James Pratt

Photographer, Writer, Storyteller, IT networking professional

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Cross Country Challenge vintage motorcycle ride stops at Seaba Station Motorcycle Museum

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Seaba Station Motorcycle Museum in Warwick, Oklahoma was a recent stop on the Cross Country Challenge vintage motorcycle ride across the United States. When I heard the news, I thought “vintage motorcycles deserve vintage cameras and black and white film.” I had a busy weekend scheduled, but bumped some other projects to the back burner and ran out to catch the riders as they stopped, some briefly.

It was hot with a blistering sun and nary a cloud in the sky – high-contrast conditions for black and white film. So I tried to focus on bikes parked under the big cottonwood shade trees behind Seaba Station. The shade helped reduce the contrast and reduce the sweat running down my forehead.

Mamiya RB-67

I started witih my Mamiya RB-67 since I wanted to be mobile to catch the bikes as they came and went. I was still learning the big Mamiya. When you think of taking photos hand-held with the RB-67, think “taking photos with a car batttery”.

I shot this image of an event staff member with my new-to-me Mamiya RB-67 camera with 127mm lens.
A husband and wife were riding these two vintage motorcycles on the rally. Shot with RB-67 with 127mm lens on Ilford Delta Pro 100 film.
A 1951 Indian motorcycle made for a great picture with my 1976 Mamiya RB-67.
This 1941 Indian Chief was loaded up for the trip. Amazing these old motorcycles can still travel across the United States.
This 1948 Vincent Rapide is a rolling work-of-art. And I got to photograph it with 1976 Mamiya RB-67. Lucky me.

Toyo View VX-125 large-format camera

After a few frames I decided to get some photos with my favorite camera, my tripod-mounted Toyo View VX-125 large-format 4″x5″ film camera. I have owned this camera since I purchased it new in 1998, and still think it is hands-down the best view camera ever made. It is portable like a field camera, yet offers all the movements of a studio camera.

Shooting 4×5 is a very slow process. It is tripod-mounted so I have to move the tripod, level the camera, adjust the tripod head to frame the image, then focus and make any adjustments to the standards needed, then lock everything down, cock and close the shutter, load the film, shoot the picture, then pack it all back up and move to the next bike. If everything is going smoothly I can shoot about one frame every 5 minutes.

My first shot with my Toyo VX-125. The bikes were a bit close together and a lot of bikes around to start with, so I had a difficult time getting a good position for a picture. This old sidecar Harley Davidson certainly caught my attention.
I was really excited to shoot this 1951 Indian motorcycle. It seems I had a light leak around the dark slide of this image. I have one holder that doesn’t have locks for the dark slide, and I am pretty sure this is out of one side of that holder. I should retire the holder but haven’t done so yet.
I thought it was cool that this pre-WWII 1934 Harley Davidson was making the long ride along Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica. Glad I got a picture with my Toyo 4×5.
This 1960 BMW was built the same year I was born. I liked how the seat cushion showed up in the picture.
This interesting gentleman wasn’t on the ride. He was just there to great the riders and see all the cool bikes. I couldn’t resist getting a picture of him on his trike with his sidekick “Ethyl”.

Pentax 67

After shooting only six frames, I saw that the bikes were packing up and leaving and I wasn’t going to get all the shots I wanted. So I grabbed my recently-repaired Pentax 67 and the Takamur 105 lens, loaded a roll of Ilford Delta Pro 100, and started shooting some bikes before they were all gone. Unfortunately I was still having some problems with the big Pentax. It wouldn’t advance the film properly all the time, and the mirror got stuck a couple of times. I swapped out the battery, removed the lens a coupe of times, and got everything working again. I think the problem was a bad battery (a common problem on a Pentax 67) and my rusty skills at using this camera. It has been mostly unusable for a little over a year so I had to remember all the steps involved in shooting this sometimes finicky camera. I have always liked the Pentax 67 since I got it, especially the super-awesome lenses I have for it, but it has always been somewhat unreliable. So far I am finding the Mamiya RB-67 to be much more reliable than the Pentax 67.

