Kodak High Speed Infrared

Its been a busy several days.  I went to two Edmonton Oilers hockey games... the first one a boring, stinker of a game against the Minnesota Wild, and the second a much more entertaining one against the Ottawa Senators.  Margarit came along with me to both games, and it is nice that Hailey is now old enough to stay with her two younger sisters for a little while, and that we parents are able to have an occasional evening out together....  Then, I was down in Drumheller for some meetings with my business partner Frank, relating to the operation of our company, Palcoprep Inc.  I was in the office at my regular job for most of the week, trying to keep everything rolling along.  In between all of that I found some time to process a couple of batches of film.

Kodak High Speed Infrared is a film that was originally developed for use in aerial cameras.  Its IR sensitivity was ideal for highlighting living vegetation, and cutting through atmospheric haze.  It developed a loyal following amongst pictorial photographers and was offered in 35mm roll film, and in 4" x 5" sheet film.  I think it may have once been offered in 8" x 10" format as well, but that has long since disappeared.  Back in the late 1990's Kodak announced that they would cease production of the 4" x 5" sheet film.  I bought up all the stock that I could afford at the time, as it was another of my favorites.  Even back at that time it cost nearly $65 for a box of 25 sheets.  I invested in about 20 boxes of the last batches, all with an expiry date of 2001.  Over the years several friends that have gone out of film based photography have given or sold me the stock that they had left, all with this same "best before" date.  I have slowly been rationing it over the years, and continue to shoot probably 30 to 40 sheets per year.  More recently Kodak also discontinued the 35mm version of this film, and unfortunately I was not aware of it in time to stock pile any of the roll film version.  But I continue to ration my remaining stock of sheet film, and save it for subject matter that I think might be well suited to this emulsion.  Despite the fact that it is now over 12 years past its expiry date, it still seems to be producing nice negatives.  The base fog of the negative has perhaps increased a little, but otherwise it seems to be working OK.  Of course I have kept it frozen since I bought it, and keep my exposed negatives refrigerated until I process them.  I think I probably still have at least 10 boxes left.

The first batch that I processed about a week ago is now dry and I have scanned a few of the ones that turned out best.  These all date back to 2011 and 2012.  I have a second batch currently in my drying cabinet, and a third batch currently in my film washer.  Each of these batches consisted of 20 sheets, and I still have at least two more batches to go before I am completely caught up.  Here are the first few images...

Wind-Sheared Aspens - Elk Island National Park - 2011

Buick Century - 2012

Wrecked Cars - southern Alberta - 2011

Forgotten Dodge - 2012

Leaning Barn - southern Alberta - 2011

The Mud Buttes - 2011

Mt. Kidd, Reflecting Pond, Kananaskis - Spring Photo Weekend 2012

Panorama, Scotford Refinery - 2012

Windmill, abandoned yard, southern Alberta - 2011

Eisenhower Peak, Castle Mountain, Banff National Park - 2011

Beluga Whale Skeleton

I was down in Drumheller at the beginning of the week for some business meetings and had a chance to stop by the shop.  At Palcoprep we have just finished up casting and mounting a skeleton of a Beluga whale.  This is about to be packaged for shipment to the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg.  Molds were made from the original bones of a Beluga and then casts were made from these molds.  The casts were then articulated onto a steel armature for display.  We are just putting the finishing touches to the specimen before disassembling it for packaging and eventual shipment.  The installation is scheduled for early May of this year.  I am always amazed by how different the skeleton of a whale looks, from the living, fleshed out animal.

Darkroom Work

A couple of weeks ago I came across a formula on line for a developer that intrigued me.  This particular formula, called 510 Pyro was developed by a Seattle based photographer named Jay De Fehr.  It is a staining developer that uses Pyrogallol as the main developing agent.  This chemical is enhanced and made super additive by the addition of Phenidone.  The base for this formula is Triethanolamine, and Ascorbic Acid is also added.  

