Spring 2023

[David H. Lipman]

That was an old one that I wore out and is a low Chest Wader.

These are full Chest Waders

Neoprene Itasca for Winter

 

Vinyl Field & Stream for Spring and Fall

 

[NewTricks]

That looks substantial. I was expecting something more lightweight for boot/shoe portion. This is a carrot to get me shopping. 

[David H. Lipman]

It sounds like you would prefer Hip Waders.

[NewTricks]

Probably more my speed.

[David H. Lipman]

[NewTricks]

Calm

[nukecad]

2 hours ago, NewTricks said:

Naturally! I don't suppose those have survived your moves and travels, but if so and available, please post. 

Just how expensive it is now? And what brand of film?

Thought I'd replied but musn't have hit send, I was in the middle of vaccuming the whole flat and then cleaning the filters in both vaccums (One upright and a smaller handheld).

I think I may still have some 6x4's from that lightning night, don't know how they'll scan though.
Might be better to photograph them with the phone if I can find them.

Decent brand (Agfa, Ilford, Fuji, Kodak) 35mm film here is £18 (GBP) and upwards a roll although I did spot 5 rolls of unknown (to me) brand for £36.
Then of course you have the cost of developing/printing on top, unless you still have your own darkroom in which case then what's the prices for chemicals and paper?.

Gong back to the 1990's, for £18 I used to buy the 'Barfen E6 Kit' a box containing 3x36 rolls of E6 reversal film and all the chemicals needed to develop them. (and develop another 2 or 3 rolls unless you'd been been 'pushing' the film a stop or two so it then needed longer in the tank).
The film was branded as Barfen CRX100; but it was actually made by Fuji, and then later by Konica (which had a bluer tone).

Here's an even older advert I found from the 1970's, when you could buy that E6 kit for under £7:

 

[NewTricks]

Oh @nukecad, you keep taking me on trips down memory lane. Never seen or heard of Barfen (what a NAME!)  I can hear it now:  "Honey, I'm going shopping for Barfen"  -  "you're doing WHAT?" That seems like a great kit and fine idea. As usual, it passed. 

Certainly Agfa, Illford and Kodak were leaders and each made their own papers. I remember keeping them in their black plastic sleeves. There's a vague memory of Konica tucked away.

I confirmed the currency rates, and it appears to be a 180% increase from 15 years ago. 5 rolls for 36 pounds, not bad. Do you ever wonder about expiration dates and storage before it reached the shelves? 

Cleaning =  Saturday activity. I also have two, a recent upright and a 29 year old canister. Still going strong. Can't decide whether vacuuming or washing dishes is least favorite. We could turn this into "chores I hate most."

Thanks for that little ad.

[nukecad]

The Barfen name was a contraction of the two founders surnames, Tony Barden and Derek Fenton.

I'd never though of the name like that, we tend to use the word Puke not Barf here in the UK, particularly back when they started the company they wouldn't have considered it either.

They sold darkroom equipment and film/chemicals, mostly bought in bulk and repackaged/rebranded.
Inovations like that E6 kit in a nicely branded box made them a fairly well know name among photographers in the UK, the kits were stocked in photographic shops all over the UK. But I don't think they ever went international. That would be a big move to take in the days before the internet and home computers.
Nobody else was doing anything like that kit, and even looking online now you can buy similar kits of chemicals but usually larger quantities and none include the film as well.

I never had to worry about expiry dates on film or chemicals, once bought it got used.
I would occasionally buy out-of-date film cheaply and never had a problem with it.

PS. Can't find those photos, but I'm sure I still have them somewhere.
Stuff that came with me during my last move is still shoved in odd corners in cupboards and drawers, it's been 2 years so I really should allocate a day to sorting it out (but never today, LOL).

PPS. No sign of thunderstorms here yet, cloudy and chilly but they are not stormclouds.
Just checked the Met office websit and it predicts a sudden onset at 16:00 here, so 3 hours off yet, we'll see.
I'm not sure how to capture lightning on digital, other than taking a frame from video.

