Mummy 400 in the Stone Cube.

Some of the impetus for making Sarah a camera for spooky season was the introduction by the Film Photography Project of new horror films in 120 format — last year Wolfman 100 and this year Mummy 400. When they introduced the faster film this summer, they had special introductory sale price. In addition to the roll for Sarah's blog, I got a few rolls to try out myself. The Stone Cube needed another fair try after the incident with the darkroom error.

There was distinctive sunlight filtered through very light clouds. The sun was already quite low in the sky six weeks after the equinox, coming from the southwest in the Central Standard Time afternoon. The extra hour past the meridian makes the sun's location a lot different.

The front door of the Oshkosh Mosque on Church Street, although the little signs on the doors direct visitors to the side entrance.

The Morgan House still looking spooky even after Halloween,

The side entrance by the parking lot at Trinity Episcopal Church.

A side window of the Oshkosh Northwestern Building.

A courtyard and entrance at what once was the world headquarters of Oshkosh B'Gosh.

The next morning with a sharper sun coming from the other direction. The side door of the first Evangelical Church.

The side door of St. Mary's Church. This looks like a modern addition. That dark brickwork is actually flush with the walls. The space enclosed by the dark bricks is indented, creating some odd to interpet shadows.

I sat looking at this wall for several minutes wishing those guy wires weren't in the way. Then I thought "Would that have stopped Picasso?" This is behind another uniquely Oshkosh business, the headquarters of the Naturist Society.

I read and watched a few reviews of the Mummy 400 film, most of which said it was rebranded Fomapan 400, although they don't admit to that. After using a roll of Arista.edu 400 last week, which I think is also Fomapan, it seemed the same, but I rarely use ISO 400 films. One person said it should be rated at 250, and another that you could get away with 6 stops overexposure with the 4x5 and a lens. The sunlit walls with side-lit tree against the shadow seemed to call for that kind of latitude, but it did not like the overexposure. I think the inherent diffraction of pinhole kind of overwhelmed it. It also got noticably grainier, not that there's anything wrong with that.

The Stone Cube has about .30mm pinholes on the axis and 15mm above the axis, 6cm from a 6x6cm frame. These were all done with the rising pinhole. The film was semi-stand developed in Rodinal 1:100.

A spooky-looking Evil Cube

I have to admit when I go to get beer I try to find carton designs that would look cool on a camera. When I saw this Stone IPA, it just had to become an Evil Cube. When I was almost finished, I read the bottom of the carton. "Gargoyles are historically known as protectors against evil spirits. Since the beginning, our Stone Gargoyle has represented our ceaseless quest to create the most awesome beers imaginable." This thing is going to have a severe case of schizophrenia.

There's a lot of discussion in the pinhole community about the material pinholes get drilled in - tarnished silver foil, brass shim stock or plain old beverage cans. The latter gets disrespect for being the lowest quality but great honor for being universally available. They also come with printing on them, often matching the cardboard carton the cans came in. Hmmm. It took me three tries to get two pinholes about the right size 15mm apart in exactly the right place to match the design on the shutter. The first of this pair was exactly .30mm and perfectly circular, the second a little bigger and noticably oval. The first picture and the last three below are with the axial pinhole and the other three with the rising pinhole. Let's see if you can tell which is the optimal one and which the eccentric one.

The carton was one of a selection of a pumpkin lager and three IPAs for Sarah to choose from for her Halloween countdown camera. She picked Stone's more psychedelic Hazy IPA. Her Compact 45mm also has the pinhole drilled in one of the cans to match the shutter, but only one.

I experienced another processing error with this roll of film. My darkroom is in a cold corner in the basement. I have a small heater to bring it up to 20° C. The temperature is displayed with red LEDs. I didn't realize it was on until I got dark adapted but by then I had already unrolled the film. It's a very dim, very red light but it was enough to fog some of the negatives. Concerning those earlier errors, in the discussion about the counter window on 120 cameras, some folks favored red filters over the hole. This demonstrates why that's not the best solution for fast panchromatic film.

This month's Fox Valley Photography Group challenge is "high key." 

An historic door surrounded by modern utilities in the alley behind the Grand Opera House.

