Friday, October 12, 2012

Beginning processing on negatives from Canyon de Chelly.

Water temp out of the cold side is running about 70 degrees.  Very nice.  Just a handful of ice cubes gets my bucket-reservoir to 68 for processing temp.  Yesterday I ran four development runs and the negatives are looking very good.  Easy to over-expose in the West and I managed to keep it under control.  Have to rate ASA 400 Ilford HP5 sheet film at 600 for X-Tol and be VERY careful with light metering.

Carefully inserting a 4-dollar sheet of HP5.

Consulting with Jackson over a line.

  Two regrets: not taking my camera 200 feet up the Baby Pee-up Trail and not photographing the Shaman's crypt.  Next time, God willing.

Thurman on Baby Pee-up Trail.  It's a little mountain-goaty up there but we have managed it. 

  Now that I am in the lab I am going slow, not getting in a hurry, though I'm capable of running the whole 150 sheets in a couple days.  Just going to work them through little by little.  I've almost cleared out the sheet film holders that contained the last day shooting.  I carried 20 loaded 5X7 holders every day, (40 sheets of film), plus six 8X10 holders.  Two shots per scene with the 5X7.  I usually came back with just one or two holders unused.  Reloaded in the bathroom at the hotel.  Just a caution- some fluorescent tubes glow for a while after you turn off the light, so if you reload in a bathroom, take care.

Showing the guide what a view camera ground glass image looks like.

Filter decisions.  I used a green on some red walls to punch up the contrast and a polarizer to cut reflection.  Just stacked them once.

Working in a swirl.

The last day I had planned to work up the canyon on the de Chelly side on a couple of big walls.  Instead we went planatarium hunting on the del Muerto side.  It was all good.

Cottonwoods.

Ute raid cave.

Blue Bull.

Processing and proofing will take a week without rushing.





2 comments:

Austin Wedding Photography said...

Is this a traditional camera you have here? Nice pieces of advice from an expert like you.

Robert Langham said...

Dearfdorff 5X7 and 8X10. More over at the Robert Langham Blog, which is more about photography. Lotta vids on Blackfork 6 Channel on Youtube as well.