Tjilpi

I haven't been taking pictures...

I haven't been taking pictures because the film I bought is faulty. I have a stash of 25 rolls of film from Croatia and my guess is that each roll is faulty. I bought 4 rolls of efke 127 film in March to use in my Baby Brownie. That is when the learning curve began. I had been warned that I should cover the rear red window on the Baby Brownine as it let light in which fogged the brand of film that I had bought. The red window is there so that you can see the frame numbers of the film you are shooting. I'm talking old fashioned film here. The film itself sits on a piece of blackened backing paper to prevent light getting at the film when it is wound onto a spool which is something like a cotton reel with an axle through the middle. I got so excited about the whole photography thing that I acquired a second hand Baby Rollei camera which takes the same sized film but it has knobs and levers and it focuses and has shutter adjustments and all kinds of exciting lenses and viewing devices attached to it. By way of comparison, The Baby Brownie sits there with a single shutter lever to move, and a lone knob to wind the film on.

So, I forgot about the Baby Brownie and I got the Baby Rollei going in order to do some real fotograffie.

But, it all came to an end when I discovered that the frame numbers on the backing paper were appearing on my portraits. You can see them in the photo of Roy. See that number 10 on its side, with two bars around it, just above his left shoulder. And there is a row of 7s on their side, above his head. Not to mention the black squares running in the vicinity of his left shoulder.

So, because of that psychological set back I haven't been taking photographs. I've toyed with the idea of moving to 35mm black and white; but at the moment that doesn't have the attraction of using a 50 year old camera and a film format which was invented around 1912.

I've been on the InterWeb, of course, looking for solutions to the problem of the backing paper data coming out on my negatives. There are a couple of blokes in the US who are having the same problem. They took to developing some of the errant film straight out of the box to see if the backing paper data came out on the negatives. It did. They didn't put the film in a camera. It had never seen the light of day; but still the numbers appeared on the negatives. I began to suspect things like x-rays were affecting the film as it might have been scanned before being trans-shipped by air.  I thought that might make the numbers come out on the film even if it had not seen the light of day.

I really didn't have an answer, and I was not happy.  So, I decided to have a look for myself.

I took a roll of film out of its tin foil wrapping and had a look at it. Nothing. I waved it around in daylight for a few minutes and then I saw the markings appear. The backing paper ink had leached over into the film emulsion and left marks on the film. The backing paper and film are wound very tightly onto a spool. The film is pressed very tightly on the roll between two sheets of backing paper. It is a meat in the sandwich situation. If the bottom piece of bread has mustard on it, some of that is going to rub off onto the bottom of the meat in the sandwich. However, backing paper pieces of bread are not meant to deliver their markings onto the meat. The marks printed on the backing paper are not meant to come off. Although, it has to be said that backing paper markings have been known to come off if the spool of film is very old, or if it has become moist.

However, backing paper markings are not meant to affect NEW film, and that is what I wrote to the US supplier of the rolls of efke R100 I bought.  I'm not sure if I'll get satisfaction. But I'll certainly know the right questions to ask in future.

Maybe I will shoot some 35mm film, while I wait to hear from the bloke in Texas who shipped me the dud rolls.

BADGER

I've never been a huge fan of mnemonics; but I invented one a couple of weeks back.  I've taken to being The Winch Driver out at the Gliding Club. I came up with BADGER as a pre-launch mnemonic.

There are many things that can go wrong with winch launching. I am sure I have not seen all of them; but I have seen a few. That's why I decided to use a mnemonic to make sure that all essential items are checked before starting the 357 Chevrolet motor which pulls the gliders into the air.  That motor is mounted on the rear of an old International Harvester truck which carries two steel winch cables coiled on specially made heavy steel drums. You can see one of the drums just behind the white cab. Behind the drum is the winch motor under its metal canopy. At the rear of the winch truck are the wire guides. Each of these is made up of two vertical rollers topped by two plough shares bolted back to back. When the wire reaches the plough shares the glider is usually at an angle of about 45 degrees to the winch.The incoming wire is stopped rising by the mid section of the plough shares which begin to spin very rapidly.

It only takes a minute to haul in the 1,600 metres of cable leading back to the glider, which, on a good day can gain a launch height of 2,000 feet. We lay out the cable by first attaching the ends to two pickets driven into the surface of the airstrip at the Launch Point. Then the winch truck is slowly driven to the far end of the strip with the cable casting off the drums to the rear as the truck moves forward. The drum speed is controlled to prevent the wire being thrown off and getting tangled, by a hand brake mounted in the cab.

Once the truck is at the end of the strip I commence my BADGER check. B is for the truck hand BRAKE. I've seen the truck move backwards when someone forgot to put the wheel chocks in place, so I make doubly sure that the handbrake of the truck is on. I then put the truck in first forward gear, thereby connecting its A, for AXLE, to the gearbox and engine which acts as another measure to keep the winch stationary. D is for the DRUM Brake. It has to be totally released so that the drums are free to haul the cable in. G is for a GROUND check to make sure the wheel chocks are on the ground behind the truck wheels. E is for ENGAGEMENT. Each drum has a driving axle which can be engaged or disengaged. Only one drum axle should be engaged at a time.  Having both axles engaged causes all kinds of trouble as both cables get hauled in at once. R is for REPORT. I report by radio: "Launch Point - winch is standing by".

Knowing that I have completed my BADGER check allows me to relax and enjoy the quiet sounds of the bush which surrounds the strip. It is a time for solitude, reflection and contemplation, until I get a call on the radio saying that a glider is hooked up and is ready to be launched. It is then that the Chev motor destroys all sounds of silence until the glider is launched, released and the cable with its drogue attached, is hauled back in and the Chev motor is shut down.

I then swap drum axles and run though BADGER once more before letting the sounds of the bush creep back in.