Diablo Lake, North Cascades National Park, Washington

by Brent Osborne

This was taken at one of my favorite campsites in all of Washington. It’s by far, one of the prettiest and most secluded sites on Diablo Lake. It features a lookout, swimming hole, a bear box, and even an outhouse! Not to mention access to the serenity of the lake and it’s wonderful turquoise glacier fed water. Now, this shot could easily have NOT been taken near any lake, since you can’t see any water. However, it was one of my favorite shots on this roll of film, and was taken spontaneously. The lighting was amazing, and definitely inspired me to take a shot. Diablo Lake campsites are on a ‘lottery reservation’ system through the National Park service and reservations are especially needed for this spot on the lake. The North Cascades are wonderful to visit, and I highly recommend coming here if you are ever in Washington. My personal critique would be, maybe get a little closer, and show some of the lake! Other than that, it was a moment of time that I was happy to capture, especially in 3D!

Shot also on my 3D World Tl-120 camera, with Fuji Provia 100f film.

Ian Andvaag A32 submission

by Ian Andvaag

Boreal Floor. Velvia 100, TL120.

From the Esker. Provia 100F, TL120 cha-cha

Two of my contributions to this loop, Boreal Floor and From the Esker were taken at Narrow Hills Provincial Park in northern Saskatchewan. The latter was taken from an esker (ridge of earth pushed up by the last glacier) that runs along the park. It provides a nice vantage point looking over the boreal forest and numerous small lakes. Here I attempted a hyper stereo with my TL-120 by covering one lens and moving the tripod about a metre between exposures. There was a significant amount of smoke from wildfires in the area when I last visited the park, so unfortunately the sky was washed out and featureless in all of my slides.

 

 

Crested Wheat Corral. Superpan 200, reversal processed in D67. TL-120 with Hoya R72 filters.

Web. Provia 100F, TL120.

The other two images were taken at Grasslands National Park very near the Saskatchewan-Montana border. Crested Wheat Corral is in the west block of the park where the remains of several small ranches can be found. The area is very arid, and ranchers tried tilling the soil to improve the pasture, but this turned out to be a poor practice. They introduced Crested Wheatgrass (native to Russia) to the disturbed soil with limited success, but it did prevent further erosion. Large portions of the park still contains undisturbed virgin prairie, which is probably one of the most disturbed landscape types on the globe due to its agricultural usefulness. It’s somewhat off-topic for MF3D, but I made a surprisingly successful silver gelatin print from this slide by making an internegative. I think that this approach yields much better results than a direct reversal print.

Web was taken in the East block of the park in the early morning sunlight. I’ve been trying to branch out a bit and experiment with limited depth of field shots, in particular close-ups. I’m not sure if I’ve found much success. I think the image could have been improved by stopping down another stop to get a faster shutter speed, as I was not able to freeze the web’s motion in the gentle breeze, despite waiting several minutes for the wind to die down.

 

Bee Good #4

by Bob Venezia

This whole set could be titled “Adventures Near and Far.”

Bee Good #4

Bee Good #4

My most recent photo endeavors have revolved around a macrobox. I had purchased a box like this from John Hart of Colorado, but fitting my Hasselblads in it was a stretch—the space was so tight that, once the cameras were mounted, it was difficult to check their settings, and simply winding the cameras was bound to knock them out of alignment.

This was shot in August of 2020. Lots of the technical details are listed on the slide mount. One detail is listed incorrectly—the extension is 56mm and not 57. Cameras were triggered with the same wired trigger that I’ve used for fireworks. I like the look of the stamen in this shot—each one looks like a nuclear warhead. Using the macrobox, I was able to get a shot like this as well as shots of my cat Edison that circulated last round. But a total PITA to set up and use.

Meanwhile, a new friend of mine had opened my eyes to some Hasselblad equipment I was unaware of— things like bodies with built-in motor drives and wired remotes. I picked up a couple of the motorized bodies, but they were too big for the macrobox. That’s when the quest for a new macrobox began in earnest. By the end of September I had ordered an optical breadboard from Baselab Tools, which was to be the platform for my new toy.

Orchid #3

by Bob Venezia

DR5 Orchid

DR5 Orchid

This was one of many ‘proof of concept’ shot with the new macrobox in my kitchen. Here I’m still trying to wrap my head around camera placement in the box and other technical details. Obviously you don’t need a beamsplitter to get a shot like this—you could get this with a single camera moved slightly between shots. But my aim was to shoot ‘action’ macro shots, with flying insects. No matter how well you train your bees, that’s not going to work with cha-cha. Processed by DR5.

