Capturing the essence of the Grande Ronde River Canyon with a 120mm Print - SPECIAL OFFER

Umatilla Princess

This shot was captured on one of my first rolls of 120mm film with my "new," to me, Mamiya 645 Pro medium format camera. I mostly shoot on my old trusty Nikon FM2 due to its compact size and sturdy build, but I invested in a 120mm camera to have higher resolution photos. Higher resolution means I can offer larger prints without losing quality and fine details. The Mamiya is a brick of a body; literally as heavy as a brick, so it doesn't travel well. I am very impressed with the results especially after seeing it printed on at a16x20 size.

If anyone has driven through eastern Oregon up to Washington along rt 129 you may recognize this canyon on the Grande Ronde River. What I love about this shot is the depth each meander of the river creates with the overlapping ridges lines extended the photo away from the viewer. The 120mm film really captures the texture of the river, canyon walls and folds in the cliff even at this distance.

With the 120mm film I’m able to blow up these prints to larger sizes while retaining a high resolution. As a special offer I'm selling this Black and White 16x20 print on matte paper with a black frame from our local from shop, Frame Garden, here in Livingston Montana.

16"x20" framed Umatilla Princess on matte paper

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For those of you interested in medium format cameras, I am merely at an amateur level but can share what I know. Medium format cameras are much more customizable due to mostly being used by professionals. Before purchasing the Mamiya 645 I did a lot of research and asked around to other film enthusiasts and professionals. One person I asked was my man Mike at Dark Room of Montana while I lived in Missoula. He highly recommended any of the Mamiya 645 line and used them when doing wedding photography. They are also the easiest to find or part together. The reason the Mamiya 645s are so popular is they offer one of the fastest lenses and the first to offer shutter speeds up to 1/1000th of a second for medium format cameras. The 80mm 1.8 aperture lens is the ever popular lens and what I use to take this photo. The Mamiya 645 line included the 1000s, pro, pro tl, and super are all known to be reliable and won't break the bank. The other bodies I looked into were the Pentax 645n, Bronica ETR, and Fujifilm GA645. I didn't choose the Pentax because there was no double exposure option, Bronica only had a 1/500th shutter speed, and the Fujifilm GA didn't allow for interchangeable lenses. These manufacturers may have other options that met my needs but were either out of my price range, difficult to find in the states, or didn't provide the user experience I was looking for. There are several others that were just out of my price range that would have been a little more compact and easier to travel with like the Mamiya 6. Anyways, if you have any questions about medium format cameras please let me know or check out these videos below

Now some of you may be wondering why I chose to title this print "Umatilla Princess" after A.J. LeGrand's song. Most of my print titles are legendary songs most of you would recognize but you may not recognize this one. The Umatilla people are a Native American Tribe who traditionally inhabited the Columbia River Region where the photo was taken. The song is of lyrical genius but unfortunately touches on the struggles of American expansion into the western US where the Native Tribes once ruled over the land. You can check out the song at the link below.