A Dry Wet Season

Pretty bleak

California is very dry right now.  I remember the tiniest bit of rain from last Saturday that didn't even require wipers on a car.  The morning frost is getting thin and dew is burned off by 9 am.  Ground is dry. 

The California Weather Blog was introduced to my attention my Richard Ozer on Facebook and I thought that it would be a good item to add to the list of blogs I review.  Of course, the drought is the big news.  In the future, I'm hoping to reference the blog to better understand when the good clear nights will be for imaging.

What does this have to do with photos?

Thinking about the methods of developing film and keeping water use to a minimum.  What step uses the most water?  I think the rinsing probably.  What could be done to make it more friendly?  Can the water from rinsing be saved and used again?  Is it toxic?  Could we use it to water houseplants or vegetables?

I'm still using Xtol as my developer.  Dan left a lot with me so I can process the film I have.  It's a fairly benign chemical - municipal water treatment can handle it.  The rinsing water can be handled as well.  Tonight, I tried processing a roll of Acros with minimal water usage.  I think that the whole job could be done in about 2 gallons of water.  The rinse water looked pretty clean coming out and I don't see any residual magenta.  Was using Xtol 1:3 dilution with 400 ml as the total volume for a single reel.

For the summer, I'll get a bucket for catching the rinsewater to use on outside plants.  Only on the ornamental plants, not the food plants.

Update:

After a week of using grey water on plants outside, it might be possible to have a garden this year, albeit smaller.

I've also read most of a thread on APUG about conserving water when washing film.  Seems that the Ilford method of fill and dump with agitation may work well.  For the last rolls of film that I processed, I followed this method in my own way, changing the water 3 times in a 10 minute wash.  I'll modify my timer to suggest change and agitation times.

Here's the link for the thread: http://www.apug.org/forums/forum37/55643-washing-film-best-environmentally-friendly-way-do.html