Please Be Patient

We have been in the process of moving from Yuma to Gilbert, a suburb of Phoenix.

I won't be able to post images for another week or so. Thanks for visiting and please come back soon to check out my adventures.

Carlos

Cactus that I kind of like

This cactus closeup is probably one of the first images I really like out of my 4x5. It's still a little clichéd but I enjoy the overall effect. I developed this one in a tray with four other images.

I don't think I like the tray processing much. The negs seemed a little thin and there was definitely some minor scratching on the emulsion. Granted I could have increased development time to compensate for not using the drum, but I'm also too careless and anxious in the dark.

The drum seems to give me more consistent results, but I can only process two images at a time.

Just happy to waste film

Sometimes I try to use this 4x5 like I would a 35mm in that I rush to load, set up and shoot fast and with little of the forethought and planning that most large-format shooters so diligently adhere.

One of the things that keeps pegging me as the 4x5 rookie is that twice now I've burnt an open packet of unexposed sheet film. Twice I was in a hurry to load some sheets and get out the door to catch a shot when I forgot to return the foil packets to their box. Of course, I clicked on the lights to see the tell-tale purple edge and notched corner poking out of the pouches before quickly slamming off the lights.

I've been able to salvage a lot of that film. Most of the inside sheets only get an edge fog near the top. But some have a pretty severe 1/4-inch to half-inch burn.

Anybody got suggestions other than just altering my hard wiring?

Not-so-happy accident

Here's an uintentional multiple exposure. I somehow failed to adhere to the common system of using the brail-like ridges on the film holder dark slides to indicate which plates are exposed/unexposed.

So this is a photo from Castle Dome mixed with a detail of a fan palm frond. The odd thing is that the palm shot is a rare horizontal. But you can barely see it because so much of it was in shadow. It had few highlights and you can see them faintly penetrating the Castle Dome shot.

More Polaroid

So I'm really starting to believe Polly Chandler is right on target with her Polaroid advice. I'm really digging this film. I'm still using this old stuff that Jason gave me, but I really like using this pos/neg film. I'm kind of anxious to get to the Phoenix area so I can get some sodium sulfite (sulfate) and a proper container for the negatives--although, I do so enjoy my early morning coffee, NPR processing sessions with the Kodak TMax 100.

This is a cactus in our front yard, shot at f/11-16 @ 1/2 sec. I lost the light I really wanted as the sun dipped behind a cloud just before I shot the frame. I could have waited for the sun to come back, but it was already close to the horizon, so I shot this with flat light just because I had everything set up and ready to go.