Yet another Death Valley shot

I finally had a few minutes to look through some of my image folders and dream about the days when I had time to go shooting. Worked on some digital shots, among which was this one.



Shot at Death Valley's Mesquite Sand Dunes near Stovepipe Wells, I was mesmerized one dawn with these exposed rocks looking like islands in the sea of sand.

Hopefully I'll have more time in the near future to go through some of my thousands of images and will post more.

Thanks for looking! Comments appreciated.

Trees and Rocks

Finally got to do some more darkroom printing and did a few more 8x10s that I subsequently bleached and tanned for the bromoil process. Bromoil really is just such a blast once you get to the inking stage.

Here's a new one from an old neg. Printed on Kentmere Fineprint VC, bleach/tanned and inked.

Trees and Rocks

Shot along Rt. 49 in Northern California, between Auburn and Coloma. There's about a 100 mile stretch of this road that one could spend a lifetime shooting.

One of the things I've noticed about bromoil is that the subject in the shot should be darker than the background. Due to the nature of the process you're naturally adding ink to an almost blank print so lighter subjects don't really seem to be appropriate for the process. I'm sure that better bromoilists than I will disagree.

Pepper #2

My first attempt at Edward Weston's 'Pepper #30'.

Shot with F100 35mm on Delta 100 developed in Pyrocat-HD 2:2:100, 7 minutes. Printed on Kentmere Fineprint VC, selenium toned 1:9 for 5 minutes.

The Pacific Northwest

In the beginning of July I took off for 10 days to the Columbia Gorge area an hour east of Portland, Oregon to house sit for my girlfriend's parents. It was a good opportunity to bring the cameras along and do some solitary shooting. For most of the duration I was there the weather was perfect, and while golf got in the way of shooting on several days, I did manage to get about a little.

First up is an oft shot waterfall. Multnomah Falls, located in Oregon just off Rt. 84 is less than an hour from Portland. This means that there's always visitors. At 627 feet, Multnomah is the highest falls in Oregon. Split into two separate drops, the first tumbles 542 feet from the cliffs above the Columbia River. A stone footbridge crosses in front of the falls just above the beginning of the second drop. Shot on TMax400 at ISO 250, and developed in Pyrocat-HD. Printed on Kentmere Fineprint VC the detail in the bridge and leaves of the mountainside are razor-sharp.


After a couple of days of somewhat greater than par golf, I took a drive to the foothills of Mt. Adams, on the Washington side of the river. Located in the Gifford Pinchot national Forest, Mt. Adams dominates the skyline in this neck of the woods. After driving on a forest service road for about 15 miles, I found a clearing with a beautiful view of the mountain. Shot on Ilford FP4+ at ISO 64, souped in Pyrocat-HD.



Coming back down the mountain I pulled off the side of the road north of Trout Lake when I heard the burble of a mountain stream. After ten minutes of wandering the banks for an appropriate viewpoint, I managed to get this one with the Mamiya 645, on TMax400, rated at 250 and souped in Pyrocat-HD. Printed on Unibrom 160 I think this is the shot I like the best. My computer skills aren't the greatest, but the print exhibits a buttery creamness to the water.



All in all it was a great trip. Not only did I manage to break 100 on the golf course but I've got at least another 20 images to print which I think I'll like.

The Pacific Northwest is truly a beautiful part of the world. Around every corner is yet another photo opportunity. I'm eagerly anticipating my next trip to the area.

A Very Worthy Cause

For those who print traditional B+W analog, I saw this posted over on APUG. It seems a most worthy project and I will be contributing some prints. I wanted to help pass the word along.

"NATURE WORK PRINTS SOUGHT FOR HEALING ART PROJECT WITH WOUNDED SOLDIERS

Do you have extra B & W work prints (matte finish) of the natural world, plus a desire to share your photographic artistry in a way that could enhance the healing and well-being of wounded soldiers?