I had trouble tracking down a couple of the ingredients for this developer.  They are all available out of the United States, but a couple of them can not be shipped internationally.  Some of these ingredients are toxic and a certain amount of care is needed in handling them.  The restrictions on their shipment come about as a result of the paranoia following the 9-11 terrorist attacks in the United States.  Eventually I found a supplier here in Canada that was able to supply these chemicals to me.  I ordered them, and they arrived a few days ago.  The base, or carrier for this formula is the triethanolamine [or TEA] and it was selected by Jay De Fehr because it does not absorb any oxygen.  Once the developing agents have been suspended in solution in this base, they are not exposed to any oxygen and this preserves them and keeps them from breaking down. The other interesting fact about TEA is that it "freezes" and becomes a solid at around 65 degrees F.  In consideration of this, and our recent cold weather, it was not a surprise to find that the 4L jug of TEA that I ordered was as hard as a curling rock when it arrived.  I had to submerse it in a warm water bath for quite a while to get it to liquefy.  Eventually it got to the point that I was able to pour over a small amount to work with.  When it actually was time to mix up the formula I used a small warming plate to further liquefy this base and make mixing of the ingredients easier.  With this developer finally mixed up and ready to go, I set about testing some film...

I work by a method known as the Zone System.  This was pioneered by American Photographer Ansel Adams way back in the 1930's and 1940's.  It has since be analyzed, modified, updated and improved by countless other photographers.  One that took it to the utmost detail was an another American; Phil Davis.  I have read and re-read his book, Beyond the Zone System and tried to understand this very technical method of analyzing and understanding the sensitivity of film.  The details of this go way beyond what I can describe in this short post but I will attempt a short summary.

I use a Step Tablet.  This is a piece of film that has been exposed to light and processed under very prescribed laboratory conditions.  I bought my step table from Kodak, and it was very expensive.  Basically each incremental grey step on this scale increases in density by a precise known amount.  I expose a piece of the film that I am testing through this step tablet and process it.  I know that each step of density increase will be by a set amount.  When film is processed it takes a certain amount of time for the developing agent to convert the chemical particles within the emulsion, that have been exposed to light, to metallic silver. Beyond this threshold of development, increasing the development time increases not only the density of the image, but also the contrast.  Extended development times have little or no effect on the shadow areas of an image, but the mid-tone and highlight areas of the negative increase in contrast the longer that the film is developed.  

The testing procedure basically involves exposing a number of pieces of film, under identical conditions, to the known density values of the step tablet and then processing them for different development times.  This requires the placement the step tablet on top of a piece of film and exposing it to light.  I also lay a coin on the edge of the sheet of film.  This provides me a reference point where I have an area of the film that I know received no exposure.  This photograph shows my step tablet taped into a kraft paper carrier.  It also shows a developed piece of film that was exposed to light through this step tablet.

I exposed five pieces of film identically, and then developed them for different times.  The development times were 4:00 minutes, 5:30 minutes, 8:00 minutes, 11:00 minutes, and 16:00 times.  Note that these times increase by a factor of the square root of two, just as aperture numbers on a lens do.  Once I had the five sheets of film processed and dried I used an instrument called a densitometer to measure the density of each step of exposure in each piece of film.  Here is a photograph of one of the test negatives on my densitometer.

What I found was that the clear areas of the negative, that received very little exposure... the equivalent of the shadow areas in a pictorial image, really didn't change much as development time increased.  The denser areas of the negative, that received considerably more exposure... the equivalent of the mid tone and highlight values in a pictorial image, increase rather dramatically in density as development time increased.  The more development time given, the greater the density, and the greater the density increase between the steps.  With this data I was able to plot some graphs to evaluate the density and contrast increase resulting from the various development times.  In the good old days I used to draw these out by hand.  Now there is a program available from Phil Davis that just allows me to enter the density values of my test negatives, and it plots all the graphs for me.  Here is an example of some of the data generated by this program...

