Is Now The Time To Start Hoarding Film Paper Chemicals Etc. ??

[Dali]

Modern times or how to be anxious about anything and everything...

 

[Agulliver]

I "stocked up" with two extra 100 foot loads of HP5+ in January anticipating shooting a couple of rolls a week at the local jazz/blues club. The following week the club announced it would be closing in may....two months later everything closed due to the pandemic.

I'll use the film, but not as rapidly as I thought! And will probably take to shooting HP5+ at 200 where I might otherwise have shot Fomapan 100 or 200.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I don't hoard. I buy a distinct amount of volume that I anticipate needing at inviting pricing, and then store it as needed (film in the freezer). Common sense. My stash of 8x10 color film, for example, would now cost me four times as much to replace. If needed chemistry is in powder form or otherwise stable, I'll buy at least six month's worth at a time, preferably a lot more. Spot shortages occur in that arena too. At the moment, Photographers Formulary, one of my favorite suppliers, is closed for remodeling. Some things I use are exotic and can only be purchased in concurrence with lucky timing. But any present supply crisis is minor compared to back when the Hunt Brothers secured a near-monopoly on silver and basically held it for ransom. And if something like another world war happens, then all bets are off anyway. That won't stop creativity - we can always go back to cave painting with sticks and fingers.

 

[David Lindquist]

...But any present supply crisis is minor compared to back when the Hunt Brothers secured a near-monopoly on silver and basically held it for ransom. .

I remember that. I was working in Berkeley at the time and decided maybe I should go over to Palmer's and at least buy some paper. When I got there the shelves were bare.

What I don't remember is how I heard about this as a concern for photographic materials as this was way pre-internet.

David

 

[jtk]

I remember that. I was working in Berkeley at the time and decided maybe I should go over to Palmer's and at least buy some paper. When I got there the shelves were bare.

What I don't remember is how I heard about this as a concern for photographic materials as this was way pre-internet.
David

Stockbrokers in Berkeley and everywhere else had market news and thinking as well as messaging at our desktops long before we had internet. As well, we had telephones and we read newspapers. And Kodak's local reps were gossips and gamblers.

 

[jp498]

I keep a few months to a year worth of chemicals depending on how well they keep (some of them are quite a bit older though). Most of the photo chemicals can be made from scratch if things got apocalyptic. Things are routinely out of stock at B&H. I don't buy photo stuff on Amazon, but the things I do get there are taking a month to ship these days. I sometime put a splash of rubbing alcohol in my final film rinse or rinse a film in alcohol to clean it, and my stash is helpful as it hasn't been readily available at the stores since March.

1-2 years for paper unless I have a special project that requires something I don't have.
Film I kinda went overboard.... I'm using kodak film that expired 2015 now.. The initial bankruptcy hoard that expired in 2013 is all gone. It's been frozen and keeping well. It was much less expensive to buy them and I was making more money then, so that was helpful.
It's an investment to buy it long before needed, but the rate it's been going up, I'm glad I did. Not as good as buying some tesla, amd, apple, or microsoft a few years ago of course.

 

[DREW WILEY]

The quality of paper sure took a nose dive after that silver panic, as Kodak and other scrounged for new manufacturing options to conserve it. Then another nose dive occurred when certain ingredients like cadmium became outlawed. Right around the same time I lost the original Seagull G graded (the subsequent versions were anemic), Brilliant Bromide, and Portriga, some of the best graded papers ever. Then a long drought until VC papers really started coming into their own, beginning with Polygrade V. Now we have a number of superb VC options. The stranglehold on silver the Hunts had was broken, but it served as a pattern for commodities pirates ever since. Even scrap steel is controlled by a dozen or less men. It's shipped all the way to China and back just so these middlemen get their cut, at tremendous pollution and loss of efficiency. They should get put in the cars that get smashed flat as poetic justice.

 

[NB23]

The pandemic has helped me clear my hoarding. I’ve been printing like crazy (but not shooting anything) since March.

I’ve cleared 15 liters of stock multigrade developer, 15 liters of stock Hypam, 2
Bags of Dektol.
Printed through 1000 5x7 ilford rc papers, 500 Ilford 5x7 fb multigrade, 200 foma 5x7 warmtone, 300 16x20 kodak polygrade papers, 100 20x24 forte polywarmtone, and 100 11x14 Ilford MGIV fb.
All selenium toned, and 25% of the lot got toned in old Viradon. Love that stuff.

I had all these in stock from previous hoarding.

Now I have to go through my last 25 boxes of 11x14 fb, 10 boxes of 8x10 fb, 10 boxes of 5x7 fb Ilford. That’s another 3000 sheets/photographs.

I give myself until xmas to finish my work, to finish printing at least 10 years of negatives that have piled up.

This has been intense work, and in hindsight I realize that I totally overrated my free time. I understand that the rest of my lifetime would not have been enough to clear my hoard.

Yes, i have been shooting like crazy for the past 20 Years so I have the good negatives.

The quarantine was really beneficial.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Now go drymount em all, and you can sense what it feels like to walk in my shoes. I started the year with a 200 @ 16x20 print drymounting backlog, and then printed even more.

 

[NB23]

Now go drymount em all, and you can sense what it feels like to walk in my shoes. I started the year with a 200 @ 16x20 print drymounting backlog, and then printed even more.

Hmm. I’ve printed a thousand 16x20 and 20x24 forte poly warmtone in 2017, then renovated my house for the next 2 Years. And then scanned all my lifetime’s color work throughout 2019.

the last thing I want to do is drymount. I pile the prints in bags and let them sleep for the decades to come.

