Green Bay Retrofuturism and ordinary Oshkosh.

In anticipation of a Photo Opp photowalk at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, I loaded another roll of vintage Portra 400 NC, at least a decade and a half old. In 220 format, it has no backing paper. To prevent issues I previously encountered, I lined the entire interior of Morton with backing paper from a recent roll of Portra 800, including two extra layers over the counter hole. That should make it opaque.

Without numbers to guide me, this time I tried one and a quarter turns for the first eight pictures, one and an eighth for the next eight, and just one thereafter. That would have worked great except for the fact that I forgot to wind it twice and advanced about two and a half frames, with the shutter open, while having a conversation. Accounting for those errors, I would have gotten twenty exposures, and there was enough film left for three more pictures. Another issue that reduced the yield from this roll was that increased reciprocity failure is also an issue with film gerontology, and there were a few unrecoverable underexposed interiors.

The location was interesting for me because, other than Madison, there were more statewide meetings I attended there than any other campus for the alphabet soup of LTDC, EMTC, CIO Council, and a couple of our Oshkosh building committees. I haven't been there in ten years.

Most of those meetings, some of them radically virtual for the time, included showing off Mary Coffrin Hall Room 204, the Distance Education Laboratory. Built in 2001, it could connect to two properly equipped remote sites for two-way live communication at VHS quality. With a giant "bridge" in Madison, all thirteen campuses could connect Hollywood Squares style. There were two pan-tilt-zoom cameras, three projectors to display the two other sites and a computer, the document camera, or from their cutting-edge video server. It cost millions. Now we can do it on a $30 burner phone. They did offer a lot of courses to smaller two-year campuses for years before on-line classes replaced that sort of thing. Tania Nelson was Photo Opp host and the designated watcher of gear.

UW Green Bay was established in the late 1960's when America was still great enough to realize the societal benefits of an educated population and critical research. That timing led to a rather exuberant embrace of Brutalism, so the campus sometimes looks a little like a sci-fi movie, especially when it's completely deserted late on Saturday afternoon in the summer.

The six-story David Coffrin Library rises above the campus with views of Green Bay to the west. Not unlike Polk Library at Oshkosh, it's going to come down in a few years because the legislature has been withholding the necessary budget to maintain HVAC and other systems and provide a decent education. I left the magenta stripe along the bottom. The film wasn't in its wrapper when I bought it, and it's leaking just a bit at the edges.

One modern feature is actually pretty enviable. With the school in northern Wisconsin just off the east shore of windy Green Bay, all the campus buildings are connected by tunnels, which really enhances the sci-fi effect.

In some places, it's almost monotone.

These blue tables, wooden arbor and random brickwork on the Student Union provide a little relief.

 

Brandi Grahl and Morgan Kirchenwitz and their children were my companions for some of the time, but pinhole photography wasn't compatible with two pre-teenagers in the lead. At the end of the day, I tried for a group photo, but the kids were off again while their mothers graciously posed with Leonardo. 

Upriver in Oshkosh, another in my series featuring the north inlet to Miller's Bay. Brutally treated by the ice, the T-Dock gets a makeover.

 

Encasing utility enclosures in stainless probably saves paint and reflects light in a more interesting way than a white or brick building.

A splash of tomato blossoms.

A rather severe crop of a white peony featuring the fast film's grain.

A pink peony.

Another variety of pink. After the rain, you have to get under them and look up to get a face-on view.

Morton has two hand-drilled .25mm pinholes, on the axis and 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The Portra NC was the 12th roll developed in a Cinestill liter powder C41 kit.