Laurie

We got between two and three inches of snow Thursday night, with light snow flurries most of the day today. We went out for a walk in the bosque around noon. Besides the cranes yakking at us and each other, there was a calm silence as the light snowflakes swirled around us. There were no critters out in the snow besides the cranes, a few ducks in the ditch, and geese on the river.

Paparazzo standing in the mud along the river (photo by Laurie).

Spunk

Silver and Loki

Marble

Sasha pondering the paparazzo before getting involved in a swat at ornaments and tear up tinsel play session.

In the thirty-six and a half years that Laurie and I have been married, we have never had a traditional Christmas tree. In keeping with our tradition of non-traditional Christmas trees, I built the kitties a Catmas tree out of three large cottonwood branches that look like antlers once I bolted them together. Then I wrapped some rope between the branches and the ceiling, and loaded the Catmas tree with tinsel the kitties could tear up, and ornaments they could swat at, knock off, and then continue batting around like soccer balls after they bounced round on the floor. Sasha has found it most fun to swat the ornaments around until they fall off the tree, and tear up the tinsel. Marble also really likes playing with the ornaments and tinsel, but she also discovered her tail moves around with the ornaments, so she will try to get her tail by reaching under the platforms almost falling off the Catmas tree in the process. Loki, Silver and Spunk don't play much with the ornaments or tinsel, but the love to lie around on the platforms, especially in the wine box I screwed onto the highest platform. They wait in line for the wine box and sometimes fight over it like they do the kitty hammocks. Lola and Najar have shown little interest in the Catmas tree.

Spunk got worn out helping me build the Catmas tree. The branches are big and heavy, and it was a lot of work.

Silver, Sasha and Spunk helping decorate the Catmas tree.

Sasha trying out swatting an ornament while Spunk and Laurie watch.

Abstraction by Silver

Silver pondering an ornament

I finally got all the lights up. Sasha looks on from the chair, while Silver lounges in the wine box.

Marble and Loki watching Sasha swat at an ornament and tear up tinsel.

Marble looking under the ornaments at the silly paparazzo.

Sasha going for the tinsel

Caught the swat.

Sasha batting at an ornament

Loki pondering the meaning of Catmas.

Merry Catmas! From Spunk, Najar, Lola, Sasha, Sliver, Marble and Loki.

Sunset on solstice at Beaver Point.

Crane Point at dusk a half mile north of Beaver Point.

A mile north of Beaver Point a lone crane stretches his wings in the afterglow reflecting off the river.

The full moon exposes a wolfman lurking in the clouds.

A train passing by flickers through the bare cottonwoods on the other side of the river.

The lone crane ponders the paparazzo on the bank.

The full moon exposes a dragon in the clouds.

Lights from traffic on I-25 through the bare cottonwoods on the other side of the river.

The full moon on solstice through the clouds.

Back at Beaver Point, the Sandias under muted moonlight.

Towers near the Balloon Park from Beaver Point.

Old chicken shed built around 1948. My dad and I lifted the roof on the north side in the 1970's so we could walk in the shed, and I put the corrugated fiberglass on the framework that holds the roof up to provide light.

Back in 2012 when we had the house I grew up in demolished (You can see the demolition here). I had the demolition team save the 17' x 13" x 8" beam that my dad had acquired from a church that burned down in the 1960's. I had a dream of putting that giant beam under the roof in the shed, and taking down 16 feet of the north wall so we could park two or three of our project cars in the shed.  I started my holiday leave this week, and decided to make the shed my first priority. Monday and Tuesday I cleaned a whole lot of junk out of the front part of the shed, took it to the dump, and then moved a lot of stuff we had on shelves along the north wall to the back of the shed. On Wednesday, I dug two 4 feet deep holes, 16 feet apart, cut telephone poles and put them in the holes for the uprights to hold the 17 feet long giant beam. Tristan and Craig came out today, we lifted the giant beam into place, secured it, and then we started to tear down the cinderblock wall to open up the 16 feet under the beam. Tristan and Craig had a lot of fun knocking down the cinderblocks with a sledge hammer. I need to get a masonry blade to make clean cuts in the cinderblocks next to the telephone poles so I can frame in the opening. Then I'll fill in the holes the telephone poles are in with concrete.