I shot a few pictures with my recently-repaired Pentax 67. I am not sure if I just made a mistake and under-exposed these images, or if I still have a problem with the camera. All my Pentax images were underexposed to some degree. I was in a hurry to get some pictures before all the bikes left, and my Pentax was giving me some trouble I think from a weak battery. I also hadn’t shot my Pentax in over a year because of it being broken. I plan to take it out some more and try to figure out if the camera has a problem or I just need to polish up my Pentax handling skills. It is a very finicky camera.
I ran around grabbing photos with my Pentax as quickly as I could. They were all underexposed, but thanks to Adobe Lightroom, i was able to recover them as usable files.
Cool helmet from a world traveler.
I grabbed a picture of this same sidecar rig with my Pentax as they were about to leave.
Everyone was packing up to leave so I had to grab pictures quickly with my Pentax 67. It had trouble advancing the film. I had to remove the lens twice to free the shutter, and lost two images in the process.
This was probably the best exposure with my Pentax 67, and it was in bright sun. So I am thinking that the problem may be with the operator, not the camera. Well, except for the film not advancing. I think that may have been a problem with the shutter not working properly and the mirror getting stuck.
Another quick snapshot with my Pentax 67 as he was kick-starting his Harley Davidson to leave.
It took a strong leg to kick-start these old Harley Davidson motorcycles. THis buy seemed up to the task. Shot with my Pentax 67 with much sought after Takamur 105 lens.
Once again a shot in bright sunlight that was slightly better exposed. Luckily Ilford Delta Pro 100 film has a lot of lattitude, but a properly exposed image is MUCH easier to process.
Another cool Harley Davidson photographed with my Pentax 67 film camera on Ilford Delta Pro 100 film, and processed at home in Kodak D76 developer.

Nikon Zfc

As I walked around with my Toyo view camera, I also carried my favorite digital camera, the Nikon Zfc. It is tiny and looks retro and allows me to capture some cool images easily. I usually shoot it in auto ISO mode and manual shutter and aperture.

I photographed this bike with film and digital.
Color is awesome but then you miss the cool baby blue color.
Another bike I shot in both digital and film.
Cool motorcycles are often ridden by cool people.
I barely caught this Harley rider before he left.
Any vintage ride is always followed by a trailer for the broken bikes.
This bike didn’t complete the ride.
That is a big load for vintage bike.
I had to get the rider side of this sidecar rig.
I love black and white photography, but hard to turn down these beautiful red colors..

Soon the bikes were all gone so I packed up my gear and headed home. The next day I took time to develop my film, and as the images came out of the wash I remembered why I like shooting black and white film again, ESPECIALLY the behemoth 4″x5″ negatives from my Toyo.

Subjects

4x5 film 4x5x365 agriculture Amazon Web Services bicycle Bill Dragoo BMW Brass Ball Bobbers combine Darwin Motorcycles dirt bike drag racing Edmond El Reno film Fortinet Guthrie Ilford Delta 100 Ilford Delta Pro 100 Ilford HP5 Jeep John Deere Kawasaki Kay Pratt Kodak TMAX-100 Lexington Micha Young motorcycle New Mexico Nikon Norman Conquest Oklahoma Oklahoma City Oklahoma Living Oklahoma Living Magazine Oklahoma Today Ride Oklahoma South Canadian River Thunder Valley Raceway Tombo Racing Tommy Bolton Toyo 45A Toyo VX-125 wheat harvest Wrangler

About James Pratt

I am an Oklahoma based writer, commercial photographer, editorial photographer and adventurer based in Oklahoma City. I love telling stories about people. A motorcycle is my preferred means of travel, and I have over 5,000 hours piloting small airplanes. My editorial photography has been published in hundreds of magazines and my commercial photography has been used by dozens of companies worldwide.

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Subjects

4x5 film 4x5x365 agriculture Amazon Web Services bicycle Bill Dragoo BMW Brass Ball Bobbers combine Darwin Motorcycles dirt bike drag racing Edmond El Reno film Fortinet Guthrie Ilford Delta 100 Ilford Delta Pro 100 Ilford HP5 Jeep John Deere Kawasaki Kay Pratt Kodak TMAX-100 Lexington Micha Young motorcycle New Mexico Nikon Norman Conquest Oklahoma Oklahoma City Oklahoma Living Oklahoma Living Magazine Oklahoma Today Ride Oklahoma South Canadian River Thunder Valley Raceway Tombo Racing Tommy Bolton Toyo 45A Toyo VX-125 wheat harvest Wrangler
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