“Paper Or Plastic?”

I had my slides all mounted and ready to ship a week ago.  They had been titled, scanned, and fit into (seamed) sleeves.  The problem was, they wouldn’t fit into the Dragon Folio box.  It was then I noticed that every other slide in the box was mounted in cardboard. Mine were in plastic mounts.  Instead of remounting my original four, I decided to save them for the next loop of Folio A.  I mounted four new selections, all in cardboard mounts;

“Same As Surly Curs” – the title is a crossword puzzle type of clue (the answer is “growlers”).  This was shot  during what is possibly the least-known photography celebration; “World Toy Camera Day”, observed on the third Saturday of October.  I employed a Holga 120 CF stereo camera with add-on wide angle lens attachments (which add vignetting) and a roll of Provia 400 to shoot a few photos on my deck to honour the occasion.  Developed in a Jobo processor in my basement using Tetenal Colortec E6 chemicals.

“DISC-guises” – this image is one I originally considered a focal point failure, but I revisited it, mounted the chips and decided to submit it anyways.  It was shot with a TL-120-1 on APX 100  film, and sent to dr5 for Dev1 processing.

“How To Winterize Your Vehicle” – I’m fairly certain that this was captured on one of a handful of trips to Mclean’s Auto Wreckers in Rockwood.  When I feel the urge to go explore this vast car graveyard, I call ahead, then I bake something with beer for the Mclean’s proprietors to gain my admission – chocolate stout cake, raspberry beer blaster cookies….you get the idea.  It’s either bake them something beforehand or share your photos with them afterwards, and sharing photos is just too much damned work!  Shot with a TL-120-1 on Fuji NHP 400 negative film, then cross-processed in Argentix (Arista) E6 chemicals using a Jobo processor in my basement.

“The Jazz Standard” – this title is also a crossword puzzle type of clue (the answer is “Autumn Leaves”).  This is a pinhole image, and I captured this just prior to Hallowe’en 2018, using one of Todd Schlemmer’s terraPIN Oskar^2 stereo pinhole cameras on a GorillaPod.   I seem to recall that the exposure was somewhere around the 1 min. 32 sec mark.  Todd’s cameras are 3D printed using environmentally-responsible materials.  This roll of Fuji RVP was developed in a Jobo processor in my basement using Tetenal Colortec E6 chemicals.

Bubble Star

Bubble master Tom Noddy displays the extremely complex Bubble Star

Bubble master Tom Noddy displays the extremely complex Bubble Star

My friend Tom Noddy came over to my house so I could capture some of his amazing creations in 3D. The back wall is draped with black velvet. DOF is pretty narrow. Shot with TL-120, Provia 400x, and flash units aplenty.

The Bubble Star is a very complex bubble and takes some time to build, So by the time it’s finished it will not last long. Something is going to pop.

Tom was presenting once in Israel (he does a lot of science museums) and you can imagine the reaction he got when he presented this.

Go Raptors Go!

Because of the Toronto Raptors historic 2019 NBA Championship win over the Golden State Warriors I have decided to send all my images this round from that fair city. Interiors are Fuji Velvia RVP 100F and exteriors are Provia RDP III taken with the TL 120.

Ontario College of Art And Design It kind of looks like they wanted to preserve the building underneath and stuck this one on top of it.

Roger’s Toronto Late Afternoon.  This is a cha-cha and I got pretty lucky with the lack of clouds and so not much movement between shutter clicks in the bottom although I just noticed a ladder or small crane in one image and not in the other one. I took a bunch at sunset but they are unviewable because of the cloud movements in the sky. This was taken from the balcony of  by brother’s appartement very close to the centre of the city which is basically Yonge and Bloor streets.

Stained Glass Silhouette Inside St. James Cathedral on Church Street. Tried to expose for the stained glass windows but maybe a touch too dark.

Scared Arts : Painting, Music and Sculpture. Inside St. James Cathedral on Church Street

Miracle Mile – Coral Gables Florida

The center island of the Miracle Mile in Coral Gables is lined with these trees.   I used a TL-120 on a tripod with a Vivitar 285H fill flash, this was taken after sunset.   The fill flash brings out a little touch of detail in the passing cars.   I used an incident meter to determine the exposure, hoping to bring out the detail in the trees at the expense of blowing out the store in the background.   I think this was a 30 seconds at f22.