F32 and BEE There!

by Bob Venezia

F32 and BEE There!

F32 and BEE There!

This is one of the first rolls I got back after setting up some ‘real world’ shots with my new macrobox. I’m thrilled with the results. I love the shadow cast on the flower by the bee, and the shadow of the leg is a bonus. Flashes were on either side of the bee; one more to the side, the other more from above. Black velvet draped behind. And a single strand of web in the back has caught a grain of pollen. It’s a minor distraction but if I’d noticed it at the time I would have removed it.

Ian Andvaag’s D23 submission

by Ian Andvaag

Jade Lake (Narrow Hills Provincial Park, SK)

The last round I submitted a couple images I took at Narrow Hills Provincial Park, but not at this location. This is a lovely location in the North West section of the park with seven small (but very deep) lakes with very clear water. They are called the Gem Lakes, so-named for their rich blue and green colours. A network of trails runs around the lakes with several camping locations. I pitched my tent at the Diamond Lake site for two nights, which gave me a full day from dawn to dusk to photograph the area. The trails only total a length of about 6 km, so I did about 3 loops around the lakes throughout the day. This is a high spot overlooking Jade Lake. The spruce tree in the foreground is perhaps a bit gratuitous or cliche, but I thought it looked pretty and gave a good impression of what it is like to look down at the lake from the trail. The film is Delta 100, home-developed in D-67 reversal.

Meewasin Trail – Fall (Saskatoon, SK)

Meewasin Trail – Winter (Saskatoon, SK)

This is a section of trail quite near to my apartment in Saskatoon. It’s not the most remarkable location, but due to its proximity, I do get the opportunity to photograph it a lot (although I haven’t been recently). It’s the location I go to when there is some interesting light from a clearing storm or when there is hoarfrost in the winter before it gets blown off in the wind. The power plant and waste water treatment plant discharge into the river about 15 km upriver, so this section never completely freezes over. I thought the two images contrast each other nicely, although perhaps it’s a bit too repetitive since they are both taken from nearly the same perspective.

Tundra Swan (Wascana Waterfowl Park, Regina, SK)

In my hometown of Regina, there is a bird sanctuary beside the creek. There are some “display ponds”, but the grounds are really not that attractive. Although the birds are not captive, they are not easily frightened since they are used to being fed. In the shade it was rather dim using ISO 100 film, and I really was at the limit of what I could manage in terms of exposure. Handheld Tl120, not sure of the exposure settings, perhaps 1/60 and f/8. The shutter speed wasn’t enough to freeze the swan. There wasn’t enough DOF to cover the background or the foreground, but it wasn’t particularly interesting, so I just cropped it out. Next time I’ll hopefully have a flash with me, or maybe I’ll consider pushing Provia. I enjoy viewing these type of “action shots”, but I find them very challenging to take!

Entrance # 16, Hyères, France

by Dale Walsh


Oleander hedges around the entrance to the house next door that my girlfriend’s sister rents each summer in the south of France.  The pine trees are full of cicadias noisily rubbing their wings each evening! A short ride downhill to the tennis courts, Mediterranean coast and beaches. Good place for your health with a diet of loads of varied fresh vegetables and seafood.

Stereo Staycation!

by Steven Lederman

Due to the pandemic, my road trips to the States have been curtailed and limited to shorter journeys within my home province of Ontario. With all of the beautiful Saskatchewan vistas and the spectacular travel photos that were featured in the recent go ’round of the folio, I felt that Ontario should also have a chance to show off some of its breath-taking scenery.

“SLIDE AND THE FAMILY STONED”

Who needs to travel to Kingston, Jamaica when you can easily drive to Kingston, Ontario?  On the way to Kingston, why not stop in Napanee?  Napanee is so named for the unusual practice of its residents, who kneel while sleeping, which incidentally is not the same as sleeping while kneeling.  Napanee is full of pastoral views, such as this parking lot amusement park, seen here via an EHO stereo box camera.  The Altissa-EHO Stereo box camera was manufactured in the ’30s and has no provision for focusing.  It has a choice of two Waterhouse f stops – f11 and f22.  This image was shot using the EHO’s original single shutter speed of (I believe) 1/30th of a second.  The camera has visited a technician in the interim and has had its spring tensioned so that now it is capable of firing its shutter somewhere between 1/60th – 1/100th of a second!!  Captured on expired Velvia 50 and home-processed with a CPP2 Jobo unit.

