Lottery for the Arts

Well, it's been a while since my last post. I've done a little shooting, developing and printing, mostly Lith prints, but working 80 hours a week has gotten in the way of photography for the last 9 months. It's my first multi-day-off span since last September, and I thought I'd post a print that is being donated for the Lottery of the Arts being held at the Blue Line Gallery, run by the Roseville Arts Association. This is the 2nd year for Lottery for the Arts; I donated a lith print last year shot up in Bodie, CA.
This year's print was shot in the Alabama Hills, on the eastern slopes of the Sierra, just west of Lone Pine, CA. Also a lith print, this was toned in selenium, then gold. I was pleased to see that the gold toning did what I thought it would do, and gave the sky a slightly blue cast. The result is a black and white print with a little bit of color to it. The cool tones brought on by the selenium and gold also work, I think, for the stones and the mountains.




More info on the Lottery for the Arts can be found here or at www.rosevillearts.org

Gonna do some shooting and printing this week, to take full advantage of my vacation.

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.