My Archives: May 2004

Thursday, May 6, 2004

Yes, I did remember to take part in the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. As a matter of fact, I sort of took part twice. I was up nice and early for some shots at the Inner Harbor and had the film in the tank by late morning. Unfortunately I didn't notice that my developer had gone bad and the entire roll was blank. I took a few interior shots later that day and just got around to developing the film yesterday evening.

I won't be able to get to the darkroom until Saturday afternoon or Monday but the negs look good enough that the hardest part will be choosing which image to submit. I'm leaning towards printing one in Van Dyke with at least an 11x14 negative, so it won't be ready until the middle of next week unless I get in one of my alt-process obsessed moods.

This was my second try at using 35mm film in a medium format pinhole camera. Previous efforts were less than inspiring, with the film wandering from side to side across the frame, which made any compositional efforts pretty much dependent on luck. This time was much better. Besides using foam to keep the 35mm castte in place, I built up some tape restrainers on the take up spool to keep the narrow film in the center of the 6x6 frame. Others have used rubber bands for the same purpose but the tape let me create a perfectly sized gap for the film.

Not sure if I'll include the sprocket hole parts in the final image or print as a cropped panorama. The sprocket holes would work nicely as part of the "Holga aesthetics" and not be out of place in something as loose and informal as a pinhole image. Despite the random brushwork at the edges of my alt-process pieces, I do tend to like a nice clean and defined edge to an image, so it may well end up with the sprocket holes cropped out.

Since the film transport system worked so well, I'm definitely taking it along to Marion's Get2Gether for Maryland photographers and models this weekend. She wants to do some pinhole shots and I'm confident enough with the camera now to even try a roll of Kodak HIE infrared in it.

Posted by coldmarble @ 11:32 AM ET [Link] [blab]

Monday, May 3, 2004

Definitely a step beyong finger painting...

Wild Hands

link via [Idle Type]

Posted by coldmarble @ 11:56 AM ET [Link] [blab]

Sunday, May 2, 2004

It's been a few months in the making, with several sessions of shooting with three very patient models, way too many hours in the darkroom making big negatives, lots and lots of printing on untold sheets of watercolor paper, and enough gummed linen tape to leave my fingers with a perrmanent coat of sticky glue.

But the Beast is done... all 60+ pages with 50+ alt-process images in cyanotpe, toned cyanotype, cyanotype and gum, Van Dyke, Blue Van DYke and gum bichromate. I apologize for the horizontal scrolling but it seemed the best way to deal with something this wide, passing on the feel of the book.

It was fun to play with the sculptural possibilities of the accordion book, even if it did mean moving furniture in the classroom to make room for the monster. I'll explore what can be doen with it at greater length when we present our projects next week and hope to have some photos then of the sprawling paper twisting across the floor.

Posted by coldmarble @ 07:53 AM ET [Link] [1 blab]

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