Nik Sekhar A31 submission

There was no post for Nik’s submission, so I created this post in August 2021 so Nik could receive some comments. -Ian Andvaag

1) Mt. Rainier Stream 8/4/10 F16 1/125

2) Untitled. [3Ders in front of Chihuly art installation at New York Botanical Garden]

3) Untitled. [New York Botanical Garden Pond]

4) Untitled. [Nik’s son, I believe]

Two Sepia, Two Pinholes.

Sepia images and Pinhole images just naturally go together.  Okay, so maybe they don’t, but these are the images that I’ve selected for this go-’round of the Folio.

  1. “Ep-PIN-phone” –  this image was made with one of Todd Schlemmer’s TerraPIN Oskar 2 stereo cameras.  Todd’s camera creations are 3D printed using environmentally-friendly materials.  The exposure time for this image was about 26 minutes.
  2. “Pixel Rick At The Precipice” – expired Kodak TXP processed in Developer 2 by Dr. 5, captured with a TL-120-55.
  3. “Sgt. Ghost Peppers’ Lonely Pinhole Band” – captured with the TerraPIN Oskar 2.  Exposure was approximately 19 seconds.
  4. “Wedge” –  expired TXP, TL-120-55.

Old Guard

One of the traction engine owners was having a rest. He was gracious enough to let me get this shot. This was at the Milton Steam Era show, held every Labour Day weekend. Shot with my TL120 on Provia 100f. I can’t recall the aperture, but it must have been large on this overcast day.

Ready, Set…

I have wanted to try a circular mask for a while. I made this mask by cutting a piece of unexposed film with a hobby punch. Then I tried to find a subject slide to go with it. Turns out that a circular mask cuts out a huge amount of image. This makes it unsuitable for the vast majority of slides. I now consider it an option, just like portrait and landscape mounts, for when there are distractions on a slide pair that you need to remove.

Grand-Staircase Escalante

In April 2018 I went on a road trip to Utah with a few friends. We stayed in the campground in the town of Escalante and went on day hikes to Lower Calf Creek Falls, Escalante River and the Dry Fork Slot Canyons.

Grand Staircase-Escalante – RDP III – Sputnik (Location)

The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was (until recently) the largest National Monument in the contiguous US and comprises enumerable canyons, including some famous ones such as Bryce and Zion. On our first full day, we decided to visit the slot canyons nearby after speaking with the campground owner. I took this slide at the top of the Dry Fork trail which leads down to the slot canyons.

Slot Canyons – RDP III – Sputnik (Location)

This was taken at the mouth of Peek-a-boo slot canyon. It’s quite high up and it was a bit tricky to get up with my tripod and Sputnik. There wasn’t too much stereo photography that could be done within the slot canyons since the narrow corridor would cause window violations. It’s a really neat place, and I recommend going if you get the chance. The road to get there is like a washboard though, so don’t take a nice new vehicle. Peek-a-boo was the shortest and easiest of the slot canyons here. We also went down Spooky canyon, which was extremely narrow at several points — I couldn’t get through with the backpack. It was also very dark in some places and the sky couldn’t be seen at all. Apparently the third canyon, Brimstone, is even narrower and has pools of water you have to wade through! We ran out of time to attempt it.

Heroic Hikers – RVP 100 – Sputnik (Location)

On our drive back home, we stopped at Bryce canyon and hiked the Fairyland trail. It’s a very beautiful hike. These are my hikineg friends: Gabe, Derek, and Elliot.

Sinking Ship – RVP 100 – Sputnik (Location)

All along the hike, I was wishing I had some sort of twin camera rig, or a bit more time to do some cha-chas. It’s sometimes hard to balance photography with other activities, like hiking with others. I do a lot of walking, so I’m able to take photos and keep up quite well, but it still takes a fair bit of time to stop, set up and level my tripod, meter the scene and take the shot. When we arrived back at our vehicle at Fairyland point, I decided I really ought to take a hyper — cha-cha style. Unfortunately I didn’t have a lens cap or Mike Davis’ spreadsheet, but I found a railing to slide my camera on and I covered one lens with my hand. My apologies for the slightly excessive on-film deviation and corresponding window violation. Otherwise, I’m quite pleased with how it came out. I wish I had taken more hypers, but we had to get going. I hope to come back some day and really take my time shooting. The tilted landmass in the distance is called Boat Mesa or the Sinking Ship.

Thanks all for sharing your wonderful images. It’s such a pleasure to participate in the folio.

