Big photos with big problems

And here are a few photos I took from my trip on Saturday, March 20th, 2021, to the far western reaches of Los Angeles county, that is, to Ventura county. I went to four locations, but was only able to obtain photos from three of them since I was prohibited from taking photos at Gardens of the World.

These were all taken with my 4x5 Travelwide with Foma 100 film, I think. The film was already loaded into the film holders, and it must have been the last few sheets I had, because I ran out. Doubt exists, however, because this might have been expired Ektopan 100 film, and if that is the case, that might explain part of the problem, but my Ektopan has otherwise proven to be an excellent performer. I think it was just severe underexposure.

What is the problem? Well, they are massively underexposed. Also, I don't understand all the dust or speckling in the photos. Was it bad fixing? But I thought I fixed that problem, I have a relatively fresh batch of fix that I mixed up about 2 weeks ago. Also, I am fixing for five minutes, not three, so that should be enough. If it were not fixed sufficiently it would be milky white, but my negatives are thin but not milky.

They are, quite frankly, filled with problems. I was using a Red 25A filter and, foolishly, I thought I was using 200 film, so I might have been exposing for that. I used f16 and 1/50, thinking that would be the two stops I needed to compensate. That was not the case, though. Also, those spots or speckles really upset me.

This is a frame from the Conejo Valley Botanic Garden. I was having so much fun, and I was posting videos and photos to social media at the same time. This is a little artificial creek, and the sound of running water was wonderful. I decided to go down to the bottom and shoot up. There was a cluttered background on top, but I thought it might add to the photo. Well, it came out lousy. However, I still treasure the memory of running water:

Version 2, I think I just increased exposure after. 

Another one with the running creek. This one is slightly better, but when you look at these negatives, there is almost nothing on there visible. They are very, very thin:

Here is an image from the Stagecoach Museum in Newberry Park, my last stop yesterday. They had period enactors everywhere, and this was a nice shed with a weather vane to the right. I was still using my Red 25A filter. There was more of an image here, but still, all those spots and speckles:

I moved the negative so that I could include part of the weather vane. 

And here is the main building/museum at the location in Newberry Park. I think I set my scanner option to Digital Ice, even though it is said that this is useless for black and white scans. Otherwise, I had been using the "remove dust" option in the Epson.

I scanned it again. Still not good.

So I don't know what the problem is, but I can't blame my new boxes of Foma 200 film, because I barely cracked them open yesterday evening when I reloaded my film holders, so I was not using that film. It must have been either Foma 100 or else, my 25-year expired Ektopan 100 film. I am still mightily discouraged, but I still hold out hope for film. I still have my slide rolls (120) and my JCH Streetpan roll (also 120) to look forward to seeing.