I'm a little less flustered than I was during my earlier posting. I had arrived at about 4:45 p.m. and I was exhausted from my drive. I made good time for rush hour, I realize that, but I had been walking in the garden in the mid-day heat for three hours, and I was tired. After taking a nap, I had a miniscule dinner than sat down at the computer once again. I actually unloaded my film holders, reloaded what I had to reload, and put six sheet in my 4x5 20th Century Camera film reel. I always try to develop my negatives while watching Matt Marrash or Steve O'Nions or Ben Horne photography videos on Youtube.
I let the negative sheets dry for a few hours then scanned a few. Here are two IR images from today's trip. They were taken, once again, with Rollei Infrared 400 film in 4x5 size, at f16 aperture and 1/30th shutter speed. What would you know, the new Steve O'Nions video is about a trip he took up a mountain (like Moses?) with a film camera using the same film I was using, Rollei Infrared. (He also took a converted digital IR camera.) But, these are my frames taken on Friday, Oct. 2nd. We are about one month away from Trump's expected coup attempt.
This is a grassy area up the hill when one traverses the tropical garden habitat. I love the gazebo, and the surrounding vegetations really frames it. The branches and trees to the right which are in the shade are no help for this composition. I should have reframed this. I do love the gazebo shot, though, and there were some amazingly colorful flowers around it. I took a few photos with my cellphone.
At first, I thought I had not used my R72 filter, but if I had not, using the settings I had taken for 400 speed film, the negative would have been very, very dense. Can you imagine? Using f16 which, in this blazing sun, calls for a shutter speed of 1/400 with no filter, and for me to use 1/30th would have been three stops of overexposure, but my negative density is fine. So I was using the R72 filter, but it so happens that this vegetation does not really reflect IR, except for one or two trees one can see. This was taken from the small wooden lookout tower. I love this composition. Shooting slow on 4x5 film is forcing me to concentrate on compositions.
So, that was it, I have a few more negatives to dry and scan. I have my Pixl-latr device too, which means I can hopefully get better scans than I am obtaining with my Epson V600 which is introducing many artifacts, such as horizontal lines on the scanned images. But tomorrow is Saturday, and I do not want to spend it scanning nor developing film. I want to go out and do something, but I can't until I accept scheduled delivery of an item from a hardware store. It will be blazing hot so I will not assemble it, but afterwards, I will try to see if I can take a few images somewhere else. The Angeles National Forest is out of the question, the closures have been extended through October 8th. I will also not go to Big Bear, massive droves of Angelinos will be headed there because of the heat. I won't go in the other direction either, Covid or no Covid, the beaches will be full. I will have to just find a place here somewhere in Riverside. Maybe I will take my family members to a small citrus park nearby. It charges an entrance fee, so there are not many people there. We could have a picnic. I hope.
As mentioned in the previous entry, I did not get a chance to visit the Alta Vista Botanic Garden with the quirky fantastic statues in Vista, CA. It was too late and by the time I arrive, at 3:30 p.m., I would be facing having only 30 minutes to explore before it closed. It will be for another trip. I do want to go back to the San Diego Botanic Garden, but hopefully, when we have cloudy weather. I missed many photo opportunities because of the harsh contrasts, and I didn't even attempt the photos, knowing they would be disasters if I did. But with the right light, hopefully a bright but cloudy day, I can get those images.
I might go to my campus tomorrow and take some IR images. I also have a set of exams to correct, but on a Saturday, that would be sacrilege. There will be something to do.
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