Comparison of Panchromatic to Infrared Film

I've posted both of these images before.  I've re-posted them here together, to show the obvious differences between the tonal range of regular panchromatic film and infrared film.

The first shot is on Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 film.  This sheet was rated at box speed of 320 iso and developed for normal contrast in PMK.  I ran it on my Jobo processor for 9:35 minutes at 20C.  This is a pretty typical panchromatic image.

I shot this on May 26th of 2025 at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I was out on a day trip with my brother in law Shawn and we found this old Pontiac in the brush, just off a gravel road northeast of Edmonton.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a slightly wide Schneider 110mm lens.  No filter was used.  The exposure was for 1/60 second at F16.0.

The second shot was obviously taken at the same time and place, with the same equipment.  This is a sheet of Kodak HSI-4143 High Speed Infrared film.  The film was rated at 100iso.  A #25 Red Filter blocked most of the visible light allowing the film to be exposed mostly by infrared wavelengths.  I developed this one in Kodak T-Max developer, diluted slightly more than normal to 1:6.  Development was with stainless steel film hangers in open tanks.  Agitation was minimal, and development was for 6:45 minutes at 24C.  No filter factor is needed for infrared film as typical light meters do not register infrared wavelengths.  Exposure is somewhat of an educated guess.  In this case that was 1/8 second at F22.0.

Quarter Century

Twenty Five years ago today, Margarit and I were married.  We are not celebrating the milestone the way I would have liked.  I had plans for us to go down to Waterton and spend three nights at the historic Prince of Wales Hotel.  After that we were supposed to head over to the Warner Hotel for an episode of the Beer Parlor Project.  That all went out the window, and we have re-scheduled the Waterton trip for the fall.

The rains came... and of biblical proportions... on Saturday June 20th.  Central Alberta was under a stalled hurricane like storm that dumped lots of water.  The rain never quit for 48 hours and we got around four inches in the Edmonton area.  We had groundwater coming in to our basement through some plumbing connections.  We had to take shifts sitting up all night and mopping and vacuuming the incoming water.  At peak flow we had to vacuum every five minutes.  Now that the rain has quit, the inflow has slowed and we only have to vacuum once per hour.  But, we managed to contain the water in our bathroom and laundry room for the most part.  There is some damage to baseboards and drywall and fixtures, but it is not massive.  We also have some plumbing issues that need to be addressed.

We are all exhausted as we took shifts for three days to keep up to the incoming water.  We would only manage to sleep for an hour or two, and then had to spell someone off.  And sitting in the bathroom, running the vacuum every five to ten minutes was physically draining, and the noise kept everyone awake.  It seems there is some relief now as the rain as stopped and the sun has come out.  But it will take some time for everything to dry out, and the anniversary trip simply had to be postponed.... sadly....

A Few Days in East Coulee - Monday

Monday was our last day in East Coulee and we didn't have time to do a lot.  We packed up the trailer and all of our stuff, and hit the road for home around lunch time.  We did take a few minutes to go up for a short walk into the hills at East Coulee.  The Prickly Pear cactus were starting to bloom.  We found some old mine waste, and an interesting little canyon.

We took a little side trip out of the valley at Cambria and then back down at Rosedale.  We discovered that the old wood tram tower at the Rosedale Mine had collapsed.  I'm not sure how old it was, but probably 75 years, possibly 100 years old.  It has been standing as long as I can remember, but sadly it is no more.

After that we headed through Drumheller and headed back towards Edmonton.  We made a brief stop in Lacombe for a late lunch, and then made it back to the city by early evening.

A Few Days in East Coulee - Sunday

It was a very late night on Saturday night, sitting around the fire and visiting with our friends Frank and Chris.  Margarit and Chris bailed out a lot earlier, while Frank and I stayed up visiting and drinking beer until nearly 3:00AM.  Needless to say we slept in quite late on Sunday.

