Ilford Delta 100 in PMK

A short time ago I processed a few remaining 4" x 5" sheet negatives taken on Ilford Delta 100.  This was just a small batch and as it turns out there was one negative from each of the last five years.  This was a mixed bag that caught up on some different development times that I felt were necessary.  There was some minus, normal and plus development, based on the degree of contrast required relative to the light conditions at the time of exposure.  The days and evenings have been full the past little while but I finally found time to scan and post these...

From the winter of 2010 I have this image taken of the interior of an abandoned school house.  This one was given minus development, in an attempt to control the high values visible through the windows of the old school.  I'm not quite sure what that black blob is in the upper right.  Probably the sleeve of my jacket or the edge of a cable release or something that strayed into the field of view of this wide lens, a 47mm Schneider Super Angulon XL.

This next one was taken in the fall of 2011.  We stopped to photograph an old farm yard and found this pile of old cars.  This was down in southern Alberta, on our way to the Fall Prospecting Weekend.  This negative was given normal development, as the subject brightness range in full sun did not require any expansion or contraction of the tonal range.  

2012 found me out exploring old buildings again.  This was very late in the year, right around Christmas time.  This one was also given minus development for the same reason as the first image.  To attempt to hold some detail in the high values visible outside.

Early in 2013, on my way home from a business trip out to Saskatchewan, I stopped and photographed the remains of this old stone house down in southern Alberta.  I have photographed at this location numerous times in the past, but this was the first time in winter conditions.  This particular negative was given plus development to boost contrast.

Finally this negative, taken a few weeks ago in early 2014.  This is an old community hall to the northeast of Edmonton.  The light was really flat on this day so I gave this negative plus development as well, which really boosted the contrast in the weathered siding, and cranked up the high values in the foreground snow.

Winter Hockey - Playoff Game 3

Last Friday the Renegades played our third playoff game of the winter season.  This was a re-match against the first place Canadians.  I put together a roster of most of our best players, and had an extra skater booked just in case.  We played what was arguably our best game of the season.  It was a hard fought physical game.  The officiating was somewhat questionable as the penalty calls seemed to be very one-sided.  In the end we came up short and lost the game by a score of 3-2.  This eliminates the Renegades from the playoffs and officially sees us finish in third place.  The Canadians move on to the finals against the Hungry Beavers.  I now have a bit of a break from hockey... but not for long.  The summer season will get underway in early May.

Spring Day Trips

The weather this spring has been less than ideal.  Groundhog Day came and went and whether or not the shadow was seen, we've had more than six more weeks of winter.  March came in like a Lion, and went out like one too.  Now here we are in mid-April, and it is about 10 degrees colder than the seasonal average, and it is snowing again today.  The mid day sun is intense now and we only need a clear day and the snowpack starts melting, even if the temperature is not all that high.  It seems as though every weekend that I had the time to head out with my cameras, the weather was awful.  There were a couple of occasions that I was able to get out, but when I did it was either cold, windy or overcast with flat light or all of the above.  I drove out east of the city on several occasions and explored a bit in Elk Island National Park, and then continued on through the park and explored some old buildings beyond.

In early March I photographed this old abandoned store.  The light was flat and the image nothing spectacular.  Mostly I was shooting some film that I wanted to experiment with processing in different developers.  This is a digital snapshot from that trip...

Later in mid-March the girls and I went for a walk down in Blackmud ravine here in the city.  This was during one of the few mild spells that we had.  At the time it seemed as though spring had arrived and the runoff was underway.  A short time later it turned cold, and the creek froze over again.  The runoff was put on hold and it would be nearly a month before the melt really got going again.

While we were down in the ravine we explored this spot where there had once been an old farm yard. There was an old well that slowly seeped a trickle of water.  Over the winter this had built up into a dome of ice. The girls thought this was really cool and that it looked like and "ice volcano".  Of course, despite my warnings about how slippery it was, Anna wiped out and fell heavily on the ice, bruising her backside.

In early April I was out exploring again.  This time the light was pretty flat, and it was a blustery day with a stiff breeze.  I found a couple of interesting old houses and carried on with shooting some test shots so that I could continue with my development tests.  Here are a couple of snapshots from that afternoon out...

Then this past weekend I headed out again, back into the same area.  This time around Margarit and all three of the girls came along with me.  We actually saw quite a bit of wildlife including a bald eagle, some deer, a bison in Elk Island, some beavers, a flock of snow geese, a porcupine and lots of ducks and geese.  Here are a number of snapshots that I took as we spent the afternoon exploring.  It was a nice sunny day and it was great to get out, but it was still not very warm.  There was a bit of a breeze blowing, and the temperature hovered around the freezing mark all day long.  One of these days this crappy weather has to come to an end and perhaps spring will finally arrive?

We came across this Bison in Elk Island National Park as we were making our way back home at the end of the day.

This poor old coyote had been having a meal of pigeon when someone shot him in the backside.  It was right at the entrance to a road in to a construction site, so no doubt one of the workers decided to take a poke at him.