If so, I am looking for donations (or contributions, for which a nominal fee could be paid) of B & W nature work prints (matte finish) to use in an upcoming art project with wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. I'd like to provide these soldiers (many of whom have brain and other injuries, including amputations) with a selection of gorgeous B & W nature work prints from diverse habitats, and have them hand color tint the photos (as a metaphor for restoring color and healing power of "naturalness" to their lives). Having a selection of work prints from varied natural environments to offer would allow each soldier to select one print to work on that evokes a sense of his/her most personally comforting natural world. As many as 300 work prints from diverse photographers are being sought.

Ideally, the prints could be 5" x 7" or 8" x 10" (allowing inexpensive framing), but other print sizes are welcome, too. It would also be great to have a number of color work prints (matching some of the B & W work prints) on hand to inspire the soldiers as they hand color tint.

For more information or to arrange a donation or contribution (preferably by July 22, though later may also be fine), please contact Ermyn King (efk103@psu.edu; ph: 301-355-6770). Your artistry and contribution to the project would be credited in a very focused and conspicuous way. Thank you!"

I'd like to think that we can get them more prints than there are wounded soldiers. It would be a sad state of affairs if we couldn't.

More Bromoil

Continuing with my post from yesterday, here are two more of the bromoil prints I did yesterday. It really is a marvelous process. I'd like to thank Gene Laughter, probably today's preeminent bromoilist in the US, along with Derek Watkins. Gene's work is what inspired me to attempt the process in the first place, and I can only hope to be half as good as he is.

Copper Canyon, Mexico

The next shot is one which I will be printing again and again until I'm sure I'm satisfied. It's not there yet but it has potential. Shot on my old family farm in central Pennsylvania, this Ford tractor was one of the first mechanical devices I ever learned to drive. The shed in the background was a tool shed that had blacksmithing tools going back 100 years. All gone now. The farm is well on it's way to being a housing development.

The Cocklin farm, circa 1998

That's it for now. I'm off to the darkroom/bathroom to make some more prints so's I can get to bleaching. I'm hooked.

First attempts at Bromoil

Since I've had a lot of time at home recently I've been able to experiment a little with my photographic processes. For a few years now I've been interested in getting into Bromoil printing and within the last couple of weeks I've assembled everything needed, including lithographic ink and brushes, as well as the bleaching chemicals required.

A brief explanation of the Bromoil process is in order. A bromoil print starts out its life as an ordinary black and white print. Some B+W papers are more receptive to bromoil than others. Once the initial print is developed and fixed, it is allowed to dry overnight. With many papers it's helpful to 'super dry' the paper using a hair dryer or holding the print over an oven burner for 30 seconds or so. This ensures that the last of the moisture is drawn out of the paper.

The print is then soaked in water again for around 10 minutes and then placed in a bleach and tanning bath for 10 minutes with constant agitation. This bleaches out the black and white image and at the same time tans the gelatin proportional to the print density. Once bleached and tanned the print is now known as a 'matrix'. The matrix is then fixed for 5 minutes, or 1 minute if an ammonium thiosulfate fixer (rapid fix) is used. It is then washed for 30 minutes to remove every trace of the fixer from the fibers of the print, and again allowed to air dry.

When the matrix has dried (again the action of superdrying it should be applied here) it is placed into a tray of water to soak for between 10 and 15 minutes. Upon removal from the water, the matrix is wiped down to remove every trace of surface water. Soaking in the water causes the gelatin to swell in proportion to the tone, so in very light areas the gelatin swells and the water retained by the swelling repels the ink (oil based) when it is applied. Inking is accomplished with a stiff lithography ink and is built up in layers to gain density in darker areas of the print.

I inked 4 matrices today and will be posting the other 3 when I'm sure the ink is completely dry, but I wanted to post one, flaws and all.

Bodie, CA in Bromoil

While I can see many areas of the print where I've got things to learn, I think this bromoil process is one of the most enjoyable and creative processes in photography. Due to the hand-made nature of the print, no two will ever be alike, giving each print a uniqueness similar to oil paintings.

