The Mississippi Delta 36: Highway MS 12 and Hollandale

After you have enjoyed the "big city" of Belzoni, Mississippi Route 12 heads almost due west across the flat delta farm fields towards Hollandale. At first, the scene was a bit dull, consisting of corn and cotton fields. But the industrial-looking silos caught my eye and became more and more interesting.

Silos, MS 12 west of Belzoni (Kodak Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, yellow filter)

Silos, MS 12 west of Belzoni (Panatomic-X film)

The light was harsh, but it rewarded with shadows and patterns on the corrugated siding.

Unused elevator/silo, Sunflower River Road at MS 12, Isola (Panatomic-X film, orange filter)

Poison ivy farm, unused silo complex

This tall unused agglomeration of machinery, concrete, and rusted steel was close to the Sunflower River bridge on Sunflower River Road. While I had my tripod set up, a farmer pulled up in his pickup truck and asked me if I was buying the structure. Hmmm....

Silo, MS 12 east of Hollandale (Fuji Acros film, Leica IIIC, 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, yellow-green filter; note light leak in shutter curtain)

Hollandale is a small town on US 61, the "Blues Highway." I wrote about Hollandale before in The Mississippi Delta 14. By the time I reached town, I did not have much time to explore before heading home. I had forgotten that I had photographed in Hollandale before but then recognized the buildings in the main commercial strip.

Lounge on East Ave., Hollandale (Fuji Acros film, Leica IIIC, 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, yellow filter, 1/200 ƒ/8)

Former gas station and child care center (?), East Ave., Hollandale

East Avenue runs north-south and eventually connect with US 61 south of town. These two buildings caught my eye, and I took a few quick photographs with my Leica IIIC. It was beastly hot and there was no one about outside.

Dead tree in corn fields off US 61, Anguilla (Fuji Acros film, 5 cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, yellow filter)

This poor old tree near Anguilla had stood proud and tall for who knows how many years, but finally succumbed (I am sure) to lightning. 

This was a rewarding day of exploring despite the heat. It was a nice way to get out and photograph during the semi-shutdown caused by the Covid virus. Standby for future articles on the Mississippi Delta. 

If you like photographs of grain elevators, look at the superb large format film work by the Canadian photographer, Jan Normandale, titled "Wooden Elevators."

The Mississippi Delta 35: Belzoni

Belzoni is the county seat for Humphreys County, Mississippi. According to Wikipedia, the town was named for Giovanni Battista Belzoni, a 19th-century Italian archaeologist and explorer. How did he end up in the Mississippi Delta? In the 1970s, Belzoni was known as the Catfish Capital of the United States for having a greater percentage of acreage used for catfish production than any other county. I do not know if this is still true, but the city does play up the catfish heritage with statues of smiling catfish at various street corners.

Former catfish factory, Hwy US 49E, Belzoni (Kodak TMax 100 film, Pentax Spotmatic camera, 35mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Takumar lens)

Former catfish packing factory, US 49E (Fuji Acros film, Leica IIIC, 5 cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, yellow filter)

Sadly, the big catfish packing plant has been closed for many years. Many jobs must have been lost when it shut.

Farmers' Grain Terminal (Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, 90mm ƒ/3.5 lens, yellow filter)

Approaching Belzoni from the south on US 49E, the very impressive Farmers' Grain Terminal complex at 509 Silver City Road dominates the skyline. At some time, these circles were covered with a huge cloth tent and contained corn.

Silver City Rd., Belzoni (Fuji Acros film, Leica IIIC, 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, yellow filter)

Silver City Rd., Belzoni (Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, 90mm ƒ/3.5 lens, yellow filter)

Silver City Rd. (Tmax 100 film, Pentax Spotmatic, 35mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Takumar lens)

Unused gin, Silver City Road, Belzoni (Tmax 100 film, 35mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Takumar lens)

Tamale store (Fuji X-E1 digital file)

Head further into town on Silver City Road and you pass miscellaneous housing, old stores, a closed gin, and an unused silo complex.

W. Jackson St., Belzoni (Fuji Acros film, Leica IIIC, 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, yellow filter)

Liquor store on W. Jackson St. (Fuji Acros film, Leica IIIC, 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, yellow filter)

E. Jackson St., Belzoni (Fuji Acros film, Leica IIIC, 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, yellow filter)

Jackson Street runs E-W through town and may be the traditional "main drag."

