Hi Everyone!
I got back from the Faroe Islands on November 19th and my film showed up on the 23rd. I sent 360 rolls to the Faroes using Fedex and installed an Apple Airtag for real time tracking and that worked wonderfully. I carried 15 with me on the flight and got hand checks everywhere but Vagar Airport in the Faroes on departure, they were insistent and the machine was the regular one. The bulk of the film was shipped home via DHL a couple days before I left, I held onto 15 rolls to get me by to shoot more images with.
I shot 237 rolls all told and once home immediately processed the 5 of 15 rolls I shot post shipment I carried on the flight and some other of the same kind of film I had in the queue at home to compare to. That processing batch showed no ill effects or differences in base fog with densitometer readings. DHL shifted the shipment to USPS once it hit Denver and I was able to track that really well and even retrieve it from my local post office when I showed them on my phone that the package was literally in the building.
I then picked 5 rolls from the various bags in the shipment and developed those. Again, no ill effects. So I went on to process 40-50 rolls a day in my Job CPP3 until all the film was done.
I am happy to report that the film did not have any signs of X-ray that I could tell. I even processed the other 30 or so rolls I had in the queue at home to further compare and the base fog was exactly the same with no artifacts to be found anywhere.
What I did to ensure the desire to not x-ray the film was paramount was put labeling all over the box in both english and danish and then give very specific instructions to not unroll the film but that one could inspect the film in the bags, especially on the return journey. On the return shipment the post office even put bigger Do Not X-ray labels on the outside of the box.
The box was a Fedex International Flat Rate 10KG and weighed that much, I stuffed that sucker full of film. It cost me $304 to ship it there and $586 to ship it back, well within my budget and expectations.
So for this trip to the Faroe Islands, it simply worked and the image making even though challenging at times due to weather was life and career affirming. I am going to be doing one trip a year like this for the next 5+ years so I am going to tailor my logistics according to the destination. Other places on the list are Greenland, Patagonia, Baffin Island, Iceland and perhaps even more remote areas that could require the use of a fixer and or the use of far less film but brought with me on the flight.
I have to do this for the next several years to build up strong bodies of work and I need to do it on film. As long as it continues to work, I am game.