Costa Rican Paradise

Though it's been a few years since I've been there, at one point of my life I would travel to Costa Rica two or three times a year, for a month or so each time. Of all the Central American countries, Costa Rica is one of the safest, friendliest and easiest countries to get around in. Over the past 15 years the general infrastructure of the country has been greatly improved. While there is still no rail service to speak of, high quality buses run to almost every small village on newly paved roads.

A well frequented vacation spot is Tabacon Hot Springs and Resort, near Lake Arenal and the volcano of the same name. In fact, when the clouds clear, you can sit at a swim up bar and watch the volcano erupt from what seems like a far too insufficient distance.

Tabacon Hot Springs Resort

Tabacon is very popular with the locals (known affectionately as Ticos) as well as international tourists, so book well in advance if you're thinking of staying overnight. Day trips are a good way to see the area, which is little more than an hour away from the airport in San Jose.

Costa Rica is a country well prepared to show tourists a good time. Almost every hotel in the San Jose area has a tourist desk where excursions can be booked with various tour companies. A great trip is a 2 or 3 day sojourn to the Carribean coast, where Tortuguero National Park is located. There are no roads into the park. It's bordered on the east by the Carribean Sea and surrounded by jungle on the other three sides. You can fly in, or even better, take the tour bus (a small 15 seat job) to the coastal city of Moin and from there take the canal boats north 3 hours, enjoying the wildlife all the while.

Up close and personal with a Costa Rican Caiman

Anhinga drying wings in Tortuguero

While both coasts offer numerous typical seaside diversions it can be quite warm and humid. For a cooler time, check out some of the montane cloud forests along the slopes of the Talamanca mountains. There's quite a lot of waterfalls if that's your thing.


There's a million reasons to go to Costa Rica. Pick one and get on a plane.

Something French

In honor of today's anniversary of the Normandie invasion, I thought it would be apropos to post some photos of our cousins across the pond.

The south wall of the Louvre, Paris

Paris is a city with so much history it's difficult to know where to begin. Once a Roman outpost in what was then known as Gaul, Paris flourished over the years. Originally a walled city, remains of the wall can actually still be seen below the Louvre as part of the museum's exhibits.

The river Seine is probably one of the most widely known rivers in the world. Passing through the heart of 'old Paris', the Seine bifurcates around two large islands which were the original city. These islands are known as the Ile de la Cite, and the Ile St. Louis. The Ile de la Cite is where Notre Dame Cathedral is located, an on it's western point is the infamous Pont Neuf bridge.

The Seine from a little park below the Pont Neuf

Since the Seine flows from east to west the south shore is affectionately known as the 'Left Bank', and is famous for the hangouts of writers and painters in the 1920's and '30's.

The Seine looking west from the Left Bank

For a good example of the excesses the French Aristocracy and Royalty were capable of, take a trip down to Versailles Palace, built for King Louis the XIII and expanded by Louis XIV. Truly a magnificent structure, it boasts gardens, reflecting pools, fountains galore and the infamous Halles les Glaces, or Hall of Mirrors.

Halles Les Glaces

I'd love to show you more pictures of Versailles but the day that I went it was closed. Closed. One of the single greatest buildings the french have ever built and it was closed on a Monday. Apparently it's closed every Monday. I guess you have to mow the lawn sometimes.

Coastlines

I'm doing much more black and white work these days, trying to understand and get to know Ilford FP4+ in Pyrocat HD developer. It's a huge amount of fun and I'm enjoying exploring the differences between shooting with roll film and sheet film. The large format images are definitely a step up in some aspects, particularly in definition and sharpness. There's nothing quite like an 8x10 contact print. But the speed and portability of the smaller formats mean that there's a great deal more subject matter available to shoot than there would be with a 15 pound camera.

A few friends and I made a trip to the California coast, specifically Point Reyes Nat'l Seashore some time ago, and while I've managed to develop all the negs I shot I have yet to print most of them.

In terms of printing you'll see, if you follow this blog over the next few months, that I've been doing a lot of what's called Lith printing (see here and here for more info) One of the most enjoyable aspects of this type of printing is that it's almost impossible to get perfectly repeatable results, so each print really is one-of-a-kind.




