Seriously, wet tree bark and wet stone against a background of clean, white, undisturbed snow is pretty unbeatable when it comes to black and white. Since the cemetery was closed, I had to poke my lens through a space in the fence and crouch down a little to get a decent angle. With a thick blanket of snow, the cemetery gets even more quiet and peaceful. You can tell how gentle the snow was falling, it settled oh so perfectly on the lettering of the headstone on the left.

For those that don’t know, that’s Dalhousie University’s Sexton Campus to the back-left and the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia to the back-right.

Camera used was a Mamiya 6 with a Mamiya 75mm lens and #8 yellow filter. Film used was Fuji Acros 100 developed in a small tank using Kodak XTOL 1+3 for 16 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first minute, then five inversions per minute.

This photograph was taken at 44.643296,-63.572174 in February, 2010 and is Copyright 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

Walking up to the top of Bishop Street and having this in front of me was almost too much to take. Weathered wrought iron fences are awesome enough on most days, but on this morning this one was made even better by a nice even coating of fresh snow. For someone who shoots black and white, this is pretty much a gift-wrapped photo. This is the fence that runs along the front of the Old Burying Ground, on Barrington Street. I was early enough to get to the fence before the wind and milder temperatures got to cleaning off the iron, I love how the snow has piled up so neatly along the horizontal bars.

Camera used was a Mamiya 6 with a Mamiya 75mm lens and #8 yellow filter. Film used was Fuji Acros 100 developed in a small tank using Kodak XTOL 1+3 for 14 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first minute, then five inversions per minute.

This photograph was taken at 44.643296,-63.572174 in February, 2010 and is Copyright 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

I love snow. Maybe it’s because I live in an apartment and someone else does the shovelling. Whatever the reason, I wish we got more in these parts. Most of the time the snow around here is mixed with rain, or it’s just rain itself, and everything ends up being soggy and damp and grey and miserable. When there is snow though, there is the most magical, deep light. The smallest amount of light is scattered in every direction making it beautiful and flat with wonderful contrast.

There always seems to be a bike locked up along Barrington Street — there were two on this morning — almost completely buried under the previous night’s snowfall. This bike was a good shot because of its dark frame and its undisturbed blanket of snow.

I shot an entire roll during my twelve minute walk to work that morning, and much of the roll turned out quite nicely. I hope to post a couple more before I move on to something else.

Camera used was a Mamiya 6 with a Mamiya 75mm lens and #8 yellow filter. Film used was Fuji Acros 100 developed in a small tank using XTOL 1+3 for 14 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first minute, then five inversions every minute.

This photograph was taken at 44.646879,-63.573691 in February, 2010 and is Copyright 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

Well, this was my first exposure with my new-to-me large format camera. I took it up onto the roof of my building on a sunny but windy afternoon to see if I could get anything useful. The exposure itself turned out alright, but as you can see there are processing errors. Those lines across the sky are where the sheets of film I had in the tray overlapped. I need to do a better job moving the sheets around when there are multiples going in the same tray. Or buy a sheet film tank.

Anyway, it was fun getting under the darkcloth for a little while. It can only get better from here!

Camera used was a Calumet 45NX with a Caltar 210mm lens. Exposure was for 1/8th second at f64. Film used was Kodak Tmax 100 developed in a tray using Kodak XTOL 1+1 for 9 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Contact print was made on Ilford MGIV resin-coated paper, developed in Kodak Dektol 1+2, fixed, washed and toned in selenium at 1+20 for four minutes.

This photograph was taken at 44.643046,-63.570001 in February, 2010 and is Copyright 2010 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

It’s been so damn cold lately I thought I’d dig up a nice colour shot from the summer. This is a shot of the waves rolling in at Lawrencetown Beach. I can’t wait for the weather to warm up a little so I can get back there.

Camera used was a Mamiya 6 with a Mamiya 75mm lens. Film used was Kodak Portra 160NC lab developed in C41 chemistry.

This photograph was taken at 44.64002, –63.34629 in June, 2009 and is Copyright 2009 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

This is the “dry” side of the darkroom:

That’s a used Saunders/LPL C6600 condenser enlarger on my coffee table that I move into the bathroom. It’s a pretty decent beginner to novice enlarger and does the trick for me. When I enlarge 6x6 negatives — which is about 99% of the time — I use a Meopta Anaret S 80mm lens. It’s pretty decent too. On the rare occasion I enlarge a 35mm negative I use an LPL 50mm lens that I think came with the enlarger. I also have a nice set of Ilford multigrade filters that go inside the head of the enlarger. They control contrast on multigrade paper. On the baseboard of the enlarger is my nice four-blade Saunders easel. It makes making nice crisp edges a snap.

To the right of the enlarger is a used Gralab 505 digital timer. Both the enlarger and red safelight (on the floor, outside the frame here) are plugged into the timer. There is also a foot switch to control it. The timer is toggled so that when the enlarger is off, the safelight is on and vice-versa. It handles time in tenths of a second. Having a digital timer really makes print making go a lot smoother.

To the left of the enlarger is a stack of different sized paper in their boxes. I mostly use resin coated (RC) paper as it’s just so much more convenient for my process. I do have a few packets of fibre-based paper, but I don’t use it too often. I also put the little dust blower and anti-static cloth on the top. I also have a few stiff pieces of paper and cardboard for making test strips with. There is also a few pieces with holes cut in them in case I need or want to burn and dodge.

