jjs wrote:
>
> We live in the same weather zone. I can truly appreciate how difficult it is
> to portray cold. Your winter picture is daunting enough that as the sun
> rises this moment, I'm wishing I didn't have to walk to work in a few
> minutes. Thanks for that. 
>
>
Sorry about that John! I printed that picture a good number of years
ago, and it was the toughest one I've ever printed. To start with, I
used 35mm HIE simply because I had a roll and wanted to see how it
responded to winter conditions. Of course, since I was experimenting, I
happened on the best scene that I've come across. At least I had a
camera! In any case, the ice was very dirty, and the print required 25
(or so) separate exposures. Even then, I couldn't get what I wanted. I
had recently heard about lith printing, which is where you "over expose"
susceptible paper and develop in dilute lith developer. After awhile,
infectious development occurs, and you have to pull the print at exactly
the right moment. (This was before Tim Rudman's excellent book on the
process was out.)
Ok. So I acquired some Sterling Lith paper, and set to work. Different
amounts of over exposure, developer exhaustion, and phases of the moon
affect the results. I finally got the look I wanted with a development
time of 40 minutes! I made 10 prints earmarked for a print exchange and
put them on fiberglass screens to dry. The next day I looked and, oh
no!, pepper fogging! (This was a danger with Sterling Lith, especially
when the developer neared exhaustion, which is when the most interesting
results can be had.) You can get rid of this by adding a solution of
potassium bromide when the fogging appears, but this changes the
exposure/development time dynamic. Back to the darkroom!
It took quite a while to get the fresh developer to behave the way I
wanted it, but eventually I made another 10 prints, and they even looked
good the next day! Using this process, Sterling Lith had a peach color,
which certainly didn't fit the image, and so I toned the prints in
Tetenal's gold toner, which give a very delicate (and permanent) blue.
Wash, wash, wash, and to the drying screen they went.
The next day I looked at the prints. Yikes! All but one had salmon
colored stains. I couldn't figure it out. Turns out that hard water was
the problem. We had just moved to a new (old) house in a different city.
After the move, I began to have strange stains/problems with my
prints. For example, the gloss on them when viewed with light skimming
along the surface was not even. I thought that perhaps I had been too
rough handling the prints, and so I took extreme measures. I still had
the problem. A while later we bought a dishwasher. Minerals clogged it
in a few months. The repairman said that he'd be back in a couple of
months if we didn't get a water softener, and so I put one in. My print
problems went away.
So in the end I have one print, which while it isn't perfect, I'm happy
with. I don't have it displayed, though, since I've been too afraid to
dry-mount it!
-Peter<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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