There was a time, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, where a young man used a view camera with ease and performed in the darkroom with the grace Baryshnikov danced on stage. Now my moves in the darkroom are more jitterbug than ballet.
I kept myself safe through the pandemic (damnpemic as I call it) with full vaccinations and a mask. I made it two years before Covid found its way to me through a cousin who lives in Western Colorado. She of the ilk that Covid is a hoax and a fantasy concocted by democrats.
She caught the hoax, knew she had it, visited her elderly mother, gave it to her who gave it to my wife who cared for said elderly mother. Wife gave it to me. On. My. Birthday. I am a long sufferer of Covid. It’s the gift that keeps giving!!!
March 27, 2022 (I got Covid in January), I was putzing in my garden when I lost vision in my right eye. The vascular surgeons explained that I had a 38-percent blockage of young blood clots in my right carotid. One broke free and caused blindness in my right eye for about five minutes. I had a Covid-induced stroke. How special.
Rehab was learning to swallow, walk without listing to the right, writing (typing) again so my words are spelled correctly, and getting back at it with my film cameras. So far, so good.
It’s been two years and I still choke when I do not concentrate on my swallowing. When I am out with my view cameras, that choking follows me. I look through the camera and it is black… left the lens cap on… the rear lens cap.
I choke in the darkroom. I have sheets of film to process. In a tray. Thirty at a time. Developer, stop, fix, lights on. And there, on the counter are the rest of the exposed sheets of film for subsequent processing. That move saved me a lot of developing time in the darkroom. And… I did that twice. I never did that once when I was learning to process sheet film in trays.
I now process six sheets in a Stearman Press 645 tank. Which has made me more discriminate when making exposures. I digress…
I return, time and again, to the North Fork of the South Platte River here in Colorado. I can spend the rest of my days working that five-mile stretch of the river. Kind of like Paul Strand working his garden in Givenchy.
Here is my latest sketch. It is 01NFOTSP (North Fork of the South Platte). It ain’t nothing to write home about. But I am out there committing art.
TekTok (my takeoff on TikTok): Zone VI 4×5 Field Camera, 305mm Schneider lens, Kodak TMAX 100, 1/1 at ƒ/90 (200 asa, my personal film speed for TMAX 100 with that lens/shutter combo and my one-degree, modified spot meter to read RGB), processed in Photographer’s Formulary (PF) TD-16 (their answer to D-76) with 30cc of Crone C Additive per liter of straight developer, running water stop, fix in PF Archival Fix, 10-minute wash in my Zone VI Archival Washer in its washing basket for sheet film, Photo Flo for one minute, hang dry.
I offer you 01NFOTSP…
