Today’s featured photo of the day! The feature is:
Winter Weather Photos – Ridgeland Near Cal-Sag Channel

Here is today’s featured photo presentation of winter weather photos, with today’s presentation a indeedly unique set of photos of a snowy scene in January 1981 of an area of forestry just north of Cal-Sag Channel and just west of Ridgeland Near Worth in Illinois. To brighten up these late winter days, I am featuring fine photos of winter weather, so we can wish the winter weather was just in the photo, and that we wouldn’t have to live it. Now, I know that you are really wondering about this photo, the If you remember the days of film, we had to develop the film in a darkroom. This was a mistake to develop color film with Kodak D-76 Developer–while in the darkroom, I grabbed the wrong premixed developer and developed a color reel of C-127 Kodacolor film. Also it is very interesting because the developing temperature for color film was supposed to be 3-5 degrees warmer so the developer was way more active on the color roll at 72° instead of the 68° that a black and white film should have been developed at. So, needless to say, this film was developed and when I fixed it and then turned the lights on and it wasn’t the right roll of film, my heart sank. Yet when I looked at the roll, the image was there, so I continued to develop the color print anyway, and found out by shear mistake the work of a style of litho-art that I created. This goes back way before the days of making these style of art photos on a computer, being the year 1981. The work of art was not only acceptable, but turned me onto going into the darkroom for the next year after it doing a lot of artwork through sepia toning, color toning and real art. Just search my repertoire of photo art by searching the tag #ART. Date – March 20, 1983

Photo taken with a Kodak Brownie Reflex Synchro Model – Medium Film Format Camera through it’s factory lens, filter=NOT POSSIBLE, Aperture=8 f/stop, shutter-speed 1/125th second, loaded with Kodacolor ISO (ASA) 100 Color C-127 Negative Film Reel processed with C-41 Processing Chemicals, and a Type C Print using the RA-4 enlargement paper process, onto a 3½x3½″ semi-gloss print.

☼FACT:  Anyone who remembers the day of Kodak Brownie cameras has some great vintage memories. The Brownie cameras were such super wide angle lenses that in those days actually derived a back “fisheye”effect area in the corners of the photos. The particular camera when I was using it was considerably older when I was using it in the early 1980’s, and just buying the 46 mm wide 127 format film spindle was really hard. The film had to be special ordered, and the camera shops all asked questions because the film was considered obsolete even in that time. The film looked like an exact square photo and it could have been, but the particular Brownie camera, with 12 exposures per roll, but the negative and print size was not exactly square. It looked a little longer going sideways. What is very interesting about these reels, if you will remember, is that the film went through the camera on a reel, and you always continues to have an empty spool for the next roll to go onto, fec the leader into the spooler, wound and tightened the grip of the film onto the feeder roll. the film was taped to a backer paper on both sides with one side, the side pointing at the film with jet black non stick super glossy paper, with in the case of Kodacolor on on the other side a semi-glossy yellow paper with the name of Kodak over it. The reason the other side was a bright and/or light color, was to reflect as much light back, because the exposure number was on this paper indicating which shot it was and so that you knew where to stop winding the film so that the exposures were not double exposed. The backer paper wound simultaneously as the film wound–all the way until the end of the roll. In order to start, you opened the roll always in subdued light, in a plastic envelope after opening the box, with a easily openable postage stamp lick ’em and stick ’em paper that held the roll in place. While winding the roll into the film section, the film was attached only once at the beginning of the roll where the first shot started, with an adhesive strip used to keep mounts on film elements and x-rays thought most of the mid 20^th century. , there was actually a thirteenth shot on the roll, but always had imperfections because the extra room was where the roll adjusted to rolling to a smooth first shot, and was not labelled until the safety zone was reached in the roll of film, where the ” 1 ” exposed itself, and the roll started warning that ” 1 ” was coming. Each shot you cranked the winding carefully until the next exposure went though with a little window. The back of this area had a spring activated flat planed (curved at the edges) Piece of springed steel that added a little pressure to the width of the film as it went through the exposure area. After all 12 shots, the reel wound up all the way onto the other reel. You took it out again only in subdued light and there was an attached again with another postage stamp style lick ’em and stick ’em paper that stated ” EXPOSED ” that was clearly stated. The key to getting great shots, was always having the least amount of light between a shoot and developing the film roll. So quicker developing was almost a must do, because chance of light bleeding into the top and bottom of the roll was common. The Brownie reflex camera brought camera and photography to from the commercial and elite status, to the middle class–as photography, before the Kodak Brownie cameras was a very expensive profession and/or hobby. It went way easier and way more square with the photographs and camera usage when I bought a 126 format camera. Those vintage 126 cameras came out in 1963 making it much easier to expose the roll that was actually a cartridge. The cartridges were way safer from having after exposure, as the film was safe in a dark cartridge. I had a 126 format Kodak Land Camera in 1977. Later the vintage 110 format came out in the year 1972–even easier to use than the 126 camera. I had a Kodak Instamatic camera in 1978. Wow–the memories of the vintage days! ☼

Another fine snowy view photograph to follow including the great scenic beauty of winter weather. It is going to be quite an end to winter, so join me all the way until the first day of spring! 

PHOTO OF THE DAY

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