Greetings from Indianapolis, Indiana USA

[martha33]

Greetings,

Actually I feel like I have been among you for many months as I have lurked here for a long time. I am nearly 75 years old and my trip through photography has been a long and winding one. Recently I have most enjoyed medium format and have spent a number of years acquiring a very nice Bronica Sqai kit. I suppose I will never completely leave medium format but I have felt the urge for some time to see if bigger might be even better!
I have been fooling around with a Zone VI Camera (a "real" Zone VI from Vermont!) and have a large Cambo -- a really formidable camera for an old lady! I'll report on lenses in a different Forum shortly. I am in the process of restoring the Zone VI to its full majesty. I bought it on eBay for a song and it was in remarkably good shape for the price! Today I have ordered an Intrepid so we will see where that leads.
I have also recently been enjoying pinhole imaging -- and continue to build my own cameras out of every imaginable container! I live in a cottage in a Retirement Community with my Labadoodle, Puffin. She will appear in images which you will likely see at some point. I have enjoyed hearing about and looking at the truly grand Darkrooms that you folks have built! I am almost embarrassed to report that I am still repurposing my 4' x 6' ½ bath into a very nice darkroom -- with a Beseler 45MXT in an adjacent office/studio/lab that was a bedroom in another life. It now has darkened windows with weather-stripping under the hall door and black tape over all the "glowing office objects" so it has become "the dry side!"
I believe I have gone on enough -- but I really need an answer to this burning question before I sign off: I take copious notes about each photo which is associated with a carefully numbered negative carrier. When I get all the carriers into the pitch black darkroom and struggle (but finally do succeed!) loading the Jobo, the negatives get all mixed up. Often I take several photos of the same thing varying only 1 or 2 exposure characteristics for each one, so knowing which is which is really important to me. How can I tell these apart when I am all done?
Thanks (and I am glad to finally become a real group member!),
Martha

[Louis Pacilla]

AWESOME! Great to have you aboard Martha and looking forward to your future contributions.

BTW-I Love the fact that your "bathroom" priority sounds to be more wet side darkroom FAR more then a full fancy bathroom.

[Tin Can]

Welcome Martha.

Look at this thread for film holder coding.

[martha33]

Thanks, Randy, I see I am not the first down this street. I am now figuring out how to punch/drill/file holes into the edge of film holder flaps!

[scheinfluger_77]

Welcome Martha. It is great to see more women in the forum and out in the field.

[Pere Casals]

Hello Martha,

Instead coding the sheets, I'd code the spiral. You have two sides, you can cut a little notch in one of the sides and numbering the slots in accordance.

Probably this "toy grade" Infrared vision device would help you to load the sheets in the dark:

https://www.amazon.com/Spy-Gear-Ninj...ninja+ultimate



Film is usually IR insensitive, but if you go that way please check that IR LEDs are not fogging your film, pehaps you may mask a bit the IR LEDs because you don't need all the power for near objects.

Regards,
Pere.

[Rainymac]

Hi Martha and welcome from another newbie. Some similarities here... Gender, age almost the same, recently moved up from medium format, bathroom serves as a darkroom and your question is one I've been pondering. I'm sure we will both enjoy our adventure! Lorraine

[martha33]

Thanks for the greeting, Lorraine, we should keep tabs on each other as we explore Large Format. I have already developed a template for notching all the film backs and have interested my neighbor, a carpenter age 85, in helping me with this task. Stay tuned . . . .

[Rainymac]

Yes indeed Martha. I'll set you as a contact (I think that will work) as I'm sure our paths will have commonalities that will interest us both. I've yet to update my profile with info that has more details than those included in my introduction post. The template for notching the film holders is interesting. As a computer programmer from many decade ago, a binary solution was an obvious choice. However, I'm keen to see your solution. I don't need to go far to get the code system drilled. . . . my husband is a retired carpenter.

[martha33]

Thanks for the greeting, Lorraine, we should keep tabs on each other as we explore Large Format. I have already developed a template for notching all the film backs and have interested my neighbor, a carpenter age 85, in helping me with this task. Stay tuned . . . .