Kaylee at South Mountain

Here's a shot of Kaylee my model friend from Flagstaff. We're up halfway or so into South Mountain in Phoenix. This is my first attempt at using the Polaroid 55 in the field with the sodium sulfite solution. I've got a few kinks to work out.

First, I've got to remember to carry the plastic storage box with the sodium sulfite to the shooting site instead of leaving it in the car.

Second, I need some better storage for the SS. The cheap, plastic storage containers I bought at Walmart are...well...crap. They leak if the fluid sloshes. So now guess whose car smells distinctly of sodium sulfite?

I like this overall image of Kaylee. I'm ticked because I've got branches merging with her head. This is one of my pet peeves with my students and here I am shoving her right into the middle of some creosote bush.

The neg scanned very contrasty. The print, which I gave to Kaylee, was gorgeous. This negative is tough to scan and quite dirty. I think the dirt and some other aberrations are the result of me carrying that neg and print down to the car in my Cambo case; then immersing it into the SS.

I shot some TMAX 100 of her on this rock as well. I will process those and get back here with the results ASAP.

Finally....

Whew! I finally got the camera out and clicked a shutter. The guys at Tempe Camera Repair were awesome...or maybe they just took pity on me. But they glued my bellows back on for free. So in exchange, I promptly went upstairs and spent $200 on a new loupe, some Polaroid 55, sodium sulfite and 4x5 plastic sleeves.

Here's the first 4x5 image from our home in Gilbert. These are our patio lights in an acacia tree in our back yard. This was shot at 1 sec at f/8-11 on the fresh Polaroid 55 pos/neg film. It appears a little underexposed. I probably exposed a little too much for the light bulb rather than the shadows.

This was also my first time clearing the film with an 18 percent sodium sulfite solution and rinsed with water followed by Photo Flow. I think I may need to add some Kodak hardener to this procedure. The negative seemed soft and fragile. It's got some water spots, but overall I'm pleased with this trial.

A bump in the road

I finally found a window of opportunity to pull out the Cambo. We had a rare rain in the valley of the sun and the palms in my new backyard were holding some nice water droplets...and yes, it's a clichéd photo, but I'm still working out the kinks on the camera.

Well, I stretched the bellows to their max to get a closeup and pop! the bellows came unglued from the rear frame. My first instinct was to go get some gorilla glue and make the repair myself, but on further inspection, this may require some special clamps or equipment to get a light-tight seal.

So I'm taking this to Photomark or Tempe Camera to let the pros handle it.

In the meantime, I may shoot some more medium format stuff.

So please stand by.