With this one relatively simple [to me...!] test I was able to determine the film speed for proper exposure of the film, based on my development routine in this particular developer.  I was also able to determine how long to develop the film when I have a normal brightness range in my subject, in consideration of the lighting conditions at the time I am taking the photograph.  I also know how much to increase or decrease development time when I want to increase or decrease contrast, as dictated by the lighting conditions at the time I am exposing the film.

This is the part of traditional film based photography that I love.  The hands on aspect of mixing my own chemistry and establishing my own working criteria.  This is all lost to digital photographers who simply go out and "capture" thousands of images, then invest significant time in becoming an editor, to select the best ones, and then invest further time to sit at a monitor and manipulate and refine the image to what they like.  I do exactly the same thing, and invest probably just as much time, but I do it by a much more hands on method.  I just find it much more relaxing and enjoyable to spend time down in my darkroom, doing things with my hands, with music playing in the background, and mentally needing to comprehend and grasp the reality of what I am doing.  The alternative, to sit in front of a monitor, clicking on a mouse, and letting the predefined parameters of a software program decide how my image will look, simply does not appeal to me.

Winter Hockey - Game 26

The Renegades played another regular season game last night, at 8:15PM, at Knights of Columbus Arena. We have really been fortunate lately in getting some pretty good ice times.  It was really cold outside yesterday and it actually felt warm in the arena, compared to being out in the -40C conditions.  We faced off against Los Banditos, who were just one point behind us in the standings.

We jumped out to an early 1 goal lead, but it was very short lived.  Less than 2 minutes later Los Banditos tied the game, and by the end of the first period we were down by a score of 4-1.  Recognizing that our season might be on the line, the team rallied.  I know that I personally became more focused and started playing with more intensity.  That quickly resulted in me getting tossed into the penalty box with a two minute minor for roughing.  But, the guys killed off the man advantage, and our rally was underway.  We scored eight unanswered goals and by the latter stages of the third period we were up by a score of 9-4.  One of our defenceman got a double minor for body contact late in the third period, and in the ensuing power play Los Banditos were able to bang in one more.  But we hung on from there and won the game by a final score of 9-5.  This solidifies our hold on the last playoff spot with four games to go.  Our destiny is in our own hands and if we can string together at least a couple of wins, we should be in the post season.

Gallery Opening

The condensed Procession West show officially opened at the Spruce Grove Art Gallery on Saturday afternoon.  I was in attendance from 1:00 to 3:30PM.  Unfortunately it was bitterly cold and attendance was light.  I would say that around a dozen people dropped by over the two and a half hours that I was there.  I was not particularly surprised as the outside temperature, with the wind chill factored in, was approaching -40C.  The work was very well received by everyone that stopped by.  I was interviewed for the local paper.  It is a very nice space at this gallery and I'd like to try and show here again sometime.  Hopefully a few of our prints will sell.

Procession West at Spruce Grove Art Gallery

I have known since last summer that our Procession West exhibition would be shown at the Spruce Grove Art Gallery.  A condensed version of our full show was accepted as the Feature Artists for the winter of 2014.  In the back of my mind I knew that the show was coming up in March.  For the past couple of weeks I've meant to head over to the gallery on the weekend and check out the available space.  With so many things going on the last little while I just never got around to heading over there.  Finally last night I dug out the contract to check the exact dates and the details of the show.  To my dismay I discovered that I was supposed to install the show this morning, and supposed to have sent in a list of images two weeks ago.

Last night I sent a frantic e-mail to the gallery apologizing for my carelessness.  This morning I got on the phone and tried to get in touch with the lady that coordinates exhibitions.  As it turns out she was on vacation down in Arizona.  I finally managed to connect with her and with some of the other gallery staff.  As it turned out I got things together just in the nick of time.  The previous show was actually taken down just this morning.  I gathered up our prints and delivered them to the gallery just after lunch.  By 2:00PM in the afternoon, just a couple of hours behind schedule, everything was installed and ready to go.  No harm done and the gallery staff were happy and quite pleased with our work.  The official opening reception is coming up this on Saturday afternoon.  The ten prints included in this small exhibition will remain on display for about three weeks, until March 15th.  The gallery is located in the Melcor Cultural Center in a space shared with the local library.  The address is 35 - Fifth Avenue, in Spruce Grove, Alberta.  Here are some photographs of the gallery space, just as I was completing the installation.

