Tjilpi

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.

ANZAC Day+1

  I've got digital paralysis. I seem only able to get the distal phalange of my right hand second digit to press the shutter button on my Samsung Digital Camera. My shutter-bug finger tip becomes paralysed when it goes near the button of any of the 6 film cameras I have.  Maybe it is because the last time I used a film camera seriously, the printing and developing costs came to $200. That's when I decided to go digital.  Since then I have not spent a cent on commercial film processing.  Maybe my paralysis is caused by the idea of my spending money using up my developing chemicals?  No, that's not it.

I find that if I point my Baby Rollei at a scene, I feel I've got to find the perfect composition. There are only 12 shots to a roll and I haven't found the composition to make me push the button. With a digital camera you can shoot off a dozen shots of the same scene and reject eleven.

What I am really afraid of is using up my scarce supply of 127 film - there is no guarantee that it will remain in production - and I could waste all I have learning how to expose and develop it.

By the time the film travels from Croatia to the US and then to here, it costs me $6 per roll. In the Baby Brownie, I only get 8 shots per roll, but In the Baby Rollei I'll get 12 shots.  However, as I write, I am beginning to think of an economic analysis, which reveals that 50 cents per shot is cheaper than firing my .303 at a dollar per round, and cheaper than flying a glider at Club Rates, which are 65 cents per minute.

There does remain the complication of my being able to totally destroy all photos taken during the developing process! But then, a beer can cost near $6 in an elegant Pub.

Courage - that's what I need to push the trigger. I didn't have any of that yesterday.

I didn't make it to the RSL - which is probably a good thing. I stayed inside all day except for a trip to the washing line to hang out some shirts.

ANZAC Day

I didn't go to the Dawn Service on top of Anzac Hill. I went by myself last year and ended up a blubbering mess. I didn't want that to happen again.

Besides, this year, I had purposely avoided buying whisky to put in my stainless steel hip flask. I couldn't go without that.

Such habits began early in my life. If you have a close look at the photo [click on it to enlarge] you will see a Bundaberg Rum bottle to my left. Although, by the look on Graham's face, he probably drank it.

Maybe, next year, I'll go to the Dawn Service with Hugh.  He left a message on my mobile phone at 5:45am today, asking if I wanted him to come with me.  Unfortunately, I missed his call. I normally put my mobile phone beside my bed; but last night it stayed in my black manbag. It was very thoughtful of Hugh to phone. Julz said by email that she was going to the War Memorial in Canberra. I heard on the radio that it was cold and rainy there.

We'll see how the rest of the day goes here. I have it in mind to take my vintage cameras to the RSL to try to capture some of the scenes around the Two Up ring.  That could prove interesting. I can easily walk to the RSL from here, and luckily the distance home is exactly the same.

Beyond Blogging and Beyond Blue

Talk about blue skies.

Yesterday it was time to put the Blanik back together after Tom had inspected it for its "Form 2". Our gliders have to be stripped down once a year to make sure they are airworthy - then they earn their Form 2.

The Blanik had been de-rigged last Saturday and yesterday was the day to put it back together, for Tom to test fly it, and then to put it back to work. 

We had a busy day at the Strip.  There were a couple of interstate visitors from a Sydney gliding club and young Ben Kittle went solo a day after his 16th birthday. I ran the winch for quite some time before Tom called me back to the launch point so that we could go up in the Blanik. The controls in the old girl, well she is all of 37, felt "as smooth as" after Tom had greased all the linkages and bearings of the control surfaces.

I did the launch, but found slim pickings in the thermals below 4,000 feet. Tom took over and managed to work some weak lift so that we "got away'. Once we were about 5,000 feet Tom gave the stick back to me and I managed to get to 8,000.  I worked out that that is about a mile above ground. We measure our height as being above sea level [ASL], but as our strip is already 2,400 feet [ASL] we need to go to 8,000 to be around 5,280 feet above ground. Up there the air was cool and we doodled around just enjoying the day and the views.  After the recent rains there was a lot of greenery to be seen on the ground.  I asked Tom if he would take the stick for a while while so that I could take some photographs.

I'll need an expert to tell me how I managed to produce such intense blue in the photo above.  The sky is blue; but it is not that blue. It may have something to do with internal reflection within the perspex canopy; or the colour chip in the camera was overburdened. At present I really don't know.

