Thursday, July 15, 2004
Took some patient experimentation, testing and dodging to try to bring some life to the prints of Saturday's explorations at the Delaware Water Gap. Didn't have nearly enough time to work on all I wanted to play with, but that seems to be par for the course whenever I go to the darkroom. There are a few which will go on to the alt-process stage, most likely as Van Dyke brown prints. That'll have to wait for next week, or even later.
In the meantime:
Posted by coldmarble @ 07:56 AM ET [Link] [blab]
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
It's been a pretty crazy week already and it's only half way through. We're house/dog sitting while my brother and his family are out of town for two weeks. Trying to take care of two houses and two pets at opposite ends of town has me thoroughly hating rush hour traffic, even more so with the congestion due to street closures for ArtScape.
Despite the scheduling and travel troubles, life in a more rural area has been sweet. Walking the dog up the lane to fetch the mail invariably includes seeing at least a deer or two. Yesterday evening, a doe and three fawns wandered out of the brush and grazed on the lawn for a few minutes. The quiet has been making for restful nights, even sleeping in a strange bed. There's no sirens, gunshots, rap music, fireworks, traffic, etc. Quiet broken only by a few bird calls and the caw-caw-caw of the crows.
Tonight after work is the first chance I've had to get into the darkroom and work on the negs from Saturday's trip. Had a nasty surprise in developing the IR film. Seems a camera I lent to someone a few months ago now has a light leak which fogged an entire roll. I still have a roll of b/w and half a roll of IR shot in a different body, so it isn't a total loss.
I'll have plenty to keep me busy. If the weather and scheduling work out, there may be a day off from work on Monday to go play photography at Kilgore Falls with a model from Philadelphia. She's shooting over the weekend with some photgraphers to the south of here and wanted to do a shoot with me on her way back home. She's up for some IR work and even more interested in doing some pinhole photos. I just hope she realizes how dull it can be to hold a pose for the several minutes a pinhole exposure can drag out.
Posted by coldmarble @ 08:53 AM ET [Link] [blab]
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Saturday's trip up to Pennsylvania was a bit more car time than I'd hoped. The ratio of car:photo ran about 4:1 but was still a nice opportunity to explore some of the beauty of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area with a local guide. The area hadn't had much rain in the past 3 weeks, so the falls weren't exactly dramatic raging torrents. The lower water levels did let us get right up close and work levels of the falls which would have been impossible under other conditions.
I wish I lived closer, because I'd be back there again in a heartbeat. The peaceful secluded falls in rugged rocky forest are such a fine opportunity for both photographers and nature lovers. Even on a delightful weekend, the area wasn't at all crowded compared to the parks in this area. There were some congested areas but finding a quiet place to catch a 
water sprite in her natural habitat didn't call for too long of a hike.
More shots coming soon, after I recover from 10 hours in the car. Two rolls of Kodak HIE IR and one roll of Delta 400, so there should be a winner or two in there somewhere.
Posted by coldmarble @ 01:47 PM ET [Link] [blab]
