Berg Brown and Copper Toning Solution

Yesterday I pretty much laid low which is hard for me to do I must say. I watched a couple of movies, but in between I came out to my studio to do SOMETHING! Since I had a short range of motion with my head without getting really dizzy or nauseous, I could at least look straight ahead. So I sat at my PC and wrote out the process for the Brown/Copper Toner that I recently purchased. In regards to that process, you just develop a print in your normal fashion, then place the washed print in the toning solution for the desired length of time for the effect you want, wash one more time and dry at room temperature. Here is the scale for the 'effects':

Warm Tone - 5 - 30 mins.
Brown Tone - 1/2 to 2 mins.
Sepia Tone - 2 to 6 mins.
Flesh Tone - 6 to 8 mins.
Metallic Copper - 6 - 15 mins. or longer.

I'm going for the metallic copper effect first! Go for the dramatic one and try out the others later.

I also came back to my studio later in the evening and worked on an acrylic painting I've had sitting here since March. It's one of the Eiffel Tower I painted from a calendar. Being able to paint worked because I could sit and paint and look straight ahead. All I wanted to do was to add some modeling paste to build up the clouds and Eiffel Tower and paint out some stuff in the foreground that really didn't turn out. I will probably work a little more on that today. I'm actually feeling a little better, I have more range of motion for my head without getting too dizzy!

Darkroom Results

Mixing chemicals in the summertime isn't as easy as it is in the wintertime. The water isn't as cool (68 degrees for developing, stop, fixing - and of course the washes at least under 75 degrees for TMAX film). So then you have to sit the chemicals in another container with ice and water in it to cool it down. The chemical mixing took me about half an hour to get it right.

I started out printing the Empire Mine Staircase picture that I posted a couple of weeks ago, only this time at 11x14 size. That only took one try and it came out beautiful I must say. The second image was from Canyon de Chelly which was a dead tree on the valley floor, which had never been developed before. It took about four tries to get that one where I liked it. By that time it was just about dinnertime so I thought I would pack it up - put the chemicals back in air tight containers. Well, I must have been tired as I had the fixer on the edge of the counter as I balanced it and bent down my head which brushed the tray and 'voila!' it spilled all over the top of my head! I finished up real quick and went and took a shower.

I am not posting a photo today, as I woke up in the middle of the night with vertigo. And again this morning it was there. So I'm trying to make this quick and wait for my hubby to wake up so he can go get me some Dramamine! I've had this a couple times before about 20 years ago, and it is NOT fun! Hope it goes away quickly!!

Darkroom Day

Company has come and gone, garden has been taken care of, chores done, so now I am going back into the darkroom! My goal is to print negatives that were either my favorites or ones that have never been printed before. I want to increase my inventory on hand so that I have photographic images to 'select' from for upcoming months and shows.

Yesterday I did stop by the local acrylic shop (Tap Plastics). I'm looking for another way to display my matted smaller prints. Currently they are in baskets, which is okay, but if I had them displayed in a 'clear' container it wouldn't take away from the image itself, and hopefully draw in the eyes of the beholders! Well, can you believe they wanted almost $100 for two silly acrylic boxes!!??! I received a much lower quote from the display company for glass boxes! She said it takes them almost an hour to make a box! Well, something is wrong right there! My husband and I worked on an acrylic reptile cage for my son and it was huge!! It wasn't THAT hard.

Getting back in the darkroom is the plan for today and I'll let you know how everything goes!

Lenswork and Art Criticism

I've been reading through some of the LensWork magazines my friend sent me. One particular issue had some pretty interesting interviews with various photographers - most I did not know. It's intriguing to hear what makes photographers pick up a camera in the first place. Remember, this is black and white photography, as in film.

Some photographers' inspiration and drive is to depict: their 'secrets', their own doubts - ??, that the photographic image contains 'dignity', another spoke of how he is totally consumed in the act of photographing that he loses all sense of time (I can totally relate to that one!), and then there's the photographer snob whose initials are Lord Snowden, who is just too full of himself to even say what he said (why pick up a camera Dude?), and then my fave was the statement from Elliott Erwitt, who I have no idea who he is - yet, who stated, "Good photography is not about Zone Printing or any other Ansel Adams nonsense. It's just about seeing. You either see or you don't see. The rest if academic. Photography is simply a function of noticing things. Nothing more."