Western Auto, East Jackson Street (Moto G5 digital file)

I was pleased that many of the shops are open and conducting some sort of business. There is even a Western Auto still open. I have not seen a Western Auto in a least a decade. According to Wikipedia,

Western Auto Supply Company—known more widely as Western Auto—was a specialty retail chain of stores that supplied automobile parts and accessories. It operated approximately 1200 stores across the United States. It was started in 1909 in Kansas City, Missouri, by George Pepperdine and Don Abnor Davis. Pepperdine later founded Pepperdine University. Western Auto was bought by Beneficial Corporation in 1961; Western Auto's management led a leveraged buyout in 1985, leading three years later to a sale to Sears. Sears sold most of the company to Advance Auto Parts in 1998, and by 2003, the resulting merger had led to the end of the Western Auto brand and its product distribution network.

One of the founders also founded Pepperdine University? Impressive.

Renee's Beauty Supply, 120 E. Jackson St., Belzoni (Tmax 100 film, Pentax Spotmatic, 35mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Takumar lens)

The charming proprietor of Renee's Beauty Supply generously let me take a picture of the healthy beauties outside of her store. I was glad to see on my 2020 visit that Renee's is still open and operating, despite the slowdown from the virus.

Crescent Theater, Hayden Street, Belzoni

The Cresent Theatre on Hayden Street is closed and may be for sale. I was surprised to find a photograph in the Library of Congress archives taken in 1939 by Marion Post Wolcott of the very same side stairway on the Crescent. In the segregated era, it was common for African American patrons to be seated in the balcony. Notice the sign on the narrow door that states "White Men Only."

Segregated movie house, October 1939, by Marion Post Wolcott (Image from the United States Library of Congress Prints and photographs division, digital ID ppmsca.12888)

This has been our short tour of Belzoni, Mississippi. It is an interesting place and worth a visit if you are in the central Mississippi Delta. Thank you for coming along this short trip.

Expired Color Film Treasure: Kodak Gold 100 120-size (Abandoned Films 07)

 

Dear Readers, this is the last (for now) article in my series on discontinued types of camera film ("Films from the Dead").

Kodak's Gold color negative films (for color prints) were famous for consistent and reliable results under various conditions. No matter what a customer did with their roll, a good laboratory could usually recover a decent image. Kodak manufactured the 35mm versions in USA, Mexico, China, and possibly other countries. I was familiar with Gold 100, 200, and 400 in 135mm size for 35mm cameras but had not seen other sizes. Therefore, I was surprised to see this roll of 120 size 100 in the freezer of a former friend who passed away a few years ago. 

This roll expired in 2000, so I wondered if it would work, but it had been frozen all these years. I loaded it in my Hasselblad and took photographs in the area under various light conditions. I exposed it at EI=64, on the assumption that it had lost some sensitivity over the years. 

I sent the roll to Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas, to develop in C-41 chemicals. Dwayne's has been in business for decades, and some of you old-timers may remember that this was the very last laboratory on earth to process Kodachrome slides. 

I scanned the frames with a Minolta Scan-Multi medium format film scanner operated with Silverfast Ai software. The Gold 100 profile was not quite right and the automatic scan produced very green images. It is very possible that the film had shifted despite its long storage in the freezer. But I corrected the color balance using the grey dropper tool, and the resulting scans look pretty good for 20-year-old film. Please click any frame to see it at 1600 pixels wide. All comments welcome.

Examples

Fixer-upper cars, Old US 80 east of Vicksburg (80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens, 1/4 ƒ/16))

Junk yard, Old US 80 east of Vicksburg, Mississippi (80mm lens)

Abandoned school, Thomastown Road, Mound, Louisiana

Abandoned school, Thomastown Road, Mound, Louisiana

Abandoned school, Thomastown Road, Mound, Louisiana

I came across this old school one day while I was biking on a new route in Louisiana. No one is ever around when I have been there and therefore have not been able to ask about the school's history. Was this one of those separate but equal establishments erected quickly in the 1960s or 1970s? Was it closed because of asbestos? The panels from the roof eaves are asbestos, and they crunch underfoot when you walk near the building.

