I’m leaving today for two weeks on the west coast, flying into Seattle and meeting up with my brother to on his moving trip to Tahoe, driving with Jim and a friend down to San Francisco over the course of the week and meeting Michelle there when she flies out, house sitting in Cole Valley and seeing clients and old friends in the area for a week.

But the real significance (photographically) is that this is the first real trip if any length and splendor that I’ve taken with out bringing a film camera of any kind. No 4x5, no Mamiya 6, no Hasselblad, not even the little Stylus Epic.

I decided a few weeks ago that i would spend a month shooting nothing but digital, to “make sure I hate it as much as I think I do.” And given the kind of trip I’m going on (camping, hiking, wandering neighborhoods), bringing one camera and (comparably) few accessories seems luxurious.

I think I’m settling on certain contexts requiring certain equipment, and as much as I’d look to capture some Fern Canyon on 4x5, flexibility just makes too much sense in this case, and if my own film bias is the only reason I’ve been lugging a bag full of medium format gear everywhere I go, I want to figure that out right now.

So here we go, putting my money, and my 5D2, where my mouth is.

Nicety #1: Not having to show TSA how to use a film changing back to figure out that the sealed Kodak box isn’t a bomb.

The new official presidential portrait is the first one ever shot on a digital camera, which also means EXIF data:

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, taken January 13th, 2009 at 5:38:39pm
No flash, 105mm focal length, 1/125 exp, f/10, ISO 100