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Ansel changed his film in his sleeping bag. Have you?

Franklee

Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2025
Messages
45
Location
Sonoma County, California
Format
35mm
Somewhere in my reading Ansel Adams claimed to have changed film inside his sleeping bag during his early (1920s) days in the Sierras. Thinking about it, I can't imagine a better way to get dust and hairs onto the film holders, especially with the cotton sleeping bags of the time. The movie industry must have created portable darkrooms for loading movie cameras by then and I bet some people had changing bags if not crude versions of Harrison Tents but what do you think? Was Ansel bloviating or was he a really superb negative retoucher?
 
I've fixed film that wouldn't rewind inside a backpack under my sleeping bag in a tent at night
 
100 years ago, things were a fair bit different.
It was probably sheet film of course - any theories about what size he would have been using that long ago?
 
MattKing said:
100 years ago, things were a fair bit different.
It was probably sheet film of course - any theories about what size he would have been using that long ago?
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I've read from authoritative sources that he used 4x5 Gundlach Korona in the 1920's and 8x10 Century Universal in the 1930s. It wouldn't surprise me if he had others too...

I'm waiting for DREW WILEY to pop in and give us the details of his adventures in the sleeping bag. But regarding Ansel, I'm in the bloviating camp.
 
Can't speak for the experiences of AA so very long ago. But it is not an alien nor unusual concept. You make do with what you have, not what you wish you had!

I have on occasion used the sleeping bag (or a thick black polartec jumper) to unload a jammed roll of 120 from either Pentax 67 or a ZeroImage 69 pinhole camera.
 
Maybe we all have it backwards? He didn't change film in his sleeping bag, he had to sleep in his changing bag.
 
Judging by from photos Ansel was a hirsute young man so I'm calling his sleeping bag darkroom a tall tale. Even though it was 100 years ago, the photography industry was booming, with millions of shutterbugs and home darkrooms. Since sheet film was still popularat the time I'm betting there was some Ansco or other film changing contraption that's been lost to history.
 
In my younger days I traveled with my 4x5, film, film holders, tripod, and misc. on my BMW R100 across the country(and tent, sleeping bag, underwear, Campbells condensed soup, and everything else you could imagine). . And yes I loaded film in my sleeping bag. No big deal but it could get warm depending where I was. But dust was no big problem, when I got hope I use compressed air in the darkroom to blow off everything.
 
beemermark said:
In my younger days I traveled with my 4x5, film, film holders, tripod, and misc. on my BMW R100
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In November I traveled across Texas and New Mexico with my 4x5 on my KTM for the first time, but it wasn't that long a trip so I just packed enough film holders that I didn't have to swap film. It does take some real downsizing to fit a 4x5 on a motorcycle.
 
When I was a teenager in the late 1960s, and the first in my family to lean towards science and photography, I had no darkroom. I somehow persuaded my apprehensive mother that developing film at the kitchen sink would not eat the plumbing. We lived in a suburban area with a street light right outside, and I had never heard of changing bags. So the only way I could achieve sufficient darkness to load film into tank was to suffocate myself under the bedclothes for a few minutes. Dust from that source wasn’t really a problem - I guess it got washed off by the chemicals before it could stick. Dust during drying was an issue, but I learned to hang film in the bathroom after running the shower for a couple of minutes.

PS - my mother used to ‘neutralise’ my darkroom chemicals by following them down the plug-hole with a vicious disinfectant brand called “Jeyes Fluid”. It smelled as though it was full of noxious polyphenols, and was completely irrelevant, but it allowed her to sleep easy.
 
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snusmumriken said:
It smelled as though it was full of noxious polyphenols
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I just looked it up. Apparently, it was. It's different, now. And it was once used to stop infection. Give the patient a bath containing enough of that to disinfect but not enough to eat his flesh.

Before I had a suitable darkroom, I loaded film into a developing tank in a duffelbag in an almost dark room. In spite of the bag being open (my hands had to be in there, too), and light coming in through the door, the film didn't get fogged. Truly irritating, though.
 
You haven't lived until you've loaded your ultra large format in a warm, hollowed-out elk carcass at 60 below.
 

The old stuff was a lot better , but the new stuff does a job .
By coincidence I was spraying some apple trees with it as a winter wash to kill off the apple aphid .
A PITA to eradicate in the growing season .

Back on topic ; whilst I've been away in my campervan I've refilled dark slides in the evening inside a sleeping bag with no issues.
Open it up first and give it a good shake first .
I've also loaded film without while parked up in the middle of nowhere while there's been no moon out . Either a cloudy night or new moon with no I'll effects , obviously at night !
 
Not in a sleeping bag, but on one. I have changed film in my tent at night, sitting cross-legged on my (brushed and wiped clean) nylon sleeping bag.

Next time, I might just wait till the dark of night and change film outside the tent under starlight like Ken Rockwell.

Best,

Doremus
 
Oh gosh, one autumn I was backpacking with co-worker to a beautiful location well above timberline. The weather was clear, so we didn't set up tents. Right around dawn, my friend needed to pee, so got out of his sleeping bag and went behind a big rock about 30 yards away. In the meantime, a curious adolescent marmot walked over to his bag and crawled inside, delighted with a new warm burrow. When my friend came back, he crawled in back in there (and of course, I didn't tell him about the marmot). Things got crazy with that fat rodent crawling and jumping all around in there. Finally it found its way back out, scurried a few yards, and looked back as if to say, How did that big critter get into my nice new nest?

As per sleeping bags as changing tents : I once watched the fellow at the spotting station paid clean up some of AA's classic old prints from back in his sleeping bag filmholder changeout days. ... the very definition of purgatory - worst job in the world. Add mosquito silhouettes in the sky from landing on the film when the darkslide was pulled for exposure,
and you go from purgatory to hell.
 
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I haven't used my Harrison film changing tents in a long time, due to the intervening years when Quickload and Readyload sleeves were available.

But if I had to do it again super-lightweight, I'd just bring a large black poly sleeve left over from a 20X24 box of printing paper, and rinse it out well. Should work fine after the sun has set. Others have reported good results this manner.
 
I've used a sleeping bag when I had to unroll film from a 120 roll of film because I found myself on a weekend trip without an "empty" 120 spool. I didn't want to waste the film.

Dangerous Treehouse and Walnut Orchard, Morning were from that trip.

Dangerous Treehouse

Friends' walnut ranch, treehouse with frayed steel cables that draw blood by just looking at them. Seem to find steel cables and pulleys in trees everywhere I go.
www.photrio.com

When I got back home, I re-rolled it and then used it later.

Backpacking with 4x5 I'll bring a changing bag and a special bag to hold the film cartons in organized N, N+ and N- arrangement so I can unload the Grafmatic sheet-by-sheet into the corresponding storage box.
 
While on a college group trip to Spain, one individual stripped the holes on the 35mm film and it would not rewind. I borrowed a heavy coat, placed the camera and a suitable container for the film in the coat. I put my arms into the coat backward and wound the coat up around the camera. Unloaded the camera and everyone went their merry way. This works well, and if in doubt put another coat over the top for additional isolation.
 
'Ol Ansel put in the months of waiting for the light, clouds and weather. In his youthful days he was on foot, maybe had a mule. His family was wealthy so arranging for a horse would have been doable.

Sleeping bag, bed roll etc. Sure. I doubt he was in the bag! He was one hell of a craftsman
 
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