[NewTricks]

2 minutes ago, nukecad said:

we tend to use the word Puke not Barf

🤣🤣🤣thanks for the distinction~ this gives me a good start to the day! (this forum is the best ever for humor)

3 minutes ago, nukecad said:

(but never today,

Yes, I know that one well. It look me 13 years to sort through a huge cache of my Dad's photos, but when I did, it landed in albums with names, dates & places. When the spirit is willing, you'll find whatever you need to.

This whole history fascinates me, particularly how it was limited to one country. Your assessment of the time period fits with lack of advertising and maybe even niche marketing. It was an inspired idea to boost the amateur. At one time, you apparently were quite active in your snapping so expiration wasn't an issue.

14 minutes ago, nukecad said:

I'm not sure how to capture lightning on digital, other than taking a frame from video.

Me neither, nor would I try. I'll leave that to you.

Thanks for taking this further.

[nukecad]

I'm thinking of something like an adjustable sensitivity light trigger that would trigger the digital camera shutter when a flash of lightning happens.
I'm not going to be able to come up with one in a couple of hours though.

I used to tinker with stuff like that and once made a sound trigger from scratch, to fire a flashgun when a loud noise happened.
Setup:
Balloon on a table, camera focused on the balloon, sound trigger rigged up to a flashgun.
Turn out the lights and open the camera shutter.
Drop a dart onto the ballon.
Bang-Flash, close shutter, lights on, wind on and set up the next balloon.
Moving the microphone closer to or further from the balloons altered the delay between the bang and the flash by milliseconds (speed of sound), so once I'd got the initial distance I could capture the ballons in different stages of pop simply by moving the mic a a few millimeters.
Of course I had to do one run first and develop the film to find out what that initial distance was.

An interesting little project at the time, both in electronicics and photography, resulting in some unusual slide photos of ballons in the process of popping.
Unfortunately no, like thousands of others I don't have those slides now.
But TBH it was the whole process that was of more interest to me than just the results.

Yes, I used to do a fair bit of 'snapping'.

Edited June 18, 2023 by nukecad

[NewTricks]

Now we're cookin'

"an adjustable sensitivity light trigger"... "a sound gun to fire a flash trigger"... "moving the mic a few millimeters"-I'm in the scene looking over your shoulder.

You must have a lot of equipment and the mind of an engineer. ❤️ a personal bias of mine. Your description reminds me of the days when I'd walk the halls of RIT and see Andrew Davidhazy's high speed shots of a bullet trajectory. If you pursue the lightning idea, then his site may be worthwhile.

So sorry to read those are gone. Even so, you still have the skills, which are never lost. "The whole process was of more interest than the results" Totally agree.

The word "snapper" was a web result associated with Nature Photography Day but it doesn't sit well with me; in fact, it's close to an obscenity!

EDIT: would a slave be of any use in this?

Edited June 18, 2023 by NewTricks
one more thing

[NewTricks]

Two very different entries today: finally got another chance at the Canada Geese family, but maybe not the same one because those goslings should be much bigger by now. One stood vigilant throughout.

For the droolers among us, be it past or present. No harm in looking..

[nukecad]

20 hours ago, NewTricks said:

EDIT: would a slave be of any use in this?

I assume that you are meaning an optical flash slave, not offering your services.

Yes, that might work, the connector would need changing to fit the digital camera rather than a flashgun.
(If the camera has a remote connection, if not then might have to get in there and do some soldering).
There's a simple circuit on instructables that would probably do it, changing the hotshoe to a camera connection: https://www.instructables.com/Slave-Flash-Trigger/

You might say that I had the mind of an engineer, I was one all my working life.
My forum username comes for the fact I was a Computer Aided Designer/draughtsman, designing things for use at the Sellafield Nuclear site was my last job for 10 years before I had to stop working for health reasons.

'Snapper' is/was a derogatory term in my day, it implies someone who just snaps away without really thinking much less composing the shot.
A holiday/party snapper if you like, the type with the one-use disposable cameras.
That's probably 99% of people snapping away on their phones these days.

