Film Processing with PMK

Last week I spent another couple of evenings down in the darkroom.  I'm attempting to get caught up on my backlog of film processing.  Recently I've set up my Jobo processor, which is a mechanical film processor that utilizes light proof drums to process film or paper.  The drums are rotated in a temperature controlled water bath with continuous agitation.  It utilizes a relatively small amount of chemistry.  The system is ideally suited to color film processing as it allows for really precise control of the elevated processing temperatures needed with these films.  It also works very well with PMK, which is a pyro based developer that requires vigorous continuous agitation and if not handled properly, is prone to uneven development.  This time around I processed one tank of Ilford Delta 100 and one tank of Kodak Tri-X Pan, both in 4" x 5" sheet film format.  The 3010 Expert Drums that I have been using process 10 sheets at a time.  This batch included some of the last remaining sheets from my two Utah trips this past year, as well as a number of other images captured closer to home.

Winter Hockey - Games 7 and 8

The Renegades played two hockey games this weekend.  The first was on Friday evening at 8:30PM at Canadian Athletic Club.  We played a hard fought game against the Juggernauts.  Their goaltender played a solid game and kept the score close but we managed a victory by the slim margin of 4-3, despite outshooting them 48-25.

This today we had a game at 8:45AM at KofC Arena against the Tighthawks.  I always hate these Sunday morning games and never play very well.  The team didn't do very well either.  We were outshot 24-18 and lost the game 4-1.  It was actually 3-1 until late in the game when we pulled our goalie for an extra man and they scored on our empty net.  It was a close game and we had our chances, but just didn't get the bounces when we needed them.

We were tied for first place in our division going into the weekend but with the loss today may have dropped back a little.  I have to wait until the scores of the rest of the weekend games are posted and see where we stand.

More Pyro and Delta 100

I had a bit of an adventure when I processed more of my Ilford Delta 100 4" x 5" sheet film, in PMK developer, on Monday night.  The first tank full of 10 sheets required plus development.  These were all images that had been taken under somewhat subdued lighting.  At the time of exposure I noted that these sheets needed expanded development for increased contrast.  My tested development time for an expansion of 1 zone is 22-1/2 minutes.  I proceeded to process the film and all went well.

Then, I loaded up a second tank of 10 sheets of the same film.  This batch only needed normal development as these images had all been taken in brighter conditions.  My development time for normal development is 11-3/4 minutes... just about half that of plus development.  I proceeded to process the film.  When I drained the used developer from the tank after the development cycle I noticed that there was something wrong.  This PMK developer oxidizes quickly and by the time the development cycle is complete it has usually turned the color of red wine.  This time around the used developer was still urine yellow.  This suggested to me that the film had not been properly developed.  On careful consideration I suspected that I had neglected to add the second component to the developer when I mixed up the chemistry.  Rather than open the tank to check the negatives and risk ruining the film I elected to process it again.  I mixed up a second batch of developer and processed for 11 minutes.  In a worst case scenario the film would have been given something close to my usual plus development regimen.  But, if the first developer had been mixed incorrectly as I suspected, the film probably only would have got something relatively close to my normal development routine.

I anxiously rinsed and fixed the film after the second development, and then opened the tank.  I was pleased to see that the negatives looked pretty close to normal.  This was a relief as most of this batch included negatives from the spring trip down to Utah.  These would have been difficult to duplicate had they not turned out.

Here are the scans...   Most of this batch is from Utah, with a few current images mixed in.  All of this batch was exposed in 2014, with half getting expanded development and the other half getting something close to normal development.

Fall Day Trip

On Saturday afternoon Margarit and I went out for a day trip.  It was a beautiful fall day with clear warm light.  The light is so nice at this time of year with the sun lower in the sky and wonderful side light on everything.  

We left the three girls at home, with Hailey in charge.  She seems to enjoy the responsibility of looking after her two younger sisters.  And, the younger ones don't seem to mind having their big sister in charge.  Margarit and I are just grateful that we finally get some time to ourselves.

We didn't have a lot of time so we headed out to the northeast and explored the usual area, up in Lamont County.  We drove around for quite a while and didn't initially find anything that was particularly interesting.  The harvest is just about complete at this time of year but we did come across one field of flax that was yet to be combined.  Sure wish we would have found this one back in June when it was in bloom!

We drove around for a while longer and Margarit spotted this carcass out in a slough.  It a little too muddy to get really close to it.  Once things freeze up in the coming weeks, and before we get too much snow, this might be worth coming back to.  It would make a very stark and graphic black and white image to photograph this skeleton frozen into the slough.

Eventually we came upon an old abandoned farm yard that was worthy of some exploration.  We wandered around for a while and took some snapshots with the digital cameras.  Nothing really seemed strong enough to justify bringing out the 4x5.  But, we did spend an hour or so here checking out a bunch of old junk including a combine, a thrashing machine, an auger, as well as some abandoned old buildings.

We continued on and came across another old yard.  Though there wasn't as much junk lying around, the buildings were a little more photogenic.  I ended up bringing out the big camera and took a couple of images.  By this time it was getting to be moderately late in the afternoon and the light was getting even better.  The breeze that had been rather brisk all day was beginning to die down too.  The weather was particularly mild and the temperature got up to around +20C.  Pretty nice for mid-October in central Alberta.  In fact by Monday, there were around 30 temperature records set across the province with some areas getting as warm as +25C.

After finishing up here we began to make our way back home.  We thought that the girls had been on their own long enough and we'd better get back before some sort of squabble erupted and things got ugly.  We made our way back towards the city and passed through Elk Island National Park.  Near the north gate of the park we came across a group of vehicles parked along the road.  Several photographers were out in the ditch with their big digital cameras and big "potato-masher" telephoto lenses.  Soon we saw what they were photographing.  There was a coyote laying in the grass beside the road, just 10 or 15 feet away from the photographers.  This was the very spot where I had seen two very tame coyotes just a few weeks prior, and one coyote on another occasion a week or so before that.  This guy was obviously feeling at home around here, and was not at all intimidated by human presence.  Eventually he wandered over towards a fallen log and began chewing on it.  Then he move over towards one of the photographers to check him out.  First he sniffed at him, and then be began to poke at his hiking boots.  Eventually he got even bolder and began to chew and pull on his boot laces.  All the while the cameras were clicking, including ours, and the photographers in attendance rattled off hundreds of images.  Margarit took all of these as she was on the side of the truck that had the best few of the activities.  Eventually the coyote wandered off into the bush and the photographers dispersed.  We realized that one of the other vehicles present belonged to my friend Mark from the Monochrome Guild.

As we got back towards the south end of the park we came across a couple of bison right beside the road.  Of course we have seen these big guys hundreds of times before but this time, with the beautiful fall light, we just had to stop and take some more photographs.  After moving on from here we made yet one more stop in the late afternoon light as we came across a Great Horned Owl in the trees near the road.  It is so much easier to spot the wildlife now that the leaves have all dropped.  After this last stop we headed for home.  The girls were well behaved in our absence and there we no issues.  We all went out for dinner together once the camera gear had been put away.