Same Shots, Two Film Stocks

One evening at Belmont Bay, photographed twice — matching frames from two different color negative rolls.

Belmont Bay, Woodbridge, Virginia, United States / 35mm color negative (mixed stocks) / Same Shots, Two Film Stocks — Belmont Bay Loosies collection, 35mm film archive

The premise is simple and a little stubborn: stand in the same spots on the docks at Belmont Bay, point at the same things, and let two rolls of color negative disagree about what the evening looked like. One roll leans into the sunset completely — flare pours across a profile portrait until half the frame goes amber, and a varnished mahogany runabout burns like a lit coal against the water. The other roll keeps its head, holding blue in the sky, green in the far treeline, and white in the cruiser hulls lined up along the slips.

The little wooden boat is the anchor of the whole comparison. It appears tied at the end of the dock in both versions: once dissolved in warm haze with the marina glowing behind it, once crisp and cool with sailboat masts and pilings standing straight out of still water. Around it, the supporting cast repeats too — a dock post numbered for its slips with a hose coiled at its base, rows of moored powerboats, and a woman in sunglasses at the rail, photographed once as a silhouette inside the flare and once in even light with rooftops and a police boat sharp behind her.

The roll ends uphill from the water, where a crape myrtle in full red bloom leans over the bank. One stock softens the river behind it to a pale pastel wash above beached canoes and picnic tables; the other cools the scene toward blue and lets the blossoms sit saturated against a clear sky. Same bush, same hour, two temperaments — which is the honest one is left as an exercise for the viewer.

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Related

Virginia / Belmont Bay / United States / Nature

  • Cemetery - A single fall afternoon among old walled stones and white marble rows in Alexandria, Virginia, on 35mm color negative.
  • Fall Leaves - Three color-negative frames of leaf-covered ground and thinning trees along a Belmont Bay path in Woodbridge, Virginia.
  • Kodak 200 at Belmont Bay - Golden-hour shoreline frames from Woodbridge, Virginia, where a goose family holds the bank.
  • Loosies - Orphan frames from the Virginia waterfront, where fog, flowers, and camouflaged moths all practice the art of disappearing.
  • Snowfall - Five color negative frames from a Woodbridge, Virginia snow that arrived before the garden agreed to winter.
  • Giants Art from the Dean Collection at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (I) - A color-negative walk through the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, from Dean Collection galleries to painted stone.
  • Giants Art from the Dean Collection at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (II) - Neon, marble, and glowing resin traded back and forth through the glass of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
  • RVA Day Trip - A short color-negative walk through Richmond, Virginia, from new glass to painted brick to late-sixties chrome.

Images

Close view of a varnished wooden boat's glossy hull reflecting sunset light, beside a white dock post numbered 19 and 20 with a coiled hose.
Varnish and evening sun conspire: the hull goes molten while the dock post keeps count of the slips.
A small wooden motorboat tied at the end of a wooden dock in golden light, with rows of moored powerboats and sailboats across calm water.
The little wooden boat waits at the end of the dock while the marina settles into its golden hour.
A small wooden motorboat with sunlight glinting off its hull moored at a dock, with white powerboats, sailboat masts, and green trees under a blue sky.
The same wooden boat, second opinion: cooler sky, greener trees, and the varnish still catching fire.
A woman in sunglasses seen in profile at a marina, with strong orange sunset flare washing over her face and blurred boats behind her.
The sun refuses to stay in the background, spilling across her profile until the whole marina turns to amber.
A woman with pulled-back hair and patterned sunglasses facing the camera at a marina, with docked boats, a police boat, and red-roofed buildings behind her.
Out of the flare and into even light — the portrait repeated, this time with the whole waterfront in attendance.
Clusters of bright red crape myrtle blossoms on tall branches with green leaves against a clear pale blue sky.
Blossoms held up against a clean blue sky, red on red on red, no marina in sight.
Red flowering crape myrtle branches in the right foreground overlooking a wide river at dusk, with canoes and picnic tables on the grassy bank below.
Red blossoms lean over the bank, keeping watch on a river gone pale and pastel with dusk.
Red crape myrtle blossoms in sharp focus on the right, overlooking a blurred river shoreline with stacked canoes and kayaks on the grass below.
The overlook revisited on the second roll — the river cools to blue-green and the blossoms carry all the heat.