I don't know if I agree with his irreverence to Ansel, but I'm thinking Elliott is not technical. Neither am I. I have people come up to me and say, so what did you shoot this at? Like I'm going to remember what settings I shoot every photographic image at?? I just say, 'So do you like it? Does it move you? Does it say something to you or evoke a feeling or a memory?' Then there you have it!

Photography Magazines

Yesterday I worked at the High Hand Gallery which was Father's Day. We had our second day of the ArtFest going on. There were 15 artists performing live demonstrations of their particular medium. It was pretty busy inside the gallery as well. I took photos again of the ArtFest and this morning posted them on the High Hand Gallery's FB page. Plus the spell has been broken, in that I have sold a couple of larger pieces at the gallery and that's always a good incentive!

Today I received a package from a dear friend of mine in Washington state, who said he was going to send me a box of old black and white photography magazines. He didn't want to throw them away and he knew I would just LOVE to have them! I got about five copies of Lenswork magazine (from 2001 - 2004 editions); about 10 B&W Magazine copies, which I used to subscribe to but it's so pricey and they are online now too; about a dozen copies of Aperture publications; and a stack of miscellaneous photography magazines. They've already inspired me and I set up a back drop for some still life shots of roses in a vase that I had from the garden. I took some black and whites and some color digital shots. That was fun!

My mantra is to create in the field of photography in some way shape or form each day!! No matter how big or small to keep the vision alive!

Bodega Bay Para Sailers

The last four days we went camping at Doran Beach in Bodega Bay. The first day and evening we had gale force winds! Yikes. But the rest of our stay was sunny, just a little breezy, and clear nights. A little fog bank would roll by in the mornings, but never came inland. We took our bikes and went for rides with our friends and a couple times with the grand kids. Went for walks on the beach and our dog Chica really loved the ocean - her first experience. She hated the kites though!

We also went into town to check out the three galleries there that we like. The Local Color Gallery had a new digital photographer who had a couple of his photographic images printed onto metal. He gave me the website of the company that does it, MagnaChrome.com. The image is infused into and not onto the special coating, has an archival value and durability, are scratch resistant and waterproof, and have a high gloss finish. They talk about the 'color' being vivid - I'm curious about what it would do with black and whites. I'm wondering if it would have the same effect as printing on metallic paper. I'll have to email the company and find out.

In the evenings at Bodega the winds would come up across the inland bay and then the people on para sails would come out on the bay. I don't know the technical lingo here, so bear with me. They would start out the small surfboard, let the wind catch the sail while the board is attached to their feet, come off the water, and some would do flips and land again. It was pretty crazy to watch. Obviously a 'young' sport!

Collaboration of Artists

I truly enjoy working at the gallery with the other artists. It's great to bounce off ideas with others who see things differently. You can come up with some great ideas, makes you think outside of your own box! I guess we all tend to stay within our safe confines of doing what we always do. So it is definitely a good thing to get one's self out of that rut, so to speak.

I worked last Thursday at High Hand Gallery with another artist, Kim, who makes jewelry out of actual 'hardware' pieces (i.e., washers, lock nuts, chain, etc.) and it looks fabulous. And Thursday was her day for sales. It just seemed as though people would walk in and head straight to her jewelry. She also makes artwork out of discarded computer pieces incorporating them into a picture with some visual effects (photos) manipulated on the computer. She is also a 'teaching artist' working at various schools who receive grants for art. So she was bouncing off ideas for me that I could possibly do. Toning my Black and Whites is something I'm anxious to try out for one, and possibly layering of multiple photos as she had suggested for me.

There are so many options to experiment with: papers, toners, transfers - I hope I have enough time for all of them!

More Supplies

Yesterday I headed out to Sacramento for lunch with my friend Rochelle. Her daughter recently got married and I took photos at her wedding. I wasn't the official photographer, though they had asked, I just don't want that responsibility. I had made them as a gift, a DVD of photos related to just the marriage portion of their wedding: walking down the aisle, the ceremony, the attendants, leaving the wedding, the first dance, the cake, the bouquet and garter throwing portions. They loved it, and even mentioned that they liked my photos better than the official. So yesterday Rochelle needed one more DVD for the mother-in-law. I made it at Walgreen's!! If you're a budding photographer, or if you want to make a DVD from an 'event', that's the place to go. All you do is select the photos in the order sequence, select the music, and the kiosk does the rest! It came out beautiful - unbelievable.

