2025-2026 Solargraphy Season

 As we hit the Winter Solstice here in Boorloo (Perth) in Noongar Country, it is time to bring in the solargraphy cameras I set up at the Summer Solstice last year.

Six months is the traditional span for leaving out a solargraphy camera, and this year I had five set up around the house.

The first four were set up on our roof, three on the weather station mast, and one on the sewer vent. Let's start with one that sort-of worked.

A solargraph with a second solar arc offset to the left. 

This one was a recycled Solarcan, loaded with Ilford MultigradeIV paper. Unfortunately, I did not quite do the cable tie up tight enough, and when a huge storm rolled through about three weeks ago the camera was spun around by the wind. Hence the second arc. I really played hard with the colours on this one, resulting in some pretty heavy artifacting.

So, let's now look at the ones that did not suffer from me being a noodle hand at them.

Here is one I had pointed just North of West. So West by Northwest, not North by Northwest. Also, no-one dusting where there were not any crops. But moving on.

A solargraph with a pine tree in the centre.

I am very pleased with this one - the pine tree makes a great foreground for the solar arcs, and you can even see our hakea at the far left, and straight edge of the roof of our gaming room above the rake of the main house. I will probably revisit the processing on this one. This was a new Solarcan Colours unit.

Now let's look the other way, this time out to the Northeast.

A solargraph this time with the arcs to the left, and trees to the right.

This is a homebrew camera, based on a tall, narrow drink can and more Ilford MG4. It is looking out to the Northeast, and you can see some of our back yard trees making a mid-ground. This one had a tiny bit of water damage from where I touched the emulsion while it was still damp.

The last of the rooftop ones I mounted on the sewer vent pipe, looking just a touch East of North. This was another fresh Solarcan Colours camera.

A solargraph with a tiled roof in the foreground. A capped vent is visible. To the right are some trees.

This is probably the 'classic' solargraph of the season. The arcs are nearly symmetrical, we have some nice objects in the fore and mid grounds, and you can clearly see the clear and clouded days. This is another one I am likely to further post-process.

So that's the four rooftop cameras. What about number five? No, it is not alive. It was mounted near the base of our postbox, looking dead North. It was another tall, narrow homebrew camera. I had high hopes for it. 

What I got was...

A heavily water damaged solargraph.

Masses of water damage. You can still make out the solar arcs here and there, but the water damage hides almost everything else. One interesting detail stands out, in spite of the damage. The right hand side of the arcs are cut off. This is caused by our neighbour's house. I had hoped to get some detail of it, but it was not to be. 

So that was the last six months. I will probably not do a Winter-Summer season this year, but I may see about doing some event projects. I will also almost certainly do some short-term Puck solargraphs, so look out for them.