Workshop at the Mississippi River Basin Model, Buddy Butts Park, Jackson, Mississippi

Closed shop, 1016 Raymond Road, Jackson, Mississippi (80mm lens with polarizer)

Lessons of the Discontinued Film Series

What have I learned from these experiments using discontinued film stocks? I think the main lesson is if the film has been frozen or at least kept cool, it may be perfectly usable:

1. Low speed black and white film should be totally usable. Try exposing with ⅔ or a full stop more exposure compared to the original ISO. There may be more fog. As you saw from my 1960s GAF Versapan film, it provided excellent negatives at EI=64, and it was 50 years old! Northeast Photographic developed it in Xtol.
2. Kodak's Panatomic-X seems to be ageless. I now allow ⅔ of a stop more exposure (EI=20). 
3. High speed film, like Tri-X, may be marginal. But, I have been using 1989 expiration Tri-X 4×5" sheets, and they looks pretty good, although there is some base fog. However, I know the boxes have been frozen all these years.
4. 20-year-old expired Fuji NPS160 C41 film in 120 size (color print): no issue at all. 
5. 1990s Kodak Ektar 25 (120 and 135): Some rolls were ruined, some were OK. They all had color shifts. I think its time is gone and Ektar 25 is too old now. 
6. Kodak BW400CN black and white C41film looks fine, but it is a bit grainy.
7. Kodak Verichrome Pan black and white film appears to be amazingly durable.

If any of you readers have experience with expired film, please add notes to the comments. Thank you for reading along.

Another Film Treasure: Ilford Pan-F Plus

This short review is for a film that is still in production (yes, I do sometimes use modern film):  Ilford Pan F Plus. According to the manufacturer:

ILFORD PAN F PLUS is a slow speed, high contrast, black & white film offering exceptionally fine grain, sharpness and detail.

Suitable for bright conditions from sunny days to controlled studio lighting. It suits subjects ranging from architecture and still-life to portraiture and fashion.

PAN F PLUS is perfect for enlargements as negatives show an outstanding range of tone, high-edge contrast and extreme sharpness. It is therefore also suitable for a range of specialist or scientific applications such as photomicrography or the production of black and white slides.

This is a traditional cubic grain film, like the Kodak Panatomic-X that I normally use when I want a fine-grain traditional film. Pan-F has been in production for decades, but for some reason, I never tried it. My friend in Indiana, Jim Grey generously sent me a roll of Verichrome Pan film, but he also included a roll of Pan-F in 120 size and said Go At It. Most reviewers write that it is contrasty, so I loaded it in my Hasselblad and set out for Port Gibson on the last day of 2020, a gloomy day with drizzle (my favorite light). Because of the low light, these are all tripod-mounted exposures. I exposed it at EI (exposure index) of 32.

I sent the film to Northeast Photographic in Bath, Maine, to develop and scanned the negatives with my Minolta medium format film scanner. To the eye, the negatives looked too contrasty. But the Silverfast Ai scanning software has a profile for Pan-F, and the resulting scans looked just about right, with little need to manually adjust the contrast. Here are some examples, all full-frame scans. Click any frame to expand it. Please tell me what you think via the comments.

US 61

Unusual shed at 3316 US 61S, Vicksburg (80mm Planar lens)

Unknown shop or warehouse at Cedars Road, Vicksburg

Former Sonny's BBQ and gasoline, Yokena

I remember driving by this shop/gas station many times and thinking I should take some photographs. But I never did and now it is closed. Bogus.

Port Gibson

Fixer-upper truck, 1097 Shiloh Road, Port Gibson (50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens, ⅛ ƒ/11)

Fixer-upper cottage, Back Grand Gulf Road (50mm Distagon, ⅛ ƒ/8, minor fill flash)

North of Port Gibson, some shaded narrow roads wind through the woods. One of these leads past the popular Warner Tully YMCA summer camp, known by generations of summer campers. I want to go back and explore some more. You see a lot of trailers with beat-up cars and trucks abandoned on the lots.

Abandoned cottage, Vandeventer Street, Port Gibson (80mm Planar-CB, ⅛ ƒ/11)

Abandoned house, Vandeventer Street (80mm Planar-CB, ⅛ ƒ/11

Store/commercial building, Carrol Street

Port Gibson is pretty rough. Despite its fine architectural heritage, much of the town looks beat-up and dirty. The downtown has hollowed-out, like so many small towns in the US heartland.

House belonging to an artist, Farmer Street (80mm Planar-CB, ⅛ ƒ/11, minor fill flash)

I chatted with the gent who lives here. He graciously let me take a picture of his house. He had interesting items on the porch and in the yard.

Old Hwy 61 bridge over Little Bayou Pierre

This is the old Highway 61 bridge. Looking west, you see it from the current 61 bridge. I tried to find a viewpoint. Some gents at a car shop/garage graciously escorted me through the shop to the muddy banks of the Little Bayou Pierre. I slipped - mud everywhere. They said when the river overtops its banks, they get nasty water in their garage (and snakes). Note the water level stains of the concrete pier.

