Two images made at the same spot 2 years apart with just a slightly different angle of view. The one on the left was from a film roll that was lost and spent two winters buried under the snow and two summers laying near a fallen log near the lake shore. The second picture is from a roll that was exposed last week and developed promptly. The lost roll had usable images but suffered damage. Moisture had gotten into the plastic film container and then dried up causing the emulsion to stick to the paper backing. It was easy enough to remove but the textured imprint of the paper fibers had become fused with the emulsion creating a rough textured look. There were also small areas where little bits of emulsion were peeled off with the backing paper.

I think the picture on the left has a real artsy look to it, even though the infrared effect is less pronounced. Kodak always used to say "process film promptly after exposure." I guess this is what they were talking about! Below is my favorite image from this years hike, taken very near the spot where the first roll was lost two years earlier.

In July of 2014 Cape Horn Lake was my destination for a day hike. It was a beautiful place with grasses lining the shore, mountains in the background and waterlilies covering its surface. The day was bright and sunny, perfect I thought, for infrared film. The trail meandered along the shore of the lake to its outlet and then disappeared into an area of forested hillsides and open meadows. As I reached the outlet of the lake I sat down on a log to reload my Rolleiflex, but realized after returning to camp a few hours later, that I was missing the exposed roll of infrared film, and that it was probably laying somewhere along our return route, a route with no marked trail. I knew there was virtually no chance of retracing my steps to find it, and I left for home a few days later thoroughly defeated.

In July of 2016 I found myself, along with my sister and brother-in-law, again hiking to Cape Horn Lake. Along the way we joked about how weird it would be if we stumbled upon that old roll of film. At the outlet we stopped for a breather and started looking for the log I sat on two years earlier to reload the camera. There had been a lot of downed timber in that time and the spot did not look familiar. After about 20 minutes with no luck we decided to move on. But I back tracked a few yards to inspect just one last log and when I looked down I saw a dark cylinder with no markings. I walked closer, looked again and realized it was indeed my two year old roll of film! The label had been worn off by two snowy winters and two summers but the black plastic film canister was intact and still sealed. When I get home I'll process it and see what I have, but the condition of the canister makes me optimistic that the outcome will be a good one. I'll post an update in a few days.