By mid day Margarit and I set out exploring.  We headed south down the valley to Dorothy, and stopped there first.  When the girls were young we spent a lot of weekends down in Dorothy.  The girls loved that old retro playground, and we loved exploring and photographing the old buildings.  This included a couple of houses, the elevator, two churches, an old store, and more.  Since those early days the ghost town has been developed a bit, with the churches and the elevator restored,   The locals have also built a new cook shelter, fixed up the day use area, and put in some washrooms.

We headed north out of Dorothy up into the Hand Hills.  We continued from there to the east and made a brief stop at the old cemetery near Homestead Coulee.  From there we headed south to Finnegan, and took the ferry across the river.  To the best of my knowledge there are only five ferries left in Alberta.  Crowfoot, Bleriot, Finnegan, Klondike and one up by High Level.  On this weekend we crossed on two of them.  After crossing the river we did a big loop around to the south and eventually came back into the valley at East Coulee.  We stopped a number of times along the way and admired the wildflowers, explored and took some photographs.

That evening we met up with Frank and Chris and their daughter Sabrina at the Roadhouse in Rosedale.  We had a nice dinner and visited again for a while.  It ended up being an early night for all of us as we were all still tired from the night before.

Hank Turns Four

Our little family dog Hank turned four on June 15th... I suppose that's 28 in human years.  Hank is a cross between a Cairn Terrier and a Jack Russel Terrier.  He has the look of a Cairn and the energy and attitude of a Jack.  He has become a huge part of our family and is adored by everyone.  He is rarely left home alone more than a couple hours as there is almost always someone around in our busy household.  When we travel to Nordegg or East Coulee, he often comes along.  Here he is guarding the rawhide treat that he got as a birthday gift.

A Few Days in East Coulee - Saturday

On Friday June 12th Margarit and I headed down to East Coulee.  We left the city about lunch time and made our way down.  We stopped for fuel and groceries along the way and had a late lunch in Drumheller.  By the time we got out to the shop in East Coulee it was already late afternoon.  We offloaded our stuff and settled down in the trailer.

The next day, Saturday the 13th, we headed out for a drive.  We traveled north of town on the Dinosaur Trail.  We made a brief stop at Horsethief Canyon, and then crossed the river on the Bleriot Ferry.  Once we got across we realized that the south Dinosaur Trail was closed due to a washout.  We drove as far as we could, and wandered around a little at near the Lions Club campsite.  Then we had to backtrack and make our way back to Drumheller by way of Morrin.

Once we got back to Drumheller, we headed back out towards East Coulee.  We made a stop along the Raymond Hill Road and I took a couple of photographs with the big camera, in evening light.  Then we headed back to the shop.  We met up with our friends Frank and Chris and got a fire going in the yard.  We baked some potatoes, grilled some steaks and drank way too much beer.  I think it was something like three in the morning before I finally crashed.

Guess Who

On June 10th Margarit and I went to see the Guess Who at Rogers Place in downtown Edmonton.  The two original frontmen, Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings were there, with a younger backup band.

Randy is 82 and Burton is 78 and although they looked their age, they still rocked it pretty well.  They played all their hits, as well as three Bachman Turner Overdrive songs.

Just a day or two before the show the warm up band was announced.  It was Don Felder, former guitarist with the Eagles.  A very pleasant surprise to say the least.  Although his vocals were never great, his guitar playing was spectacular.  Sent chills down my spine more than once.... particularly when he played Hotel California on the double neck.

Shower Building

This is the last of my color transparency scans for the next little while.  I have to get around to editing some more before I can add them.  My main desktop computer just got retired, so I have been working from my old laptop while a new desktop is being set up for me.  As with everything that involves technology, it is taking longer than expected.  Soon I will have to replace my laptop as well.  I can't remember exactly how old it is, but I recall having it with me on a work trip to Estevan, Saskatchewan back in 2012, and it wasn't new then.  It's still running (sort of) Windows 7, and nothing really works as it should.  But that is an issue for another day, after I get the new desktop up and running properly.