Ian Andvaag
Saskatoon, SK

Go Raptors Go!

Because of the Toronto Raptors historic 2019 NBA Championship win over the Golden State Warriors I have decided to send all my images this round from that fair city. Interiors are Fuji Velvia RVP 100F and exteriors are Provia RDP III taken with the TL 120.

Ontario College of Art And Design It kind of looks like they wanted to preserve the building underneath and stuck this one on top of it.

Roger’s Toronto Late Afternoon.  This is a cha-cha and I got pretty lucky with the lack of clouds and so not much movement between shutter clicks in the bottom although I just noticed a ladder or small crane in one image and not in the other one. I took a bunch at sunset but they are unviewable because of the cloud movements in the sky. This was taken from the balcony of  by brother’s appartement very close to the centre of the city which is basically Yonge and Bloor streets.

Stained Glass Silhouette Inside St. James Cathedral on Church Street. Tried to expose for the stained glass windows but maybe a touch too dark.

Scared Arts : Painting, Music and Sculpture. Inside St. James Cathedral on Church Street

Snowmen

I  took these slides on the first day of spring, March 21, 2018. For those of you from balmier climes, yes, there can be this much snow in Montreal on the first day of spring.  These snowmen had melted a little, and were starting to lose the form and details bestowed initially by their young creators. A couple of them have lost their eyes. Some of their features are starting to look a bit abstract. I initially saw them as somewhat nostalgic relics from the long winter we had been through, perhaps on a smaller time scale the way ruins remind us of a long-gone past, like the statues on Easter Island. My wife found them scary, as though they had escaped from a horror movie, and the more I examined them, the more I could see her point of view. Shot with a Heidoscop on a tripod with Fuji Provia 100F film. Exposures were as follows:

Snowman with a cap and scarf –  1/50th @ f25.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snowman with small head – 1/20th @ f25.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snowman with scarf and toque – 1/25th @ f25.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snowman whose grapefruit eyes fell off – 1/40th @ f25.

 

 

 

 

 

Left and Right

Right Side

If the Juneau tourists get a bus to the Mendenhall Glacier, a mile long walk along the willows on the lake shore will bring them to the bottom of Nugget Creek. It offers a nice waterfall, and good view of the glacier.We’ve been here before.

Left Side

And if one walks several miles up the “left” side of the lake, and climbs a little, it is much quieter and less crowded.  Not many unguided tourists make it this far up the trail, so when I meet one I try to make them feel welcome. If the lenses in your viewer are good, you can see the crowd of tourists on the beech at the base of the waterfall.

Twenty years ago, all the open water in both images was ice. The face of the glacier was just past the rightmost iceberg in the second image. At that time, the bedrock was below more than 100′ of ice, and Nugget Falls disappeared under the edge of the glacier.

Both images are from my TL120, Nugget Falls has been captured with Kodak E100G rather than my usual Provia.

Town and Tours

So Many Choices

Juneau is historically a gold town. More recently, it is a tourist town. On a ‘good’ day, cruise ships can deliver more than 15,000 passengers to shore. And when all those people get ashore, they need to find something to do. Most of the ships work hard to sell package tours on board to their captive audience, but there are still folks on the sidewalks ready to help put tourists on buses out to the glacier or to another dock where they can grab a whale-watch tour.

Whales, Whales, Whales

Most of the vendors are seasonal workers. They arrive from Outside at the start of the season, rent their booth, and sell tours on commission. They’re assertive, but friendly. I’m not often mistaken for a tourist (wrong clothing and not enough tan), but when I am I listen to their pitch before turning them down.

Both of these are from my TL120 on Provia.

Down the Throat

As a bonus image, I’m including a little bit of blue. Like all of my under-glacier images, the light is dim and the location is long gone.

I’m standing in the stream which has cut its way under the ice. The ground is gravel over bedrock, and the deeper one goes the thicker the layer of gravel is. By this point, the gravel is thick enough so the stream is completely contained in the gaps between the stones. The running water carries heat under the ice which creates a gap. Then warm air start to move through and widen the gaps. The color variation in the ceiling is from the variation in thickness and sand content.

I’ve tried several times to try to duplicate this image by print and by film. In call cases, the color reproduction has stymied me. The colors reproduced by the film are not easily obtainable in any of the ink or film-recorder color spaces I’ve tried. I’ll try again in a few more years. Until then, please enjoy this original with all of its subtle colors.