Face palm time, operator error

[Rick A]

What happens when you load film into a Unicolor drum WRONG, miss the guide rails, and have the edge of the film against an internal rib. I was testing some PMK and Xray film last week, and wasn't really paying much attention to anything, (forced myself to do something rather than just wallowing)and got this for a result. I went nuts trying to figure out WTF happened, tore my 5x7 apart, checked the bellows, everything I could think could have possibly gone awry, nothing. I should have had my answer when I shot another image and tray developed it, but it never struck me. I got my answer this morning. I took a shot of town in the fog from my back porch and processed the negative. When it was done running and I opened the drum to remove the neg, it was stuck to the inside of the drum. Upon removal, there it was in all its effed up glory, staring me in the (red) face, the same issue. Well DUH! The lines match the internal rib pattern perfectly. Thinking back, I had to shake the negatives out of the drum the other day, never had to do that before. Lesson learnt.

 

[eddie]

Rick- While I'm sorry to hear about your mishap, I'm very happy to see you're still making images. I'm hoping it means your passion is back.

 

[Rick A]

Rick- While I'm sorry to hear about your mishap, I'm very happy to see you're still making images. I'm hoping it means your passion is back.

Thanks Eddie. I didn't have to go far, my front porch. My PMK turned black from lack of use and I wanted to see if it was still active. I'd been using Rodinal for xray film and thought I should switch, so I thought it an opportune time to test the PMK for both reasons. My inattention to detail bit me.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Rick, sorry about that.

 

[Rick A]

Rick, sorry about that.

I'm not. You know what they say, "ya ain't tryin if ya ain't screwin up".

 

[jim10219]

I've done worse. I've never told anyone this, but once while out in the field, I opened up the dark slide to see if I had already exposed that side of a film holder. Somehow my brain thought this would be okay, like I could see a fully developed piece of film in there and only the light from inside a camera would expose it. I didn't even think to check the orientation of the tab at the top. I realized what I did half way through pulling the slide and just sat there frozen, trying to figure out what happened. I get caught up in depth of field, bellows extensions, and zone metering calculations feeling all smart with numbers, and then go and do the dumbest thing imaginable.