This is a scan of a 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak Ektachrome E100G,  This one hit its best before date in December of 2006.  I loaded it in a film holder three years ago, in June of 2023.  It was exposed last spring, and I developed it on May 16th when I ran a batch of E-6 chemistry on my Jobo Processor.

I took this photograph in the wash building at the Nordegg Mine Site.  I'm not sure what this broken fixture once was... probably a hand sink, but perhaps a drinking fountain.  I took this photograph on April 18th 2025, at about 3:40 in the afternoon, during one of my many tours of the historic site.  

The photograph was taken with my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Fujinon 180mm lens.  The exposure was for 30 seconds at F18.0.

Shoreline Trees

Here is another scan of a large format color transparency.  This one is a 4"x5" sheet of Fujichrome Velvia 100.  This time around the film was not quite as out of date as some of the stuff I have been shotting.  This one expired in January of 2019, was loaded into the holder in September of 2023, exposed in April of 2025 and developed on May 16th of this year.  This was the batch of E-6 chemistry that I mixed up and ran on my Jobo.

This is Abraham Lake out by our place in Nordegg.  In the early spring the reservoir is at it's lowest level.  The dam captures the mountain runoff and by fall the lake is completely full.  Then the cycle repeats and the water is slowly released to generate power over the fall and winter.

I took this shot on April 20th of 2025 at about 1:30 in the afternoon.

I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Fujinon 150mm lens.  The exposure was for 1/15 second at F32.0.

Saskatchewan Yard

Back on May 16th I mixed up a batch of E-6 chemistry and set up the Jobo Processor to run a bunch of color transparency film.  I previously posted a couple of 8x10 scans from that batch.  

This one is a scan of a 4"x5" sheet of Fujichrome Velvia 50.  Like most of my color film stock, this one was quite out of date.  The best before date was October of 2012, and it sat around loaded in a film holder since January of 2023.

I took this shot while Chris and I were visiting Saskatchewan for some Beer Parlour Project outings.  This shot was taken on May 11th of 2025, at about 12:15 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Fujinon 125mm lens.  I added a Blue-Orange color polarizing filter.  This increased the satruation of the blue sky, and warmed the overall tone of the image somewhat.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F20.0.

Dinosaur Provincial Park

This one is also from the batch of Tri-X that I processed on May 17th.  A 4"x5" Sheet of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 developed in PMK.  As with the others, rated at box speed and given normal development on my Jobo.  

This one is from the Monochrome Guild fall trip to Dinosaur Provincial Park back in 2024.  That landscape is so spectacular, particularly in the low and clear light of fall.  I'm anxious to get back there again sometime soon... after the summer tourist season.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45TE and a Fujinon 125mm lens.  I actually have two of these lenses and keep one with my TE, and the second one in my kit out at Nordegg, with the Ebony SV45Ti.

I shot this on October 17th at about 12:30 in the afternoon.  I added a #25 Red Filter to increase contrast and create separation between the clouds an the sky.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F25.0.

Iron Palladium Printing

Iron Palladium prints are an alternative to more costly Platinum printing, and are also know as Ziatype prints.  The process was created by Pizzighelli and refined by Richard Sullivan of Bostick and Sullivan, in Sante Fe, New Mexico.  Bostick and Sullivan is a supplier of alternative process chemistry and materials.

An emulsion is prepared by mixing together several chemicals.  Mostly this is Ferric Ammonium Oxalate, and Lithium Palladium.  Additives such as Ammonium Dichromate, Sodium Tungstate or Gold Chloride may be added to control contrast and image color.  Just a few drops of each... about 40 in total... are whisked together to create enough emulsion to coat a piece of paper suitable for one 8"x10" print.  In the dry climate of Alberta a page of fine art paper must first be steamed to impart enough humidity.  Then the emulsion is coated on...  I used a brush, but some use a glass coating rod.

