Brookings Kite Festival

I wanted to share some more photos from the Kite Festival that we went to in Brookings, Oregon last Saturday. I took only my digital camera that morning since it was so drizzly. I had to keep it in my jacket and whip it out when I wanted to click off a shot. Maybe it's time I invest in a plastic camera jacket for both cameras.

My standard MO is that I don't manipulate my photos. I'm not saying there's not any room for improvement, it's just that I like the result of the photographic image to be what was actually seen by me. For instance, the one photo of the seagulls on the beach with the sunset mist that I posted yesterday, on that one I could have done a 'Levels auto fix', which I tried, however, it removes the 'mist' and it just looks like a more clear, stark photo of the beach at sunset, and that's not what I saw. The ethereal mist is what the photo is all about.

The black and whites I took that day at the kite festival came out mostly gray. But that's the way it was - it was misty and foggy - not clear. Now some of the B & W's were okay the way they were, some I used 'Levels auto fix', some it was a little contrast adjustment, and some needed an exposure adjustment, and some I made the adjustments manually. They weren't all the same, and sometimes none of the above did them any justice so I left those untouched.

As I mentioned, I also took a roll and a half of B&W film, so I'll need to develop those. Plus my son's been bugging me about developing the rest of his! He doesn't stay with the same film speed, so I've got to the change the timing every time for each single roll of film! I guess I'm just procrastinating on that one! Enjoy the photos today.

Brookings, Oregon

Well I'm back! We went out of town on a week camping trip to Brookings, Oregon. When we planned the trip we thought we would be beating the heat here in Cool. However, it was low temperatures here. Oh, well! We had three sunny days with some happy little clouds, and then on Friday it was cloudy but dry, and on Saturday it was drizzly all day. Then it was a repeat on Sunday.

We had a great time walking down on the beach twice a day with our dog Chica. Cruised the town and checked out some galleries - not that many in town. Met some great folks in the RV park - one of the women was also a photographer who sometimes showed her work right there in Brookings. I carried my cameras down to the beach in Brookings Harbor. We also drove up to Gold Beach, and we also visited Harris State Beach a couple of times: one of them at sunset.

Read some more of my Canon T2i manual, and programmed it to also take B&W photos, so I could switch back and forth between black and white and color. However, I was also taking black and white film photography when we were there - always gotta do that!

On Saturday was the Kite Festival (that we didn't know was happening until we got in town) and that was a lot of fun. We thought it was just about keeping a kite up in the air, but no, it was more than that. They flew the kites to music! That's right, choreographed to music! Dancing kites! Sweet! We were there for a couple of hours in the morning and got soaked, but I did get some photos. We also had great clam chowder in a bread bowl - nice and hot and delicious I must say. Ron wanted to go ask the vendor for his recipe!

I just uploaded about 150 photos to my PC and am sharing some with you today. Before I left I ordered some books on alternative photography processes from Barnes & Noble. Received the big one titled "Alternative Photographic Processes" by Christopher James. Really am anxious to delve into that one!

Developing, Painting, Kayaking!!

It's been a busy week to say the least and it's already Thursday. I painted some more on the acrylic Eiffel Tower at night. Maybe I'll share a photo of the painting. It's still a work in progress.

Also was in the darkroom developing some prints of negatives never developed on paper. Plus I am trying out the matt finish fiber base paper. I usually use the glossy, and it seems to show the blacks better, however, matt is alot of the time the preferred for museum quality, blah, blah, blah. I love the feel of the matt finish. The first negative in particular that I was developing was a small cypress in the fog. After I got the timing down, unfortunately there is either a twig or something in the negative that I am still unable to 'see' even with the aide of the light box, that is just too distracting for my taste. If I can see, someone else is going to see it. But it was pretty awesome. I have some others I can try too.

Then yesterday afternoon I had an appointment to do some 'product web shots' for a fellow candle artist. It was fun working with her down at the High Hand Gallery in the 'sheds' even if it was hotter than you know what! That took about 4 hrs including driving time. I set up a tri-fold back drop and draped it with an off white material for the background, and set up the lights and umbrellas. The lights were an added heater to say the least!

Then this morning my hubby and I went out kayaking. It was the first time for me in a long time. He built his kayak - Chesapeake Light Craft kit - and of course everyone wants to come over and admire his work of art, which it most definitely is. So it was a great day!

Happy 4th of July Weekend!

I don't know about you, but this is a pretty hot weekend here in California. I took the dog out and it's already boiling!

Yesterday I worked on sorting out some framed photographic images. It's time to change out the artwork at the High Hand Gallery tomorrow. So I picked out a few more, and then cut a mat (because I still haven't cut any) for an 8x10 darkroom print of the Empire Mine Staircase. I had recently purchased on sale an antique looking frame and so it goes rather well with the print.

I would like to get to the point where all I display are gelatin silver prints. It's just that I have so many prints either developed by labs or digitally printed that I want to deplete that stock first. So I've been putting these matted prints out there at relatively reduced prices.

I finally broke down and started using my air conditioner out here in the studio, as it gets pretty dang hot and with the chemicals I need to keep this place cool. I hate using it because it jacks up our electric bill! And it was supposed to be an energy saving air conditioner. What country did that apply to??

This week my plan is to contact a couple of local establishments to see about hanging my artwork in. There is a local restaurant that allows artists to hang their work there, and some of my friends have said they've had sales there. So that's one, and then I plan on going over to another gallery that everyone raves about: Blue Line in Roseville.