I really must be getting old as I sure seem to be forgetful lately.  Not only did I almost completely overlook this exhibition...  But this evening, when the family went out for dinner, I accidentally left my truck running outside the restaurant the entire time....  Sure was lucky that no one hopped in it and drove away...

Olympic Hockey Gold

I got up at 5:00 in the morning on Sunday to watch the Olympic Men's Hockey Gold Medal Final Game.  It seems as though most of Canada did the same thing.  Hockey has almost a religious status here in Canada and it has just taken over everything in recent days.  It was a really entertaining game to watch and I just marvelled at how the Canadians played so well through the entire tournament.  They just executed near perfect play and scored just enough to win, while focusing on keeping the puck out of their own end of the rink.  I hadn't paid much attention to it in the past but the larger European ice surface really affects the way the game is played.  Mostly that extra 15 feet in width really seems to push the play out to the edges more.  The Canadians handled it well and dominated the play if not the scoreboard, through the entire tournament.

I don't know what felt better... seeing the dejected looks on the faces of the Swedes on Sunday..., or knocking off the cocky American team in the semi-final a couple days ago, and then seeing them decidedly lose the bronze medal to the Finns.  Have to wait four years now until Canada can defend our gold medal at the next winter games.

Winter Hockey - Game 25

The Renegades didn't play very well this weekend.  We played a game on Saturday afternoon against the first place Canadians.  It wasn't a blow out and we kept it pretty close through the entire game.  Six of our regular guys couldn't make it, and although we had enough spares out to fill the bench, our lines were all mixed up.  We were also guilty of taking shifts that were too long, and just not playing smart hockey.  We ended up losing another one, this time by a score of 8-5.  Fortunately for us, the teams that are behind us in the standings also didn't do all that well, and didn't gain much ground on us.  With five games remaining in the regular season we still cling to the last playoff spot.

Pachyrhinosaurus Skull

Palcoprep Inc. down in Drumheller, the company in which I am involved, just completed fabricating a cast of a Pachyrhinosaurus Skull.  The original specimen is housed at the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller.  This cast has been sold to a museum in Japan.  It will be crated for shipment and be on it's way in the next few days.   

Odds and Ends...

About 10 days ago I was cleaning up a mixed batch of film processing.  I ran off my remaining few sheets of Agfapan 25, as well as some Efke PL25M.  The Efke sheets turned out a little on the thin side and it was only then that I realized they were under developed.  I have to pay more attention to not only the development time, but also the temperature.  Nevertheless there were a few images that have some potential. The rest of the shots were all duplicates of images taken on other types of film, or given different development.

Red Rock Coulee, Summer 2013

Colin Range, Medicine Lake, Fall Photo Weekend 2012

Spring Photo Weekend 2012.

My friend Rob included an almost identical version of this shot in our

Procession West project - though his didn't include as much foreground water.

A panorama of an abandoned farm, taken on the way home from the

Fall Prospecting Weekend in 2012.

Pyramid Mountain in Jasper from Old Fort Point

Fall Photo Weekend 2012

Windy Point

Taken while travelling with my German relatives in the summer of 2013

Winter Hockey - Game 24

The Renegades lost a close one on Saturday.  We played the second place Hungry Beavers on Saturday morning.  We jumped out to an early lead, but couldn't hang on when the Beavers put on a big push at the end.  We ended up losing by a score of 7-6.  Nothing really changed in the overall standings, and we still cling to the last playoff spot.  There are six games left in the regular season and we're going to have to win most of them if we want to make the post season.

