i’ve transcribed the notes i wrote during my trip to zion. they are in reverse chronological order, due to the nature of blogs.

i shot this picture at grafton. there are cows on the back of the farm. in the background you can see the huge rock in the background.

~~~

all my film is developed, all my brochures and notes are put away, and all my belongings are packed away. aggie and i have dinner with sharon. then we embark on our twelve hour drive home. it was uneventful and we got into the bay area during the evening rush hour. it took me three trips to unload all my things from the truck. aggie and i hugged, said our farewells, and she took off for her home. i collapsed onto the couch.

here are the photo related items i brought on the trip:

lowepro mini trekker, shen-hao 4×5, schneider super angulon 8/90, nikkor 5.6/210, meyer apo-process 12″, multiple cable releases, uv haze fitlers, 25a red filter, samigon 8x loupe, “dark cloth by old navy”, manfrotto tripod (tripod, head, and wide strap for carrying), lots of 4×5 holders (mixed fidelity and lisco), clear plastic carrier for film holders, hard case for transport of shen-hao, extra ground glass (satin snow).

this is one of the wierd rock formations in zion, near the checkerboard mesa. i shot this from a graded rock face. sharon was concerned that my gear would roll down the hill and be destroyed! it seemed worth the risk. besides, the ledge i was on was aa good foot wide :-)

~~~

last night sharon and i went into the town of hurricane (i cant bring myself to pronounce it hurr-i-cunn as the locals do). we were laughing at our little trip, “going into town for food and water”. like in the old west. we’ve been going through lots of distilled water.

we had dinner at mcdonalds, which was attached to a phillips-66. later we saw a wendys attached to a chevron. the mcdonalds had large, grey trash cans plugged into the wall. one was actually speaking, “please emtpy” every few minutes but nobody reacted to it. the other had its door slightly open from all the trash inside and had a red light blinking on it.

our drive today — coral pink sand dunes, angel canyon, caves park, kanab utah, fredonia arizona, pipe springs!

went to pipe springs national monument. the drive was very nice but the park was small and a bit dull — too “parkified” as sharon put it. we ran into rob and alan and later went shooting with them in zion. got some awesome shots i think.

sharon took some digital photos of me and the shen-hao on the rock face. for one of my shots, i setup on this foot-wide ledge on an include. sharon was worried that my film holders would tumble down the rock along with my camera!

alan got some experience on rob’s wisner 8×10 today. every has been very open to teaching alan.

this church is part of the restoration project of grafton.

~~~

today we went out to grafton, a small ghost town outside of rockville. it looks like there is some active farming out just passed the center of town, but most of the old structres are abandoned. it’s hard to believe that people work here. the buildings are simple and made of local, red stone they are slowly being restored. a couplel other buildings are all wood and nails. one of them even had a cellar but i was too wussy to explore that deeply. i shot less film today than i did yesterday.

in talking with sharon, i realized i was underexposing shots in which i was using a red filter. bummer. hopefully today will be better. its been a while that i used filters, actually.

everybody is getting friendlier as the week goes by.

~~~

this is one of the old wooden structures (barely) standing in grafton.

this image shows the great texture of the zion rock.

~~~

had a real breakfast this morning. watched cnn news, reporting that colin powell had resigned. four cabinet members are gone now.

this morning we’re heading into the park for a demonstration on pre-flashing. per showed us with polaroids where you just barefuly fog the film (shoot a grey card out of focus) before you expose your real shot (with usual settings). he shot a high contrast scene, whose highlights and shadows differed by six stops. the pre-flash we shot was the grey card at 3.5 stops underexposed. then you shoot the normal scene on top of that. it brought out more detail in the shadows. we did another where the greycard was underexposed by 2.5 stops. it brought out even more detail.

polaroid 1: normal exposure f22@15

polaroid 2: preflash -3.5 f~64@15 + normal f22@15

polaroid 3: preflash -2.5 f~32@15 + normal f22@15

went out shooting with sharon. it turns out i double exposed one sheet and accidentally messed up another in development. i was trying to develop too many sheets in one evening. i really need to let the combi-plan tank dry totally before i reuse it. per looked at my first set of negs. he pointed out how contrasty one of my images was. everything else looked ok. he also commented on my film and developer combination, delta and rodinol. probably the most sharp pair i could be using. he said pyro would make edges sharper and some even-toned areas much smoother because of the way it hardens the gelatin in the film.

i think i need to stop, slow down, and do things a bit more carefully. then i wont lose or mess up film. tonight gary brought over his crazy huge jobo processor into aggie’s bathroom. we edeveloped 4 sheets in abc pyro. it does pretty well. per talks about rollo pyro, so i should check that out.

today i asked abel what kind of dark cloth he uses, since i liked his the best. before the trip, i knew i wanted a dark cloth. i inquired about cloths at keeble and schucat. they had only the delta one. it was very large, and very heavy. not something i’d want to backpack with. i ended up using my jacket as a darkcloth, even sometimes refusing offers from other guys to borrow theirs. instead i studied other people’s cloths. abel said he got his from the view camera store. i later looked online — it’s a btzs focusing cloth. it’s now on my shopping list.

big rocks at zion. everywhere in theh park, all you can see are these rocks. if you’re in a car, you have to put your head to the windshield to be able to see the sky. they’re orange-reddish coloured.