We found several cool old buildings including some houses, a community hall, and the same store that I had photographed a month prior.  We were able to go inside some of these abandoned old buildings as they were open.  It never ceases to amaze me what gets left behind when these places are abandoned and I often wonder if the previous residents might have passed away... or just moved on to greener pastures.

Here's that flock of snow geese that flew overhead during one of our stops.  Then a little later, we came across this lumbering porcupine.  It appears as though he had ripped into some of the wrapped bags of grain that were stored in this field and was having a pretty good feed.  I'm sure the farmer would have taken a shot at him if he had seen this.  It looked as though there was a quill stuck in his snout so perhaps he had gotten a little too close to a rival.  It was hard to imagine that he could have done this to himself...

Ilford FP4 and N+1 development

Back at the end of March I processed a batch of Ilford FP4 film in Kodak HC-110 developer.  This batch of 4" x 5" sheet film included some of my last remaining unprocessed negatives from 2011.  This particular batch was given N+1 development.  This extended development increases contrast in the negative.  This particular film and developer combination gets really snappy and contrasty when processed in this manner.  I have used this combination for a number of years and am slowly beginning to learn when it is most advantageous.  It works really well for details and close ups in flat light.  For a broader view such as a landscape, or am image that includes any amount of sky, it does not work so well.  I have to remember that when I work with these materials in the future.  This combination did not lend itself particularly well to some of the images in this batch.  Here are scans of a few that worked out alright.  Of course if I spent the time printing these seriously in the darkroom I would be able to nurse the full tonal range out of the negative.

Dead plant, southern Alberta Badlands, Fall Fossil Weekend 2012

Cottonwood Glade showing wind motion, 2012

Cottonwoods, 2012

Abandoned Dodge and 1964 License Plate, 2012

Dinosaur Vertebra, Fall Fossil Weekend, 2012

Southern Alberta Badlands, Fall Fossil Weekend, 2012

Brazeau Collieries Historic Site, Nordegg, 2012

Window and Trunk, St. Job Monastery, 2011

Winter Hockey - Playoff Game Two

The Renegades played our second post season game last night against the Thunder.  It was an early ice time, at 6:30PM, and I had to bring my gear with me to work and head straight to the rink from my office.  I am recovering from a bad cold and did not feel great yesterday so I booked an extra defenceman and only played a couple of shifts.  

We jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, and then hung on for a 4-2 victory.  This eliminates the Thunder from the playoffs.  We now await the outcome of the game between the Canadians and the Hungry Beavers.  The winner of that game will move on to the final round.  The loser of that game will face us on Friday.  That game will see one more team eliminated, and decide the second team for the final round.

Winter Hockey - Playoff Game One

On Wednesday April 2nd the Renegades played our first playoff game.  It was against the first place Canadians, who have defeated us every time we met during the regular season.  We jumped out to an early two goal lead, but then the Canadians came roaring back.  The scored five times over an extended stretch of time to take a 5-2 lead.  We go one back and thought we might be able to rally, but they put an end to that by scoring a 6th goal.  We really put the pressure on near the end of the game.  I took a point shot from the right side and it went along the ice, through a maze of legs and through the goalie's five-hole.  That bought us back to within two, but we ran out of time and the game ended as a 6-4 loss, bumping us down to the loser bracket.  The Thunder also lost their first game, to the Hungry Beavers.  So the Renegades will play the Thunder tonight.  The loser will be eliminated, and the winner will go on to face whoever loses between the Hungry Beavers and the Canadians.  Our playoff hopes are still very much alive, but we have to win our next two games to make it to the finals.

Ilford HP5

I finished up processing most of my Infrared film and have now turned my attention to some of the other films that I need to catch up on.  In mid 2011 I started shooting some Ilford HP5+ in 4" x 5" format.  I've been accumulating it ever since.  I now have about 50 exposed sheets of the stuff and last week I finally set about starting to process it.  Earlier this year I did some testing of this film in Ilfotec HC developer.  I made some exposures of a step tablet, processed them for varying times, and then read the densities with my densitometer.  This process was outlined in some detail in a blog post that I wrote at the beginning of March. Using the data that I obtained from that testing, I established a development time for this film.  My testing suggested that I need to give this film more exposure than I had been.  To compensate for that I increased the development time a little.  The negatives came out nice and crisp and I'm quite pleased with the results. I've scanned and included a number of them here...

A small stream in the southern Alberta badlands, taken in the summer of 2011

The girls rock collecting on a gravel bar beside the Bighorn River, 2011

A glade in the Cottonwoods along the Red Deer River, 2012

Some strangely eroded rocks in the southern Alberta badlands.  This shot was from the Fall Prospecting Weekend in October of 2012.

A couple shots of a Still Life setup that I put together in my home studio, 2012

Yet another shot from my Playground Ghost series, this one from 2011

Portal Creek during the Monochrome Guild Fall Photo Weekend in 2011

A roadside pond during the Monochrome Guild Spring Photo Weekend in 2012

Cottonwood Snag in the badlands, 2012

A Fir Stump out in the Alberta foothills, 2011