Sometimes the hardest part of going on a photography trip is deciding what camera to bring.
For this side quest, Sophie and I took a quick overnight trip to Southern California. The plan was pretty simple: Santa Monica, Long Beach, a few photo stops, some food, and hopefully a bunch of pictures along the way.
But before we left, I found myself stuck on the usual question:
Which camera should I bring? The Leica Q3? The OM SYSTEM OM-3? Maybe a film SLR to go with one of them? Or perhaps the OM-3 paired with my Voigtländer Bessa R?
After way too much thought, I decided to do something slightly crazy. I was going to bring one camera for the entire trip.
The Pentax 17.
Letting Go of Control
I picked up the Pentax 17 a few months ago. It’s a relatively unusual camera—a modern film camera manufactured in this century and designed around half-frame photography.
It’s also pretty limited.
There isn’t traditional aperture or shutter speed control. Focusing is done by zones, although you do have some exposure control. And because it’s half-frame, you’re also giving up some image quality compared to a traditional 35mm frame.
Most photographers would probably agree that having more control is a good thing when you’re trying to get the best possible image. But that was exactly why I wanted to take it.
The Pentax 17 basically gave me permission to stop worrying so much about getting the “perfect” photograph. Or at least that was the idea. In reality, I still found myself fiddling with whatever settings I could get my hands on, desperately trying to regain some sense of control. Apparently, old habits die hard.
A Little Ricoh Connection
There’s another reason this particular camera choice felt strangely appropriate once I started thinking about the trip.
Pentax is part of Ricoh, and Ricoh has a pretty significant connection to one of the photographers I was about to spend the afternoon looking at.
Daido Moriyama is famously associated with the Ricoh GR1, the compact 35mm camera that became one of his signature tools.
That connection wasn’t really the reason I chose the Pentax 17, but it made the decision feel a little more fitting.
The GR1 and the Pentax 17 are obviously very different cameras, but they share something I find interesting: they’re relatively small cameras designed to get out of the way and let you photograph.
And that was exactly what I was trying to do on this trip.
Daido Moriyama
Our first stop was the Peter Fetterman Gallery, which was at the top of my list because they were showing the work of Daido Moriyama.
Moriyama has always been an interesting photographer to me because of the way he approaches the snapshot.
He doesn’t seem overly concerned with perfect composition, technical perfection, or spending forever working a single scene.
He sees something. He connects with it. He takes the picture.
His work is also closely associated with the Japanese photography tradition of are, bure, boke—roughly, grainy, blurry and out of focus. There’s something raw about it.
The photographs feel immediate and imperfect in a way that makes them feel more real. Standing there looking at his work while carrying around a little half-frame Pentax felt strangely appropriate. Here I was carrying a modern Pentax film camera, wandering around Southern California, heading to see the work of a photographer famously associated with a Ricoh. It wasn’t exactly planned. But sometimes the connections you discover afterward are more interesting than the ones you planned from the beginning.
Santa Monica
From the gallery, we headed to Santa Monica Pier, where a classic car show was taking place right on the boardwalk.
The vibe was great.
The weather… not so much.
It was hot, humid, and I was sweating bullets.
I finished off a roll of Kodak Ultramax in the Pentax 17 and loaded up some Santa Color 100.
The afternoon had this weird, almost dreamlike quality to it. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the exhaustion, or maybe it was just Southern California doing its thing.
There was a strong Chicano presence at the car show, with lowriders and Mexican dancers dressed in beautifully decorated outfits. It was exactly the kind of environment I like photographing because there was so much happening without needing to manufacture a photograph.
We also stopped at the Route 66 booth and chatted with Cindy, who gave us some great tips for our upcoming Route 66 plans.
I’m definitely looking forward to that trip.
3rd Street and Calling It a Night
After the pier, we made our way over to 3rd Street Promenade.
It’s funny seeing places you haven’t visited in years. The Promenade looked completely different from how I remembered it—and definitely nothing like the version I remember from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.
We grabbed some sushi, cooled down, and eventually called it a night at a nearby hotel.
Day one of the side quest was done.
Long Beach and a Different Kind of Challenge
The next morning started a little late as we packed up for the final day of our trip. We headed south to Long Beach for a vintage outdoor market.
I’ll admit, I was particularly excited about Long Beach because the forecast said it would be almost ten degrees cooler than Santa Monica. At this point, cooler sounded fantastic.
Unfortunately, 80-something degrees and cloudy doesn’t necessarily mean comfortable when it’s humid enough to make you question your life choices. Still, we made our way into the vintage market.
I wanted to move quickly. Sophie had other plans.
While I was mentally preparing to breeze through the booths, Sophie was carefully looking through everything, treasure hunting her way through the market. She ended up finding a few things—and, somehow, a cactus.
A cactus.
We live in the Las Vegas desert. Apparently, we needed another one. For me, the interesting challenge of the day was a little different. I decided to ask people if I could take their portraits. That’s not something I normally do.
I’m usually more comfortable photographing people as part of the environment and catching moments without interrupting them. Asking someone directly if I can photograph them feels much more deliberate.
But that’s part of what these side quests are about. Trying something different. A few people were kind enough to say yes, and I came away with some photographs I really liked.
There were also some interesting vintage cameras being sold at the market. I resisted. Barely. After spending a good chunk of money on photobooks at the Fetterman Gallery, I probably didn’t need to bring another camera home.
East LA Film Shop
After the market, we grabbed some drinks and hot dogs and headed over to East LA Film Shop.
I’d actually attended a photowalk they organized with 35mmPro earlier this year, so it was nice to come and see the shop. (You can watch a video of that photowalk here)
This time I met Carlos, who was kind enough to entertain my questions.
The shop had been transformed into a gallery, with huge photographs covering the walls. The size of the prints really caught my attention.
There’s something different about seeing photographs blown up large instead of scrolling through them on a phone or looking at them on a screen.
Carlos also told me about their Barrios Sunday events, where the space and surrounding area are reorganized for local artists and vendors to showcase their work.
It’s the kind of community-oriented event that makes places like this special.
Of course, I didn’t leave empty-handed.
I picked up some East LA Film Shop swag and a few rolls of Mr. Negative film before we headed out.
One Last Roll
We grabbed some pastries from a nearby bakery and started the drive home. By the end of the weekend, I’d gone through four rolls of film—roughly 70 images per roll with the half-frame Pentax 17—and had about 20 frames left on the fifth.
So naturally, we had to make one last stop.
We pulled into Liberty Sculpture Park in Yermo, California, and burned through the remaining frames.
It was a good place to finish the roll.
And it was also a good reminder that desert heat and Southern California heat are two very different things.
Sometimes the Side Quest Is the Point
Quick trips like this almost feel like a dream.
One day you’re 300 miles away, wandering around somewhere completely different with a camera in your hand. Then suddenly you’re back home, sitting at your desk, staring at a computer screen like none of it happened.
But that’s probably why I like these little side quests. They don’t have to be elaborate.
They don’t have to produce some amazing photographic masterpiece.
Sometimes it’s just about getting out there, seeing something new, talking to someone you’ve never met, shooting a few rolls of film, and coming home with a handful of memories. And maybe that’s what the Pentax 17 taught me this time around.
I didn’t need more cameras. I didn’t need more control. I just needed to go.
Until the next side quest!