Infinity Pool – Singapore

This is the famous Infinity Pool at the top of the Sands three-tower hotel in Singapore.   You’ll find a lot of images online of this pool that feature the illusion that the back edge of the water drops off to the Singapore skyline, you’d think swimmers were in danger of falling off.   This shot shows why they aren’t.

May 2018.  I used a TL-120 with Provia 100F pushed one stop.

Galactica Bubble

Tom Noddy blows a Galacitica Bubble

One of the stalwarts of the Moisture Festival is my good friend Tom Noddy, who does an act with soap bubbles. Yes, you read that right. Tom performs all over the world and his act can include caterpillar bubbles, yin yang bubbles, tornado bubbles, a carousel bubble, a bubble tetrahedron, a bubble cube, a bubble dodecahedron, (long time members of the folio have probably seen a number of those!) all delivered with a patter that he’s worked for probably 40 years. When Johnny Carson had his anniversary special with highlights from the last 25 years, a clip of Tom was included. Here he’s creating a “Galactica Bubble” in my living room.

Moisture Festival Finale

Seattle’s Moisture Festival has grown to be the largest comedy/variety festival in the world. (Perhaps if they had known that when they started, fifteen years ago, they would have given it a different name.) It grew out of a collaboration of performers on the left coast vaudeville circuit and other performers from around the states and around the world. One of the inspirations for the festival was a cabaret run by the great German clown, Hacki Ginda.

I was once part of that vaudeville circuit, and many of the folks in this shot are friends of mine. This was shot a few years ago at the end of the festival, and that’s Hacki Ginda at center stage. Also pictured in the back, sporting a beard, is the great American clown Avner Eisenberg, aka Avner the Eccentric, who years ago did a one man show on Broadway to critical acclaim. The Moisture Festival has very little money to pay performers and yet they come from all over the world to participate.

Ian Andvaag A30 submission

Encroaching Dunes and Storm Brewing were taken during the four separate times I visited Douglas Provincial Park this summer. It is a nice ~4km walk out to the dunes, through scrubby aspen parkland full of scraggly junipers and cacti eking out an existence off the dry, nutrient deficient soil. Unfortunately our provincial government has thoroughly defunded our provincial parks, so the nature centre at the trail head has been permanently closed and has fallen into disrepair. So, I don’t know much about this unique ecozone. At least the trail markers remain mostly in tact, so it is still easy to find the dunes, although the trails are not used very frequently. During my visits I only ever encountered maybe 3 groups of people.
The first time I went I discovered rather dramatically at the end of my 5 hour hike that my TL-120 had not been working properly. It was getting dark and I decided to do a couple of longer exposures. I set up the camera to 1 sec and took the shot … the shutter did clicked open and shut without any delay. Uh-oh. I had always thought that the camera had a mechanical shutter, so even if the battery was dead, it would still operate normally, except for the light meter. Earlier in the day I had been shooting at around 1/60, and didn’t notice that the shutter wasn’t staying open long enough. I think I developed 5 super underexposed rolls from that excursion. Lesson learned, I’ve now carefully reread John Thurston’s excellent page on battery options, and I always carry spares now, and I change the batteries periodically.
Canola Fields and Milkhouse were taken near the farmyard where my Dad grew up. I should have been there about 1 week earlier to get optimal colour in the canola flowers. I wish I would have had an opportunity to photograph the field in the early morning or late afternoon warm light, but it was cloudy. I think Milkhouse is a bit weaker than the other slides in my submission, but I really like the colours, so I decided to include it.
I’m really enjoying shooting with the TL-120, but I still take out my Sputnik in adverse weather conditions and when it is inconvenient to lug around the heavy TL-120. Sometime in the future I’d really like to try some hypers after seeing some amazing slides from the folios. I still struggle with exposure a bit, I’d say only about 80% of my shots come out properly exposed (provided my camera has functional batteries!) Was the TL-120’s internal light meter calibrated for colour negative film, because it seems to overexpose most scenes by a bit. I use my Gossen Luna Pro F primarily. Perhaps I should consider getting a spot meter.
I really enjoyed the folio again, thanks all for your lovely images!