Film Processing

Since late November I have been devoting most of my time towards processing my backlog of film.  I have processed 100 sheets of large format 4" x 5" film, and nearly 30 rolls of medium format and 35mm film.  With the most recent batch this afternoon, I now have all of my large format negatives from 2012 processed.  The roll film that I have been catching up on dates back to 2010, but I now have most of the old stuff done.  

Last weekend Margarit and I had planned on going out shooting with Tanja from The Monochrome Guild.  But, Margarit had a bad cold and ended up staying home, so only Tanja and I went out.  The temperature never even got near the forecast high, and we were faced with a day of -8 to -10C, and a bit of a windchill.  We both shot a bit with our medium format cameras... mostly some old building and trees in Elk Island and up in Lamont County.  Recently I have had a renewed interest in medium format and intend to shoot more regularly with my Hasselblad.  It is much faster and easier to set up as compared to a view camera.  I want to get in the habit of taking my Hasselblad and my 4"x5" view camera with me whenever possible.  The goal is to initially shoot medium format and make a number of exposures on roll film.... Then, anything that is of particular intersest and worthy of the time required to set up the big camera, can also be explored with the 4"x5".  Obviously when I am out hking I will have to choose one or the other... But on day trips when I am driving around, and generally shooting close to the road, I want to get in the habit of bringing both.

I recently processed some medium format roll film.  Most of this stuff dates back to the weekend that Margarit and I spent out on Vancouver Island in May of 2013.  There are also a couple of shots from the Jasper family weekend in the spring of 2010.  The last shot is of some aspen trunks, crusted with hoar frost, taken just last weekend while Tanja and I were out on that day trip.  All of these were shot on either the now defunct Agfa APX 25, or the more-or-less equivalent Efke PL25.  Unfortunately the Efke material has also been recently discontinued, so I'm not sure what I will fall back on once my current inventory is depleted.

With all the film that I have recently processed there will be a lot of new images that I can post and share here on my blog in the coming days.  Please stay tuned...

More Efke PL25 4" x 5"

About a week ago I processed a second batch of Efke PL25M in Rodinal.  I really like this combination and dread the day when my stock of this film is depleted.  It is no longer made, but fortunately I still have several 50 sheet boxes in my freezer.  These first three images were taken on the Monochrome Guild Fall Photo Weekend out in Jasper... but not this year... these three were taken a year ago, in November of 2013.  Conditions were similar to this year in terms of the fresh snow, but the light and the skies were much different...

These next few scans were all taken in the summer of 2014, in and around East Coulee.  There are some overviews of the town, with my building visible near the center, as well as several others of some old mine works, and the old timber bridge.

Winter Hockey - Game 14

The Renegades played game 14 of the thirty game winter schedule this morning, at 10:45AM against the Hungry Beavers.  It was a close game through two periods with the teams basically trading goals.  We scored five times in the third period while the Beavers only scored twice, despite the fact that the shots ended up even at 32 a piece.   We hung on for the 9-6 victory.   This solidifies our hold on second place in our division.  There were a couple of minor divisional moves this week as the league released the last block of the schedule.  Los Banditos got moved up into our division, while the Juggernauts were moved down.

Efke PL25M in Rodinal 1:50

This first batch of Efke PL25M also included images from various other outings.  In the summer of 2013 my friend Rob and I delivered the prints for our Procession West show to the Art Gallery of Regina.  After dropping off the prints we spent a couple of days photographing and exploring in southwestern Saskatchewan.  It was particularly windy when we stopped by this ghost town and I made these two photographs.  These were deliberately shot with long shutter speeds in an attempt to illustrate the motion of the wind, and give a feel for the place.  The choice of this film to use in illustrating the motion was based on the fact that I expose this film at at speed of ISO 10.  In combination with filtration, this permits very long shutter speeds even in broad daylight.

The shot of the old store was taken with  65mm lens, a #25 Red filter, with the lens stopped down to F25.0 and a shutter speed of 8 seconds.  This clearly shows motion in the foreground weeds, and in the sky.

The shot of the old trucks was taken with an 80mm lens, a #25 Red filter, with the lens stopped down to F20.0, and a shutter speed of 30 seconds.  This clearly shows pronounced motion in the trees and the foreground grass, while the stationary trucks remain sharp.

This next shot was taken moderately early one morning in Jasper, along the Athabasca River.  This was in the spring of 2013 when my side of the family was out for our annual get together.  This sadly would have been the last trip that Dad was able to join us on...  Here I was trying to capture some morning fog rising off of the river.  Unfortunately the fog dissipated before I was able to set up for the shot, but still a not bad image of the river.

Next there are a couple of images of taken along the Forestry Trunk Road at the Blackstone River.  These are both from the summer of 2014...

Finally there are a couple of images from the late summer of 2013.  These were taken down at the Mud Buttes in southern Alberta.  I remember being in the trailer in the evening and getting dumped on by a really severe thunderstorm in the evening.  The hills were pretty greasy when we tried to wander around the next day, but we managed to get out and take these shots.