North wall with the two telephone poles in their holes.

The 17 feet long giant beam.

Giant beam in place, most of the north wall between the telephone poles down.

Inside looking out with the giant beam in place on the telephone poles, and most of the wall down between the telephone poles, exposing a few of our project cars.

Spunk's though for the day: "Is shrink wrap as good as a tinfoil hat?"

Corrales had a bonfire at the end of their Twinkle Light Parade on December 1st.

Walking home along Corrales Road, I liked how this wall and gate was lit up by headlights as cars drove by. I tried to time the exposure with the headlights to get maximum illumination before the car or truck came into the camera's view. I left the camera on aperture priority because I didn't want to mess with manual settings in the sub-freezing temperature. This first shot was a fail. Filename: 115B0118.CR2. Date Created: 12/1/18, 7:34:48 PM. ƒ/5.6, 0.5 sec, ISO 3200. Canon 17-40mm ƒ/4.0 lens @ 40mm.
 

In the second shot my timing was way off and the camera gave me a 1.6 second exposure. I held the camera as steady as possible as the truck drove by during the exposure. I noticed when I opened the file on the computer, I had caught a phantasm walking or floating on the other side of the road during the long exposure. Filename: 115B0119.CR2. Date Created: 12/1/18, 7:34:51 PM. ƒ/5.6, 1.6 sec, ISO 3200. Canon 17-40mm ƒ/4.0 lens @ 40mm.
 

I timed the third shot right and got the image I was trying for. I used ƒ/5.6 to get enough DOF for the cracks in the road to show up clearly. 115B0120.CR2. Date Created: 12/1/18, 7:35:03 PM. ƒ/5.6, 1/6 sec, ISO 3200. Canon 17-40mm ƒ/4.0 lens @ 40mm.

A nice smile from the red VW Bug.

We got our first snow of the season early this morning. About an inch and a half of snow fell producing 0.16 inch of precipitation according to our rain gage. The kitties and I went out first thing this morning to play in the snow and do photos.

Black Bamboo bowing under the weight of the snow. Marble in the foreground.

The catio

Layers of snow covered dried grasses, black bamboo and trees at 7:02 AM.

Snow doesn't last long out here. Layers of dried grasses, black bamboo and trees at 9:48 AM.

Cornfield and Cranes

Cranes in the apple orchard

Mia's tree

The Calves are back.

Who's that sticking his nose in our photo?

It's a little wise ass.

Get out of our photo.

Let me by Butthead!

Hey Toro Toro!

Toro Toro Toro!

¡Olé!

¿Qué pasa Asinus?

Stupid Toro!

Anything to eat around here?

Back in prehistoric times, I fondly remember when Kodak, Fujifilm, Ilford, etc. would announce a new film, I would discuss reviews on the soon to be released film with fellow photographers in anticipation of the film going on sale. Once the film became available, we would test it and discuss its qualities, such as, color depth, saturation, grain, contrast, details in highlights and shadows, tolerance for over and under exposure, etc. We all had our favorite films, and discussions over which film was best for a given situation could become quite animated.

Given these digital daze with all the talk about sensor sizes, megapixels and all the features packed into cameras and the ubiquitous devices that come with cameras, you might not think much of anything new is being developed on the prehistoric film front. While digital technology dealt a death blow to Kodachrome film and processing, and most photo labs around the world have long gone by the wayside, film, like vinyl records, has managed to avoid extinction. And, surprisingly enough, a few companies have taken some DNA from old film technology and produced new and exciting products. 

