Harvesting olives in Caifornia 2012

[Drew Wiley]

More off-topic local lore: the eucalyptus grove was planted by some guy who expected to
get rich making toothpicks and matchsticks, but then had a nudist colony in it. The owner's
kid took quite a ribbing in the high school locker room due to his 100% tan. Around the corner in the creek was an Indian family. They were bussed uphill and I knew the kids from
the age of 5. Then one March day I encountered three kids who had discovered my ledge
up one of the remoter Tables above the river, and there was this young guy who looked
exactly like the Indian I grew up with - turned out to be his nephew, and had a feather
tatooed on his cheek. I had my 8x10 propped up right there and could now kick myself
for not taking their group portrait - it would have been very interesting - but they had
fogotten to pack a canteen and were desperate, so I handed them my canteen and went
about shooting the incredible wilflower display.

[Chuck P.]

I've become interested in an olive grove where olives are still harvested by hand. The conditions are interesting---below the canopy of olive branches is dense shade, above is glaring sunshine. The harvesters are on ladders both above and below the canopy. I'm planning to do a lot of bracketing, mostly exposing for the shadows but I thought I'd see if anyone here had some suggestions? I'll be shooting the 5x7 Speeder handheld, loaded with HP-5+

Referrence the development time that you use for "normal", then perhaps make several exposures at various shadow placements, then tinker with development times to get the best highlight densities that will print for you. The higher the shadow placement the further up the curve the highights will fall. Thus the greater the need for contracting the scene brightness to a printable range on the negative. A contraction requiring the equivalent of N-3 dev is probably better served with some form of compensation development technique to keep the middle values well supported. In the abscense of that, I would look to expose for no greater than N-2 dev i.e., a "textured" high value "falling" on Zone X that is subsequently developed to a Zone VIII printable density value. If you have a spot meter and you know when your textured high value is falling on X, but you've no testing to know the dev time for N-2, well, this is where the "tinkering" comes into play.

[Drew Wiley]

Well ... compensating or contracted dev and there goes your film speed, and along with it
all that microtonality that makes HP5 so impressive in the first place. TMY400 solves this
problem simply with a straighter line characteristic curve. Like I already intimated, I'd solve
this with a printing mask if I chose HP5 (which I have often done), but the final look is
quite different in silver than carbon, if that's what John has in mind. And sometimes an old
uncoated lens will give enough flare to solve the shadow issue by itself.

[Chuck P.]

Well ... compensating or contracted dev and there goes your film speed, and along with it
all that microtonality

It's understood that contracted development (mostly with -2 in my experience) there will be some speed loss. For me, with TMX and d76 1:1, at -1 dev, I require no adjustment in speed, but at -2, it can be a 1/3 stop or a little more off the box speed. The mid-tones and their "micro" tonality and such don't really suffer, IMO, unless I fail to make the adjustment. My testing has proven that a -3 contraction really weakens the middle values, so I rarely go there with that combination, and I believe a compensating developer would serve contractions like that better, IMO.

[Brian Vuillemenot]

Be sure not too try and eat any of the olives right off the tree. I picked one of a tree at my work last week on a dare, and it taste horrible! Took all day to get the bitter taste out of my mouth. THhy need to be properly cured before human consumption.

[ROL]

THhy need to be properly cured before human consumption.

CANNIBALISM!!! (from the Quaker Cookbook, "How to serve Thy Fellow Man"?)

[John Kasaian]

I of course despise developers, that is, the sprawl types, but without mentioning names,
the rich guy who did that all the Copper River stuff actually was a neighbor up in the hills,
meaning he lived about a mile away. Friendly enough fellow. When you walked into the tiny
tiny little Mex restaurant in town (incredible food) it was all cowboys and Indians, and everyone from millionaire to broke cowpoke all looked the same, right down to the cow poop on their boots. What I really miss is all the open range between Clovis and the hills,
where I used to roam with my little Pentax. Incredible rock colors and cave colors up above Dry Creek, then the fog would lift and a bull would spot you ... I still have some
white petrified palm wood bookends from the Pliocene sandstone formations in there.

A lawyer now owns the golf course, IIRC.
My little place is up for sale because of the encroachment (I used to drive across a section of open land to get to the place, but somebody complained of cow crap on the dirt road messing up thier car so the guy who owned the grass lease put up barbed wire) I used to enjoy slowing down to drive through a herd of cows or flock of sheep (and my old truck was "baptised" when I'd load it with rotted mule manure to take to the olive grove to be used for fertilizer.) From my place I can look up at the antennea array on Wildcat Hill. Right now I'm waiting for the fillaree to make an appearance and new native grasses to give me some relief from having to buy so much derned alfalfa.

[Drew Wiley]

So much has changed I guess. I sold my own property and pasture up in the hills very carefully, to a young family I knew would keep it intact and resurrect the orchard and vineyard. I left them with two really good wells. Miss the place, but it's just too hard to
keep up with it anymore from this distance. Had a great view of Shuteye. But when I did
have to drive downhill over the years I liked to stop right at the corner of Copper Ave and
watch the white marsh hawks dive bomb rodents in the fields on those misty mornings as
the fog broke up. They'd just hover there invisibly in the whiteness until the exact moment.
But I'd imagine the eagle viewing up atop Table Mtn is still as good as ever. I've sure had
the 8x10 up there many times. A good workout.

[ROL]

What I really miss is all the open range between Clovis and the hills...

I owned 5 acres of prime star thistle, puncture vine and wild mustard between Clovis and Academy, during the 80's. Those foothills and snowy winter crest views from Yosemite to the Kaweahs were unbeatable. A fine place to grow up, until you do.

[John Kasaian]

Well, I've been blessed with a drizzly overcast day! I don't know if they'll pick in the rain, but I'm taking along the speeder just in case!