Bodie Ghost Town Series

Yesterday, all day until 6:00 p.m. I was in the darkroom!  The time goes by really fast when I'm in there and I'm having so much fun. I fixed my portable stereo by moving it closer to the darkroom, just outside the door, then placing one of the removable speakers inside the darkroom.  Now I won't have to turn up the volume so high to hear it anymore.  It's right inside and I can sing to my heart's content!

I sent my NYC photographer friend, Dave Beckerman, an email with a copy of yesterday morning's blog about The World's Most Obnoxious Photographer.  We used to share stories back and forth in our early careers, well, his early career mostly.  I was just getting off the ground with mine.  He's been developing film since he was a little boy about 8 or 9 years old.  How lucky is he?  Anyhoo, he got such a big kick out of the story, that he put a link from his blog to mine.  In his email back to me, he just couldn't believe this had happened to me and wondered if the guy would do it to another man.  I didn't look at it that way.  But he might be on to something there, who knows.  Dave said if the guy had done it to him, that that guy would surely find out what a DSLR could do when he hit him over the head with it!!  Aah, if I just had some testosterone! ; )  But the incident still bothers me.  I mean in a way, it's just as though the guy had taken my purse and gone thru it, you know??  My camera is almost like my purse!  Okay, I'll give it a rest.  No more.

So I developed about 6 more images, all 8x10s.  All of them were Bodie Ghost Town, with the exception of the last one being No Hands Bridge.  It took three tries and I think I have the timing down and the dodging - it needed just a little on the face of the arches.  Now I will develop it at 11x14.  One of these days I'll have to try a 16x20.  However, that would involve unscrewing the enlarger head from the base, turning it around,  then exposing the image down to the floor!  And I'd have to get larger trays...hhmmm, I don't know if I have enough room actually.  It would get pretty tight in there.  Well, maybe I'd just have to scan in the negative and print it out digitally.  That's another day.

I'm sharing with you today a print from Bodie Series:  Rustic Bodie Door.  It's not quite the same as the print - almost.  The actual print is a little more subdued with warm tones.  I think I'm working outside today - lots of weeding to do.  We'll see how it goes.