It's also a process that imparts it's own variants of color to the print, depending upon various factors such as dilution, temperature and paper type along with a multitude of other factors.

For those of you out there who still enjoy the smell of fixer and standing in the dim red glow of a safelight, I highly recommend giving Lith Printing a try. I can also strongly recommend Tim Rudman's books (see here). He describes methods of digital lith work, as well.

Cats

I'm not much of a cat person. In fact, I'm badly allergic to both the hair and the dander, not to mention whatever crap is in their saliva. Still, I can respect an animal that doesn't feel (or won't admit) that it depends upon me for sustenance.

When I was fortunate enough to convince my girlfriend that we were meant for each other I inherited 2 long haired Turkish Van cats. Apparently she had gotten them just a week or so before we met. Story of my life.

Ordinarily I can't stand it when people post pictures of their pets online. I mean, who the hell really cares? Also, most of the time the pictures are pretty bad. Usually the picture will just have a title, "Betsy being Cute!!!" and it will encompass the entire living room. Your eye roams the image, all the while wondering what kind of animal 'Betsy' is.

Not so with my pictures. I mean, you may still be saying to yourself, 'Who cares?' but at least you will be able to find the pet in the picture and know what kind of animal it is. It's a cat, king of the 'domesticated' beasts.

First up is Isabella. She's the female and the one who likes to use her claws. Naturally.
Next is Madison. He's the cool cat. Sleeps most of the day. Naturally.

And then there's the cat that I would have loved to have gotten, if only to keep the neighbor's kids away from our garage doors.

So there you have it. Our cats. Or rather, our Monarchs.

Washington Memorial Chapel

I've always been keen on American History, particularly the revolutionary war era. I suppose it's because I grew up in Philadelphia which, back then at least, was a very important city. Having worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences for several years made me aware of the contributions to science and culture that Philadelphia gave the new country and gave me cause to be proud of my city.

At Valley Forge there are many memorials and tributes to Washington and his men. Having spent one of the harshest winters in living memory there, I'm not sure that they would have very fond memories of the place, but that notwithstanding, all of it is very tastefully done.

Standing in rememberance of Washington, his men and all that they fought for, the Washington Memorial Chapel is a beautiful work of architecture. While it is a fully operating Chapel with Episcopalian services on Sundays, the Chapel is open to all.

Washington Memorial Chapel page

During a trip back east to visit my brother at State College, PA, we made a trip to Valley Forge. I hadn't brought any of my photo gear, but he was kind enough to offer me the use of his old N60 Nikon film camera and a couple of rolls of expired TMax400.

I shot off both rolls of film. Here's one of several final shots that I liked, printed on Fotospeed Lith paper, in LD20 Lith developer.


There's a lot to explore at Valley Forge. The Chapel is beautiful but if you go, don't neglect the other parts of the park. Oh, and watch out for the deer.

Mesquite Dunes

Located in the midst of Death Valley National Park, adjacent to Stovepipe Wells, are the Mesquite Dunes. Smaller versions of the sand dunes farther north, they are none the less quite large in size. Dawn is the preferred time to arrive, as the heat of the day has not started to get it's grip on the sand. Bring twice as much water and half as much weight as you think safe.



Dawn is also nice because most people don't make it out that early and the solitude is amazing. You can feel as though you're the only person in an apocalyptic world.

The wind is quick to wipe footprints, particularly at the tops of the dunes. So a compass can be a good idea, with frequent bearing checks.

This image was shot on FP4+ in 120 size, developed in Pyrocat HD, 2:2:100, and printed on fotospeed lith paper in LD20 lith developer.

Old time work

I've always been fascinated by blacksmithing. To be able to take a lump of metal and by only heat and brute strength form it into something useful or beautiful seems to me a bit of magic.

I'm fortunate in that I live fairly close to the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park in Coloma, CA. Situated on the banks of the American River where James Marshall discovered gold that fateful day in 1848, the park has, as one of it's draws, a working black smith shop. The Smiths are volunteers who spend their day explaining what life was like to groups of school children while they make candle holders and other items to be placed for sale at the gift shop. It's not all for sale, though. They also make hinges, blades and equipment for use by the park.