 

[freecitizen]

I suspect the price of silver will likely rise from here …. possibly by quite a lot.

The price of film and paper will not be going down.

 

[NB23]

I suspect the price of silver will likely rise from here …. possibly by quite a lot.

The price of film and paper will not be going down.

The problem with hoarding films and papers is that, ultimately, one is ALWAYS ending up using expired goods.

In my case, I can’t keep up shooting the tons of films I’ve cold stored within their expiry date. It’s a bit frustrating.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I certainly don't mount every print, just the best. But I don't regard a print as finished until it's properly mounted. Fortunately, I bought a fair amount of museum board late last year. I'm almost caught up. I had planned to do color printing this season, but don't want any color chemistry respiratory irritation whatsoever at this time for obvious reasons. Scanning images is fine for indexing them for reference, but in my own world no substitute for an actual print. I shot, printed, and exhibited strictly large format color for over a decade before adding black and white imagery.

 

[MattKing]

I expect, with paper, that the substrate costs more than the silver.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Premium black and white papers still involve quite a bit of silver and gelatin, color paper considerably less, which helps explain why color RC papers are actually less expensive. But then the inkjet industry price gouges for plain paper with little more than sizing on it, just like they gouge for the inks. Museum board, made primarily of linen, has seriously climbed in price, but it uses a lot of material for sake of thickness, and even high-quality book papers have exploded in price. It's all relative anyway. Inflation sorta creeps up on you over time, then there's suddenly a seismic shift when you take notice of it.

 

[pentaxuser]

T
Printed through 1000 5x7 ilford rc papers, 500 Ilford 5x7 fb multigrade, 200 foma 5x7 warmtone, 300 16x20 kodak polygrade papers, 100 20x24 forte polywarmtone, and 100 11x14 Ilford MGIV fb.


Now I have to go through my last 25 boxes of 11x14 fb, 10 boxes of 8x10 fb, 10 boxes of 5x7 fb Ilford. That’s another 3000 sheets/photographs.

I give myself until xmas to finish my work, to finish printing at least 10 years of negatives that have piled up.

.

Just out of interest where do you store all these prints and all the rest you have printed over the years.

Thanks

pentaxuser

 

[DREW WILEY]

I don't know how he does it, but mounted prints are a real headache to store; and I have color prints up to 30X40 inch on even larger mounts. I have several really big flat files, plus stainless wire rack shelving for archival portfolio boxes. Then back when a significant number had to be prepared for exhibition, that meant finding space for framed prints too in the meantime. I've run out of space, so probably won't even mount or frame any large color work except on demand. The even bigger headache will be how my heirs will deal with it, which is one important reason for mounting the best prints now and sorting them into more readily salable portfolios. Loose artwork tends to end up with an ignominious destiny, like getting thumbtacked to some grand-nephew's wall. But I figure a lot of it will just end up in a dumpster atop an enlarger or two, with ketchup dripping from an open bottle above onto the museum board. Some dumpster-diver will come along and remark how much better it tastes than the leftover scraps in the dumpster behind the actual pizza parlor.

 

[mooseontheloose]

I would say it is appropriate to expect longer lead times and more erratic supply. So it makes sense to have more backup inventory than in the past.
That is different than hoarding.

Yes, it’s for exactly that reason that I stocked up on chemicals and paper back in March - when shipping to and from Japan became extremely limited, the stores went out of stock faster than expected. And now that infection rates are doubling weekly here, we may have a similar situation happening soon. But it’s not something I usually do.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Speaking of hoarding, do any of you recall that Far Side cartoon when a couple was down underground in a bomb shelter as nukes were going off all around above ground? The wife was sorting all through a big pile of canned food when she discovered her husband had forgotten to bring a can opener! That's how I felt this morning rearranging things in my sink room, and doing annual paint touch-ups, and running into stockpiles of all kinds of developers and specialty chemicals I'll probably new use again.

 

[mshchem]

I just bought 24 1 gallon cans of Microdol-X, I think 1973 vintage. I was never a big fan of the stuff. But the way things are going????? I need more shelves, I just added that to my list. I have a Kodak datasheet that explains how to make replenisher from the stock developer. I wonder how many rolls of Tri-X 24 gallons of Microdol-X would develop?

I am more than a little nuts.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Like it reads - with the current WORLD situation and all the uncertainty it breads.
Will prices skyrocket - will there be shortages? What is predicted regarding Ilford, for instance - their financial/economic health?

There is never a reason to hoard chemicals because they always exist as bulk chemicals that you can buy and mix or do you need yourself. And it's never a good time to hold Fillmore paper because manufacturers cannot plan very well with sporadic purchases. It's far better to continuously buy as you need which also provides you're always with a fresh supply.

 

[Sal Santamaura]

...I wonder how many rolls of Tri-X 24 gallons of Microdol-X would develop?...

At 250ml of stock solution per 80 square inches, that's 363 rolls.

 

[NB23]

At 250ml of stock solution per 80 square inches, that's 363 rolls.

Merely 1.5 bottle of HC-110 dilution H

 

[Agulliver]

Because of the needless and frankly insane panic buying of toilet paper a few months ago, manufacturers moved to producing only the larger packs of 9 and 12. I cannot find a good quality 4-pack of toilet paper anywhere.

I can imagine the film/chemical/paper manufacturers would similarly like us to stick to whatever the usual seasonal purchase habits are. That way they can plan to have the products we need available when we need them.

 

[AgX]

I did not see a 4-roll pack even in the past.