[LargeFormat] Keeping Film Cool (was Re: A new departure)

[Clive Warren]

At 5:14 am +0000 10/3/02, Pete Caluori wrote:
>>From: Clive Warren
snip
>>After about five or ten minutes you can use the car - if your 
>>trannie film is not in a cooler bag it'll be roasted!  This 
>>probably comes into the realm of prolonged high temperatures :-)
>><snip>
>
>Surely you're joking Clive?  Granted in the SW USA temps can surely 
>rise in the summer, but in all my travels through northern Arizona, 
>New Mexico and Utah, I've never experienced a problem.
>
>While I have thought of taking along a cooler just for film, I've 
>never actually done it.  Chromes, color print, B&W and IR all stays 
>locked in the trunk and if there's a difference I can't tell. 
>Perhaps because I'm shooting landscapes under ever changing color 
>temps,  but I've never seen a color shift or increase in base fog. 
>Now I know parts of southern and central Arizona can experience 
>temps well above 100F in the summer, I don't go to those kind of 
>places when the temp's that high.  I have spent a week in Utah, when 
>the temps were 98F - 99F the entire time.
>
>BTW, I think you're much better off with water than Mountain Dew.:)

Hello Pete,

Well I have never allowed my film stock (usually bought in Vegas) to 
reach the temperature of the inside of the car when travelling. Hey, 
it has been a 12 hour flight and hundreds of miles in a car to reach 
some of these places - why would I want to risk roasting the film?!

You are probably right about the temperature effect on the film being 
minimal - particularly as the colour temp. of the scene is constantly 
changing and if you use a commercial lab for dev then you are also at 
the mercy of their replenishment and monitoring system.

As for temperatures, the inside of the car is hotter than the outside 
temp and some places even in May in Utah have a very high ambient 
temp. The trunk of the car seems to get nearly as hot as the 
passenger area. In addition to the cooler bag, the high tog sleeping 
bag is also wrapped around the cooler and any other camera kit which 
helps to keep them cool.

Some of the areas I visit are very hot eg Valley of Fire, Kodachrome 
Basin and off the beaten track in Monument Valley

Maybe this sort of cooling frenzy is overkill, however it seems to me 
that this is one of those life curves that I can plan for.....

I usually travel with about ten or more gallons of water in the 
trunk. I made the Mountain Dew mistake once after having polished off 
all the water in the belt water bottles after a half-day out shooting 
one hot area. It was the  memory of that iced drink in the dashboard 
holder that did it...... the ice had melted the previous day! 
Something you only do once (I hope).  It was definitely a "doh!" 
moment :-)

Cheers,
        Clive