This is the end of my short experiment with Ilford Pan-F. This is nice film! It is very fine grain, similar to the Kodak Panatomic-X that I like. On this overcast, drizzly day, I did not have any issues with contrast, and cannot comment on its performance on a sunny day. Of course, you can modify development to make a black and white film more or less contrasty. I am not sure if I will use it in the future because I still have 10 or 12 rolls of Panatomic-X in the freezer, as well as some Fuji Acros 100 film and even some Agfapan 25. For hand-held use, Tri-X is more convenient. Regardless, thanks, Jim Grey, for sending me a roll of this Pan-F!

This is no. 07 of my irregular series on different films, but this product is still in production, unlike the other emulsions in the series.

Another Expired Film Treasure: Kodak Verichrome Pan (Abandoned Films 06)

Dear Readers, this is a continuation of my series on discontinued photographic films. Previous posts covered GAF Versapan film packs, GAF Versapan 135 film, Kodak Ektar 25, and Kodak's famous Panatomic-X black and white film.

For decades, Kodak's Verichrome Pan film was a staple in camera stores around the country. It was a medium-speed (ISO=125) panchromatic black and white film intended for box and medium format cameras. Kodak's data sheet stated:

FEATURES                            BENEFITS

• Extremely fine grain            • Excellent for producing high-quality images

• Wide exposure latitude        • Rich tonality maintained with overexposure and underexposure

• Very high sharpness            • Excellent for applications that require a high degree of enlargement

• High resolving power          • Good rendition of detail

Over time, Kodak sold it in 120, 127, 116, 126, 616, 110, 620, and 828 formats. As far as I know, Kodak never packaged it in 35mm cassettes. Note that these are format designations, not width in mm. The 126 was the Instamatic cartridge that was so popular in the 1960s and 1970s, and the 110 was the smaller cartridge for 110 cameras. As of 1996, they even sold it in long roll for Cirkut panorama cameras. Numerous writers on the web enthusiastically claim that it was a superb film. It was such a flexible film, an inexperienced amateur could could load it in a crummy box camera and achieve something that a lab could print. 

For unknown reasons, I never tried any Verichrome Pan, and now it is too late. But good news: my Indiana friend, Jim Grey (author of the Down the Road blog), generously sent me a roll. 

The roll Jim sent expired in 12/1987. He said he did not know its original storage conditions, but he had kept it refrigerated. I took pictures around town with my Hasselblad 501CM medium format camera on a rare day when snow had fallen (yes, it does snow in Vicksburg once in awhile). The light was soft and even, so maybe this was not a very challenging test for this film, but that is what was loaded in my film holder. Because of the age and unknown storage, I decided to add extra exposure and use it at EI=64 (or half the original), meaning one ƒ-stop extra light for each frame. Click any picture to see it enlarged to 1600 pixels wide.

Kansas City Southern tracks from the North Frontage Road bridge (80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens)

2624 Washington Street, Vicksburg (80mm Planar lens)

Fairground Street Bridge (permanently closed; 80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens)

Pearl Street view north (80mm Planar lens)

Over a decade ago, cottages lined the west side of the tracks (left in this photograph). All have been torn down and the road has been abandoned.

Kansas City Southern rail yard from Levee Street, view east (80mm Planar lens)

Kansas City Southern rail yard view south (80mm Planar lens)

Work shed on levee next to Yazoo Canal (50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens, 1/30 ƒ/11)

Sycamore Avenue, Vicksburg (80mm Planar lens)

View west from Sycamore Avenue (80 mm Planar lens)

Kansas City Southern tracks along Mississippi River waterfront (250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens, ⅛ ƒ/16.5)

Well, once again I am thrilled that a 30-year-old film responds so well. What amazing technology. I love the tonality of this Verichrome Pan, at least under these conditions of soft light.

Praus Productions in Rochester, New York, developed the film, and I scanned it with a Minolta ScanMulti medium format film scanner. The Silverfast Ai software did not have a Verichrome Pan profile. Instead, I used the profile for Plus-X film. I read in some old Kodak books that Verichrome and Plus-X responded about the same. I have read that they were almost the same emulsion but one had no anti-halation layer (?). I do not know if that is true, and I had no recent experience with Plus-X. The last time I used Plus-X may have been in Moscow in 1978 (click the link). 

Thank you, Dear Readers, for following along on this exploration of Films from the Dead. All comments welcome.