Wednesday, July 30, 2003
I was in a pretty picky mood last night, so the number of prints produced during my darkroom play was rather low. It seemed to be a night for multiple iterations of small exposure and filtration changes, dodging and burning, all the tools brought into play to make the print *right*. Not much to show for five hours of hard work/play but I'm happy with them.
Posted by coldmarble @ 10:36 AM ET [Link] [blab]
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
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.
Posted by coldmarble @ 09:11 AM ET [Link] [blab]
Monday, July 28, 2003
After Saturday's gum disasters, I'm not surprised that Sunday was a less than stellar photo fun day. It was a typical midAtlantic summer day, hot, hazy, humid. The flat light was less than inspiring. I did play around with the view camera for a bit down at a friend's place on the Magothy River. It was more of a "you dragged the damn camera down here, so you might as well try and use it" experience than an outgushing of photographic creativity. There were a few shots of some skiffs upturned on the shore which may make the day salvageable.
I did play with some slide film for later Polaroid transfer fun. Unlike my own garden this summer, the flowers there were doing quite well, with day lilies and daisies to work with.
While wandering along with the 35mm, I looked over to a small inlet and saw a Great Blue Heron standing in the shallows. Much better camera prey than safe flowers. I tried getting closer, slowly moving towards him, keeping tree trunks between us as much as possible. I was about 150 feet away, much too far for the short telezoom I had with me, when he decided I was too close for comfort. I had no chance of getting a shot on film but still have the picture firmly in my mind of his wide wings lifting his long body into the air. A few leisurely strokes of these big blue feathers and he was gone.
Probably too much to hope for another perfect photo weekend after the delightful ways in which the past few have gone. It wasn't a bad time, just not as good as the previous adventures this month. Maybe I got spoiled? I'll try to keep my optimism intact and look forward to more good times ahead.
Posted by coldmarble @ 12:53 PM ET [Link] [blab]
