Canyon de Chelly

Going for a long weekend at CDC and up the other arm, Canyon Del Muerto.  Driving 4 wheel drive with a guide on board so we will be getting pretty close to the subject matter.  We've worked out the logistics so that part ought to be easy.  Just the seeing and shooting.  Lenses back from Havel Camera in San Antonio.  I'm going to be looking at patina wall stripes.

  Old proof from Standing Cow Ruin.

Photographing the South Dike.

Last morning.  Spent a night on a big flat boulder in the wind.  Had a little packrat that kept climbing on me.  Very persistent.  Morning pretty still.

Climbers Cave ledge at Shiprock.

Pretty quiet up there.  Shows the ledge and my bedroll and cam.  I'm as far to the North on the ledge as I could go.

Short video on the second morning on the ledge, West Wall near the climbers cave.  I spent three nights on the ledge and in the cave.  One other night on top of a boulder around the corner.  Quite a strenuous climb to get up here with any equipment, though the climbers come right through here all the time.  Start to the ascent is up the roof of the cave.

Equipment details.

Chinese rubber lens hoods in 77mm and 67mm. Might help.  Always worried about vignetting. 

For a minute, we actually had FOUR Deardorff 5X7s in the house.  That's mine in the middle with an Ektar Wide-Field 190 on it.  Close one in an incredible rebuild by Ken Hough.  Far one just got a new bellows from Western Bellows in LA. (which is closing)  There was one more in a box going to Western Bellows for a new bellows.

Follow-up work.

The Black Giant.

Happily burning film.

  This reminds me of the fun, strategizing and long zen-like time-packages of deer hunting....then one shot and you are up to your elbows in hauling, dragging, cutting, buttering, cleaning.   Blood and guts.  The other part of being an artist.

  Absolutely worked at Shiprock for four days.  Camera, pack and careful footwork up, down and around, sleeping on the rock every night in place for the next morning light.  Back home and the processing and lab work starts.  120+ sheets processed, then proofed, now matching the negatives and proofs, sleeving, sorting, tossing.  The editing process.

  On my last Light Impressions 5X7 box.  Low on sleeves and envelopes.  There isn't a functional Light Impressions, any more.  Hard to know where the support and storage materials are going to come from.

  Putting the negatives IN ORDER of shooting.  That's quite a memory feat.  Then I'll look through them a few more times, check the tap water temp and start printing a few.

  Interesting to see the failures.  Some technical stuff.  Pinholes, light leaks in the holders.  Sweaty fingerprints from loading film in a bag in the daytime.  All those negatives and proofs go by the wayside.    I shoot doubles-both sides of a film holder, and return several times to the same subject in different lighting conditions.

  One of the main shots I wanted and worked on never came together.  I was shooting a photo of the main body of Shiprock from the South.  90mm vignetted like heck.  120 Angulon wasn't quite wide enough.  Never got the light I expected.  10 negatives shot in three attempts.  All gone.

  After I get them firmly in the box and in sequence it's going to be fun to work them out.  Might get one more quick trip to the rock and looks like we are going to Canyon de Chelly the first part of next month to shoot a bit.

  I'll never get caught up with printing.

Morning shadow to the West for 45 seconds.

Climbers Cave rockwork.

Update:  All in the box.  34 different scenes.  120+ negs cut down to aprox 90 due to pinholes in the sky, fingerprints, flare.  Always had a backup so I didn't lose a scene though a few didn't make it past the edit.  Just thumbed through looking for the hits and there are about 14 I would put in the portfolio.