4x5 for 365 project (66/365)

Another of the character rich trees that surround the Muhlenberg Brigade encampment area at the Valley Forge National Historic Site.  Winter offers a time when all the branches can show off their unique bends and twists for all the world to see. 

View fullsize

Camera: Homemade 4x5 wooden and brass pinhole camera. 0.4mm diameter laser cut pinhole, 90mm focal length giving F225 aperture.  

Lens: None.

Film: Fuji Super HR-T 30 medium speed green sensitive X-Ray film.  Purchased as 8x10" sheets and cut down to 4x5".  Film rated at 100 ISO.  

Exposure: 8 seconds.

Development: Self Developed film in Rodinal (Adox Adinol) 1:100 in three reel Paterson Universal Tank using Mod54 six sheet 4x5 insert.  7 1/2 minutes @ 20 degrees Celsius with minimal inversions. Kodak indicator stop bath. Ilford Rapid Fixer. Photo-Flo. Hung to dry. 

Scanning: Negative scanned with Epson V600 in two scans and merged back together in PhotoShop since the V600 doesn't natively support 4x5 scans in one pass. Lightly textured, toned and edges burned in Photoshop CS5.

4x5 for 365 project (64/365)

A stone sculpted face protrudes from the inside of the United States Memorial Arch, located at the intersection of Outerline Drive and Gulph Road within the Valley Forge National Historic Site.  The arch was erected to commemorate the arrival of General George Washington and his Continental Army into Valley Forge.

View fullsize

Camera: Homemade 4x5 wooden and brass pinhole camera. 0.4mm diameter laser cut pinhole, 90mm focal length giving F225 aperture.  

Lens: None.

Film: Fuji Super HR-T 30 medium speed green sensitive X-Ray film.  Purchased as 8x10" sheets and cut down to 4x5".  Film rated at 100 ISO.  

Exposure: 12 seconds.

Development: Self Developed film in Rodinal (Adox Adinol) 1:100 in three reel Paterson Universal Tank using Mod54 six sheet 4x5 insert.  7 1/2 minutes @ 20 degrees Celsius with minimal inversions. Kodak indicator stop bath. Ilford Rapid Fixer. Photo-Flo. Hung to dry. 

Scanning: Negative scanned with Epson V600 in two scans and merged back together in PhotoShop since the V600 doesn't natively support 4x5 scans in one pass. 

4x5 for 365 project (61/365)

This is the main church at St. Paul's UCC in Amity, Pennsylvania.  The church was dedicated in May of 1925 and holds two services weekly on Sunday for its 700+ members. 

View fullsize

Camera: Homemade 4x5 wooden and brass pinhole (lensless) camera. 0.4mm diameter laser cut pinhole, 90mm focal length giving F225 aperture.  

Lens: None.

Film: Fuji Super HR-T 30 medium speed green sensitive X-Ray film.  Purchased as 8x10" sheets and cut down to 4x5".  Film rated at 100 ISO.  

Exposure: 8 seconds.

Development: Self Developed film in Rodinal (Adox Adinol) 1:100 in three reel Paterson Universal Tank using Mod54 six sheet 4x5 insert.  7 1/2 minutes @ 20 degrees Celsius with minimal inversions. Kodak indicator stop bath. Ilford Rapid Fixer. Photo-Flo. Hung to dry. 

Scanning: Negative scanned with Epson V600 in two scans and merged back together in PhotoShop since the V600 doesn't natively support 4x5 scans in one pass.   Cropped in Lightroom 4.

4x5 for 365 project (60/365)

This is the main furnace structure at Lockridge Furnace in Alburtis, Pennsylvania.  Today it houses a museum that details the iron industry in the lehigh Valley in the 1800s and early 1900s. 

View fullsize

Camera: Homemade 4x5 wooden and brass pinhole (lensless) camera. 0.4mm diameter laser cut pinhole, 90mm focal length giving F225 aperture. 

Lens: None. 

Film: Arista EDU 100 Ultra 100 ISO B&W Negative Film (Re-branded Fomapan), shot at ISO 64. 

Exposure: 10 seconds.

Development: Self Developed in Kodak Xtol 1+2 dilution in Paterson Universal Tank using the Taco Method. 13 minutes @ 20 degrees Celsius. Kodak indicator stop bath.  Ilford Rapid Fixer. Photo-Flo rinse.

Scanning: Negative scanned with Epson V600 in two scans and merged back together in PhotoShop since the V600 doesn't natively support 4x5 scans in one pass.  Cropped to desired size in Lightroom 4.

4x5 for 365 project (59/365)

This is the St. Paul's UCC Chapel in Amity, Pennsylvania.  It stands next to the much larger yellow brick church that serves the present congregation.  The chapel was built sometime after 1917 when a fire ravaged an earlier Sunday school chapel building on the same spot.  Many of the same bricks used in hte earlier school's construction were used to build the present chapel building.  

I tried a little something different with the pinhole for this shot and took a sheet of Saran Wrap (clear, very thin plastic) and wiped it on some of the snow and ice piles that are covered with road salt in order to give it some dirty texture and grit then I draped that sheet over the front of the 4x5 wooden pinhole camera.  I think I still need to play with the distance between the pinhole and the Saran Wrap to get the exact feel I was going for but it's a start.  I burned the edges a bit in Lightroom to add some drama.  

