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07/29/2003 Entry: "easily distracted"

A short attention span can be a blessing at times. Wave something pretty in front of me, something to spark a new project or fill a few hours and I'm off on another tangential run at life. The disgust and disappointment I felt over the weekend at my dismal attempts at gum bichromate printing faded away as soon as I developed the few 4x5 shots from Sunday.

I wasn't expecting much, given my lousy attitude and the lousy light. It was a nice surprise to pull out one or two possible winners from the developing tank. I'd given the Maco 820c IR one more try, this time in the view camera. It's a tad flat but most definitely printable without too much trouble.

I'm getting closer to understanding the film and what it wants in the way of exposure. It was much happier in the view camera than in the pinhole. I may continue with some pinhole experiments with it, but it seems to have pretty demanding reciprocity characteristics and I'd be looking at some long exposures. The view camera shots weren't short ones, about 2 seconds at f-22, but definitely much less than the 5-20 minute pinhole attempts. I won't know for sure until tonight in the darkroom but I think I got a nice IR effect and the boring sky was transformed into a possibly interesting array of clouds.

It's just as well I only have a neg or two from Sunday to play with. I still have a whole roll of pinHolga frames to explore, as well as a few shots from the roll of Kodak HIE shot with Marion earlier in the month. (not tired of her yet, Dan?) Time to play catchup in my printing. Don't want to get too far behind in it as I have other ideas percolating and waiting for the right moment.