First TMax image

This is my first official photo from a TMax negative. There was only a fair amount of adventure getting to this point.

I shot this with little problem, but wasn't entirely happy with the overall composition and content, but still I was eager to burn a sheet of film and get a little experience with the camera and the film holders. So I shot this and an agave leaf in front of Bill Butler's house on Saturday afternoon. Both exposures were f/11 at 1/4 sec.

The drama occured Sunday morning as I got up around 6 so I could make coffee and process my two sheets.


On Saturday, Bill had graciously brought me some D-76 and an Omega drum roller base from San Diego for me to use with my Unicolor 8x10 drum.

So I loaded the drum Sunday morning enjoying my coffee while listening to NPR. It was a great morning with cool fall weather lingering in Yuma which I enjoyed while moving between the kitchen to patio to darkroom.

So I prepared to leisurely sip coffee and listen to the puzzlemeister Will Shorts while spinning the drum and its chemicals. Unfortunately as I filled the drum with a water pre-bath, all the fluid immediately leaked out. It seems the gasket on the Unicolor drum is toast. I made a dash to the laptop and bumped Julie off so I could find the development time for tray processing.

I then frantically grabbed trays, poured in some D-76 (room teperature) and did my best to get the two 4x5 sheets from the drum to the D-76 without mangling them.

The tray developing process was fairly uneventful, but I forgot to pull my negative early because I knew the developer was warmer than 68 degrees and I also could not see the timer in the dark. I rely on its beep to notify me of time run out.

But I successfully tray-processed the two negatives with little (if no) scratches. And here is the first scan from that event.

It's a little contrastier than I like. I think that's due to the longish development in the warm D76. But overall I'm pleased with the process and am deeming this a successful first try.