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For the college I work, I've been working on cyanotype testing. Our darkroom class like all others was forced into quarantine. And guess what, it's hard to learn how to develop film and enlarge it from your dorm or apartment. But you can learn cyanotype process and do that at home. Of course unlike me the students don't have a bunch of large format negatives to contact print. But they did find creative ways to use the process. I had relatively little knowledge of the process until now despite my 35 or so years of conventional photographic experience. So I'm taking some time to become as expert as I can to help students if we resort to cyanotyping. Actually, even if life resumed as normal, I'd still want to continue with this process. It's very inexpensive, easy and relatively safe. That despite half of the chemistry used to make the sensitizer having cyanide in the name (Potassium Fericyanide.) Below are some tests using different techniques and substrates. What

The Gods of Analog have been generous to me of late. The world around us may be falling apart. But I was given a ton of weird photosensitive materials. In the recent past I also acquired two 5x7 cameras, and gradually have been working with them. My uncle gave me a Seneca 5x7 camera, a truly old school wooden camera with a lens of the type that requires a bulb release that you squeeze and the air triggers the shutter. It's a nice, compact lightweight camera slimmer and lighter than most of my 4x5's. Processing of the films has been a bit of a challenge. I bought a reel from e-bay that in principal seems good. But 5x7 film on a reel tends to bend quite a bit. And getting the films on the right rung on the reel proves difficult, especially in a film tent. I'll end this here, but just wanted to share my love for the 5x7 film format.

The RB67 and Graflex 23 Back Recently my dad gave me his Mamiya RB67. Since then I’ve been doing lots of research about what parts fit which system. It’s not as straight forward as you might expect. In the decades since the first Mamiya RB67 there have been lots of variations and a few more modern models. Some parts are interchangeable. Some are not. When looking for a budget film back, I came upon a forum hinting that the old American Singer/Graflex backs also fit the RB system. And while I was at Looking Glass in Berkeley, I saw one of those backs for just $20. And it so happened I had the RB in the car.  So I tried it on. And indeed it fit. However, while in the shop I couldn’t figure how to get it off. The sliders that release the back wouldn’t budge. Guess I’ll be buying it I told the gal at the register.  So the back appears to work fine. But there are some quirks. First off, I found how to release the back: there are two little metal tabs opposite the lock that holds th