Minimal Film Camera Gear

l have been going over in my mind what the minimal 6 month LEAVE film gear to Asia would be. I will probably take a bit more than this but this would be the minimalist gear I can not do with out.

- 8x10 Deardorff, 250mm f 6.7 Fujinon lens, spot meter, film holders 8-10. (possibly Mido), reflector, Gitzo tripod, head (ball or geared), other accessories.

- Leica R6 SLR 35mm, 60mm f2.8 Leica lens.

- Leica M6 Rangefinder 35mm, 35mm f1.4 Leica lens

- Adapted Speed Graphic 4x5, Aero Ektar f2.5 Lens, 5 or 6 Grafmatic film backs

- Plaubel Makina 120mm camera (not sure on this one).

Big Chemical Buy Of D-76

Bought 50 bags of D-76, 1 gallon-3800ml size. I have been worried a bit about getting this type of developer for film. I thought I might have to start mixing my own soon. The price here in Canada has gone way up lately, and many sellers from the USA do not ship to Canada. Even B&H in New York recently stopped shipping it to Canada (dangerous goods?).

Today I went to check the price per package, it was listed at a reasonable $6.99 USD per. It also could be shipped to Canada again. Why the change? Not sure. I thought I better buy some more even thou I have bunch in my darkroom stock (probably 20-30 bags).  It is better to have too much of this stuff than not enough, it was available for Canada shipping today so I bought it!

With the 50 I have on order from B&H (free shipping to Canada) and the supplies I have, I should have more than enough to cover all of the LEAVE trips films. When I come back to Canada I should be able to develop everything worry free. This stuff lasts a fair amount of time and I plan on shooting lots of film over the next few years, so it should go pretty fast. I mixed one packet up tonight in fact.

The total cost was $377.11 USD (including shipping/taxes/duty).

Kodak's D-76

Quote: E.H. Gombrich (Writer)

This is from the E.H. Gombrich book "The Story of Art". I am not comparing myself to Van Gogh or Cezanne but the more I work as a photographer (closing in on 40 years now, 14-52) the more strongly I feel I am doing it because I simply have to. Without my photography an important part of me would die and I would simply lose hope and whither away. I have to make pictures, I have to tell stories, I have to. Regardless of what anyone else feels or thinks, I have to continue on this journey, it is who I am.

Here is the quote, he is speaking of the work of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne:

"Both of them had arrived at his point without wanting to overthrow the old standards of art. They did not pose as "revolutionaries"; they did not want to shock the complacent critics. Both of the, in fact, had almost given up hope of anybody paying, attention to their pictures -- they just worked on because they had to."

Repost: A Bunch Of Forgotten 5x7 Negs From "Families Of The Dump"

Forgot about these 5x7 negs from last trip 2 trips (November/December 2017, April/May 2016). Maybe I should have included them in some of the submissions? Have to try to include some of them next time round.

I will also have a bunch of 8x10 neg scans later as well. I plan on using the 8x10 Deardorff next trip. I wonder how much film I should take? All I have? It is so expensive but the families story is worthy of that frozen film. 8x10 Tri-x should only be used for something very important subjects, the "Families of the Dump" project, those important lives certainly qualifies.

More Submissions

Decided to do a few more submissions for the 2018 season. I have no 2018 shows as of yet, need to find at least one, especially for the "Families of the Dump" project. These are all email submissions and most of them if not all pay artist CARFAC fees which helps a bit with the printing/framing costs. I use the artist CARFAC money to help buy photo paper to print the work for the exhibition. It is never enough to cover costs but any money earned from these shows does help out somewhat. I expect to get a CARFAC fee from the coming SAGA show but it will be split 3 ways. I might receive $400-600 CAD dollars. A single box of 50 sheet 20x24 Ilford warmtone paper alone costs $350 USD plus taxes, so only so much is covered, but anything is better than nothing.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/128191-REG/Ilford_1865619_Multigrade_FB_Warmtone_DW.html

Here are todays submision location efforts, please consider joining in and trying to get your work shown. The more people in this world making and showing art, THE BETTER!

Mackenzie Gallery
Hamilton Artists Inc.
MacLaren Art Centre
Firehall Arts Centre (Vancouver)
Gallery TPW (Toronto)
TATE (UK) My Dreams Come True Gallery

Unfortunately the Vancouver Art Gallery does not receive email submissions any longer (they probably get an overwhelming amount). They do have a email address for curatorial buys/donations of art work. So will give that a try. I sent them some photographs, who knows maybe they will buy one, then I can use the money to purchase more film and make more photos of the families at the dump. Continuing to tell those stories is most important to me. A security guards salary only goes so far, we got to do what we got to do thou. Even if I have to pay for everything myself the rest of my life I will continue to do so, the work and the lives-people in that work are too important to me to stop.
Vancouver Art Gallery

Note* The TATE link, includes 4 emails for sending in proposals. One of the emails is to the TATE MODERN, where I saw one of the greatest series of photos in my life. In the same facility was Irving Penn, Bruce Davidson (NY Subway Series) and August Sander. It was a f-cking dream for me!

3 Gallery Submissions

Did up three new gallery submissions tonight to the "Families of the Dump " series. All 3 galleries allow email submissions. If your interested give them a try, here are the submission links.
Gallery@501
SNAP Gallery
Okotoks Art Gallery At The Station

Note* Think I might have tried the dump family work at some of these galleries before and been rejected, am not sure. Can't hurt to try again, maybe new juries will be looking at new photos.

Here are the 10 photos I am sending them, all were made in late 2015 or early 2016. SNAP-501 galleries allowed 20 images to be submitted so I included photos 11-20 for them.

 Added to the SNAP-501 gallery submissions: