PhotoFlow and Busted Film

Last week, half of my Photo II / Advanced Photo class processed film. One of my students was doing it for the first time. And everyone's film turned out!

I mixed a fresh batch of PhotoFlo, and I love/hate how it's so "soapy" that the printing has been rubbing off the bottle:

Sorry for the quick and out-of-focus pic... trying to get it before my students came back in.


Text smearing off the bottle.


Rinsed tanks and reels after successful processing!

Oh, and I had a "first" in the Concordia darkroom - this has happened before, but the last I recall it happening was back in my CVA days over a decade ago.

A student used a fully manual 35mm camera for the first time (Canon AE-1), whereas in the past, she had a newer / more automatic 35mm camera (like a Canon Rebel 2000). She was unsure how to start rewinding it, so we did it together. Only I IMMEDIATELY felt no resistance while rewinding - there was no film being rewound. Usually, that means the film was never fully loaded and it just "sat there" not being fed through the camera. But I didn't believe that happened in this situation, because we loaded the film together the week before, and we noted that the rewind knob was turning as we advanced the film, so the film appeared to be loaded properly and moving through the camera.

I asked if she really tried to force the advance lever when she was near the end of the film, and she wasn't sure. I HOPED that she just tore the film off the spool as she finished shooting the roll. So we waited to open the camera until the lights were off and everyone else was loading their film onto reels. SURE ENOUGH, she had just muscled her film right off her film spool! I cut it clean and handed her the film in the dark and had her load it up for processing. When we turned the lights back on, we saw how it tore off a few inches from the spool:

Quite the way it tore! (Scissors just holding the film flat.)

I figured it would have pulled off from where it was mechanically attached to the spool, and not just randomly near the end. But irregardless, her film ended up turning out, and she was super happy that I predicted what had happened before she just opened the back of her camera in the light and ruined her film. It was a good day in the darkroom!

Professional Camera Settings

"Wet Paint" Signs at Wet Paint

I love the colletion of "Wet Paint" signs at my favorite art store (Wet Paint) in St. Paul:

Click image to enlarge.

End-of-Semester Views in the Art Building at the University of Minnesota

My "fill in" position in the Art Department at the University of Minnesota is over. It was great being back there where I taught 1-2 classes every semester from 2005 through 2011. Here were some views as I was there to return student work in late December:

[click each image to enlarge]

The classroom where we spent the last half of the semester.


The darkroom sink at the U of M.








Outside the darkroom, with the film processing area in the background.


Aperture examples above the entrance to the darkroom.


Drying racks.








Down the hall in the DSB (Digital Service Bureau).


I honestly love working in here.






Large roll printers in the back corner.


View from the back corner.


I've never asked for the backstory regarding these palm trees. But they've been there for years.

Oh, and I had a student turn in some final prints in a manilla envelope, and it's pretty clear that they forgot my last name:

Ha! Here's to a good spring semester!

Re-Framing a '4 a.m.' Print for a Friend

One of my 4 a.m. photos started slipping in it's frame. So I made a house call to correct the issue.

Once I got it unframed. (Or "deframed?")


If either of these sharpie labels mean anything to you,
you know how I first met this person and who this person is! :)


Secured, cleaned, and re-framed!


Getting the wire to grab the hook on the wall...


... and then getting it level.

It should be good as new - maybe better. Loved seeing that bigger piece again!

From 3 years ago, here's a post with every photograph shown in my solo "4 a.m." exhibition, and here are exhibition photos from that solo show where you can see this framed print in some of the first and last images.

Yellowstone with my Canon AE-1

Back in October, my family took a 6-day, 2500 mile road trip through North Dakota, into Yellowstone, down through the Tetons, and back home through South Dakota. I brought some film that expired in 2013, and I shot it with my Canon AE-1 Program that's older than me that I've had since I was 17 years old. The resulting images are somewhere between "art" and "touristy" photos (I think)...

[click each image to enlarge]

Just outside of Yellowstone's east entrance.




Along the shore of Lake Yellowstone.


A classic: Old Faithful.


Walking among the pools in the Upper Geyser Basin.






Moments after a close encounter with a bison!


My boys on a snowy hike...


... working our way to Mystic Falls.




Overlooking Grand Prismatic Spring.


The lower half of the 200' Fairy Falls.


Pulling out of Yellowstone on a snowy morning.


Starting a hike in Grand Teton around Lake Jenny.


Hidden Falls up in the Tetons.


My family starting their way down from Inspiration Point in the Tetons.


A frosty final morning in Grand Teton.


Like the image of Old Faithful, here's another common pic: Sylvan Lake in South Dakota on our way home.

It Must Be Finals Season...

... because I woke up to these 2 texts on my phone:

I love that there was a realization an hour later that I might have been woken up, but then still an embarrassed follow-up text after that realization. Ha!

(Turns out it was a question about processing film - nothing super urgent.)