Southeast area get together?

[glbeas]

Ok thats great! Now we need the meet time. Do you think about 11:00 would be good? Gives us time to eat, then be at the Furnaces by 12:30 or so.

 

[Bill Mobbs]

Sounds OK by me.

 

[ScottH]

AAaarrrrggghhhhh!!!.... As of 3:30 today (thurs) it would appear that I'll not be able to attend on Sunday. Got some family stuff goin' on. I'm very bummed.

 

[glbeas]

Thats awful Scott! Maybe you could just bring 'em all with you?

BTW we'll have room for another person to ride with us if anyone in the area of Roswell is going.

 

[glbeas]

Lets see, we have so far Bill Mobbs, Doug Bennett, Jeff Dilcher, Mark Craig (kayakerguy) and his girlfriend, my wife Dale, stepson Kevin Grogan and me so far. Anyone else plan on being there?

 

[glbeas]

Expedition was a success! We had Bill Mobbs, Doug Bennett and I as the APUG contingent with my wife and Gerald Straw rounding out the group. Gerald is an excellent photography instructor I met at some local camera club meets and have known for several years. I'm trying to get him to join the forums, might liven things up a little.

Doug shot a group picture as we were getting ready to leave, so we have that to look forward to as well as all the various shots we all took. Thats a fascinating place!

 

[Doug Bennett]

A big tip of the hat to Gary for pulling this together. It was indeed a fun trip, the company was excellent, and the light was just right.

If any of you APUGers are ever passing through Birmingham, Sloss Furnaces is a must, especially for B&W shooters.

 

[ScottH]

Looking forward to seeing the images. Still jealous I had to back out on this one...

 

[JeffD]

Looking forward to seeing the images. Still jealous I had to back out on this one...

Me too. I'll try and make the next trip, Gary. If you guys are able to post something to the gallery, let us know in this thread! I am really curious to see what you guys photographed...

 

[glbeas]

I souped the negs from the 8x10 last night, I got some interesting images. If they print as good as they look....

 

[Doug Bennett]

I am really curious to see what you guys photographed...

We photographed steel, baby, and lots of it! Sloss is just a great place for B&W, great for working on composition. It's a big place, very labyrinthine. We hardly saw each other, which was too bad. But, a fun place to explore.

I developed my 3 rolls of 120 last night; they look really good, especially the roll of APX 25 that I decided to shoot. Now, I've only got 5 rolls left

 

[glbeas]

I was finally able to get into the "Dungeon" to make prints today. Heres a few of the shots we got. The checkers were where the carbon monoxide was burned off the flue gases and used to heat a checkerwork of bricks in the towers. Then air was pumped through to preheat it for the furnace. They had six of them, any two were heating air and the other four burning gases at any time to keep the furnaces supplied with hot air at all times. You can see some of the huge pipes to carry the flue gase to the checkers. The pump room had 20 foot diameter flywheels on the blowers and a jungle of smaller pumps I never learned what they were used for.
You can also see where I learned the purpose of that little strap with the D ring on the top of the bellows. You hang it on the hook on the back of the front standard to keep the sagging bellows out of the way of the film.

 

[Bill Mobbs]

I too, just got a chance to get into the darkroom and make a print or two. I appreciated the group allowing me to come along with them to learn more about what they do and how they view their art. I had a great conversation with Gerald Straw and learned a lot. Gary, I was looking forward to see some of the prints of the images you made. They look great! I guess my view of the Sloss foundry is a little different because 50 years ago I saw the place in action, with the heat, smoke, soot, and cinders in the air. My mind brought back thoughts and visions of the men who worked everyday in there. There were no Osha rules and I have been told many lives were lost over the course of years. How would you like to work in a place that was on fire... all the time...? I can think of only one place that is on fire all the time.

I'm sorry, Alfred Stieglitz said he tried to make photographys that told what he saw and how he felt. I was not able to do that, but I can tell you about it and I will attach a couple of photographs I made.

 

[Doug Bennett]

Nice work, guys. Gary, I especially like (there was a url link here which no longer exists) .

I printed a couple this weekend, and plan to do some more this week. I post some when I can. This may be the first time that I've shot where I really saw the need for a camera w/movements. I'm happy with the tonality and composition of some of my shots, but they don't have the extreme depth of field that you can get with a view camera. Consequently, some of the shots have areas closer to the camera that are not in sharp focus. Not terrible, but it's bothering me.

 

[Bill Mobbs]

I'm happy with the tonality and composition of some of my shots, but they don't have the extreme depth of field that you can get with a view camera. Consequently, some of the shots have areas closer to the camera that are not in sharp focus. Not terrible, but it's bothering me.

Hi Doug! I had a couple that were not sharp in the near to camera area too.
it's not bothering me... I think, since I am close, I may go back and redo them. I may learn something the second time around.

Thanks again for letting me join the group!

Bill

 

[glbeas]

Nice work, guys. Gary, I especially like (there was a url link here which no longer exists) .

Thanks. That one was a bit of work and adventure. I found my way into the pump room and wandered around a bit. Got nearly to the end of the aisle and turned around, saw the light beaming in on the pumps in the middle. I set up and shot, took an exposure of maybe a minute. Then I stopped down to f/128 and tried another at about 4 minutes. Unfortunately the beam faded and I didn't give enough compensation for the reciprocity at such a long exposure so the neg came out pretty weak. I may try to intensify the neg sometime later and see what happens.
There were so many things to see in that one room it was almost frustrating.
I gotta go back and try more.