The Mendenhall is magnificent from a distance. It is spectacular if you can get up close and personal.
The ice has layers and threadsof dirt and sand which were washed down and embedded in the originating snow. As the glacier is pushed down the valley, the face melts away and the embedded dirt, sand, sticks, leaves, and silt are released. You should be suspicious of anyone selling you “crystal clear glacier ice” 🙂
Tripod mounted TL120-1, DR5-processed HP5
There are often caves in and under the Mendenhall glacier. In the winter, when the lake is frozen and travel is easier, there are often many folks visiting.
On this particular day, I set my camera up and loitered in the corner. The first set of bystanders is always very self conscious and makes explicit efforts to stay away and not “spoil” the shot. By simply loitering with a long cable release (while wearing warm clothes), I out-wait them and they are replaced. The newcomers ignore me as part of the landscape. Then I can trip the shutter, and reach over to advance the film.
Tripod mounted TL120-55. DR5-processed HP5
Fiery Depths
Looking down into the pits of hell, are those the screams of your political opponents you hear? Maybe it’s only last night’s burritos talking.
Regardless, I don’t want to be pitched over the edge.
TL120-55, Ilford HP5, DR5 processing (Yes, I typo’d the title on the mount, but given the scarcity of mounts I didn’t feel the need to remount in a clean one.)
Standing Proud
This image has been a while in the making. After reviewing my attempts at winter landscapes, I went out to try to do some things differently. I loaded a pack, took the first sunny day off work, and headed out to Cowee Creek where I knew I’d have moderate snow, free-standing trees, and a dramatic backdrop lit by the low afternoon sun. The film was exposed in February of 2014, processed by DR5 in May, and mounted in February of 2015.
To try to force the back of foreground tree trunk out of the shadows, I used a couple of Vivitar 285 flashes. One weak one firing forward (and slightly right) from just below the camera, and a stronger one coming from the far left.
While I think my concepts were correct, I fell short in the execution. This was the last roll of the day. It is a tested characteristic of my camera that the shutter timings start to drift at low voltages. By the time this roll was exposed, the batteries in the TL120 were failing in the cold and the right side was under exposed.
This is my brother-in-law, Gordon, and yes ladies, he’s single! This is another shot from last year’s beer run. Gordon plays an international online tank game, so we stopped on our way to the beer store in Vermont to shoot an avatar image for him. I captured a few shots with a Fuji W3, and then I bracketed some exposures with the Stereo Samulette.
I have another version of this shot that I like slightly better, as the background is sharper and there’s an American flag present, but the setting sun washed out some of Gordon’s features and his pose was more rigid, so you get to see this one instead.
I realize there’s a scratch or some sort of anomaly on the left film chip.
This was handheld, shot on HP5 processed by dr5 – I think the f-stop was 16, 1/100th of a second handheld, and the distance and hyperfocal estimation was guesswork (there’s no through-the-lens focusing on this camera).
My brother-in-law Gordon is a bière connoisseur. He makes regular pilgrimages to Vermont to frequent a specialty store there that stocks micro-brews from around the globe.
Last year I decided I’d accompany him on one of his beer runs to Vermont via the quaint Quebec countryside so that I’d have an opportunity to shoot with my folding medium format camera. If I did all the driving, I’d have control over where we stopped for a photo op.  I am pleased with how the camera performed. I enjoy the vintage feel of this shot, marred only by the snout of the more modern vehicle peering out from the rear of the truck bed.
This scene reminds me of the subject matter that my late friend Earl Bennett was attracted to when he painted. He studied with Thomas Hart Benton in the 1930s and for the most part painted works that dealt with small town, mid-Western life.
This image was shot on HP5, processed by dr5. I wish I could say the shutter speed was 5 and the f-stop was 5, but no such luck. The f-stop was 32, handheld at 1/100th.
The camera was created by Sam Smith, fusing together two 1950s-era AGFA Isolette II folders. It has AGFA’s intermediate-level f4.5 Apotar lenses on S-Prontor shutters. When folded shut, it fits into a jacket pocket. It’s resplendent in faux ostrich skin. I wanted to name it “The AGFA Stereo Smith-O-lette”, but Sam liked the sound of “Sam-O-lette” better.  For some reason, when I say “Sam-O-lette” I think of Frank Zappa’s “Camarillo Brillo” and the lyrics; “She had a snake for a pet, and an amulet…”, so since Sam told me to name this camera “whatever sounds good”, I’ve named it “The Samulette”.
This was taken at the annual ‘Zombie Walk’ . Ilford HP 5 Plus processed by DR 5
Another picture from the zombie walk. HP 5 Plus processed by DR 5.