But one thing I do know is that a day away from the computer, be it a work or blogging at home, is very good for body and soul.

Regular readers will notice that I've added a flickr column to my left side bar. I've discovered that signing up for flickr has taken me beyond blogging, and with the great day at Bond Springs yesterday, I am certainly beyond blue. 

PS: Check out the flickr site for more pictures of the Blanik.

Another Step Forward

On the left you can see an InterWeb photo of a shiny new LPL Enlarger.  On the right you can see the one I bought about 25 years ago. It is now happily slaving away in my kitchen. It took quite a bit of cleaning up. Fortunately the bellows are still intact and have not been gnawed away by cockroaches or other hungry beasties, though there were signs of their presence all over the machine.

Since my renewed interest in photography began, I had purposely refrained from bringing my LPL enlarger in from the shed. I knew that doing that would set in train a series of events which would lead to the expenditure of $$$ on chemicals, photographic paper, safe lights etc. I knew it would lead, as Zorba the Greek said, to The Full Catastrophe.

I knew I would have to embark on an understanding of the chemistry and physics of the whole silver halide photographic process.

Part of the reason for wanting to understand that process is that I never cease to be amazed by the Photographs of Baldwin Spencer who came to Alice Springs in 1894 to take photographs of the Aboriginal people.  His collaboration with Frank Gillen - boss man of the Overland Telegraph Line repeater station located at the original Alice Springs waterhole in the Todd River - is said to have been the beginning of Anthropology as we know it.

On the home front things haven't progressed to the Full Catastrophe yet, though I feel I'm at some kind of point of no return.

Fortunately, it is Easter Sunday, so there is little chance of spending money today.  Although, on Good Friday, I was able to dash out to spend money on some rolls of Colour Print film.

But, I thought you were interested only in Black and White Photography? I hear you ask.

Well, the answer to that is that I picked up a tip on the InterWeb. Buy a truck load of cheapo Colour Film and develop it in Black and White developing soup. You'll get some kind of result. The Konica VX you see on the right was purchased for just $2 a roll at Mad Harry's. It's expiry date comes up in June and all unexposed rolls are now residing in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator.  So far, I have shot two rolls of my cheapo film.

I have had two little Rollei 35 LED cameras for about 26 years. I knew one didn't advance the film properly, but I had forgotten which one. The camera I used first, is now labelled Camera Number 2, as it only advanced to shot number 8 and then stopped.  I haven't yet been able to work out why the sprockets start jumping at that point; but there lies another project. I consider the wastage of 16 shots of a $2 roll of film to be my own version of a 'Mythbuster' experiment.  Camera Number 1 advanced quite smoothly to the full 24 shots.

I developed the 8 shots from Camera Number 2 in the developing soup I have been using for my Black and White negatives. Something came out.  There it is on the left. What you see is a shot taken with my Samsung Digital of the image of the 'colour' negative projected onto the baseboard of my LPL enlarger. And here is what that image looks like when it has been digitally remastered in Windows Paint. A trick done by inverting the colours!

And below, for reference, is a digital photo of the palms in my neighbours yard. 

Below, on the right is a photo of the cover of a book of photographs taken by Baldwin Spencer.  I first saw some of the photographs '82 or '83 and felt they were inspiring. 

Imagine coming here in 1894 and being able to take a photo like that - especially with the analogue equipment of the day.

It is somewhat paradoxical that the Overland Telegraph Line was using a form of digital technology. After all, the 'dit' and 'dah' of Morse Code is, essentially, a two bit digital code, with a variable byte length.

It is no longer politically acceptable to walk up to Aboriginal people and take photographs of the kind Baldwin Spencer did.

The book is well worth a look at, if you can find a copy.  Details of the original  book are The Aboriginal Photographs of Baldwin Spencer. (Introduced by J. Mulvaney) South Yarra: John Currey, O'Neil on behalf of the National Museum of Victoria Council. ISBN 0 85902 065 7. Copies of that edition are extremely rare; but the new edition with some variations and a change of title to, The Photographs of Baldwin Spencer was published in November 2005  ISBN : 0-522-85100-2.

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It's a Start...

