Large format on a long-ish trip

DREW WILEY · Apr 22, 2021

I think I'd just use a little flexed hoop section of fiberglass or carbon fiber rod material to support the inside of any improvised film bag. But I happen to already own a Harrison Pup tent suitable for 4X5 holders, as well as a larger Harrison for 8x10 holders. Seldom use them. But there are important items I add to the changeout kit. I carry clean thin black plastic liners, kitchen-wastebasket size, to keep the inside of the film tent exceptionally clean during use. The urethane sealant and fabric inside these tents does tend to break down over time, as well as accumulate a little dust, so this strategy distinctly helps. A tiny clothespin attaches the liner to the film tent roof during use. I bring along little sealed unscented alcohol-only wipes from the drugstore, to wipe my fingers clean of oil. Or disposable little nitrile finger cots can be used. Plus a small sponge for general cleaning, as well as a plastic groundcloth to isolate the tent from dirt or leaves - all in relation to outdoor camping. In a motel or resort, you can simply wipe down a laminate kitchen counter or smooth table.

The film boxes involved are sprayed with Krylon acrylic lacquer to prevent any cardboard lint from getting loose; and this lacquer is allowed to totally outgas a few months before putting these clamshell film boxes into service. I put little silicone bumpers on the outside end of the largest section of clamshell, so I can identify which box is which by feel. And of course, the various boxes are carefully labeled. Zone system differentiation can be distinguished in several manners; but I won't go into all that detail here. 95% percent of what I do is all "Normal" developed anyway. Color film has it's own dedicated boxes.
Thoughtfully done, a kit like this can be surprisingly compact and lightweight.

abruzzi · Apr 22, 2021

Thanks for the tips. Dirt and dust here in the desert is always an issue. Last month I spent a week camping and shooting (6x7) in Big Bend, and that place was much worse than here—it had a fine dust that turned into clay when you sweat. Here isn’t nearly as bad, and the places planned for the trip, only the area around Chaco and Bisti do I expect to deal with a lot of bad dust, much of the rest of the trip will be in the mountains, where enough trees grow to hold the soil down. Because I live here I‘m already fairly cautious about dirt and dust. the design of LF cameras make them easier to clean, but also more susceptible to dust infiltration.

Andrew O'Neill · Apr 22, 2021

I load up all my 8x10 holders (16 of them). I bring along my Harrison jumbo tent, and a couple of empty film boxes. I keep notes, and expose the holders in order. Film comes out of the holders in order, and slipped into empty film boxes, face down, in the order that I took them. I've never had an issue with this simple system back in the darkroom.

DREW WILEY · Apr 22, 2021

The biggest issue with desert dust can be on cold extremely dry winter days. When using metal cameras like my Sinar monorails, I actually grounded the metal standards to the dirt using an alligator clip, a short length of small speaker wire, and a large nail as the ground rod. It can be worse in places like Death Valley where fine clay and salt gets into everything due to seasonal high winds. Now I just avoid trips there during March. Other than my first large format forays to the SW, which I consider my own learning curve, I never had dust problems with my sheet film afterwards. But I really prefer to load up enough holders in my own lab cleanroom in advance rather than to change out film in the field. When I was a still a teenager less than 60 years old, I could still carry packs up to a hundred pounds. Long desert treks demanded carrying enough water not only to get you to the next waterhole or campsite near a spring, but enough to also get you back out if that turned out to be dry! One time in November on a long canyoneering outing, I felt I was almost dying of thirst under that hot sun when it was due overhead, but was having a hard time breaking the ice on a little stream even jumping on it even with my 85 lb pack, so cold the previous night had been, and so thick the ice! Eventually, I noticed water dripping off the icicles on shaded nearby cliffs. Those temp swings in high desert canyons can be stunning. No wonder the Anasazi got arthritis prematurely.

urnem57 · Apr 22, 2021

The Tinkertoy idea is a stroke of genius. And fun to play with, too.

Mick Fagan · Apr 23, 2021

I regularly do 3 + month trips with our slide-on camper on the back of the truck. I have the jumbo Harrison tent, works very well and generally change things at the end of the day when it's cooler. I run two speeds of film, 100 and 400, various manufacturers Ilford, Foma and Bergger. I have one empty 100 sheet box for each film type. Film is kept in our refrigerator, so temperature storage isn't too much of a problem. One 3 month trip I exposed around 75 sheets of film, another 3 month trip around 40 sheets and a third trip of almost 4 months, close to 100 sheets.

I have one 4x5" wooden folder camera and because we have a truck, weight and/or storage space isn't a problem. Before retirement our trips were generally shorter in duration, these days we take our time, which is really quite nice.

Grafmatics are really quite large, their septums are iffy if you drop or bend them and loading 6 sheets at a time does mean when a mistake is made, you can lose 6 sheets; I've done this. The space of a Grafmatic is approximately the same space as two normal film holders, so you really only gain 2 sheets of film. Grafmatics are excellent when doing portraiture as you can sort of speed things up a bit, but other than that the two Grafmatic holders I have, don't get used that much.