I also made a trip over to Delta Mat & Moulding for some mat board that I was completely out of. They had some really nice gold frames for sale. I ended up buying five of them for a project I am planning on doing. Making small B&W prints and these frames were 11x14, which would be perfect for them. For some reason small is sometimes better than large for sales at the gallery. It's more affordable for art lovers who don't have a lot of money.

Back to Photography Business

Okay, who did the Indian Rain Dance? I want names, numbers!! Egads, it poured all night long! I hope my veggies didn't sink in and the gophers got 'em! So it's supposed to clear up after today. Today is 'supposed' to be 70, and by the end of the week 85. Time will tell.

So I finally got back in the darkroom. I mentioned that I had developed two rolls of film, however, I didn't print any of those - yet. I was on a mission on finding negatives that had not been printed by me in the darkroom. Yesterday I got all my chemicals mixed and poured and ended up printing out three 8x10s of one of my top favorites of all time: The Empire Mine Staircase. I made three prints at different exposure times which I could probably do another one and increase some of the dodging on some of the dark areas and lighten it up even more. But I liked the darker vesion, as it really makes the little girl in the white dress running up the stairs 'pop' out! Hhhhhmmmm. The one I'm posting here is not the print from the darkroom, just a digital one I had on file.

I was looking for one set of negatives yesterday for a particular photographic image I took in the SF Golden Gate Park Conservatory. So that was a little bit of an hour side track. I ended up organizing even more some of the photo boxes as they were not in order by year and the tagging was much to be desired. I never found the one I was looking for, but I was thinking: what would happen to or who would even want all these boxes of photos that I have arranged by year. What about my artwork?? Oh, well, I guess I better just make the most of it while I'm here. I told my husband, if people come to my funeral, there are enough prints for everyone - they could even have two!! ; )

I also did a lot of reading up on alternative processes over the weekend. I placed an order with Freestyle for some Brown/Copper Toning chemical to try out. Something different!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

So last night it continued to rain, I mean, POUR, and pour it did! This is crazy weather. How the heck are my vegetables going to grow??

Yesterday afternoon I went into the darkroom to develop two rolls of film from our camping trip and from my outing yesterday morning. I might as well have had both hands tied behind my back and tried to develop the film with my teeth!! Egads! What a start! Usually I can load the film onto the reels in 4 minutes. Not so yesterday, it took me almost a half hour to load 2 rolls of film. Crazy - no, frustrating. Must be the weather! ;) I think the results were good. I checked out the negatives with the light box and I see some pretty good ones in there. I need to make a contact print of the negatives and go from there.

I have two enlargers. I've been using the Beseler dichroic color head enlarger. The other one is a Vivitar that I've actually never used. I may have to try that one out. Might be a small learning curve, but it's strictly for B&W developing. Something else for me to work on.

I'm cleaning up around here at the same time. So now I'm going to spend a little time cutting mats, that way I'll know what else I may need in that regard, as I see I'm going to need some more chemicals for developing too. Boy, those supplies went fast!

Summer? Wherefore art thou?

It's June 1st and it's still raining, hailing up here in the foothills. Some sunshine streaming thru now and then. I went out this morning with both cameras (film and digital) after watching the fabulous dark and light gray clouds go by. I couldn't stand it any more so I grabbed the cameras and the dog and drove down to the No Hands Bridge. Quite a while ago, I had gone into the art supply store in town and saw another photographer's handiwork - he caught the No Hands Bridge in a tremendous storm and I've been envious ever since! I want to capture some of that action too!!

I clicked off some shots with the film camera of the NO Hands Bridge, the Forest Hill Bridge, and the North Fork of the American River with some great clouds overhead. Then I drove back into town and took the dog for a walk behind the fire station with the hopes of capturing some of the large oaks and the fabulous clouds. Well, I forgot that I had taken out the SD disk the day before and hadn't returned it to the camera - it was back in the car! Dangit!! I'm an idiot! So that was my morning. Now I'm going to go in the darkroom this afternoon. I'll have 2 rolls of film to develop and see what I captured!