I know this doesn't look like much; but for me it represents jumping the first hurdle.  Yesterday, after a steep re-learning curve about black and white photography I took some shots with my Baby Brownie 127 format camera, using Croatian efke R100 film. I began by taking a few shots in my front driveway and then headed out to Bond Springs Airstrip to finish the roll of 8.  Actually I didn't have 8 shots as I loaded the film incorrectly.  I missed the appearance of Number 1 in the film advance window and ended up beginning with shot Number 2.  It's all for fun and I'm just experimenting - I consoled myself.  Last night, after a frantic evening mixing up chemicals which have warning labels sufficient to make one feel cancer growing in every bodypart, I developed my first roll.

Well - I attempted to develop my first roll. 

First of all I made a $4 darkroom in the smallest bedroom in the house.  It has a single south facing window, so despite the fact that the black plastic sheeting I bought for $4 at the hardware store didn't quite keep out all the light, by dusk it was good enough.

My first problem was getting the film onto the spool which goes into the developing  tank.  I spent an hour in the dark and finally got the film in the spool but it was crunkled, unevenly spread and had several longitudinal cracks in it.  I had been warned by others about that problem. The film curls and is really quite hard compared to the 35mm films I have played with in the past.  I'll have to see if I can come up with a work around for that problem.  I'm thinking that a higher temperature in the darkroom might help by warming the film to make it pliable.  Last night, I decided to accept what fate had thrown at me and left the film as it was on the spool.

My next problem was getting everything to 20C or 68F.  The Kodak D-76 developer recipe called for water at 55C to dissolve the powder.  I boiled water and poured it in the kitchen sink and then bathed 4 litres of demineralized water in that. After dissolving the powder I had to bring the bottle of developer solution back down to 20C by putting it in the freezer.

Next it was a juggle with a stop watch, developer, stop bath, and fixer before a final wash until my negatives appeared for drying. I ended up with 3 and a half poorly exposed and badly developed negatives. The one above is the best - I perched the little camera on top of the letter box for that shot - to avoid camera shake.

I have reworked the final product a little.  I used my el-cheapo CanoScan LIDE 20 to scan the negative and then inverted the 'colors'. I also used Windows Paint to crop some of the irregularities from the edge of the negative. All in all I have used very basic equipment and have surprised myself with the result.

At least I have made a start.

Now where is that catalogue for the $800 dollar Epson Perfection 4990 scanner I was looking at the other day? 

Australians All Let Us Rejoice.....

Have you heard of the Frenchman who has invented something along the lines of Esperanto? 

It is called Globish.

Basically, as we Orstrailians say - often - in our particular dialect of English, Globish comes down to a lexicon of around 600 English words with appropriate syntax and grammar applied. The French bloke reckons that Globish will make do for a reasonable conversation in any International Transit Lounge in any airport in the world.

Don't mistake me. I think he is onto a good idea - especially as I already know the 600 words.

He doesn't claim that Globish will work for an in-depth philosophical or religious conversation; but it will get you by, when undertaking basic communication task.

Where have I heard that word 'basic' before?

Today, as I continued my exploration into the future of the past, with regard to the developing and processing of 127 film, I discovered a distincly non-Globish word on a packet of a US made product: Kodak D-76 developer.  The word is 'entwickler'.  You should be able to discern [see] that on the photo above. I like the sound of entwiclker.  Said loudly, it thrusts from the tongue spittle laden.

Unfortunately for me, my daughter Julz, has taken my English-German/German-English dictionary with her to University so I am unable to determine the etymology of the word. I know I could Google it; but give a bloke a chance to tell his story.

When I turned the packet over, and looked at it closely, I discovered that there are 15 languages represented on the reverse side of the packet.  They are a bit small to photograph with my present equipment.  However, the list begins with EN for English and ends with AUS for Australian English. 

To me, that means that Kodak recognizes we Aussies use a distinct non-"English" dialect.

Viva la Revolution!! Long live the Republic!!

My first attempt to translate the above into Globish comes out as:

Going around in circles is good for living.  It is a good thing if the public lives and rules for a long time.

A Huge Leap Forward - or Backward?

Who would have thunk it?  I was thinking I would have to send my exposed Baby Brownie 127 film to Croatia to have it developed and printed; but all that has changed.

I found a special interest group on Yahoo's flickr who are into retro cameras and retro film.  I even found a group who are dedicated to exchanging tips and tricks on how to develop and process 127 film. 

