Getting the 11x14 ready for an adventure!

Vaughn · Mar 24, 2018

I am getting ready for a month at Zion National Park. To add a little flexibility to my image-making, I modified two 11x14 metal darkslides I had laying around. One gives me two 5x14 images on a single sheet of 11x14, the other will give me an 11x11 image on 11x14...I have a box of 11x14 film that is fogged at one end.

I decided to bring the Suter Aplanat B No. 6 (~500mm), so I re-mounted it in a homemade Sinar-type board. The board is made of a piece of 8-ply rag matboard drymounted to a 4-ply piece of solid black matboard. The woodscrews holds the lens nicely. Will easily hold for the month! My main 11x14 lens is a Fuji W 360mm in shutter and in addition I have a RD Artar 24" (610mm) in a barrel.

Fritzthecat · Mar 24, 2018

Wow, a whole month at Zion, boy do I envy you. I sold off my 11x14 a couple of years ago, kinda miss it. Oh, by the way, my mom called, she wants her table cloth back.

Steve Goldstein · Mar 24, 2018

How did you make such nice cuts in the darkslides?

WilmarcoImaging · Mar 24, 2018

Have fun Vaughn! Looking forward to seeing the results.

Vaughn · Mar 24, 2018

Steve Goldstein said:
How did you make such nice cuts in the darkslides?

I used a 6" coping saw and Stanley coping saw blades (20 TPI -- finer would have been nice). I scribed the line on the black darkslide -- the silver line was easy to follow. I cut on or biased slightly off the line. After cutting with the saw, I used a file and slowly took the rest of the metal off to the edge of the line. The original cut edge with the saw was not very straight!

I rounded all the corners with the file and used a Sharpie to blacked all the cut edges. I like the metal slides as I have broken the others out in the field and in my pack. These I can pound flat if needed!

DWThomas · Mar 24, 2018

Ah -- I barely scratched the surface of the parks in that area in 2016. I suspect if I was to spend a month I would need to take a reverse mortgage to cover film expenses! Have fun and show us some of the results.

Vaughn · Mar 24, 2018

Fritzthecat said:
Wow, a whole month at Zion, boy do I envy you. I sold off my 11x14 a couple of years ago, kinda miss it. Oh, by the way, my mom called, she wants her table cloth back.

She would not want it back at this point! LOL!
I'll be living in the Park in a small stone cabin without internet, phone, cell phone, TV, radio -- in fact, I don't even have to pay extra not to have that stuff! I don't have to pay anything at all, actually. Pretty sweet (artist-in-residence for April 2018).

images39 · Mar 24, 2018

That sounds like it'll be a glorious experience. The envy of many! I recently read a book on Brett Weston's life, and learned how he used an 11x14 camera and made beautiful contact prints from it. It must be a joy contact printing 11x14, I can only imagine...

Dale

Vaughn · Mar 24, 2018

My main camera for the past couple of decades has been 8x10, occasionally using a modified darkslide to make 4x10s. Making 5x14s will be a lot of fun! I tried out one of Ritter's 7x17s (great cameras!) but using the 11x14 for 5x14 images makes more sense for me now. A 14x17 would be fun, but I'll stick with 11x14!

mark · Mar 30, 2018

Artists in residence usually have to do something for their "rent". What will you be doing?

RattyMouse · Mar 30, 2018

What is the cost of one sheet of 11 x 14 film? That must be tremendously expensive. What a motivator to get the shot right. How many exposures do you think you will make in one month? Are you going to shoot anything smaller along with that?

Luckless · Mar 30, 2018

Congratulations on being selected for the program. I've barely started scratching the surface with a 4x5 setup, but working with a 11x14 setup sounds like an awesome challenge.

I'm curious as to the modified slide for the 11x11 - Sounds like you're leaving the fogged sheets intact, and shooting with the back off centre, so I'm not sure I'm seeing any advantage to a change in the dark slide. Does it just leave you with a reference line for ease of handling the full sized negatives during your post work?

