30 » Introducing: Ultra

Hey y’all.

Welcome back to Stillnotes, I’m Alex and this is my newsletter where I share notes on stills and sometimes just notes and sometimes just stills. You subscribed on my website. Thanks for being here.

It’s been a bit, as will happen. I write to you today from my new home high in the rocky mountains. The wildflowers are firing on the trails next to my place, there are aspen stands all around the neighborhood, and I have been watching the snow melt from the alpine out the window. The mountains have been home to me metaphorically for years now, and now I can truly call them home physically.

Between starting a new job at a startup and moving up here from Boulder, my cameras have stayed largely silent over the past couple months. However, not completely silent. I always find a way to keep writing and photos a part of my life in some way.

There’s been another pull on my time I haven’t talked about much outside my circle (if you’re in my circle you’re probably sick of it haha). I’ve been training for my first ultramarathon, which happened this past Saturday in Leadville. Alongside it, I’ve been working on a new photo project documenting my training and the experience.

Today I’m excited to introduce the project to you all, share some initial work, as well as the premise behind it. I don’t have a final name for it, I’ve just been calling it Ultra up until now. So I’ll call it that here for ease.

I started writing this before race day, when the project was in progress. But now that the day has come and gone, the shooting portion of it is complete. Now it’s all about deciding the final form and finishing it up. Here’s a quick rundown of what I’ll go through today, in case a particular section is interesting to you:

• Technical Specs—Quick overview of project parameters and constraints I chose -
• Background—Why this project, why now -
• Constraints—Explanation of each contstraint and why I chose it. -
• Work Sample—Some selects from the project so far with brief discussion -
• Final form—My plan for completion of the project.

Technical Specs

• Subject: My experience training for my first ultramarathon. Documenting long runs and other details of training. Documenting the race itself.
• Tools (the whole project is only shot with these):
  • Pentax Espio Mini - Point and shoot 35mm film camera
  • Black and white film - Kodak Tri-X 400 and Tmax 400 film (also some Kodak Gold 200 and Cinestill 800D I will port to black and white in post).
• Time: March - July 2024
• Deliverable: Photo zine. Online gallery.

Background

Ultra came about from my desire for project-based work and constraints to simplify the experience. I haven’t picked up my camera much this year as I said, and this idea gave me the opportunity to keep something going in the background during a busy period of my life.

Constraints feed creativity and take away overhead. So I constrained it to the max. One camera. All black and white film. One focused subject matter I was already pouring time into. Running six days a week provided ample opportunity to be outside with my camera, and looking for images was a welcome distraction during sloggy training sessions.

I’ve also been yearning for a narrative project (while I procrastinate on my main book project). The specific subject matter of my training experience, the chronological nature of beginning training, and finite end of race day provided an easy structure. It also allows me to combine my love for the outdoors, adventure, and photography into something beyond mountain landscapes.

The challenge then was taking interesting photos. The most obvious hurdle was maintaining a creative eye while tired. My camera joined me on my long training runs which ranged from 12-31 miles over the course of the project. The element of endurance to try and seek out something interesting while physically pushing myself, on the fly, was different than I’d experienced before. I’ve done intense hikes and adventures before while taking photos, but to include photography secondarily while I’m out running was a new challenge.

I missed loads of shots and moments. Some due to simply being too tired to care, some from not paying attention, some because of timing or light or typical photo problems. I remember one missed opportunity from my longest training run. I was 19 miles in and got stuck exposed in a hailstorm. The bb sized pellets stung my legs and head as I took cover in an aspen grove. They covered the ground around me as I took cover for a few minutes to let it pass. I didn’t take a photo of the hail at all. I could’ve, but I didn’t. Now, my excuses are I was tired and low morale, and a little scared because I was exposed to possible lightning high in the mountains, but in retrospect I should’ve tried to grab a shot. Lesson learned.

The search for narrative has been fluid beyond the basic structure. I had no set story beyond documenting the experience, and the question of what would be compelling followed me throughout. Did I want to show how hard training was? Did I want to show the beautiful scenery I came across? Did I want to share my motivations? Should I include words in the project to explain myself? All questions I’m still answering with half of the film developed and the race complete.

