The bosque continues to be my “go to” spot to shoot, as it has been for the past few years. It is constant transformation, seasonally for sure, but really it’s almost on a daily basis. As the official start of autumn is with us now, I’ve been enjoying longer treks through the woods near the Rio Grande, and with the lower temperatures, even midday shooting has been fruitful. This week brought with it yet another round of self-inflicted struggles. This time, it was my grandiose thought of shooting with the ultra-unreliable Kiev 6, a medium format camera that shoots square 2 1/4 inch negatives. This thing weighs a ton, and has a haphazard (in)consistency when it comes to advancing the film. No built in meter, no internal electronics at all. A Cold War relic, that I just happen to have some amazing glass for. Those East Germans could really kick out some fantastic lenses back in the days of Yuri Gagarin and U2 spy planes.

But enough about the gear chit chat, as it was my lack of planning by bringing along a 120 take up spool that had me waste one roll of film right out of the gate. This was followed immediately by a failed film counter rest, that saw me advance an entire roll of Tri-X through the camera with exposing a single shot. Thankfully my shooting partner was pleasant enough not to razz me about my follies. I did manage to expose one roll of Foma 100 properly. The Eastern European combo must have made the photo gods happy, because I got some really nice results from the roll. Even so, I still feel drawn to the first two frames, shown above, which suffer from the aforementioned advance issues. But the half-frame, complete with backing paper tape still present, really makes me love the results. I’ve made a mantra out of “flaunt the imperfections” even to the extent that it is the title of a series of ‘zines I’ve produced. (Insider hint, there’s a new issue brewing.) So of course I find myself the most satisfied with the stumble out of the gate on my only “successful” roll of the week. There are a few more images from the roll that I’m feeling an affinity for, so maybe rolling out the “Russian tank” might become a more regular occurrence.