Once a piece of paper is exposed, it needs to be run through a few chemical baths. This is the “wet” side of the darkroom, but it’s only really half:

The red tray is developer. In this case — and almost always — it is Kodak Dektol diluted 1+2. Dektol is a good, all-purpose neutral to cold-tone developer that develops an image in two minutes. That’s what I use anyway. It’s cheap to buy and easy to mix. The gray tray placed on the toilet is the stop bath, where the print goes after the developer. Stop bath is needed to instantly stop the development process. It gives a slightly higher level of consistency from print to print and helps to extend the life of the fixer. After 30 seconds in the stop bath, the print goes into the fixer. The fixer is in the white tray on the vanity. I use Ilford Rapid Fixer as it does its job in 30 seconds, is easy to find and mix.

After the print comes out of the fixer, it’s safe to turn the lights on. I take the print into the kitchen and wash it for a few minutes in the steel sink. After that, I put it through a 1+20 selenium toner bath for four minutes. You have to be very careful with this as selenium isn’t the most healthy thing to be subjected to. I use gloves and ventilation. I should also probably be wearing safety goggles, but like I said I am crazy careful with all of this stuff. After the toner, the print gets washed again, then hung to dry. In case you’re wondering, I tone in selenium not for a change in colour — which it does at lower dilutions — I do it because it tends to create nice deep blacks and selenium is a more stable metal than silver, so it’ll last longer. Some say it’ll last a couple of hundred years in decent conditions.

And there it is, a print (of this) hanging to dry. The test strip is on the right. From that I determined the final print exposure to be twelve seconds at f11. White whites, black blacks and a full range of midtones in between. It really makes printmaking a whole lot easier when the in-camera exposure is spot on. It pays to take your time when exposing the film correctly in-camera. A properly exposed negative can be made into a beautiful, rich print with as little darkroom work as possible. And when you have a small, temporary darkroom like mine, that’s a huge plus.

It’s amazing to think that prints made in my little bathroom are hung on walls from coast to coast.

I love this art-deco signage. You can find it here and there in downtown Halifax. I might make it a little project of mine to photograph all the examples I find during my wandering. Being fairly new to Halifax, I’m not sure what the previous name of the building was, but it apparently was not agreeable enough for the current owners, hence the missing lettering. Too bad, but I’m glad they at least left this obvious example. If I was more of an appreciator of the obvious — an obviist? — and less of a typophile I think I’d be taking a different type of interest in this.

Here’s a Google Street View of the corner:

There’s a larger version if you’re interested.

Camera used was a Mamiya 6 with a Mamiya 75mm lens. Film used was Kodak 400TX exposed at 320 and developed in a small tank using Rodinal 1+50 for 16 and a half minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was an initial five inversions, then two inversions every minute.

This photograph was taken at 44.646510,-63.572802 in December, 2009 and is Copyright 2009 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

What light there was on this grey, dreary day seemed to shine a little brighter on the stainless steel of this handrail. Up against the concrete, it seemed like a natural for black and white.

Camera used was a Mamiya 6 with a Mamiya 75mm lens. Film used was Kodak 400TX exposed at 320 and developed in a small tank using Rodinal 1+50 for 16 and a half minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was an initial five inversions, then two inversions every minute.

This photograph was taken at 44.650010,-63.578309 in December, 2009 and is Copyright 2009 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

This is one of those right-place-right-time shots. It was fairly busy that day at the Fortress of Louisbourg so getting a shot without any tourists in it required some creativity. It just so happened that as I stepped out of one of the buildings — an interesting exhibit about the nuns — the street was empty other than one of the local time-travelling residents. Jackpot.

As I hurried to the middle of the street I turned the focussing ring to infinity, turned and shot. Before I could lower the camera there were people walking into the frame. I’m very happy with the way the shot turned out.

Camera used was a Mamiya 6 with a Mamiya 75mm lens and #8 yellow filter. Film used was Fuji Acros 100 developed in a small tank using Kodak XTOL 1+3 for 14 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was for the first minute, then five times per minute.

This photograph was taken at 45.893227,-59.976454 in August, 2009 and is Copyright 2009 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.

There are many lovely old churches in Halifax but I usually have to muster up the nerve to go anywhere near them. Something about lightning strikes, not that I believe in that sort of thing. This church is St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica, at the corner of Spring Garden Road and Barrington Street. It’s very, very beautiful and this lonely tree that lives beside it has always made me a little curious. So on Christmas Eve as I was walking home from work I decided to step foot on hallowed ground and see if I could get a decent angle without bursting into flames.

I like how the cross on the roof and the tree are somewhat aligned and reflect one another in a slightly abstract sense. And I managed to get a few shots without evoking any divine wrath. Or maybe that’s coming later.

Camera used was a Mamiya 6 with a Mamiya 75mm lens. Film used was Kodak 400TX exposed at 320 and developed in a small tank using Rodinal 1+50 for 16 and a half minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Agitation was an initial five inversions, then two inversions every minute.

This photograph was taken at 44.644239,-63.573438 in December, 2009 and is Copyright 2009 Chris Jones. All rights reserved.