Once the emulsion has dried, a negative is placed in contact with the paper, and the two are sandwiched into a split back contact printing frame.  This is then exposed to a UV light source.  Sometimes the sun is used, but I used some compact fluorescent black light bulbs in a mirror lined box that I fabricated.

This is a printing out process and no developer is needed.  The emulsion slowly darkens with exposure to the UV light.  The split back frame allows me to partially open up the printing frame, without shifting the alignment, and inspect the print as it darkens.  Once it is as dark as I want it to be, I wash it in water, give it a clearing bath in a mix of EDTA and Sodium Bisulfite, followed by a final water wash.  Then it is hung to dry.  Exposure varied from about 10 minutes to over 40, depending on the mix of the various chemicals, and the density of the negative I was printing.

I used 8"x10" negatives that I had taken with my big view camera over the past few years.  Some people work with digital inter-negatives created from smaller format images.  I am a purist and prefer not to include digital technology in my work.

I've done some of this printing in the past, but it has been a while.  I had to purchase some fresh chemistry recently in order to take another stab at it.  It worked out well, though I did have a couple of minor coating issues.  I will be attempting further printing work in the coming weeks and months.

Mostly this has demonstrated to me that I need to do more shooting with the big 8x10 view camera!

School's Out

This old abandoned school is in East Central Alberta.  I visited it twice, when I was in the area with Chris, exploring some old hotels for the Beer Parlour Project.  This shot was taken during my first visit to the area in the spring of last year.  The intention was to consider this one for the Apparitions project and I may in fact print it and see if it is worthy of inclusion.

This is a scan of a 4"x5" sheet of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320, from the batch processed on May 17th.  I rated the film at box speed of 320 iso and developed on my Jobo Processor in PMK.  It was developed for normal contrast for 9:35 minutes at 20C.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a wide Rodenstock 90mm lens.  A #8 Yellow filter was added to bump the contrast up slightly.  I shot this on May 10th of 2025 at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  The exposure was for 1/30 second at F25.0.

Blue Whale

For the past couple of years the crew at Dinosaur Valley Studios has been working on the skeleton of a Blue Whale.  Unlike many of the projects that are worked on in the shop, this one is not a prehistoric beast.  Rather this is a modern Blue Whale, the largest animal to have ever lived on earth (by weight).  It is believed to have perished as a result of a ship impact some years ago.  The carcass was left for the flesh to decay off of the bones, and the skeleton was eventually recovered.  

Dinosaur Valley Studios was contracted to prepare the skeleton for exhibit.  The skull was badly damaged as a result of the ship impact, so a new one was recreated from steel and foam with a urethane skin.  The rest of the bones are pretty much all natural, save a few that were repaired or partly reconstructed.

Once all the bones were prepared a steel armature was fabricated to support everything in a realistic pose.  Recently my friend and business partner Frank traveled down to Newport Oregon to install the finished mount.  It is on display outdoors at the Hadfield Marine Center, which is part of Oregon State University.  

Frank sent me these two photos that were taken shortly after the installation was completed.  It is nice to have this project done, and a lot more shop space back in East Coulee, now that all these bones are out.

Lockers and Wheelbarrow

I shot this one over a year ago, up at the Nordegg Historic Site.  This was on one of my many tours of the Mine.  This is a 4"x5" sheet of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320, from the batch that I processed back on May 17th.  The film was rated at box speed, 320 iso, and developed for normal contrast in PMK.  I ran this batch on my Jobo Processor and development was for 9:35 minutes at 20C.

I shot this on March 31st of 2025, at about 3:30 in the afternoon.  The lower angle of the spring sun probably helped, and provided the highlights in the center of the image.  I shot this with my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a wide 90mm Super Angulon lens.  No filter was used.  The exposure was for 1/2 second at F20.0.

Originally I thought that there was no connection between the old wheelbarrow and the miner's lockers.  But I'm reconsidering that initial opinion and may attempt to print this one for the Apparitions project.  It seems that although the project is supposed to be complete, I still keep coming up with new work that fits the theme.