The merger of the poles behind it and the crane's cables and supports looked like an interesting composition. I really wanted to get the tracks in there. I seem to have a tendency to get the bottom of the frame higher than I want. I have to work on that.

This was suppose to include the entire reflection of the bridge. Another one framed higher than I wanted but it makes an interesting composition, albeit not the one I was going for.

Same story with Elwood and his reflection in the pond although maybe not as interesting a composition.

Oak leaves on the driveway in raking light.

I had to include something spooky.

The approximately .30mm pinholes are 6cm from a 6x6cm frame. The film is Arista.edu 400 semistand developed in Rodinal 1:100.

Roadtrip: Neville's turn around the lake

A week after our circumnavigation of Lake Winnebago, we set out to do it again with a slightly different destination. We wanted to go back to Heritage Orchard for some of their fresh-pressed cider and the week before, Polly's Pumpkin Patch in Chilton had not opened for the season. It was Neville's turn in the 35mm Populist rotation.

Again our route was clockwise. We started with lunch between the locks in Appleton under the Oneida Street bridge at Pullman's.

The dining room is all windows with views of the Fox and the bridge soaring overhead. (I think this might be a double exposure.)

We had that most Wisconsin of appetizers, fried cheese curds.

We stopped at Joanne's to get some beaded pins for pinhole camera viewfinders and Velcro patches for my sandals. Over a month before Halloween, the spooky decor was already 40 per cent off.

There still seemed to be plenty of selection, including a little questionable anatomy.

 We also stopped at Michael's for glue. Spooky doesn't always have to be black.

There was also a good collection associated with Día de los Muertos.

Proceeding to Polly's Pumpkin Patch we percieved a plentiful production of plump pumpkins protected by a picket fence.

Not only the conventional carvers, but loads of warty and strange varieties

A palette of pigmented pumpkins.

 

Even the warty ones come in many colors

We chose a varied selection, which if you've been following the blog, you might recognize.

Of course there is a small gift shop with pumpkin products and pastries

For a place so associated with Halloween, there are very few spooky elements, except for this gent in the corner waiting on two small tables.

Polly's has several other attractions to make the trip worthwhile. They have a petting zoo with these cooperative little donkeys.

This pony seemed cooperative until I opened the shutter.

A sleeping pig was even moving too much.

Barn quilts look traditional. They've become more popular in the 21st century, kind of like pinhole photography.

They have a giant slide, available to all ages. We were told how the clerk's 88 year old father had recently gone down it. There were a couple kids having a lot of fun repeatedly using it so I thought it best to not make the attempt. We also decided to skip the 15 acre corn maze which is estimated to take an hour and a half to solve. They give you a map with the solution on a sheet of paper in case you can't find your way out.

Since a haystack was featured in one of the first photographs ever taken with artistic intent, I was inspired to photograph this pile of bales.

At Heritage orchard, there were plenty of trees still heavily laden with apples.

The tree under which we enjoyed our pastries the previous week was picked pretty clean now.

We had decided to stop and have our treats this week in Kiekhaefer Park which is billed as a scenic overlook. It's more an overlook of Highway 151 than anything. Standing atop a picnic table at the top of the hill, you could just barely see Lake Winnebago.

The next weekend was the first session of my workshop at the Trout Museum of Art. I only did one documentary shot of Joanne taking a photograph.

The pumpkins from Polly's are actually gourds with impenetrable exteriors. After getting fooled by the sun trying to take this photograph in black and white, I was more successful with Neville.

Several weeks later we went out to Fernau's for some carving pumpkins. Last year these tables were almost empty but it looks like the harvest was pretty good this year.

I eventually made a pie out of the apples for an episode of Sarah's Halloween calendar.    

One Sunday morning we made reservations to have brunch after we visited the Rock and Mineral show. It took us much less time to peruse than we had thought and we had some time before our table would be ready. Sarah hadn't seen the new bridge to the Asylum Point lighthouse, it was kind of on our way and the sky was pretty interesting so we stopped to take a look.

The lighthouse from on the island.

The county maintenance boat Calumet was docked in the channel between the point and the island, the first time I've ever seen it in the water.

Neville has a .17mm hand-drilled pinhole 24mm from a 24x36mm frame. The film is Kodak Gold 200.