Old Photo

My cousin loaned me an old photograph of our uncle.  The original is a small, worn print that was originally a little on the dark side.  Unfortunately we don't have the original negative.  My Dad's older brother John, who passed away of a brain tumor back in the 1990's is the guy in this photo holding the bottle of Whiskey, and wearing the toilet seat around his neck.  The two on either side of him are his cousins, Howard and Irwin. The fourth guy, holding the cup, is a friend of theirs. It seems these four young guys headed down to the Calgary Stampede, probably sometime in the late 1940's and found themselves in a little trouble with the law. I scanned the old print and managed to fix it up a little in photoshop, so that I could print some extra copies.

Winter Hockey - Game 23

The Renegades got a great ice time today.  We faced off against the second place Thunder at just after noon, up at KofC Arena.  These guys beat us soundly the last time we played them so we were not only out for revenge, but looking to move up in the standings and try to improve our chances of earning a playoff spot. With the afternoon ice time, Margarit and the girls were able to come out and watch.  By the time the girls arrived, near the end of the first period, we were already up 6-0.  We blew the shutout for our goalie early in the third period but shovelled in a few more goals for an easy 12-1 victory.

Hailey captured these couple snap shots on here phone while the game was underway.

Afterwards we went out for lunch together, and then headed over to the Terwillegar Arena for public skating.  I put my skates on for the second time, and the girls all came out for a skate with me.  

Processing Sheet Film

I processed a mixed batch of film last weekend.  This included the last of my exposed but not yet processed 4" x 5" sheet film from 2009.  I checked my records and find that I still have over 400 sheets to go.  This includes about 4 from 2010, about 50 from 2011, and lots from 2012 and 2013.  There are even a few sheets that I have shot in 2014.  I will continue to chip away at this backlog and try not to fall so far behind. It is difficult for me to remember what everything is when it comes time to checking my field notes, comparing them to the processed film, and attempting record some file data with the negatives when I put them away.  Slowly but surely I am getting caught up on this backlog.  I checked my files and found that I have shot nearly 6000 sheets of 4" x 5" black and white negative film since I bought my first view camera in 1996.

Most of this last batch included Efke PL25M, given N+1 development in Rodinal.  This has become one of my favorite films, though for most subject matter I prefer normal development.  This is a very slow film with a smooth tonal range, great mid-tones and nice contrast.  Unfortunately it has now been discontinued, and there is nothing currently manufactured that comes close.  Perhaps that will change in the future, though I am not holding my breath.  I do have an inventory of at least a couple of hundred sheets of unexposed film in my freezer so I will be able to keep shooting it for at least a few more years.

Most of the film that I processed this time around included duplicate negatives of images that I had also shot on other types of film.  There were four images in this batch that I found quite remarkable, and this particular film and developer combination seemed to yield results superior to what I had done previously with other materials.

This shot was taken in the summer of 2013.

It was taken while my cousin and her family were visiting from Germany.

It was shot down in the Red Deer River Badlands of southern Alberta.

This detail shot of an abandoned Buick Century was taken in 2012.

It was taken up in the Heartland area, northeast of Edmonton.

This image was taken on the Monochrome Guild Spring Photo Weekend in 2012.

This well known spot is in Banff National Park, at Second Vermilion Lake.

This was once a large pond behind a beaver dam but in recent years the dam has

deterioriated and the pond has drained away, leaving these stumps exposed.

The last one in this batch is an old abandoned house, taken in 2010.

Trees are beginning to grow up around this old house and overtake it.

It is located east of Edmonton, not far from Elk Island National Park

.

The batch also included a few negatives taken on some long expired Agfapan 25 film.  This particular film reached it's expiry date almost 25 years ago, in 1990.  Upon closer inspection I see that some of the negatives show some speckles on the emulsion that is probably mold or fungus attacking the gelatin.  I think I have to throw away what remains of the open box that I have been working with the last couple of years and pull a sealed package [of the same vintage] out of my freezer and see if that is any better.  Some of the images are fine, while others seem to be developing freckles.  This is fairly evident in a previous post to my blog made a couple of days ago.  These two images seem to be OK... though perhaps a little flat in the case of the landscape shot.

Agfapan 25 in Rodinal

The batch of Agfapan 25 that I processed on the weekend included a few interesting images, including some of the last of 2009.  Here are a few of the best ones...