I'm still here

I promise I haven't abandoned this blog. The new baby has kept me from getting out with the 4x5. I've got some medium format stuff I will post up hopefully soon.

Trust me. I'll be back.

Scorpion Gulch

Here's a landscape view of Scorpion Gulch located near the entrance to South Mountain Park. This is one of the few landscapes I've shot so far that I like.

It's probably not so much a landscape as it's more of a still life, but semantics is not my strong suit. I really love the interplay of textures and light here.

This old building looks like someone's home that has been abandoned for many years. There may have been a fire at one point. But it just looks like someone homesteaded here and maybe had a small business next door. There is some indication of indoor plumbing and electrical wiring. So the home is not necessarily turn of the century, but I'm guessing it was built in 1930s or so. To me it's just a neat old building worth exploring photographically. Plus, it's a good location for shooting models.

Amber at Scorpion Gulch

OK. SO I'm back in the "swing" of things (large-format shooters will get the pun).

This is Amber, an aspiring model, at Scorpion Gulch at South Mountain. I'm not sure what Scorpion Gulch is/was. It appears to be ruins of an old home. But it's a great locale for shooting. It's not great if you want privacy because it's just a few yards from the road leading to South Mountain park. So we had every low-rider and hip hop-playing, Korean-car-driving punk slowly drive or even stop--waiting for Amber to take off her clothes. Uh, not going to happen.

Anyway, I really love the overall feel of this image. Unfortunately I screwed up the post processing of the Polaroid 55 film somewhere. I immediately immersed the negative in sodium sulfite and it seemed totally clear. Even after I got home and rinsed and Photo Flowed it, it seemed clear. But when I came back after it dried, I found these two diagonal streaks. They almost look like the emulsion had merged with another emulsion, but not quite as dense.

Also, the neg is very dirty. There are a lot of tiny dust spots that I tried to Photoshop with the dust and scratches filter. This is why the overall sharpness is not great either. But all in all, I like this picture. Even the streaks are kind of ghostly and lend an ethereal quality to the shot.

Some Internet posts I found suggest the Scorpion Gulch is haunted. Maybe I've got some ghost trails here.

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.

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.