Had just a glorious time setting up composing, shooting. Burned there sheets; this was the first.
Burton Prong is the headwater of a creek that runs to Rehoboth Bay, and while freshwater, is subject to tidal levels. At times, this little island is completely revealed; at others, completely submerged.
Robert's posts of his dry plate journey has (finally) tempted me into the abyss. He's going to talk me through this first on 4x5 for ease of process, so I brought the 4x5 on this trip. I'd like to say that, after 20+ years, I'm a pro and muscle memory runs the show. Nope. Dropped and lost the branded Rodenstock lens cap for my Sironar 210/5.6. Stepped on some "soil" that wasn't and sank ankle deep in some very cold muck. Best though: This was, apparently, the first time I'd used this holder. Bought in 2020, several came loaded. Thought I'd emptied them all. Guess not. Shot them as Arista.EDU. When I was unloading the film, thought "Feels different than Arista." Developed as always (7:12 at 20C in HC-110 dilution H), pulled the film from the tank and - nothing. Really heavy base. Hmm - looks like color film. Checked the notch code - RDP III, Provia 100. Dammit. Almost tossed it, but hung it anyway. Developed another sheet that I knew was Arista, moved on. But when I went to scan, looked closely at the Provia, and there was an image there. Scanned with a very dense base, but my entire image was there. Took some tweaking, but got just the image I wanted. From 7 year old, abused positive film cross-processed poorly in B&W chemistry. Duh.
The other sheet is still in the holder, in a bag in the freezer. Have about 6 other sheets to process from the week, then will try to do a better job cross processing that one. So, after all these years, still making rookie mistakes.
(BTW, wife and I were walking by a few days later and I was able to locate my lens cap. Clean livin'.)