 

“THEIR SNOW BUSINESS”

Meet Lorrie and Ray Dillard.  They reside in Barrie, Ontario, which is very far North of anything and above the permafrost line.  Lorrie and Ray run a successful snow-harvesting business, selling their surplus snow to countries around the world that won’t or are unable to grow their own snow.  The snow is shipped out via husky-powered sled in small individual manila bubble pack envelopes twice daily.  Lorrie and Ray hired Ethel Merman to sing their social media jingle; “Their Snow Business! Like ‘Snow Business’!”  This image is from a test roll I shot to determine if Rollei Superpan 200 could be reverse-processed in the sometimes-available Foma reversal processing kit.  Captured with Sam Smith’s conjoined AGFA Isolettes (the “Samulette”) on the aforementioned Rollei Superpan 200, and home-processed with a CPP2 Jobo unit.

 

“THAT’S IT (IN SPANISH)”

People not your thing? How about taking a road trip to Cooper’s Falls, Ontario?  This here gas pump is one of the most photographed entities in an almost-ghost town with not that many entities in it.  Approximately 14 houses in the area are still inhabited, and the waterfall after which this semi-ghost town is named cannot really be seen (or photographed) without trespassing, as it is situated on private property.  The title of this image is of the crossword puzzle question type, and by request, I am not supplying the crossword puzzle answer here.  Captured with an as-fine-tuned-as-is-possible-with-a-Soviet-camera Sputnik cobbled together of donated parts, on expired Provia 100F and home processed with a CPP2 Jobo unit.

 

“SCREAMING HEADS OF MIDLOTHIAN”

Every year, Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day falls on the last Sunday in April. It is an excuse for my daughter and I to spend a day together photographing various locations in Ontario using pinhole cameras. I will usually pack a “lensed” camera in addition to my pinhole camera(s). On WPPD 2019 we visited artist Peter Camani’s residence which hosts his grand scale outdoor art exhibition. There are various shapes of cast concrete screaming heads situated throughout his 310-acre property near Burk’s Falls, Ontario, each sculpture being in the 15-20 foot tall range. On this occasion I had packed my Hasselblad SWC, and I can’t remember if I was consciously trying to capture a stereo cha-cha image or not. In any case, I found an uncut roll of film with three pairs of images that looked like they might work as stereo pairs. Despite some anomalies between the left and right chips, my brain can fuse these images into a stereo image. As John Thurston likes to say, “your mileage may vary”. Hasselblad SWC, yellow or orange drop-in filter, expired Kodak Aerochrome film, home processed with a Jobo CPP2 unit.

Spring 2021 – Melting Out

by John Thurston

Following the Year That Didn’t Happen, I have a mashup of things from the past, which seemed relevant to the present.

Prototyping Tl120-55 – When I got my TL120-55 lens boards back, I mounted a set of lenses on it as best I could and set out to find a suitable test subject. This receding line of houses and railings was my choice. There was lots of depth, good light, and an abundance of textures. After studying it for lens and camera defects, the image really began to grow on me. I pulled it back out because emerging from Covid feels (to me) a bit like melting out of a snowy winter.

It is a quintessential Juneau scene. A row of company cabins, set on the mountain side, each having been modified by different owners over the years. The tight-fitting porches with their mildewing railings, the scrape of snow we hope will melt soon, and the road diving before climbing back up the ridge on the other side.

Story Time With Linda – This image captures 1st and 2nd graders, trailside for a snack and story break. Those children are now grown, and to the best of my knowledge they all survived the year just past. Having watched them all mature through the years, I can say you’re looking at nurses, ballerinas, musicians, geologists, biologists, paramedics, Broadway performers, and smoke jumpers. And I don’t think you can tell from that image who went down which path. (Probably taken with my Sputnik as no one had a TL120-1 in 2005.)

Satendam – And finally, an image of what we didn’t see in the year just past. We didn’t see security fencing, rows and rows of diesel buses, or thousands of disembarking passengers each day. We had days as sunny and glorious as this, but they were quieter with far less competition for the space and beauty. I expect 2022 will see the buses back in force, and the town again shaded by ships. I suspect we’ll be ready for it. (Rolleidoscop)