Now that summer is over and fall has officially started, we can get back to our regular schedule. I hope that everyone has circled the first Wednesday of every month and plan on attending the meetings. Fall brings us so many photographic opportunities and although this is generally a very short season, it can be a spectacular one. I hope everyone is able to get out and create some stunning images in this beautiful season. I would also like to encourage everyone to bring a print in for our monthly print competition. You may enter at the level you feel most comfortable with and in either the "Theme" or "Open" categories or both. Everyone benefits when we are able to share our work and ideas.

Scavenger hunt pictures have been developed and printed and the talented judges have selected the winners. As always the images are, shall we say interesting, to say the least. We will be awarding all the winners, and everyone is a winner, at the October meeting. I hope to see everyone there.

Meeting Notice

The October meeting will be at 7:30pm at the University of Calgary in the Kinesiology building in room #Kn133. It's the theater room at the beginning of the same hall .

Just to let you know the Christmas Brunch and Awards Presentation
will be held on November 23, 2003 at 12:30 PM at the Glencoe Club. This sitting
will give us more time to socialize and relax. Circle this day on your calendar.

We will provide more info as we get closer to the brunch.

UPCOMING SPEAKERS

October guest speaker will be announced on a latter date.

We would like to thank our previous guest speaker Dr. Allen King. For a job well done.

Photo Technique Magazine

Dark Room Tips and Trips

By Ctein

Saran Wrap is good for more than keeping food fresh. It keeps photo chemicals fresh, too!

Photographic solutions are extremely stable as long as oxygen doesn’t get to it.

I’ve had stock Dektol retain full potency for up to seven years, confirmed by running

tests against freshly - prepared batches of stock developer. The secret is keeping the

air, out. I’m not talking about the air trapped in the bottle when you cap it. Instead,

what kills photographic solutions is that the caps on most bottles are not really airtight.

Once the oxygen trapped in the bottle is used, oxygen molecules diffuse in from the out

side. The rate of diffusion is low, but over long periods of time, even a low rate of diffusion

is too much. I solve this by stretching a piece of Saran Wrap over the mouth of the jug before

screwing down the cap, creating a truly airtight seal. That seal is confirmed when I

open the cap; the plastic is pulled down into the mouth of the bottle in a taut concave

surface. The liquid has consumed some of the oxygen trapped within the bottle,

which creates a partial vacuum that sucks in the plastic wrap . If the wrap were not

airtight , the pressures inside and outside the bottle would be equal.

I also use Saran W rap as a floating lid for my processing trays and chemical tanks in

my RA-4 processor. I rarely print more than three hours a day, and it’s inconvenient to

drain the processor between sessions. By floating a sheet of Saran W rap on the chemicals,

I can run indefinitely without having the chemicals go bad between sessions.

I use replenishable chemistry, but run no more than 15 sheets of paper a day and don’t replenish any more than usual.

If you have any web sites that you enjoy and would possibly be of interest to others please contact the news letter editor.

Thanks again to Neil Koven, for this months Web Crawl.

Here are the dates / times for this years upcoming external events, brought to you by your friendly neighbourhood external programming director.

Downtown / NightLife – Wednesday July 2^nd – This is in place of our regular monthly meeting. See the presidents message for meeting time and place.

Rowley Alberta – Sunday July 20^th – There are 2 options for this field trip, one is to make a weekend trip to the Drumheller area and meet at Rowley on the Sunday, the other option is to simply drive up to Rowley on the Sunday, it is only about 90minutes away. I am planning on camping in the area that weekend, so if anyone wants to do the same let me know and we can make some reservations. For those that just want to do the day trip, let us know and we will try to help with carpooling etc. Rowley is a neat little town that has been renovated back to what "old Town" Alberta used to look like, complete with post office, general store, some rail cars etc. Might be a good place to try out some B&W Infrared film!

Big Hill Springs Park – Wednesday Aug 6^th – This will be in place of our regular monthly meeting. To get to the park take Hwy 1A towards Cochrane, turn North on Hwy 766 (about half way to Cochrane), then turn West on Hwy 567 and follow it along to the park. We will meet in the only parking lot there is out there, and we should try to meet a little earlier than usual to give us enough time to shoot. We are hoping everyone can get there a half-hour earlier at 7:00pm.

Presidents’ Scavenger Hunt & BBQ – Sunday Sept 14^th – This is our annual scavenger hunt and BBQ and is meant to be for members and their families. For those who have participated in the past you know it is a lot of fun, and there is a chance that one of your photos might just win a valuable prize. For those that have not participated previously, please contact one of the executive and we will give you all the details.

Painting With Light – Saturday Oct 18^th – We are planning to go to a local cemetery and see what kind of images we can achieve by "painting" our subjects with hand held lights. These lights might be flash units, flashlights, lanterns, etc and we will have to use our imagination. The time for this trip will be firmed up in the next few months, but it will likely be around the 7:00pm area.

For further information please call Stephen at 247-6649 or Scott at 932-4484