Mick.

Donald Qualls · Apr 23, 2021

Mick Fagan said:
I regularly do 3 + month trips with our slide-on camper on the back of the truck.

For a trip that length, with a truck camper, I'd probably take chemicals, tanks, etc. and process in the field (or check into a hotel every week or two to take care of it).

DREW WILEY · Apr 23, 2021

Getting decent processing and rinse water on a long trip can be an issue. You'd have to stock up on jugs of distilled water at supermarkets along the way. I have a friend with a really tricked-out Sprinter that is part-time ski lodge and part-time darkroom. He has instant hot water, a pop-out shower, kitchen, film closet, shooting platform on the roof. But he also has processing issues. I'd hate to have a bunch of chemicals sloshing around on mountain roads. But the old-timers even did it with mules pulling carts of gear and solutions where routes weren't even what we'd call roads in modern times.

Donald Qualls · Apr 23, 2021

DREW WILEY said:
But the old-timers even did it with mules pulling carts of gear and solutions where routes weren't even what we'd call roads in modern times.

The real old timers hauled their darkroom along for an afternoon at the park -- because wet plate couldn't get more than ten minutes from the sensitizing and developing chemicals.

urnem57 · Apr 23, 2021

I just read that Carleton Watkins carried a view camera that shot 18x24 glass plates on his back. Dry plate photography brought about “lightweight” photographic gear.

DREW WILEY · Apr 23, 2021

Parks??? City slickers? Try the frontier. I've seen contact prints from a camera so large that the "tripod" had to be pre-assembled by a crew of carpenters scaffold-style before every shot. It was like a traveling circus production. Then they'd wait until a particular Indian tribe or camp of homesteaders would all arrive for a group shot. Wet plate work was also done atop some of our Sierra cliffs long before any decent roads were around. My family has quite a collection of those kinds of prints, just like any family whose ancestors were pioneers of the West. Everyone had to have determination back then.

Watkins had a dedicated railroad car for his portable darkroom, as well as support staff a mule teams to get him to locations further out, like Yosemite. His big camera work was amazing; but it was his more routine tourist fare little stereopticon shots that brought most of the income. The railroads were promoting tourism. If you want to learn about far far far more strenuous and dangerous expeditions with huge early backpack cameras, read the life of Vittoria Sella. He once got one to 23,000 ft altitude in the Karakoram Range. Not only was he a significant early mountaineer, but was great with composition too.

urnem57 · Apr 23, 2021

Great. Thanks for the recommendation. Always more to learn.

Mick Fagan · Apr 24, 2021

Donald Qualls said:
For a trip that length, with a truck camper, I'd probably take chemicals, tanks, etc. and process in the field (or check into a hotel every week or two to take care of it).

We mostly go to remote areas, where hotels and/or motels are either non existent or quite basic, plus the bed in our camper is beautiful; why would we pay to sleep and stay in sub-standard places? Compared to USA stuff, where we go, things are mostly primitive and very often without running water or grid electricity.

I have done my fair share of film developing in hotel toilets and bathrooms to last me a lifetime. I have also developed film completely outside alongside a tropical river in the far north of Australia with a water temperature that was almost too high for B&W film. Hung the film in trees to dry, cut them up, sleeved them, then stowed them in the motorcycle sidecar for when home and in the darkroom.

I actually purchased the SP-445 from the original kick starter to develop sheet film on the road. Had everything with me to do so on one of those 3 month trips, but never had enough time to develop film. Travelling with the boss she never complains about the time I take to fiddle with a view camera, however the art of keeping the relationship harmonious, I wisely decided to drop film developing on the road. There is of course the issue of clean water, we carry 240 litres, which lasts around 3-4 weeks. This would be severely depleted if I started to use our super filtered drinking water; I'm done with using river water for film developing.

Not on a trip, but indicative of the places and terrain we often stay in. Ascending a hill in the truck camper.

Mick.

abruzzi · Apr 24, 2021

Mick Fagan said:
Not on a trip, but indicative of the places and terrain we often stay in. Ascending a hill in the truck camper.
View attachment 273019

I'm jealous. Riding my motorcycle along the Canning Stock Route is on my list of things to do when I retire. Australia and a wealth of back country I’d like to visit.

Bill Burk · Apr 24, 2021

Two Grafmatics and a changing bag. As long as you can identify which box is which, you can do Zone System organizing. The septums are in a predictable order so follow your notes as you pull the sheets out and sort them in different boxes.

Instead of waiting until all shots are done,
I would change both Grafmatics at a convenient time of day when I have taken 8 or more shots (so for the second Grafmatic, pull just the finished shots and leave the fresh film in septums).

