Color verses Monochrome - Bunchberry Blossoms

Here is another color shot, from the batch of E-6 processed on my Jobo on March 16th.  I used a Unicolor Rapid E-6 kit, which is actually quite simple.   The three chemical steps are simply a first developer for 7:00 minutes, a color developer for 5:00 minutes, and a bleach/fix for 7:00 minutes.  Before, after and in between there are just water rinses.  The process temperature is quite high, essentially body temperature, at 37C.  This is easily maintained with the heated water bath of the Jobo.

These bunchberries were blooming in the yard out at Nordegg, late last spring.  I dragged my big view camera out and took a few photographs of them, including this shot on a sheet of the now discontinued Fujichrome Velvia 50.  This film has been a favorite of mine for many years and I shot countless rolls of 35mm slides with it.  This particular sheet is old stock that has been sitting in my freezer for many years.  It hit its best before date over a decade ago, in October of 2012.

Like many photographers used to do, I rate this film at 40 iso.  The box speed of 50 iso tends to yield underexposed images.  Even with the extra exposure, the images tend to be very contrasty.  The film yields beautiful saturated colors so I will continue shooting with this old stock of mine until it runs out.  The largest of these blossoms would be just a little more than an inch across.  So I had to position my Ebony view camera and the 150mm lens that I was using, very close to the subject.  The close focus resulted in a long bellows draw of about 9 inches, and required exposure compensation of one added stop.  The exposure for this color shot was F19.0 and a shutter speed of 2 seconds.  Its a good thing it was a sheltered spot, and a calm day with no wind.

This is the black and white version of the same shot, and I really like it as well.  I've used this image on my calendar for this year, and also included it in a submission package for a gallery exhibition with the Monochrome Guild.  I printed a copy of this one and it currently hangs in Mimi's Restaurant.  I made some small contact prints of this negative, and they are offered for sale in small frames, or on greeting cards, at the Beehive Artisan Market in Nordegg.

This one was taken moments before the color version.  The date was June 11th 2023, and it was about 10:15 in the morning.  For this shot I exposed a 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak T-Max 100 and developed it in 510 Pyro Developer.  The exposure for this one was F14.0 and a shutter speed of 1 second.