Waterfall

4x5 for 365 project (324/365)

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The upper most section of our backyard waterfall that leads down to our small pond.  I decided to haul out the somewhat neglected Calumet 45NX monorail for this shot.  Now that things are getting much colder around here and I'll be driven back inside the home studio I'll be using that camera a lot more for portraits and still-life work.

Technical details:
Calumet 45NX 4x5 large format monorail camera.
210mm Komura Commercial F6.3 lens in Copal 1 shutter.
Circular Polarizer on lens.
Ilford Delta 100 B&W Film, shot at ISO 100.
1/8th second at F32.
Developed in Adox Rodinal 1:50 dilution for 11 minutes, 20 seconds @ 20 degrees Celsius using Beseler 8x10 color print drum placed on Unicolor Uniroller 352 auto-reversing rotary base.   
4x5" negative scanned with Epson V600.

4x5 for 365 project (195/365)

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A small section of a tiny man-made waterfall found in the Allentown Rose Garden in Allentown, Pennsylvania.  

Technical details:
Sakai Toyo 5x7 large format metal field camera with 4x5 film back.
Fujinon-W 210mm F5.6 lens in Copal B shutter.
Tiffen 0.6/ND4 2 stop neutral density filter.
Ilford FP4+ B&W Negative Film, shot at ISO 125.
2 seconds at F22.
Developed in Kodak Xtol 1+2 dilution in Mod54 daylight development tank. 11 1/2 minutes @ 20 degrees Celsius.
Negative scanned with Epson V600. Cropped to desired size in post.

4x5 for 365 project (164/365)

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This is section of Flat Brook in Sussex County, New Jersey.  The stone arch is a bridge for the passing road and on the other side of the bridge is Buttermilk Falls, said to be the tallest waterfall in New Jersey.

Technical details:
Busch Pressman Model D 4x5 LF press camera.
150mm Caltar-S II F 5.6 lens in Copal BT shutter.
Tiffen 0.6/ND4 2 stop neutral density filter and Carl-Zeiss Softar-1 filter.
Ilford FP4+ B&W Negative Film, shot at ISO 125.
Metered with Minolta one degree digital spot meter.
5 seconds at F22.
Semi-stand development in Rodinal 1:100 for 15 minutes in Mod54 daylight tank.
Negative scanned with Epson V600.
Cropped to desired size in post.

4x5 for 365 project (153/365)

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This is the lower quarter section of Buttermilk Falls in Sussex County, New Jersey.  The waterfall is found in a remote region of the New Jersey side of the Delaware Water Gap.  To get to the falls you need to go down a series of dirt and gravel roads that weave their way through forest and a patchwork of farms that were all abandoned when the canceled Tocks Island dam project claimed the land in the late 1960s through early 1970s.  At an estimated 200 feet high, the falls are said to be the tallest ones in New Jersey.  A parking lot is found directly across the road from the falls and no hiking is required to get to them though a steep set of steps can be found that lead up to an observation platform that overlook the falls from above.

This image marks a number of firsts for me including the first time shooting Ilford FP4+ and the first time shooting a full size waterfall with a large format film camera.  

Technical details:
Busch Pressman Model D 4x5 LF press camera.
150mm Caltar-S II F 5.6 lens in Copal BT shutter.
Tiffen 0.6/ND4 2 stop neutral density filter.
Ilford FP4+ B&W Negative Film, shot at ISO 125.
Metered with Minolta one degree digital spot meter.
Metered exposure was 4 seconds @ F22 with zone III placed on shadowed mossy area.  Compensation for the ND filter boosted the calculated exposure to 16 seconds at F22 and film reciprocity compensation for the Ilford FP4+ gave a final calculated exposure of 2 minutes and 9 seconds @ F22.
Semi-stand development in Rodinal 1:100 for 15 minutes in Mod54 daylight tank.
Negative scanned with Epson V600.

4x5 for 365 project (107/365)

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Whenever any new, or new to me, piece of gear comes my way, I tend to take it out into our backyard and shoot our pond with it.  When I got my Busch Pressman Model D 4x5 press camera recently, it came with a Graflex Optar 135mm f:4.7 lens in a Graphex shutter.  I didn't hold much hope for the lens really suiting my shooting style so I immediately swapped it out with my existing Rodenstock Geronar 150mm lens for it's first weekend out shooting.  So it was only fair that I test the Optar lens that came with the camera at some point so I mounted it back on the camera and took a few test shots with it out at the pond.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that the 1950s era lens does very well in terms of sharpness and contrast when shot with X-Ray film.  I have a set of Kodak Series VI filters that I can use with the lens so I'll be putting them through some tests with different kinds of films this coming weekend too.

Camera: Busch Pressman Model D 4x5 large format press camera.

Lens: Graflex Optar 135mm F4.7 lens in a Graphex shutter with Kodak Series VI yellow filter.

Film: Kodak Ektascan BR/A single-sided X-Ray film.  Purchased from zzmedical.com as 8x10" sheets and cut down to 4x5".  Film rated at 80 ISO.

Exposure: 1/10th @ F32.

Development: Self Developed film in Rodinal (Adox Adonol) 1:100 in three reel Paterson Universal Tank using Mod54 six sheet 4x5 insert.  Semi-Stand for 15 minutes with initial minute of inversions then 10 seconds of inversion on minutes one and two then let it sit until minute 14 when I do a final ten seconds of 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.