Medium Format Panoramas - Neopan Acros

A few days ago I processed a batch of Fuji Neopan Acros roll film in Rodinal developer.  This included a mix of 35mm rolls and a couple of medium format 120 rolls.  The small format stuff was mostly shot by Margarit... some in Utah as well as some on the spring trip to Fairmont.  There were two rolls of medium format that I had taken earlier this year with my 6x17 panoramic camera.  Film shot with this camera yields negatives that are approx. 6cm x 17cm [or 2-1/4" x 6-1/2"].  Only three exposures can be recorded on each roll of film.  Here are scans of two of the best shots...

Neopan Acros - Third Batch

Earlier this week I processed my third batch of Fuji Neopan Acros.  There were a few sheets in this batch that were given a little extra development time to pump up the contrast.  All were processed in Rodinal developer.  A few of these date back to late 2012 when I made a trip down to the Crowsnest Pass area to work on the Dinosaur Trackway site.  A couple more were taken in early 2013 when I was travelling across southern Saskatchewan, returning from a business trip.  There are a few more from the trip last October to Utah.  And four shots are really recent images taken last weekend down in Rowley.

Second Day shooting in the badlands

When Rob and I got up on Saturday morning it was raining again.  It was obvious that with this fresh rainfall, on top of what we got the day before, that hiking in the badlands would be just about impossible.  Instead we decided to check out some of the small towns in the area.  We decided to head up to Hanna, northeast of Drumheller.  There is a cool old railway roundhouse here that I have photographed a number of times in the past.  When we first set out we were optimistic that things might improve as the sky began to lighten, and the rain was just spitting. But, by the time we got up to Hanna conditions had deteriorated and it was raining heavily.  We stopped and checked out the old roundhouse.  A local historical society has been formed and they are not only collecting funds, but also attempting to get historical designation for the building.  It has now been secured and the site somewhat cleaned up.  It was all posted with "No Trespassing" signs so access was not really available to us.  We took a few snapshots and then, in consideration of the signs, the rain, and the mosquitos, we moved on.

We continued on to the town of Rowley.  By the time we arrived here the weather conditions were finally beginning to improve.  The skies lightened and the rain turned to just a sporadic drizzle.  This town was used in the filming of the movie "Bye Bye Blues" about 25 years ago.  A few of the original buildings were used, and some others were built specially for filming.  The town has since tried to promote itself as a tourist stop.  There is a small museum set up in the old schoolhouse, and the grain elevators and the train station  have been restored.  The view cameras finally came out by the middle of the afternoon and we spent the rest of the day here photographing.  We focused our attention on a couple of old barns and an adjacent fence covered with hops.  We also spent some time exploring some old farm machinery that had been put on display.  My first sheet of film of the day was exposed around 3:00PM in the afternoon and we continued shooting here until around 6:00PM.  After that we headed back to East Coulee and put together a barbecue dinner that evening.  

The next morning we packed up and Rob hit the road back to British Columbia.  I hung around the valley for a while and Frank and I spent the morning scouting around town and taking a few snapshots for our website.  After lunch I packed up the trailer and hit the road back home.

Photo Weekend in the Badlands

Last week my friend Rob and I met down at the shop in East Coulee.  I had left the trailer there the weekend before and it would serve as our base for a weekend of photography.  Rob was driving out from the interior of British Columbia and I headed out after work on Thursday.  I had booked Friday off work, which would provide us with a long weekend for some serious photography.  It was fairly late in the evening by the time the two of us met up in the badlands.  We visited for a while and then turned in, with plans to get out shooting in the morning.

There were some severe thunderstorms in the area on Thursday evening as we both drove out and we were hopeful that they would pass through overnight and that weather conditions for the rest of the weekend would improve.  That was not to be as it rained through most of the night and was still raining when we got up on Friday morning.  We headed out anyway, hoping to be able to do some shooting.  It soon became very warm and humid, but the skies remained mostly overcast.  It was still very wet from the night before, and showers threatened through the day.  Anyone that has ever been down in the badlands of southern Alberta after a rain knows that the bentonite and clay turns to grease when it is wet and anything but a completely horizontal surface is just about impossible to negotiate.

