Friday, January 5, 2018

Fresh Film

With the cold weather over the Christmas break I found myself spending much of my time indoors.  I was at my shop almost every day over the holidays building some doors and jambs for our cottage.  I also spent quite a bit of time in the darkroom, processing several batches of sheet film.  On Boxing Day I processed a batch of Ilford HP5+ 4x5 sheet film in 510 Pyro developer, diluted 1:100.  Development time was 7:10 minutes at 24C, but I think in the future I need to increase development time slightly.  This particular image was taken down in Crowsnest Pass in southern Alberta in March of 2016.  It was taken with my Ebony view camera and a Schneider 80mm lens.  The standards were tilted to provide sharpness from foreground to background.  Exposure was for 8 seconds at F22.0.  This in the interior of a tipple.  Mine cars full of coal were rolled in on the tracks, and then the switches were activated to that they could be rolled into the "Tipper".  The cars were rotated and the coal dumped out into the chutes and through the grates below.  Then the empty car was rolled out, and the switches activated again so that the empty car could be moved away and a full one brought up in its place.  The mechanics of this system are fascinating mechanically, historically and visually.


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