Forestry Trunk Road 2014 on Efke PL25M

This last batch of Efke PL25M included a few images from the Forestry Trunk Road.  This was the weekend trip that Hailey and I took out to Ram Falls, late this past summer.  I remember fondly that weekend spent with my daughter, wandering around and making photographs.  I can only imagine how cold and frozen that landscape must be right now as I write this...

2012 Fall Prospecting Trip - Efke PL25M

This most recent batch of negatives, processed last weekend, included three from a fall hiking trip two years ago.  This was a trip down to the badlands of southern Alberta.  Partially the goal was to look for fossils, but for me, mostly it was an opportunity to make some photographs.  It has taken me quite some time to get around to processing these, but eventually I did.  Typically, over the cold winter months I am able to catch up on processing and printing, as there is limited opportunity with the cold weather and short days, to get out shooting.  These were all shot on Efke PL25M, processed in Rodinal developer.  I particularly like the texture study that I call... "Elephant Skin",

First Negatives... Fall Photo Weekend

Most people familiar with my working habits realize and understand that it often takes me months or even years to get around to processing my film.  With the recent cold snap I spent most of last weekend down in the darkroom processing film.  This included two batches [40 sheets] of Efke PL25M 4"x5", some of which dated back to 2012.  To round out the batches and fill up my tanks I needed to pull a few sheets from the recent Fall Photo Weekend in Jasper.  

This included two images of an Aspen Grove up along the Pyramid Lake Road.  These were taken on the late afternoon of Saturday November 8th, before we were subjected to the dump of snow and plummeting tempertares...  The light was rather flat, and the breeze fairly brisk.  I shot two versions of the same set-up.  One was shot with the lens stopped right down to a small aperture of F51.0 to provide maximum depth of field.  The shutter speed for this shot was long... at 1 minute, and I thought this might show the swaying motion in the upper trunks as a result of the wind...

It did not as apparently the exposure was long enough that for most of it the trunks were in a typical position, and the motiion did not register.  The second image of the same set up was shot with the lens... a Fuji 400mm telephoto... almost wide open at F9.0.  This provided limited depth of field and allowed the background trunks to fall off out of focus.  The shutter speed was considerably shorter at 1 second, but even this did not record the swaying motion of the upper trunks in the wind.

I am undecided as to which of the two I like better.

There are also two shots that were taken up along Portal Creek.  These were taken on the morning of Monday November 10th, after the big dump of snow and once the temperature had dropped off. Conditions were spectacular as we witnessed the ice starting to form on the rocks and on the overhaning branches.  I quite like both of these and may consider making a fine print of at least one of them...

I would appreciate any critique and feedback that anyone is willing and able to offer...

The rest of the film that I processed in conjuction with these two batches will be scanned and some of the better images posted in the coming days.

Winter Hockey - Game 13

The Renegades played Game 13 of the winter season last night.  This was our first weekday game of the season and it was kind of nice to have last weekend free, without any hockey commitments.  We played a late game last night, at 10:15PM at Glengarry Arena.  This time around we faced off against the Tighthawks.  Although their roster has changed a little, we have been playing against these guys since last summer, and have never defeated them.  

Last night it was our turn...  We pushed the play hard right from the first drop of the puck.  We scored a couple of quick goals and never really looked back.  By the end of the first period we were leading by a score of 5-2.  I'm not sure if we let up a little in the second period, or if the Tighthawks rallied, or if it was a combination of both.  We were badly outplayed in the second period and the score became very close, putting the game on the line.  I can't recall exactly but it must have been about 6-4 by the time the second period came to an end.  We got our wind back and played the third period much as we had played the first.  At one point we were leading 10-4 and when the final whistle blew we had secured a victory by a score of 11-6.  It was a hard fought and fun game to play, well called by the officials with only a handful of minor penalties.  By the time I got home, unpacked my gear, had a shower and hit the sheets it was nearly 2:00AM.  Had to sleep quickly so I could drag myself back to work this morning.  I made it... only a few minutes late...

Hibernating in the Darkroom.....

It remained really cold through the weekend and although I was forced to venture out on Friday to attend the Friends and Family Show, I saw no need to be outdoors after that.  I did a little snow removal around the house, but that was about it.  Most of the rest of the weekend was spent down in the darkroom.  First tidying up a little and then processing some film.  I processed two batches of 4" x 5" sheet film which I will scan and post over the coming days, once I finish washing and drying everything.  I also processed two batches of roll film, some of which Margarit worked on with me.  The first was a mixed batch of 35mm and medium format film, some mine and some Margarit's.  There were two of her rolls of Tri-X Pan 35mm.  One was shot in the spring and summer, started in Fairmont on the Spring Photo Weekend and finished this past summer down in the badlands.  The second was a roll from the recent Fall Photo Weekend in Jasper.

My stuff included a roll of Tri-X Pan 220 that I shot mostly during a weekend of hiking down in Kananskis, way back in 2010.  There were even a few shots at the beginning of this roll taken even earlier that year... at Elk Island and at Jasper....

There was also a roll of Tri-X Pan 120 that was shot down at the ranch in the badlands.  These horse shots were all taken in the late summer of 2010...

And there was also a roll of my Tri-X Pan 35mm that was taken at the girls riding lesson.  These were all taken on the same evening in September of 2012.