Very Imperfect #10 Cirkut Image made on a brisk day in February, Goldfield, Nevada

[jimgalli]

My kids would have starved.

 

[mshchem]

I was mesmerized by the Cirkut prints in a restaurant my family visited when I was a youngster. The detail is amazing, these were all contact prints and professionally done. Nothing better!!!!

I remember printing some of my buddies prints 12 " x 60" , but these were projection prints from cropped 8x10 negatives, didn’t impress me. We see-sawed the prints in dishpans

 

[MattKing]

If you like Cirkut prints: https://www.vancouverarchives.ca/2012/06/07/panoramic-photographs-the-number-8-cirkut-outfit/
I'm lucky to have enjoyed a guided tour through the Vancouver Archives extensive photographic archives, including a lot of Cirkut camera negatives.
There is more related information in their digitized materials.

 

[jimgalli]

If you like Cirkut prints: https://www.vancouverarchives.ca/2012/06/07/panoramic-photographs-the-number-8-cirkut-outfit/
I'm lucky to have enjoyed a guided tour through the Vancouver Archives extensive photographic archives, including a lot of Cirkut camera negatives.
There is more related information in their digitized materials.

Thank you thank you thank you. I'm inspired once again. Difficult to find enough "busy-ness" to fill up the images out here in the boon docks. Those are very inspirational.

 

[Romanko]

After 15 years of paying fees to a host provider they pulled the plug on the servers and walked away. Poof. She gone. Web workers beware. I'm too old to do it over.

Jim Galli's Tonopah Nevada Pictures

 

[btaylor]

Jim Galli's Tonopah Nevada Pictures

Sweet! I’m so glad it isn’t lost forever- there is a ton of useful and interesting information in there as well as inspiring photographs. Thanks!

 

[jimgalli]

Thanks. Glad a few are still up somewhere. Still having fun, so that's the main thing. Jim

 

[MattKing]

This brings rise to a question for the internet website nerds amongst us .
From a darkroom printing nerd of course.
If a website image is available on the Wayback machine like Jim Galli's is, can it be ported on to a new and current platform, and is that a practical endeavour?

 

[jimgalli]

The problem with the way back machine is that the images all lived on separate addresses in unseen storage pages and are assembled when each main page is called up. Some of the main pages are fully there but many are missing or have broken images because way back didn't keep everything. Maybe 60% is sort of there. Plus when I began the project way back in the dark ages when things had to be 55kb to load quickly, most of those images are sub quality for today's world. Sort of hopeless. I wrote letters and mailed them offering to purchase the old servers in order to retrieve intact. Never heard back. Maybe flood or fire or some other disaster actually caused the failure. We'll never know. Unfortunately I've got more important things to accomplish these days, so web pages are probably not on my radar any more. But for a time, if you typed Pinkham & Smith into google images my little pages were front and center.

 

[Romanko]

can it be ported on to a new and current platform, and is that a practical endeavour?

Yes. There is software for downloading complete web-sites. You just need to set up a new server and upload the downloaded content to a new location. I am using AWS and everything can be done with a few clicks and commands from the terminal.

As Jim said the problem is that Way Back Machine does not store all images and they need to be restored from backups (if they exist) or re-scanned.

 

[nosmok]

JG, sorry about your website woes, I can't help with that as I'm web-illiterate mostly. But as for stitching negatives together, I like a bit of Macintosh freeware (or one-time donation ware) called DoubleTake, done by this guy in Germany iirc. It might possibly choke on such large images, but the price is right for trying it out, and the interface is very simple and pretty good. (I'm using it on an old Macbook, not sure if the program is up to the latest and greatest MacOS; but I'm not sure if you would be up to that either).

 

[jimgalli]

Thanks. I'll look into it. Appreciate all the help. My scans aren't really very big. Just want to have a look and share with folks on line, so not serious scans. I need to get off my dead butt and do some wet prints.

 

[jimgalli]

For Ramanko. Size matters?? The negative hung against a white door for sheer brute force effect of a BIG negative. Maybe doesn't matter, but sure is fun.

 

[Romanko]

Love it! Please make more of these beautiful negatives.
I am wondering if the Cirkut film requires backing paper and how you make it.

 

[jimgalli]

Originally, Kodak designed the Cirkuts with spools of film with backing paper at each end, not unlike 220 film had. So you could do several of these shots in a day, at an occasion, and load and unload the camera in a shady place out of direct sun. But with the aviation aerial recon film, I just load the camera in total darkness, tape the film itself onto the take up drum, do my shot, and unload it in total darkness. Limits me to a single shot each time. Other guys use original Cirkut backing paper over and over. Carefully. That's an option.

 

[MTGseattle]

I was going to link to the same article @MattKing posted above. I'm glad I scanned the thread first.
Great stuff Jim. As cool as the cirkut family is, I think I can resist the temptation.