Uncle Jonesy's Cameras Podcast #99: Wayne Once Shot Color

by Kevin Lane

When I arrived at Wayne's house to record show #99, I immediately noticed the archival photo box lying on the table. Soon, Wayne opened the box and and removed a stack of beautiful 4x5 color transparencies. When he laid a couple of them on a light table, I gasped in amazement at the colorful images that glowed like stained glass windows. "These are amazing!" I exclaimed.

It seems that Wayne once enjoyed not only making 4x5 color transparencies, but he also would make prints from them using the cibacrhome process, which is no longer in existence. So why is Wayne planning to do with these color photographs now? Believe it or not, he is thinking about scanning them. Why is this so hard to believe? It's because Wayne has never before scanned film. And so, dear listeners, this is where you come in. Wayne needs your help in learning about the various scanning processes. If you like to submit your ideas, use the email address below.

By the way, although I do scan the color film that I shoot, I don't really feel like much of an expert. However, most of what I do know came from this excellent video from Nick Carver on various scanning workflows.

After hearing about Wayne's most recent estate sale adventure, in which a breakfast sandwich causes him to miss out on his primary target, I lead a  discussion of another photo book. as you know, I have come a fan of the work of the American photographer, Robert Adams, and I was very pleased to find a of his that I had never seen before in our local library. The book is Skogen by Robert Adams, Skagen is the Swedish word for "forest," The book's fifty pictures depicts views of the dense forest of northwest Oregon in what appears to be 35mm format. I was excited to be experiencing a new to me Robert Adams book for the first time

However, the farther I progressed through the book, the more confused I became. I found the images to be strange to me. Most of them have very shallow depth of field, and the backlit perspective results in a high level of contrast. I wan't sure of what I should be seeing in the pictures, and the only feeling I got from the book was of confusion. After getting to the end, I put the book on the re-shelve rack. Two months later, I returned to the library, pulled the book off the shelf and went through it again, and when I finished it, the result was no different. I just didn't get it.

This has happened to me before, but not with a photo book. I have purchased long playing records from either artists I know and love or artists that are new to me, put them on the turntable, and either became very confused or even outright hated them. However, I have learned to not give up on them, so I keep replaying them. Over time, I begin to understand what the artist was trying to do, and many of these records become some of my favorites. 

So, of course I had to try again with Adams' Skogen. This time I checked it out and took it home. If you want to know what happed this time, listen to show #99.

The 5th Annual Photowalk with the Shutter Brothers is scheduled for Saturrday, October 24, in Huntsville, Alabama. I think this one is going to be the best one ever, and we would love to see you there. You can find all the details here.

Don't forget that Wayne and I need your help. As things stand now, we are projected to release our 100th episode in October, We're looking for ideas on how to celebrate this milestone. If you have a suggestion, please send to us in an email to unclejonesyscameras@gmail.com. Even if you don't have any 100th show ideas, we'd still love to hear from you. Also, please follow us on our Facebook and Instagram pages. And we also want to thank our special listeners who have made financial contributions to help us with production and hosting costs. If you would like to help, you can do so at our Ko-fi page.

Happy Photography everyone! Now go get some good pictures!