fewer visitors. We were camped near the lake and when the sun was coming up, the clouds in the valley moved up … before burning off for the day. It was spectacular.

Hart Lake Panorama

Lake Quinault

Lake Quinault

I took this image a few years back and was recently going through my image bank and found that redeveloping the images with the latest Lightroom tools made a significant difference in the results. I think that part of the difference is a change in my aesthetic, since that can also change over time.

If you haven’t re-processed your prints in a while, it may be worth going back and visiting some of your favorites to see what you think.

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