Last night's 'Thunderstorm' never materialised here.
It rained a bit but nothing much, one flash and a slight rumble was about the extent of it here.

 

Edited June 19, 2023 by nukecad

[NewTricks]

Your assumption is correct. 😆 (I was wondering if that merited an edit...)

Here we go retro with the term "hotshoe" & LOOK! Your video features a Sunpak. My favorite. Thanks for the "how to."

Your user name has always interested me-particularly the CAD part. I was a machinist and worked briefly with CAD and aluminum parts for a tool & die shop. I see your site is being dismantled and to avoid a political discussion, that's epic. Among other things. 

Ten years at one place-solid stuff. Same here with the last job and left for health reasons, what I call the downward slide. 

Yes, snapper, disposable, mindless. No way. That reminded me of my first camera, a Polaroid, B/W film was pricey, but thrilling. I still have one of me and my cat (naturally).

Sorry to hear you had a no show with the potential storm & lightning. Maybe there will be another one forecast soon.

EDIT: I think you responded to my question about hotspots months ago (too lazy to dig through my posts) and since then, I purposefully go off unsecured WiFi in my morning hangout. Sometimes it randomly disconnects but yesterday, it stayed connected and strong for an hour.    

Edited June 19, 2023 by NewTricks
updated

[AdvancedSetup]

By default many flash units already support triggering from the light of another flash unit.

The issue that comes to mind is that you cannot cover the entire sky and knowing where the lightning is coming from could be difficult unless  you're in a storm big enough that it's happening often

 

[nukecad]

I've done it 3 or 4 times, at night with a wide angle lens and small F stop, the shutter locked open and crossed fingers for a good burst in the field of view.

Sometime I'd leave the shutter open to catch 2 or 3 bursts on the same frame of film.

In the case of digital hough you'd be looking at the lightning flash triggering the camera shutter rarther than triggering a flashgun.

[NewTricks]

47 minutes ago, AdvancedSetup said:

you're in a storm big enough

A double edged sword

3 minutes ago, nukecad said:

I'd leave the shutter open to catch 2 or 3 bursts on the same frame of film.

The old multiple exposure

[nukecad]

5 hours ago, NewTricks said:

 I see your site is being dismantled

There is only decomissioning work going on a Sellafield now, and it's been that way for years.

The first job I had up here back in 2000 was the installation layout for a new cooling system for the 4 Calder Hall reactor vessels.
Calder Hall was the worlds first commercial nuclear power station. (With a secret military role as well).

As the past 15/20 years I'd done commercial vehicle design then I was a bit surprised to be thrown in with such a major job.

They were still being cooled by CO2, and the job was to replace that with a dried compressed air system which would be used after the reactors were shutdown.
The new system needed siting layouts, new piping runs, and procedures/instructions devised for connecting up to the existing cooling pipework before decomissioning of the buildings began in 2005. The reactors themselves will stay in place for a very long time.

I recommend watching this 1955 film about Calder power station and it's construction, might interest you.
I love these old construction films - Hard hats, goggles, overalls, what's all that about? I might put some leather gloves on if I really need to.
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-calder-hall-1955-online

 

[NewTricks]

The powers that recruited you saw your talent-can't hide greatness. I also think your sense of humor may have played a part along the way. When I think of snails falling, puke vs barf, slave offers, I gotta smile.

Thanks for the birdseye view of what happened at Sellafield and Calder Hall. Will watch the film if I can figure out what's preventing the start. I'll disable my extensions and see what happens. In the mean time, my nose is to the grindstone with a boggling assignment over in Intermittent White Outs.

T

[NewTricks]

Late afternoon on the north side of the road.

[NewTricks]

Dinner-empty calories with animal products and manufactured ingredients.

 

Edited June 20, 2023 by NewTricks
I'm sorry

[AdvancedSetup]

Keep that dinner away. I'm trying to be good and lose some weight 😄

 

[NewTricks]

Cover one eye since I only had half. 

[AdvancedSetup]