Our first stop was just down the road from East Coulee.  The badlands were glistening in the subdued light.  We put on our boots and attempted to wander around.  It wasn't long before both of us had wiped out in the greasy muck and become covered with mud.  We made the best of it and pressed on to make some photographs.  As the morning warmed up, the heat and humidity became stifling, and the mosquitos came out in hoards.  It was not to be a very pleasant day....

After a couple of hours at this spot we packed up, tried to scrape the mud off of ourselves and our gear, and continued up the valley to town.  We made a brief stop in town for lunch and then continued further on up the valley.  We stopped at the Orkney viewpoint and had a look around and then travelled further on to the Bleriot Ferry.  After crossing the Red Deer River on the cable ferry we continued around on the Dinosaur Trail and made our way to the viewpoint overlooking Horse Thief Canyon.  By this time it was drying off a little so we decided to attempt another short hike.  By this time the temperature had risen to around +27C, and the humidity must have been near the dew point.  It was very hot and uncomfortable, but we made the best of it and headed down into the canyon.  We spent the afternoon here making some photographs before eventually hiking out and making our way back to town.  We stopped for something to eat and a couple of cold ones in town before eventually making our way back out to the trailer at the shop at East Coulee.  We were optimistic that the next day would be better......

Reminiscing

Last October I travelled down to Utah with my friends Rob and Brad.  Rob and I have known each other for a number of years.  We are both photographers and over the past couple of years we have collaborated on our Procession West show, which has met with some success at several gallery exhibitions in the last year or so.  Shortly after our trip to Utah Rob decided to relocate from the Edmonton area to the interior of British Columbia.  Rob works out of town a lot and this affords limited opportunity for us to get together.  This past weekend we got together down in East Coulee and spent a couple of days out photographing.  I will be posting some of the snapshots from that trip in the coming days.

Earlier today, Rob sent me a few snapshots from our trip down to Utah last fall.  One of these was a shot of me photographing in Buckskin Gulch.  Coincidentally I had just processed one of the negatives that I shot on this exact occasion.  Here is a copy of Rob's snapshot and a scan of my Fuji Neopan Acros negative shot at that very setup.....

Fuji Neopan Acros - the next batch...

The second batch of Fuji Neopan Acros negatives is now out of the washer and dried.  I spent the evening scanning most of them.  The third batch was processed at the beginning of the week and is currently in the drying cabinet.  I hope to be able to get around to scanning and posting some of them in the coming days.  These negatives look great, but I am struggling with scanning them properly.  I know they will make great prints in the darkroom, but I don't really have the skill to work with them digitally.  

An ex-friend of my argued with me ad-naseum that analog photographers should only use one film and developer combination and that anything else was a waste of time.  That might be a valid consideration if the photographer only shoots one style, and mostly under similar lighting conditions.  That was the case with this guy.  He had no compassion and emotion towards landscapes and the natural world, and focused all of his attention on documentary photography and portraiture.  With the diverse subject matter that I shoot... ranging from macro, to landscape, to botanicals, to architectural, to interiors, to portraits, and just about everything else in between... and shooting under all sorts of lightling conditions that vary from bright sun, to overcast, to studio flash to night photography... one film and developer combination simply does not cut it.  I need to understand and work with a variety of materials and become familiar with which ones are best suited to the task at hand.  My ex-friend just could not comprehend this, and could not accept that someone else's opinion might be right.  We have since parted ways and are no longer friends.  My point in all of this is that this particular film and developer combination... Neopan Acros in Rodinal... works great for some things, but not everything.  I have a pretty clear understanding of when to consider it and for most of these shots, it worked pretty well.  I shot duplicate images of some of these compositions on alternative films, and when it comes time to make a fine print, I will select the one that is best.

These last two shots were taken by my middle daughter Anna, in the fall of 2012.  I provided a lot of assistance in setting up the camera and metering the scene, but she came up with the general composition.  At the time she was 7 years old.  It pleases me that my daughters are taking an interest in traditional photography.  I have given each of them an older 35mm camera and encourage them to shoot film whenever they feel the desire.  Hopefully as they get older, they take an even more serious interest...