Friendly and incredibly knowledgeable, these smiths harken back to a day when mass production was still decades away. Anything you needed, you needed to make. They are the very essence of both ingenuity and self-sufficience.



I tip my hat to them.

Ah, the 19th Century...

There's definitely a movement afoot in the Large Format community that has photographers searching yard sales and estate sales for old brass lenses. The distinctive look of an early Petzval design carries a signature to their images which gives the picture that 'antique' look.



This image was shot at Bodie with an old 15" brass Petzval Magic Lantern lens, on an 8x10" Tachihara, using FP4+ developed in Pyrocat-HD 2:2:100. Developing time was around 9 minutes. Front rise had me running out of image circle, thus the vignetting towards the bottom of the image.

Abagail Sherman

Along the way to State College, PA on Rt. 322, is the little town of Boalsburg. Here you'll find the Pennsylvania Military Museum and the Twenty-eighth Division Shrine. It's a place of quiet reflection, with a number of military vehicles and armament from WWII and later. Set in a little copse of trees, just off the roadway of rt. 322, is Abagail. She's a Sherman tank manufactured just after WWII ended.



The setting is perfect. I wanted to get a view that an infantryman would have had, grateful for the big bulk of steel protecting him from small arms fire, crouched low to the ground.

My thanks go out to all veterans, but especially those from World War II. Truly, the Greatest Generation.

Flowers and Assumptions

Flowers have always intrigued me. Everyone has seen thousands of photographs of hundreds of different types of flowers (the Cala Lily comes to mind as the most prevalent) in hundreds of different lighting setups.

One day I was sitting at home watching Dharma and Greg when I realized I was wasting my life away. I grabbed the D100 to experiment with some flower shots on my patio. It was an overcast day, so I grabbed the SB-28 flash, too. After several conventional (and boring) shots, I started to let my mind wander. And suddenly it hit me. Flowers are translucent, I wonder what a shot would look like if I aimed the flash at the camera and positioned it behind the flower?

Voila! This is what it looks like.




I must have shot a few hundred pics, as one is wont to do with digital. The batteries in the flash died, which I took as my cue to head inside and process. Here's another one.



I was pleased with a lot of the shots I took that day. Shots that I never would have taken on a film camera, just because of my preconceived notion that they wouldn't have turned out. It was a lesson to me in two things; don't let your assumptions get in the way of shooting the shot; and think outside the box. Originality is the main characteristic of creativity.

Some Solitude

One of my favorite places in the world is Death Valley. With all that geology going on there are still places you can go and find no one there. I spent 3 days camping up by the racetrack last spring, and saw one other person (for about 30 minutes) the entire time.

The racetrack is an interesting place. If you haven't heard about it, it's the place where rocks weighing hundreds of pounds tumble down from a cliff face and move, presumably of their own volition and desire, leaving tracks behind them. See my picture below:



Of course, with as much mystery as people discuss the racetrack, there doesn't seem to be much of a mystery to me. It's obvious (particularly once you're there) that when it rains, the water turns the lakebed into a slip and slide, and the winds through the valley are what move the rocks, blowing at 50 to 60 mph as they do. Hell, there's even rocks there that have a 'bow wake' in front of them, of dried mud.

Still, I don't want to take away all of the mystery of this wonderful place, so I will tell you a secret. At night, when you're camping under the stars, you can see the lights of spaceships twinkling in the distance. Probably over Area 51.

Up and running...

The first post of what will no doubt be many, I will try and update this every Monday and Thursday. Here, you will find images and opinions which reflect the state of our world and culture. As times change, so hopefully will my images and opinions.

For now, we'll start off our blog with a simple image done in a simple manner, with a simple camera; no batteries needed.



This, as many will recognize, was shot at Bodie State Park, the old mining town being kept in a state of 'arrested decay'. A wonderful place to spend some time.

For now, that'll do it.