Maria Soto Photography Blog

What can I say!?  Fabulous day in the darkroom yesterday, all day.  I started out big:  11x14 prints with some of the Yosemite series.  There was really only one good one of Half Dome, took some time to get it almost right.  I could probably do it again and it would be finished.  I found that one of the negatives that I really liked had some scratches on it, so that wasn't going to work.

I moved on to Bodie!!  And went down in size to a full 8x10.  No borders.  There are a lot of good ones in this series of two rolls of 36 exposure that I took in summer last year.  It was our second visit.  I developed three different scenes so far.  Plus I moved over to Matt fiber based paper.  It seems to work with this series of decay and dilapidated buildings.  I don't do test strips.  I know, bad girl.  But I kind of have an idea where to start and I can go from there without a lot of frustration.  I'm usually very close to what the development time should be.  Then I just go back and do another and then dodge or burn where it might need to be done. I was having a blast.  Then my husband came in and checked out the prints and said, Wow, these are awesome.  Now let's see what you can do with dinner! ; )

Today I'm out and on my way to work at High Hand Gallery.  It's our Artful Sunday with refreshments and entertainment.  We have The Steve Homan Jazz Band playing Brazilian jazz for a couple of hours from 2 - 4 p.m..  That should be entertaining while one peruses and contemplates purchasing the art works!!  If you're not doing anything, come on by.  We're at 3750 Taylor Road, Loomis.  Take the Horseshoe Bar exit west, turn left on Taylor Road, and we're about the third block down!