CineStill Film is one of those companies — you can read about CineStill Film at https://cinestillfilm.com/pages/about-cinestill-film. They first started by stabilizing high quality movie film so that it could be repackaged in 135mm film canisters and rolls of 120 film and developed with the standard C41 color negative process. They also repackage B&W movie film that can be processed with standard black and white developers. If you have ever developed B&W film, you are familiar with the multi-bath process with the solutions at 68ºF: 1) developer (6+ minutes), 2) stop bath (stinky 30 seconds), 3) rinse (optional to clear the stop batch), 4) fixer(10 minutes or so), 5) wash (15 minutes or longer) 6) hypo clearing agent (optional) and 7) hang to dry. 

CineStill Film has reduced the 5 to 7 step process for developing B&W film to 3 steps, and cut the time in half with their DF96 Monobath developer & fix single-step solution for B&W film. DF96 Monobath is an odorless solution that CineStill Film introduced in June of this year, but I didn’t get around to buying a liter until this month. 

I processed a test roll yesterday and scanned a few images from the negatives (I used a low resolution to save time so the scanned images are not super sharp). The first thing I found interesting about DF96 Monobath is that temperature controls normal development, push development (more density and grain) or pull development (less density). For example, normal development takes place between 70ºF and 80ºF. Temperatures over 82ºF will push the negatives, and temperatures under 68ºF will pull the negatives (DF96 Monobath has a ±2ºF temperature tolerance). I was also surprised that the temperatures for “normal” development are more in the range used to develop color film. Developing at 80ºF means I can develop film in the summertime when my darkroom is around 80ºF. Since I haven’t put an air-conditioner in my darkroom, I usually wait until winter to develop film when the darkroom is 68ºF.

I developed a roll of CineStill Film BwXX Double-x negative film that I shot at 200 ISO in daylight. Following the directions, I heated the DF96 Monobath to 80ºF and developed/fixed the film for 6 minutes while constantly agitating the developing tank. It only takes 3 minutes to develop and fix the film at 80ºF, but an additional 3 minutes of agitation is suggested for archival fixing. I washed the film for 5 minutes as directed, added a few drops of hypo clearing agent, and hung the strip of film to dry. The negatives came out well developed and well fixed (clean and clear of residue). More niceties about DF96 Monobath are 1) you don't have to dilute it with water — you use it straight out of the bottle. 2) You pour the solution back into the bottle each time you use it, and keep using the solution until it is exhausted. 3) A liter is supposed develop 16 or more rolls of film.

Contact sheet

Loki

Torch

Freeze dried rose

Silver

Black bamboo

DF96 Monobath replaces four tanks of solutions

Dawn on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day was one of those rare days in the Albuquerque area when we had cloud cover and no sunshine all day. The clouds started clearing up as the sun went down providing some color in the western skies. The temperature stayed around 40º F throughout the day, and then quickly fell into the 30's after sunset. We took a walk in the bosque and along the river at the south end of Corrales in the late afternoon.

The "full" Full Moon doesn't happen until tomorrow, but the moon is 98.6% full tonight, which is close enough for cranes, rock & roll and my phone's battery. Tonight was the first night the cranes congregated at the area we call "The Beach" did not scatter and fly away when we emerged from the tamarisk. Instead, some of the cranes kept a close eye on us while others went about their business of poking around in the water and pecking at each other. A half mile north is what we call "Crane Point" because there are always 50 to a 100 or more cranes there by the late afternoon, and several more  fly in and land as the darkness closes in. The cranes at Crane Point have not flown away when we come scraping through the tamarisk for over a week now. We can stand on the bank in full view, talk to the cranes, and talk to each other, while I snap the shutter to capture whatever action or inaction that might be going on. I've included a sequence of three cranes coming in and landing at Crane Point in the dusk. They are extremely graceful as they fly in with their landing gear down, but a few feet above the water they put on their brakes and they go from graceful to looking more like three stooges coming in for touchdown. Some of the other cranes duck and watch, looking like they would palm their faces if they were able. After their awkward landings, the Cranes quickly regain the composure, and stand proudly in ankle deep water.