Constraints

Camera: My camera of choice ended up being a Pentax Espio Mini. I have a few point and shoots already, but they’re bulky and heavy. I needed something I could fit in the front of my running vest, something small and light enough to not be cumbersome when I’m out running 20+ miles. The Olympus mju/stylus epic series is the easy choice, but that camera is seen so much I wanted to try something different for the heck of it. My final options ended up being the Pentax Espio Mini, Fuji Tiara Mini, and Olympus mju. I went with the Pentax.

So far I’m pleased. It’s super light, albeit at the expense of build quality. The all plastic housing feels like it’ll explode if I drop it. It fits nicely into the front pocket of my running vest even when I have a full water bottle. I could easily stop and pop it out, take a shot, and be on my way in seconds. The lens is a 32mm f3.5. I have mixed feelings on the lens. Sharpness is there, but the camera struggles to shoot broad landscapes because it struggles to find focus. Many of my wider shots focused on the ground very close to me or didn’t focus at all.

The other main downside I’ve found is the auto ISO. On other point and shoots I can set the ISO myself. No dice on the Espio Mini. You can’t override the DX coding. With film I’ll very often over-expose a stop, and some of my shots suffered from lacking this capability, especially shots from snowy spring runs. Although the moody grays did still turn out some of my favorite images of the lot. To overcome this I found myself using flash a lot more than usual. It hasn’t been a gamebreaker, but an annoying limitation.

Film: I’ve been wanting to make an all black and white project for a while now. Simple as that. I shoot black and white mostly when documenting my family, and wanted to branch out. My friend Curt has been on a big black and white phase, offering ample inspiration as well. I started with Tri-X since I had it around, and finished the project with Tmax 400, which I’ve enjoyed on medium format and may become my stock of choice. I shot two rolls of color due to running out of black and white, but if any images get used in the project I’ll switch them to black and white in post.

I’ve always loved how black and white changes your eye. You think about light more literally: highlights and shadows, light and dark. Contrast is so important, offering depth and clarity or completely mucking up the legibiity of an image. In a project built on constraints, taking out color felt perfect.

Subject: This is mostly covered above. A time-boxed event. Training started in late March and went through my race in early July. I did take my camera with me all 48.4 miles of my race. I took a few images throughout, I don’t really remember what they were of and I doubt they’re very good. Many missed opportunities I’m sure, but that’s all right.

I tried to shoot some of the smaller parts of the experience throughout training. Not just trails and vistas, but my gear, the aftermath of runs, unfortunate moments, goofy eccentricies I came across during those hundreds and hundreds of miles.

Half the film is developed, the remaining rolls I’ll get done soon. Here’s a sample of the early work showing some different types of shots.

Work sample

This gives you a view of some of the different types of shots I tried to get. All together sharing the journey towards one big effort.

Final form

My thought for completing this project is a zine to satiate another of my cravings: for something physical. A zine will fit the linear nature of my story while not being intimidating enough to avoid doing for a year. I don’t plan on selling it, just something to put a stamp of finality on this beyond an online gallery.

I’ll likely use Blurb or some other easy platform where I can print a few with decent image quality.

The more I think through the project the more likely I’ll include some writing with it as well. I can’t help it. Current thought is little bits of prose throughout for context and meaning and story continuity. I have a thought for a micro-essay to end it about why I decided to run an ultra, why go through all this at all in the first place. If not for someone else to read, then for myself.

Thats the jist of it for now. I’ve made initial selects on my first rolls of film. Next steps are to get the final rolls developed and go from there. I’ll talk about the process and share the finished product here for you all.

Thanks for reading

If you have any questions about the project, feel free to ask. Would love to hear from you. I have a secret hope this little Ultra project is the seed for more ideas that mix my love of the outdoors with art beyond my landscape work. But lets get this done and see how I feel. I will say, having a small project feels good. Less activation energy to move forward, less fear to overcome.

Until next time, —Al