Morning Light

Dawn comes into our house through the front door.

The low sun lights up the plants and family pictures on the table beside the door.  Daggers of light slide along the oak floor to illuminate dark corners.  If the door is open to let in the cool morning air the glass bends sunbeams into the china cabinet at the back of the room, causing the teacups to glow brightly. On Fall mornings when the sun comes up over the mountains straight from the east, a beam of light shines through the keyhole of the bathroom door and casts an inverted image of the brightly lit front door on the dark far wall.

HP5 in PMK Pyro

My film comparison project has gotten a bit off track due to Ilford's recent price increase which brings its costs nearer to what Kodak is charging for similar films.  Still, HP5 is a good choice in terms of quality, so optimizing its processing seems a worthy goal.
    One of the characteristics of Kodak's TMAX that has always appealed to me is its capacity to produce some nice smooth sky tones without the use of filters.  HP5 in PMK seems to get quite close to TMAX in that regard with fine grain and a broad tonal spectrum yielding good detail in both highlights and shadows.  I have found that with any of the films I have been using lately that it is important to exercise some care in burning and levels adjustment in order to avoid emphasizing grain in the midtones.

Here are prices at B&H Photo as of May 6th.

TMAX 400.......$7.99
Tri-X.................$6.49
Ilford HP5.........$5.99
Kentmere 400.. $4.99

The Bridge

This recently completed pedestrian and bicycle bridge parallels I-40 where it crosses the Rio Grande, giving access to Albuquerque's West Side.  I photographed it this week during a bike ride with my Zorki 2-C and the Jupiter 12 35mm lens.  The film is KosmoFoto 100 processed in Rodinal 1:50.

Getting there is half the fun

I took a walk through our neighborhood with two objectives.  One was to test my Industar 50 lens after I had re-lubed the focus threads with white lithium grease.  The other was to pull together my conclusions about how to get the most from the combination of Kentmere 100 film and PMK Pyro processing.

I thought the lens performed very well.  Focusing had none of the previous jerky, grinding movement.  The black finish with white numerals make for nice contrast and the resolution seems as good as any of my Soviet-era lenses.  Based on the first two digits of the serial number the black Industar 50 was manufactured in 1971, while the silver one dates back to 1957.

My understanding of the combination of Kentmere 100 film and PMK Pyro processing has been greatly enhanced by Rick Drawbridge's generous email responses to my inquiries about how he gets such consistently excellent results with the film and chemistry. Rick said that he follows the PMK processing instructions in every respect except one: he starts with the recommended 30 second continuous agitation, but then proceeds with just " two gentle inversions at the end of each minute thereafter."

 
That is quite a departure from the PMK instructions which everyone else seems to strictly adhere to of two tank inversions every fifteen seconds.  Rick's time and temp in the PMK is eight minutes at 75F.  Like pretty much everyone else, Rick shoots his Kentemere 100 at less then box speed; he rates "the Kentmere at 75 ISO for development in the PMK Pyro, and 400 ISO films such as HP5 or Tri-X at 200 ISO."

 
 Based on my experience and the results shown by other users of PMK Pyro processing I think there is quite a lot of latitude available in regard to processing technique, but consistent and satisfying results likely depend on some careful experimentation.  Choices in film speed rating, subject lighting, and scanning parameters all enter into the equation.

My own shooting style tends toward rather darker tonalities than Rick uses and I was happy in some respects with my intial guestimates of twelve minutes at 20C and fifteen second agitation intervals.  So, I'll likely try some intermediate values between what Rick uses and the good results which others have come up with.

There are also some other film and processing combinations which I look forward to exploring.  I have seen some very nice pictures made with Kentmere in Xtol, and Tri-X mated with PMK also looks very promising.

Industar 50

I have most often used my Zorki 2-C with the collapsible Industar 22; it is nicely sharp, and when pushed in to the resting position the whole thing will slip easily into a jacket pocket.  The rigid Industar 50 makes a bulkier outfit, but it is just as sharp and likely has the same lens design as the collapsible I-22.

Zorki 2-C, Industar 50, silver and black

One nice thing about the Industar 50 is that it is extremely easy to service.  The focusing movement of the black one was very rough, so I recently re-lubed it.  There are some useful links available to help getting that job done.  The tomtiger site features very good illustrations of the lens disassembly, though it shows much more than is needed for just a lube job.  The text-only Nickfed article at rangefinderforum says everything needed to get the job done.  I will only add that it is a very good idea when unscrewing the front element to mark the release point  on the lens as the multiple start points on the thread can make reassembly quite challenging.

I started a roll of Kentmere 100 in the 2-C with the silver Industar 50 on a walk to Old Town, and finished it the next day at the Botanic Garden.

Trash Day Panorama

Backstreet Grill

Farolitos Extinguidos

FARMALL

Meditation

Phoenix

I am always invaded by a sense of unreality when I get to Phoenix.  I was there for a few days recently to attend a wedding.  The disorientation was even greater on this occasion as on arrival we ran into a massive traffic jam occasioned by a an accident on I-17 which slowed our progress into town to a crawl.