View fullsize

Camera: Home made 4x5 wooden and brass pinhole camera. 0.4mm diameter laser cut pinhole, 90mm focal length giving F225 aperture.  

Lens: None.

Film: Fuji Super HR-T 30 medium speed green sensitive X-Ray film.  Purchased as 8x10" sheets and cut down to 4x5".  Film rated at 100 ISO.  

Exposure: 8 seconds.

Development: Self Developed film in Rodinal (Adox Adinol) 1:100 in three reel Paterson Universal Tank using Mod54 six sheet 4x5 insert.  7 1/2 minutes @ 20 degrees Celsius with minimal inversions. Kodak indicator stop bath. Ilford Rapid Fixer. Photo-Flo. Hung to dry. 

Scanning: Negative scanned with Epson V600 in two scans and merged back together in PhotoShop since the V600 doesn't natively support 4x5 scans in one pass.   Cropped in Lightroom 4.

4x5 for 365 project (58/365)

A cabin on the site of a brigade encampment led by General Peter Muhlenberg during the long, hard Winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge.  Created at Valley Forge National Historic Site with a homemade wooden 4x5 large format pinhole camera. 

View fullsize

Camera: Homemade 4x5 wooden and brass pinhole camera. 0.4mm diameter laser cut pinhole, 90mm focal length giving F225 aperture.  

Lens: None.

Film: Fuji Super HR-T 30 medium speed green sensitive X-Ray film.  Purchased as 8x10" sheets and cut down to 4x5".  Film rated at 100 ISO.  

Exposure: 12 seconds.

Development: Self Developed film in Rodinal (Adox Adinol) 1:100 in three reel Paterson Universal Tank using Mod54 six sheet 4x5 insert.  7 1/2 minutes @ 20 degrees Celsius with minimal inversions. Kodak indicator stop bath. Ilford Rapid Fixer. Photo-Flo. Hung to dry. 

Scanning: Negative scanned with Epson V600 in two scans and merged back together in PhotoShop since the V600 doesn't natively support 4x5 scans in one pass. Cropped in Lightroom 4.

4x5 for 365 project (57/365)

Even the trees have grown weary of this never ending Winter and wish to sprout their leaves in defiance of the snow and the gloom and the biting cold.  Created at Valley Forge National Historic Site. 

View fullsize

Camera: Home made 4x5 wooden and brass pinhole camera. 0.4mm diameter laser cut pinhole, 90mm focal length giving F225 aperture.  

Lens: None.

Film: Arista EDU 100 Ultra 100 ISO B&W Negative Film (Re-branded Fomapan), shot at ISO 64. 

Exposure: 12 seconds.

Development: Self Developed in Kodak Xtol 1+2 dilution in Paterson Universal Tank using the Taco Method. 13 minutes @ 20 degrees Celsius. Kodak indicator stop bath. Ilford Rapid Fixer. Photo-Flo rinse.

Scanning: Negative scanned with Epson V600 in two scans and merged back together in PhotoShop since the V600 doesn't natively support 4x5 scans in one pass.  Dodging, burning and warm toning done on separate layers in Photoshop CS5.

4x5 for 365 project (56/365)

St. Paul's UCC Church Cemetery in Amity, Pennsylvania contains some very old gravestones, some dating back to the 1700s. A nice setting for a shot with the 4x5 pinhole camera. 

View fullsize

Camera: Home made 4x5 wooden and brass pinhole camera. 0.4mm diameter laser cut pinhole, 90mm focal length giving F225 aperture.  

Lens: None.

Film: Fuji Super HR-T 30 medium speed green sensitive X-Ray film.  Purchased as 8x10" sheets and cut down to 4x5".  Film rated at 100 ISO.  

Exposure: 8 seconds.

Development: Self Developed film in Rodinal (Adox Adinol) 1:100 in three reel Paterson Universal Tank using Mod54 six sheet 4x5 insert.  7 1/2 minutes @ 20 degrees Celsius with minimal inversions. Kodak indicator stop bath. Ilford Rapid Fixer. Photo-Flo. Hung to dry. 

Scanning: Negative scanned with Epson V600 in two scans and merged back together in PhotoShop since the V600 doesn't natively support 4x5 scans in one pass. 

4x5 for 365 project (55/365)

The United States Memorial Arch, located at the intersection of Outerline Drive and Gulph Road within the Valley Forge National Historic Site, was erected to commemorate the arrival of General George Washington and his Continental Army into Valley Forge.

View fullsize

Camera: Home made 4x5 wooden and brass pinhole camera. 0.4mm diameter laser cut pinhole, 90mm focal length giving F225 aperture.  

Lens: None.

Film: Arista EDU 100 Ultra 100 ISO B&W Negative Film (Re-branded Fomapan), shot at ISO 64. 

Exposure: 8 seconds.

Development: Self Developed in Kodak Xtol 1+2 dilution in Paterson Universal Tank using the Taco Method. 13 minutes @ 20 degrees Celsius. Kodak indicator stop bath. Ilford Rapid Fixer. Photo-Flo rinse.

Scanning: Negative scanned with Epson V600 in two scans and merged back together in PhotoShop since the V600 doesn't natively support 4x5 scans in one pass.