MattKing · Apr 24, 2021

Mick Fagan said:
I have done my fair share of film developing in hotel toilets

This may require translation from Australian English to other forms of English....

abruzzi · Apr 24, 2021

slight curve ball on my planning--I pulled out the Technika and the exterior of the bellows is beginning to flake, especially around the corners. It still seems to be light tight, so I may just use it anyway, but it does concern me. So at this point my options are:

Use the Technika and hope the bellows stay fine.
bring the Technikardan instead. This camera I got ~6 months ago--it was selling for very cheap--and I had the bellows professionally replaced (Custom Bellows in the UK). Its all in great shape, but its biggest drawback is that its new to me, so I expect everything to take half again as long, compared to the Technika. Also, for camping, I prefer that the Technika, closed up is a borderline indestructible metal box. The TK is relatively protected, but not as much as the Technika. Also, it doesn't fit the bag I have setup for the Technika, so it will require rearranging and figuring a good way to get it around.
go medium format. Probably 6x7 on the GS-1 or Pentax.

I don't know, but at the moment I'm leaning towards #2, despite the complications, partly because I like the sink-or-swim approach to learning. I could order a new bellows for the Technika and try to get it installed before I leave, but I hate rushing things like that. If it was a simple clip in like the TK, it wouldn't matter, but its not, and its not something I've done before.

Bob S · Apr 24, 2021

abruzzi said:
slight curve ball on my planning--I pulled out the Technika and the exterior of the bellows is beginning to flake, especially around the corners. It still seems to be light tight, so I may just use it anyway, but it does concern me. So at this point my options are:

Use the Technika and hope the bellows stay fine.

bring the Technikardan instead. This camera I got ~6 months ago--it was selling for very cheap--and I had the bellows professionally replaced (Custom Bellows in the UK). Its all in great shape, but its biggest drawback is that its new to me, so I expect everything to take half again as long, compared to the Technika. Also, for camping, I prefer that the Technika, closed up is a borderline indestructible metal box. The TK is relatively protected, but not as much as the Technika. Also, it doesn't fit the bag I have setup for the Technika, so it will require rearranging and figuring a good way to get it around.

go medium format. Probably 6x7 on the GS-1 or Pentax.

I don't know, but at the moment I'm leaning towards #2, despite the complications, partly because I like the sink-or-swim approach to learning. I could order a new bellows for the Technika and try to get it installed before I leave, but I hate rushing things like that. If it was a simple clip in like the TK, it wouldn't matter, but its not, and its not something I've done before.

Stick your Technika in a dark closet, along with you and a flashlight. Extend the bellows all the way out, take off the back and put the flashlight inside the bellows. Make sure the lens is closed.
Do you see light coming from those worn corners?
Yes. You need a new bellows.
No, go shoot.

Donald Qualls · Apr 26, 2021

Mick Fagan said:
I actually purchased the SP-445

FWIW, a few years ago I did my processing with distilled water (testing against the city water -- conclusion, mix chemicals with distilled, dilute and wash with city water) and found that I could process with Parodinal, dilute, one-shot fix, and wash (reusing acid stop bath) with about a gallon (4L) of water for a 35mm roll. Your SP-445 probably needs more than that -- IIRC, it'd be close to double. Yep, that's a lot for a 240L tank, but you could also carry a more common filter pitcher (Brita etc.) to make river water into wash and dilution water, and do only a final rinse in the super-filtered drinking water. Dependent, of course, on having local water to filter; I'm aware there are large sections of Australia where that isn't the case.

Bob S said:
Stick your Technika in a dark closet, along with you and a flashlight. Extend the bellows all the way out, take off the back and put the flashlight inside the bellows. Make sure the lens is closed.
Do you see light coming from those worn corners?
Yes. You need a new bellows.
No, go shoot.

Flaking can cause major issues separate from light leaks (clear spots on the neg from a flake present at exposure are much harder to deal with that white spots on the print from dust during printing). Carry a hand-pumped vacuum brush to clean out the bellows each time the camera is set up? Might work, not sure if such a thing is a practical reality, though (there are battery ones that can charge off the vehicle's electrical system, however).

abruzzi · Apr 26, 2021

Donald Qualls said:
Flaking can cause major issues separate from light leaks (clear spots on the neg from a flake present at exposure are much harder to deal with that white spots on the print from dust during printing). Carry a hand-pumped vacuum brush to clean out the bellows each time the camera is set up? Might work, not sure if such a thing is a practical reality, though (there are battery ones that can charge off the vehicle's electrical system, however).

Fortunately the flaking seems to only be on the outer material. Still something to worry about but not as likely to get in the shot as flaking on the inside.

nonetheless, I took the Technikardan out yesterday to practice with and other than the fact that the bag that came with it when I bought it is much too big it worked out well, so I think I'll just take the TK and wait on the Technika. (When I bought the TK it came in a large Tamrac bag will hold the camera, 8 lenses, 15 film holders, and still have extra space. The Technika I put in a Domke F2, which holds the Technika, 4 lenses, and 6 film holders.)

Large format on a long-ish trip

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Large format on a long-ish trip

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