After a few exchanges with one of the English members of the group I wandered out into my shed and swept the dust off the developing tank you see in the photo.  I bought the tank and reel in Oxford in 1981 and used it to develop black and white 35mm film in the unused darkroom of the Pathology Lab of the Horton General Hospital in Banbury.

I was convinced that the reel would only take 35mm film; but with a little encouragement from England I learned that I could separate the reel into two separate pieces and then put the reel back together, using its integrated bayonet fitting, and so set the reel to take 127 film.  There is printing on the bottom of the tank which indicates that the reel will take 35mm and 126 film.  There is no mention of 127.  I guess the manufacturers of the tank thought, in 1980 or so, that 127 film was dead and buried. 

Luckily they continued to make their reels in a way which allows 127 film to be loaded. How retro is that?

So, the next step for me is to learn to load the reel in daylight with some old 127 film.  Next I will have to practice loading the reel in a change bag or darkroom.

After that I'll load the Baby Brownie and at the same time look into the purchase of developing and processing chemicals, photographic paper and all kinds of other paraphernalia, as I begin a new era of exploration forward into the past.

What a Happy Boy!

I was recently shown by Hal of Ranch Ramblins how photos [pix, pics, piccies] which I may happen to publish on the web, have data attached to them in an EXIF file, which could easily expose my role as a CIA Operative to the public. 

As we all know, that could ruin a girls career prospects.  So, it's back to basics.

I've pulled my Baby Brownie from its hiding place. The first problem I had was to find film for it which would take pix with no digital Exif info attached. That problem is solved. The next problem I have is how to develop the negatives and then print them.  I've got some old B&W gear in the shed but I think I'm past doing that well - especially on a once off basis.

Today 4 rolls of 127 film arrived by airmail. The rolls were despatched from Texas.  You can see them in the photo above.  Each box has 4 sides, naturally, but each side has something different printed on it.  On one side there is information printed in English, and on the opposite side there is information printed in Croatian.

When I saw that I said, to myself, You beauty! 

You see, Margs youngest daughter [YD] has just landed herself a Croatian boyfriend.  YD was working on a cruise ship which sailed off the west coast of North America up to Alaska.  YDs job was to sell diamonds to the punters on board. His job was to be the Ships Engineer. Something clicked.

During her travels Marg is going to meet YD and the Croatian Engineer at his home in Croatia. 

I figure that if the Croatians produce 127 film there - they probably develop and print it too. And that should allow me to have some photos produced in the manner of those taken when I was very very young and dressed in girls clothes. [Vide the reference above.]

The first photo shows me and Mum when I was 7 months dressed in a dress!  The second shows my rolly polly self behind my elder skinny brother. 

When we were kids all I had to do to win a fight was to sit on him!

There is nothing like a 4cm x 6.5cm contact print produced by a Kodak Baby Brownie. You can see from the photos how instant happiness is produced by the simplest of cameras.

I hope the Croatian connection works.  If not, like the Little Red Hen, I'll have to do it myself.

It's been a year....

  It's been a year since my sister Robin phoned me about 8 am on 14 March 2006 to tell me that Dad had died. 

I had spoken to him by phone just three days before; and he told me quite lucidly that he didn't think he could carry on much longer.  I knew the electrical circuitry in his heart was malfunctioning and willed silently and selfishly that he would stay around at least until my birthday.  It was coming up on 24 March and Dad would have phoned and we would have had, possibly, a last laugh together.

Dad had begun to whittle down the things in his life many years before he died.  I received a wall full of books about 10 years ago.  The shoddy photo above, taken with an APS camera in July 2001, shows Dad giving my son Hugh a fishing rod which Dad had assembled himself from bare bone parts.

Today I am wearing one of Dad's old watches.   It is a 1968 Omega Dynamic - the model was the first of its kind  - powered by gravity and the movement of ones body.  It was "aerodynamically" designed to fit in the groove between the radius and the ulna near the wrist.  You can't let it sit still too long or else it stops. I started it up again yesterday simply by putting it on my wrist and moving around. 

Dad never stopped until last year.  He was always gardening, reading, writing, thinking, listening to music, tinkering or entertaining himself and others.  He was playing Suduko the night before he died in his sleep at 87.

It's been a year....