Summer’s Coming to an End
a look back at a winter spent in sw colorado at 8750’ and a change from today’s ‘normal’ photographic process
words and photos: trevor anderson
With summer beginning to wind down for me here in Northern Arizona I can’t help but feel a bit nostalgic for the changing of weather in the coming months. Now, I am absolutely not a snow person. I can deal with it, yes, but I like to ride my bike and go camp and the snow makes that a bit tough.
However, I am grateful for the winter I spent last year high in the small town of Telluride, Colorado. It was definitely a change of pace for me being from southern California, and I am glad I had the opportunity to experience it.
To me, winter means slowing down. I know this is not what it means for the rest of the people in that town, or any other ski town, but I'm not much of a skier. I did however have a fun time snowboarding last winter on some real snow - nothing like southern California snowboarding.
Slowing down is important. It gives us time to think, reflect and plan for the future. For me and I'm sure many of you, that means to plan for spring/summer trips.
SW Colorado
The former mining town of Telluride is perched high along the San Miguel River in the San Juan Mountains. Because the town is nestled in a box canyon, numerous well-known mountain passes surround the town like Black Bear Pass and Imogene, with Ophir Pass only a handful of miles away. Of course these passes are buried in deep snow most of the year, thankfully I was able to summit a couple of them in the summer in my 1985 Toyota Pickup.
For as long as I can remember, the entire southwest Colorado region has been one of my favorite places I've ever explored. Family camping trips quickly turned into month+ long stays while living out of my truck like what I did during the summer/fall trip I took in 2019. However, I had never spent any time in this area during the winter.
And where we are living now, in Northern Arizona, we will get a decent winter. Thankfully for me, there won't be as much snow as in Colorado, but we'll get the cold and we''ll get some snow. However, one thing I am looking forward to this winter is an escape from it. With the red rock desert of Sedona only 35 minutes away, I will be free to ride my bike most days in the desert, where the snow doesn't stick like it does up here at 6900'.
Anyways,
This post was meant to highlight this particular photographic gallery of the work I made spending the winter in a very different location than what I am used to. Thank you for taking the time to read some of these accompanying thoughts and I hope you enjoyed the images.
If you are interested, feel free to continue reading along for a little bit of information on some of the cameras and gear I used during this time.
Gear Talk
This winter was a bit of a turning point for me as far as what cameras I was shooting with. Growing increasingly bored with the 'social media cycle' aspect of photography (take cool picture, post it, repeat) I decided to change up some of the cameras and processes I was using in order to maintain my sanity with photography. During this time I also erected the idea to start this website as a way to share some work in a more long form fashion. (Please, if you too are feeling this way about your photography, reach out. I'd love to highlight more people's work here.)
As far as the cameras and process goes, I turned back to film photography in an effort to - you guessed it, slow down. Now, I know this is just about the most cliché response one can have to why you are shooting film, but I did not necessarily want to slow down while shooting, like most people seem to. Instead, I wanted to slow down that cycle I was trapped in of sharing photos and instantly abandoning them.
It had been a few years since I had last shot and developed film, but I was relieved to return to the process. Because I was already so used to shooting with my 'rangefinder' style digital camera, the Fujifilm X-Pro 2, and I of course had been lusting for a 35mm Leica for nearly a decade, I picked up an M4 along with a pile of Tri-X 400, some D-76 and other developing chemicals. Then I got set up for 'scanning' these images with my digital camera for web uses. I am still in the process of finalizing a B/W darkroom that will hopefully be up and running by the end of the year.
Many of the images in this gallery were made with that M4, however I did not have it for long and have recently picked up an M6. I still use a digital camera and because of other school and work reasons, I unfortunately don't think I will be able to completely abandon it in the near future. So, there are some digital images in the gallery as well. However, some of my favorites in this article were taken on a brick, errr I mean a Mamiya RB67, an incredible camera with great glass that is capable of taking some extremely sharp images, however it is a bit heavy and awkward for everyday use, but I am thankful to have that extra resolution on some of these images.
All of the film images, both black and white and color, in this gallery were processed and scanned at home by me.