Not a cloud in the sky tonight after several days of cloudy skies. We even got a little rain. The temperature was 28º F (-2.22º C) at sunset. It’s going to be really cold tonight.
We hired Cary with Cary’s Garage here in Corrales to get Tristan’s 1980 Datsun 280ZX back on the road. It’s been sitting under Gabriela’s cottonwood for the past 7 years. The starter had caught on fire in 2014, and we never got around to replacing it.
The footage Laurie took of the loading is quite entertaining.
Cranes flying into the sunset from a few nights back.
This print is from a 4X5 negative I accidentally exposed twice from two different locations 1/2 mile apart from each other. The two images registered quite well (image is a photo of the action print).
A lot happened in 2014, but the most significant for my photography was finishing my darkroom, and going back to developing film and printing the negatives. While doing a photo a day for this blog still demands a lot of time with digital cameras and processing, I’m rediscovering the challenges and excitement of film again: loading sheet film holders in the darkroom, taking a bunch of equipment out into the field, setting up the camera, taking multiple readings off a handheld light meter and then deciding on a good f/stop / shutter speed combination for the situation, composing the scene upside-down and turned left to right, setting the f/stop and shutter speed as per the light meter readings, cocking the shutter, inserting the sheet film holder into the camera, pulling the dark slide, tripping the shutter, turning the dark slide so the black label shows, inserting the dark slide back into the sheet film holder and removing the sheet film holder from the camera — one negative exposed.
Back in the darkroom there’s mixing chemistry and developing the negatives by hand in trays (about 30 minutes total). There can be a fair amount of manipulation when developing negatives depending on the developer used, temperature of the developer and time in the solution. No matter the process I choose for developing the negatives, once I’ve finished running the negatives through the fixer solution and turn on the light, it’s a magical moment to hold up a negative to the light and see an image on it.
Once the negatives dry, they can be printed. For photographers who have never worked in a darkroom and think that what is on the negative gets printed full-frame, without manipulation, think again. There is almost always some cropping of the image, and then there is often a lot of manipulation in the printing process starting with the exposure and f/stop combo, dodging, burning and somethings using contrast filters on the enlarger; then there is the type of developer used, time in the solution and use of toners in the final processing to get the print to come out the way I want it to.
In many ways film is more exacting that digital, but at the same time film can be quite forgiving. The lead photograph is a good example. It was bitter cold and windy when I took the photo. I forgot to turn the dark slide to the black label indicating the negative had been exposed, because I moved a 1/2 mile to the north and by chance grabbed the same film holder and took a second exposure on the same negative. I noticed I seemed to be missing a photograph from the series of photos I had taken that morning after I developed the negatives, and finally realized what had happen from the ghost of the jetty on the lower left side of the print and the tree limbs in the upper right. Even though I was a 1/2 mile north for the second exposure, the Sandias and clouds registered close enough that they don’t look there were two exposures from two different locations. However, if you know the two areas, you can see some dark bushes that don’t belong in the foreground, the Rio Grande mixes in with the green houses and bosque in the middle ground, there are some double images of the Sandias on the left and right side of the print, and the white haze above the clouds are ghosts of the clouds from he second exposure.. Otherwise, the scene looks normal — another magical moment and mystery with film.
Plowed corn field in Corrales with the Sandias in the back ground. Photo of a print from a 4X5 negative.
Light beams on the east side of the Sandias. Photo of a print from a 6X7 cm negative.
While hot air balloons are a common sight every fall in the Albuquerque area, this balloon flying over the house at sunrise on a very cold February morning was a surprise. Although, with the temperature inversions common to the area, the temperature might have been warmer 200 feet above me where the balloon was than where I was standing photographing it.
I had fun with flashes and flowers this afternoon.
The digital sensor recorded -2 degrees F this morning, but the analog thermometer was showing -8 degrees F at 8:00 am, but I think it got a lot colder than -8, especially since the pipes were trying to freeze. When I turned on the water in the bathroom sink this morning, the water was a trickle for about 30 seconds, then it started spurting around and blowing out rusty, sandy water for a few seconds before it started running steady and clear again, which seems typical of water running through thawing pipes. The almost frozen pipes is a sign that it go much colder than -8 degrees F, because two years ago when the temperatures got down to -15 degrees F, the pipes didn’t freeze.
Classes begin tomorrow at UNM and it’s going to be more of a family affair this semester. Laurie is starting a graduate program in Linguistics, but she has to take a couple of 300 level classes to make up deficiences. Tristan is starting back to school this semester and taking Linguistics classes with Laurie, and Laurie is thinking about auditing the philosophy class Tristan is taking. Here’s the kicker — I’m taking French 385 with Laurie. That’s right silly moi is taking 300 level French. And to answer your question: No! I have never taken French before. Not officially anyway. Last Spring, the teacher for French 101 allowed me to signup for the on-line French Lab so I could do home work for the class, and I wrote papers that were assigned in class, Laurie turned them in for me, the teacher corrected them and sent them back. Other than being a virtual student last Spring, reading Tintin and watching French movies had been my French studies up until Christmas.
Laure got me a Drive-by French course and a couple of other self study guides for Christmas that I’ve been using to do a bit of cramming. The Drive-by French, which is designed to do while driving, is pretty good, but they hit you with hard stuff pretty quickly, and expect you to be able to 1) hear, and 2) remember things — two things I pretty deficient in. Now the first CD, which they call the “On Ramp to French” is pretty easy, the people speak slowly and clearly, and they have you repeat words and phrases many times over. So I was thinking this will be great! Then lesson one began, and everything changed — the instructors only say a word once, the dialogs are spoken at normal speed, and then they drop the question bomb on you — they ask a question and give you a few short seconds to answer it. Right! I’m still trying to digest the question when the answer is given, which turns out not to be anything I would have answered, so I obviously didn’t have a clue about what the question was in the first place. I felt like I should pull off onto the side of the road and put on a dunce cap. But I go back, start from the beginning, and listen again, and again, and again — each time words, phrases and questions become a little clearer and I understand a little better, but I have to really struggle to with it. I may drive fast, but I’m pretty slow when it comes to learning languages.
A storm system is moving in and the temperatures are dropping rapidly. The weather widget is forecasting 6 degrees F over the weekend in Corrales, but since it’s always 10 to 15 degrees lower at our house, we may see sub-zero temperatures over the next couple of nights.
Rosencrantz gave me mad dogs when I told him the temperatures were going to drop below zero, and Laurie is making all the stews that feature in our latest fine cooking so we will at least have a variety of delicious hot stews to help us weather the cold. Rosencrantz was a bit of a skeptic when I told him he could have some stew to help keep warm.
Our electricity went out for about 40 minutes or so last night. We used the black-out as a good excuse to run to the store, so we didn’t have to go in the morning.
Off Center & Not Even 