I look forward to hearing about the trip when you get back. Good luck, and enjoy. I'm sure I'll have rather envious thoughts of it while I'm sitting in an office.

jimgalli · May 4, 2018

If you come through Tonopah I'd love to say hello. I could hook you up with a 11 1/2" Verito on Sinar board. No it doesn't cover 11X14 but if you take the front off it becomes a great 20" Achromatic meniscus that does. My way of saying "I'm envious".

Ahhh. April. Late as ever. Hope it was grand.

Vaughn · May 4, 2018

mark said:
Artists in residence usually have to do something for their "rent". What will you be doing?

I was required to give a talk at the Zion Lodge and another to a photo class at Southern Utah University. I was also expected to wear the park volunteer uniform 20 hours a week while out photographing and be willing to talk to the park visitors. The park will get their pick of prints (one) within 6 months of finishing the AIR. All things that I enjoyed doing. I estimate that I had 250 to 300 visitors looking at the image on the ground glass, with 99% of them never having the experience before.

The most common question was why was I using film...usually asking what advantages one has over the other, which I explained that my printing with 19th century photographic processes (platinum and carbon processes) which can not be enlarged, I need for a larger negative if I want a larger print.

My photographic life has alway included an educational element to it, so I greatly enjoyed the whole experience.

Vaughn · May 4, 2018

RattyMouse said:
What is the cost of one sheet of 11 x 14 film? That must be tremendously expensive. What a motivator to get the shot right. How many exposures do you think you will make in one month? Are you going to shoot anything smaller along with that?

I exposed about equal amounts of 5x7 and 8x10 film (about 40 shts each). Unfortunately, I found major light leaks in the 5x7 halfway through. The new bellows (on the camera when I bought it) were not properly attached to the front standard. Many of the negs might be okay as I usually covered the camera with the darkcloth -- but I should have checked it out better before I left. I had not used it much before I this trip. I exposed about two dozen 11x14 sheets of film.

Vaughn · May 4, 2018

Luckless said:
...I'm curious as to the modified slide for the 11x11 - Sounds like you're leaving the fogged sheets intact, and shooting with the back off centre, so I'm not sure I'm seeing any advantage to a change in the dark slide. Does it just leave you with a reference line for ease of handling the full sized negatives during your post work?

I contact print and include the film rebate as part of the image. So the modified darkslides provide a rebate on the 11x11 and the 5x14 negatives.

Using the front rise/fall (or front shift for vertical 5x14s) I can center the lens on the section of the film that I will expose. I can take advantage of lenses that may not cover a full sheet of 11x14.

Vaughn · May 4, 2018

jimgalli said:
If you come through Tonopah I'd love to say hello. I could hook you up with a 11 1/2" Verito on Sinar board. No it doesn't cover 11X14 but if you take the front off it becomes a great 20" Achromatic meniscus that does. My way of saying "I'm envious".

Ahhh. April. Late as ever. Hope it was grand.

I had planned on giving you a call, as I passed close to Tonopah -- but I am a little shy about such things and I also get like a horse heading back to the stable. I was heading west on Hwy 6 and turned north on Hwy 376. This was on May 1st and the storm light on my drive was amazing. I wanted to get west of Austin before dark to find a place to pull off the road and sleep. I still had another 12 hours of driving to do the next day to get home.

I have a Fuji W 360 for the 11x14. Covers closed down to f32 or more. I have a E.Suter Basle Aplanat B No.6 16x13, also, but never got it on the camera. It should be about 500mm.

I am sorry I did not give you a call.

mark · May 4, 2018

That must have been an awesome experience. I am envious.

David A. Goldfarb · May 4, 2018

I need to get the 11x14” out more often. Thanks for the inspiration.

Luis-F-S · May 4, 2018

Hope you had a great time and don’t forget to pull the dark slide!

Vaughn · May 5, 2018

Luis-F-S said:
Hope you had a great time and don’t forget to pull the dark slide!

Never did -- but made plenty of other mistakes when distracted by talking to the park visitors while trying to make an image...such as double exposing a sheet of 8x10. But I realized that mistake and re-photographed the same scene again the next day (might have even done a better job the second time -- a 4x10 along the Virgin River that runs thru Zion Canyon.)

Getting the 11x14 ready for an adventure!

Vaughn

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