Night Clouds

Looking North at Night

The weather has been working for me photographically lately. First the double rainbows and now the moving clouds. Our house is near a major interstate highway, and I believe that the orange reflected on the bottom of the clouds is from both Champaign proper and the headlights of the cars.

Looking East at Night

I don’t usually do a whole lot of night photography, but I do follow a bit of it online. The ones that I like have a different color to them. It’s hard to explain, but these pictures captured just a bit of that. There are odd blues and oranges and such. It’s just different.

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Playing around the lake

Bumps and Bruises

There were a few bumps and bruises, but luckily nothing serious. Here Lily got a cut while swimming, most likely from a shell on the bottom of the lake.

Elation

Lucy really enjoyed getting pushed on the swing by her uncle. She’s right at the age where she’s too big for these swings, but remembers them longingly. The swing is attached very securely and Lucy got to go “Super High.”

The Lake At Night

Finally, there were even a few minutes for a night time shot of the lake. Looks calm, but I was getting eaten alive!

Tomorrow, baseball.

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Champaign at Night

Orpheum

I wanted to try shooting a roll of Tri-X 400 in really dark conditions and then use the “minimal agitation” method for development. I developed the film in Rodinal 1:50 for 55 minutes, agitating every 5 minutes via 3 gentle inversions. For someone with no reference point, I’d say the pictures turned out okay. I particularly like the one above, Orpheum. My camera’s meter wasn’t responding, so I just shot everything at f/4, 1/60. I find that focusing with my Pentax is very hard. More specifically, I find that it’s really hard to focus wrong. Even when I am careful I tend to mess it up. I’m not sure what’s going on there.

I am still having difficulties deciding if I’m getting the best that I can out of my scanner. After development, the Tri-X comes out (for me anyhow) very bowed. The film holder that came with the Epson v500 is relatively flimsy and does not provide any sort of support for the film. So, I ditched it. I instead placed the film on the flat bed (emulsion side up, if I remember correctly) and put a piece of glass from an 8×10 frame on top.

Patio

Unfortunately, using this method I couldn’t figure out how to crop properly in Vuescan. Argh! One frustration after another! So, I went back to Epson Scan. I think that I got a better scan, but this could just be a placebo affect. This has lead me to seriously think about buying an enlarger. I have been watching them on Ebay for a few weeks now. Am I just asking for more headaches? Probably.

Book shop

Technorati Tags: photography, champaign, il, night, black, and, white, tri-x, 400, rodinal, high, contrast