Spirits of Silver

Print-wise 2020 was a bust for me. The first 3 months were taken-up with cataract surgery for both eyes. Then came along the pandemic and wildfires – all of which conspired to keep me indoors most of the time. As a result I didn't shoot one 8x10 or 5x7 negative the whole year! The smoke from the wildfires finally dissipated and in January I came up with an idea for an alternative printing project (salt and/or kallitype) and scouted-out 5 subject locations.

So I got 5 holders out to reload with an unopened 10-sheet pack of the last remaining Acros negatives and guess what? There were only 8 sheets in that pack! I couldn't believe it: Fuji shorted me 2 sheets!  I double checked the holders and each one had one sheet on each side so instead of 5 loaded holders I only had 4. In my log book I marked that holder as “unloaded” but when the time came to begin the start the project I didn't pay attention to the log book and just grabbed the holders whose dark slides indicated that they were loaded. This didn't become apparent until unloading in the dark. The result was that 2 of the 3 locations that I photographed that day will have to be re-photographed – preferably on a weekend because of the logistics.

The fourth location I first shot last Thursday during a high wind event. The wind had died down to manageable levels when I left home but were again roaring when I arrived on-site. Undaunted, I set-up and with my golf umbrella at the ready waited for the wind's nadir. After the shot I packed-up and while walking back to the car the wind dropped. The lighting was good so I went back and set-up the camera again, pulled the dark slide and while still under the dark-cloth heard the sound of the grass cutter approaching. Thinking that he was going to drive directly past the background I tripped the shutter. Developing the negatives the first shot was a total lost. I don't know what happened. Maybe the darkcloth was blown across the lens or I didn't close the back or something. But the 2d negative was perfect except that the grass cutter was in the top right. I went back Saturday and re-shot it and it came out perfect.

Right now there is an “atmosphere river” impacting central California so I haven't had a chance to print those two negatives yet. However partly sunny skies are forecast for this weekend before another round of rain arrives and in anticipation I just mixed a fresh batch of ferric oxalate this afternoon. Now the question is if it is sunny this weekend should I print or try shooting the other 3 locations?