After a day or so, and following some contact with our family there, I get a bit more comfortable with the place.  However, when I drive down the long streets and avenues, the thought creeps back into my mind that I am in some kind of alternate reality.
    It seems there is just one dominant idea of the good life in the great sprawl that comprises Phoenix and it is replicated every few miles in each community that you pass through.  Each place has a strip mall with the same collection of chain stores and fast food joints which serve as a facade for endless tracts of ranch-style homes punctuated by long-stemmed palms.

My observations and my imagination lead me to the idea that the residents of Phoenix  are uniformly detached from any connection to national and international political concerns, directing their attention instead to sporting events and the acquisition of large motorized toys.  That is likely an unfair judgment, but it is hard to shake the idea that Phoenicians conceive of the rest of the world as a kind of fairy tale to which they have only a remote connection.

I have to admit that ignoring the rest of the world is an understandable strategy if you feel that you have little or no real control over the course of world events.  And, of course, there are a lot of nice things to be found in Phoenix.  We rented a beautiful three-bedroom house for just a hundred bucks per day -- about what we would normally pay for a hotel room.
    There is also the fact that Phoenix is an island in a vast and amazing desert.  The saguaro  cactus lend a somewhat exotic look to the land, but the endless grass-covered rolling hills, dotted with junipers and cut by shallow arroyos and steep canyons make me feel at home.  It is a part of the landscape that stretches from the Snake River to the Rio Grande in which I chose to live out the better part of my life.

The camera I took to Phoenix and used to photograph the little carnival near where we stayed was a Zorki 2-C.  A friend gave me one about ten years ago; it had a mismatched bottom plate.  I bought another on line for parts for next to nothing that turned out after a little cleaning  to to be better than the first.  I have made a lot of pictures with the 2-C which has a very smooth film advance and an accurate shutter.  I have collapsible FED and Industar lenses for the Zorki that are very sharp and compact, and I also often use a Jupiter 12 wide-angle with an accessory finder.

Marigolds

Albuquerque's South Valley celebrates the Day of the Dead each year with the Marigold Parade.  This year's celebration took place on the weekend before the national elections.

The last shot is from my Zorki 2C with the Jupiter 12 35mm.  The rest are made with the Pentax Spotmatic and the Mamiya 135mm.

Visualizing Albuquerque

The Visualizing Albuquerque exhibit runs from January 31 to May 3, 2015 at the Albuquerque Museum of Art.  It was not until my second visit that I noticed the sign out front said that photography is allowed at this show.  So I snapped a few shots with Tri-X in my Zorki 2-C, mounted with the Jupiter 12 lens.

Mildred Murphey. "Self Portrait", Aluminum

Ford Model T Speedster (1912)

I have taken quite a few photographs at the near-by Natural History Museum over the past few years.  Photography is not normally permitted in the Art Museum, so this exhibit presents an unusual opportunity to explore the museum experience.  I'll likely return several times with my cameras to try a variety of techniques.

Flamenco en La Plaza Vieja

I enjoy the spectacle of Albuquerque's Balloon Fiesta, but the best part of the event for me is the appearance of the Flamenco performers in Old Town.  

This guitarist, the singer and the dancers were all exceptionally talented.  The last dancer came down into the audience and captivated them with her seductive charm.  That is a quality of performance called "duende" that flamenco always strives to attain, and this group certainly succeeded.

The color shots were on Fuji 200 with my Pentax Spotmatic and the 135mm Mamiya lens.  Photographing performers in the gazebo is always a challenge, but I thought the Spotmatic handled the contrasts well.  I gave the scene an extra stop of exposure over what the meter indicated.  The black and white is on Tmax 100 from my Zorki-2c with the collapsible Industar 22.

lean and mean

The Soviet-era Sukhoi S-26 has been dominating aerobatic competitions since 1984.

There were many different light sport aircraft at the Double Eagle field show on Saturday.  It is nice to have a reminder in this age of jumbo jets and terrorist threats that the real dream of flight still lives on.

Big Iron

On Sunday morning we visited our local locomotive restoration project.  Santa Fe 2926 sat in an Albuquerque city park for forty years before being rescued by a group of railway enthusiasts.  They got the locomotive and the tender moved to a siding off Twelfth St. and started getting it back to running order.  

I believe our guide said there are about seventy volunteers working on the project.  The magnitude of the task is pretty well encapsulated in the weight of the locomotive and its tender: about one million pounds.

Financing for the 2920 restoration is all from donations.  Large contributions have been made by several companies such as the Timkin Company which recently provided all new wheel bearings.

Working with the massive steel components is hard work any time, but this time of year is especially challenging because of the 90+ degree heat.

The plan currently calls for the locomotive to be back on the tracks in two to three years.