Film from the Pescadero Dream Time
A 40 mile burn south from San Francisco on Highway 1 will bring you to the tiny map dot of San Gregorio.
Another two miles and you’ll be at Pomponio State Beach. Two more lands you at Pescadero.
Each of these haunts are well-roasted into the back of my brain. These are the special places; some of the smaller pieces of Earth along the Pacific which carry a sort of universal mass that stays with a person. It had been over three years since I’d seen these beaches.
Mechanations coughed forth included Winston: a massive chunk of wooden glory in the guise of an 8x10 Korona Pictorial View camera.
The other instruments of destruction were the addictive Imperial XII Flash 6x6, an ancient Polaroid One-Step, the illustrious Yashica Electro 35 GSN, and of course, the ‘Big Bronica’ GS-1 6x7.
This was familiar ground for the Big Bronica; being the first theatre I drug the old girl to when it finally arrived to me in California from Spain back in 2018.
Naturally, I’ve not managed to cook off the remaining few frames from the Yashica due to an acute attack of laziness so those tasty bits of Kodak Ektar 100 are in absentia — for now. As a flimsy apology, feel free to just stare at the camera for a few seconds.
Below is a wildly random curation from the various locations and photographictry from the ocean during my brief return to this stretch of coast.
From Winston
A single holder (two frames) were shot from Winston here; both virtually identical. The haste was due to my massively illegal parking location…well, not that illegal…not really.
Shot on some of my final sheets of AGFA GS radiographic film. Developed in my portable darkroom (The Hive) using a slightly less acidic solution due to the inherent contrast of this particular film stock. Rinsed in rainwater because it was free — and I had ran out of everything else but whiskey.
From the Big Bronica
Depending on the possible outcome of the proceeding few days this might well have been the final coastal pilgrimage for the Big Bronica. Fortune has dictated that I could well be on the verge of procuring an unexpected, full mechanical replacement for my beloved 6x7. Regardless of it’s ultimate fate, I’m happy to have been able to dip my Crocs back into those waves with the Big Bronica around my neck one last time.
Development was in caffenol — naturally — at a much colder temperature (approximately 38F) than my old notes indicated for this film. The primary reason for this being it was incredibly cold in Tennessee at the time of development and my not being able to control the fucking weather.
On a side note, I have the sickening suspicion there lurks a missing roll of Kodak Portra 160 from the Big Bronica somewhere in my car.
From the Imperial
Ah, yes, my gorgeous plastic baby. If you can’t tell, the Imperial is grossly addicting; being one of my favorite cameras of all-time. That plastic lens bakes in an unmistakeable air of Lynchian weirdness especially when pointing into the sun.
All the above frames were shot in and around Pescadero on Fomapan 200 at the single, inescapable shutter speed of around 1/40th of a second at approximately F/16 and are from the same cold-batch caffenol development as the Berrger 400. For another taste of California with the Imperial XII but with Ilford XP2 Super 400 film, click here for a trip to Santa Cruz.
From the One-Step
In retrospect, I should have scanned this instead of taking pictures of them from the floor with the X-Pro 1 (GE McKerrihan I swear I’ll get that review finsihed eventually). Refer to the aforementioned laziness diagnosis from which I still suffer.
I was running low on SX-70 film by the time I made it to California having ate through all but the last two frames. I’m glad there was still two shots left to spit at Pescadero.
Love it or hate it, the allure of instant Polaroid film such as these lies far beyond any technical or aesthetic merit. Case in point, both of this photographs were ejected from the One-Step and shoved in my pocket as I stood there overlooking the surf in Pescadero. They are tangible records that exist as close to the moment as can be achieved. This immediacy extends even past the physicality of roll or sheet film and bridges the expanse between image and time like nothing else I know.
In the immortal words of Jim Morrison, “this is the end.”
For the inquisitive minds amongst us, I released a monograph on these very beaches last year.
‘On the Left: Photographs from the Edge of California’ is a photographic study of the stretch of coast along Highway 1 from San Francisco to Big Sur. Signed photographer’s copies are occasionally available with standard copies ALWAYS ready for shipment via Amazon.
All text and images copyright 2023 by Adam Welch unless otherwise indicated.
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