Sun Printing in the Great Sandy Desert
For about 4 years I worked in mineral exploration as a geological draughtsperson.
I was contracting to a company in Perth who saw the light in sending someone out into the field with the reconnaissance team, who could plot the grids and interpolate the data as it came to hand.
Most projects ran for 3 months, where the accommodation was a tent and the annexe was my office.
My fondest memories are from a job that had us camping on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert in WA not far, metaphorically speaking, from Wolf Creek meteorite crater.
We had a weekly chartered airplane come in with supplies to last for the following week, on which I would put copies of the latest plans so head office could see what we had done and where we were at.
A sun-printing method was used to produce these prints, where the pen and ink drawings on draughting film were laid over light sensitive paper in a darkened tent – This entailed pulling down all the flaps when it was 40 degrees outside and working as fast as possible to get the plans strapped to a board that was pulled back in an arching position to ensure a good close contact was being made. Then outside, pouring with sweat, to stand and face the glaring sun with the board held aloft for a timed 2 minutes, before back into the steaming darkened tent to wipe a solution over the now exposed film that would develop the image. Voila!
Exploration crew in the Great Sandy Desert
This is a photo of me, on the left, with Jim, Phil, Verne, Noel and John at the end of the project as we are about to pull out and hit the road.
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January 29th, 2010 at 00:18
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