~~~

this morning we came back and per gave a small talk on image content. it was good, he had hand-outs detailing five images that have stuck with him. he talked about what the images meant to him, and what about them made the imagery stick in his mind. some of it, i have heard before. it never hurts to hear wisdom from someone else, it helps solidify the message.

here are the images per used in his talk:

• igor travinsky, by arnold newman
• moonrise over hernandez, by ansel adams
• napalm in vietnam, by nick ult
• goebbels, by alfred eisenstadt
• jp morgan, by steichen

igor travinsky, by arnold newman

later in the morning sharon and i hiked up to the upper emerald pools in zion. what a hike! the pain was well worth it. it was very cold but sharon lent me some gloves. i shot about 10 sheets in all. the falls were so tall there was no way i could get it all in a single frame.

in the afternoon everybody brought their cameras out and it was very cool — almost everybody had unique cameras. some were even checking out my shen-hao. one other guy had one but later moved to a wista, i think. rob had a beautiful wisner 8×10. lars had an ebomy and an 8×10 monorail.

before dinner, four or give cars’ worth of us are headed over to the west side to catch the falling sun on the rocks.

curvy road at the bottom..
f64 at around 2 seconds. delta 100, schneider super angulon f8/90.

sharon has a modern super angulon 90 on her sinar. it is a sexy lens, but the rear element is huge. there’s no way it would fit in a small field camera. i wonder if it would cover 8×10, or fit inside a 5×7? i’m not sure i’ve seen a lens with such a large caboose.

this morning we went out shooting. after a long bathroom session, that is. shooting was awesome. hitting it off well with sharon. we went out with this guy abel, 70. his daughter is a news anchor in los angeles!

the weather was very sporadic and we got rained out of some opportunities. this afternoon, 16 of us showed up with per in the camgrounds meeting room. some of the guys are 10-15 years into large format. one or two are novice like me. one guy was compeltely new and didn’t even have a camera! going to be a decent workshop. afterwards, sharon and i took rob (an experienced commercial photographer from toronto) around the park. then dinner. i ate a whole entree. and without an immediate need to go to the bathroom. i was so excited! sharon and aggie were concerned about my health, so i shared my little news with them.

tomorrow morning at 8, sharon and i are going to emerald pools.

after dinner we chit-chatted with dave pettitt. his large prints are done on a lightjet. they are truly beautiful. the average joe goes for the large color prints. the artists are into the black and whites, he says. he shoots with a 4×5, just like most of us.

tomorrow at noon, everybody is bringing their cameras to the meeting. there will be at least 2 8x10s there. sounds like per brought a larger one..?

~~~

this is a small pool i saw in a little valley along side the road. i didn’t realize the circular movement of the water. that’s what is cool about long exposure, the film sees things you can’t see with your eyes.

this is part of the upper falls in zion. the falls were so tall i couldn’t get the entire view through my widest lens. this is the upper extremity. the water falls so far it’s just a sheeting mist by the time it reaches the rocks at the bottom.

~~~

still a bit sick this morning. might bee the chinese food from last night. had a very light breakfast this morning. sharon shows up and we go out exploring. gosh, ten seconds into the park and there are deer everywhere!

on our way back into the park it started raining. we saw a rainbow that turned into two. we actually saw the end of the rainbow! we were close to it when it jumped over the hill. soon after, it was moving along side of the road next to us! i had never been so close to a rainbow before, let alone seeing it race down the street next to us. sharon asked if i wanted to stop and take a picture. it would still come out in black and white she said. a “greybow” i called it.

today we picked up some distilled water for mixing chemicals and twine for hanging up negs. the grocery store was full of hot food samples and an elderly woman singing christmas carols over a loudspeaker.