Arista II Photograde RC Metallic Lustre Inkjet paper

Been working on images I took for a landscape photo shoot.  Took exactly two hundred images, don't know what I will be ending up with.  But it's a job.  It was a little breezy that night, so several have had to be eliminated.  But I think there will be several my client can use - I hope he will be pleased with them.  I guess I need to be pleased first of all, and then see what he thinks.  Spent several hours last night going thru them and eliminating the unacceptable ones.  Will spend more time today, hopefully wrapping up that little project.

Next I need to get busy and order some supplies.  I think I've mentioned I've been printing out digital prints in the meantime.  I'll have to do some framing soon to take new ones to the gallery in another week.

Good news on the artistic photographic papers!  Received my Freestyle 'Creative Imaging Supplies' catalog and found that the Washi inkjet papers from Japan are available in packets of 10 sheets (13x19") for under $35!!  Sweet!  I'm anxious to try those new papers - it makes printing more fun!  

Here's one of the images I took with my Smart phone, which I can't believe some of the images come out so great.  This was a display at the Monterey Bay Aquarium of many types of plastics found in the ocean.  It looked like art to me!  I printed it on Metallic Luster inkjet paper.

Metallic Prints

Here's an update on some of the photography shows I've been working on.  I did not get juried in for the NVAL International Show up in Redding, CA.   I did enter in a timely manner the Art Deco Reimagined at the Blue Line.  I should be hearing from that one any day as to whether or not one of my entries was accepted.  The deadline for the California State Fair is coming up and I still haven't decided what to do there.  We will be busy with other adventures during the time of the fair, so don't know if I'll actually enter after all.  The KVIE Art Auction deadline is coming up in another month and I definitely want to enter that one.  I'd like to do a darkroom print - I'll just have to see if I can come up with one incredible print! ; )

Today it's back to working the High Hand Gallery and it should be a pretty busy day.  Over the last week I have been printing out new prints from my stash of European photos.  The majority of them I have done on metallic paper.  I'm finding that the 'luster' metallic seems to show off the metallic characteristics more than the 'glossy' metallic.  I never would have thought that - but there it is.  You don't think you can really tell from this scanned image, but here's one on the luster metallic paper:

Placer Arts 30th Jubilee

We returned this mid-week from a short trip to Carmel.  The drives up and back were good, no problems.  The skies were pretty clear but it also got the wind as the rest of the California did too.  Whaddya gonna do?!  Didn't really take any photos that were gallery-worthy, but that's okay.  I need to go out on my own soon to get that done.

As soon as we got back I had several things to take care of in the art world.  I had entered two images into Placer Arts 30th Jubilee and one of them was accepted!  I also attended the award ceremony prior to the actual ArtWalk last night.  My entry didn't receive any awards, however, I did get juried in!  That's an award in itself.  I did take notice of two other photographers who were juried in also.  The one photograph that won in the photography category was a black and white print on metallic paper.  The other one I noticed was a print on rice paper, which I thought was better than the metallic print.  I have rice paper on my list to buy, but I must say it is very expensive and you only get 20 sheets at that for under $400!!  That's another subject for another post!

Earlier in the day I sent to Marketplace of Auburn for its grand opening and ribbon cutting at noon.  Several chamber members were present and of course then had the ribbon cutting ceremony.   That gallery already has 30 artists!  Good for Cynthia, the owner!   

Here's an image from Carmel.  These kids were having a great time out in the wind with their shovels, digging a major hole!

Ansel Adam's Book 3 - THE PRINT

I'm researching, reading, and re-thinking my whole darkroom development process.  I'm reading Ansel Adam's Book 3 - The Print - again.  Actually, I'm reading it after reading another photographer's information on black and white archival print processing.  I don't know if I'm re-learning or re-thinking the process, but I'm open to 'testing' the waters of developing in the darkroom so long as it gets me to making a great gelatin silver print!  That's all I care about, so why not investigate and try a slightly different approach.  I'm thinking there are several ways to do this whole process.  Sure there's basics, but each and every person who develops in the darkroom has their own way of doing things.  My first step is to dilute the Dektol 1:3 v. 1:2 as it states on the package.  Apparently the results are the same - maybe better.  That will be my first experiment!

In regards to print archiving, I've not done this step ever, which is to use a selenium toner to create an archival print.  I'm not an expert, but by doing this it looks like three more steps are added to the process!  Yikes!  I'm searching for a process that will give me true blacks and white whites.  There is also a product out there that basically helps bleach?? for a truer white.  Again, I'm still learning.  As far as the 'yellow' I've been referring to, that seems to be a standard result and maybe that's the 'warm tone' I'm reading about that is often referred to.  Who knows?  Only my persistence will give me the answers I'm looking for!

Here's one that I've printed out at least five times.  It is one of the last frames of Croatia.  I'm going to try it one more time in the Dektol dilution of 1:3 and see what that does.

High Hand Gallery Sale

Last night I finally finished up working on some images from a photo shoot of one of my friend's 9 month old baby boy.  That was so much fun looking at the photos again!  They looked better than when I remembered taking them!  Made three CDs for them and printed out some of the best family portrait images as a courtesy - as I like to see what they look like printed out.  I think they'll be happy with them.

With that project out of the way, I worked at High Hand Gallery today and sold one of my framed images of Yosemite's Half Dome to a woman out of town.  I'm totally stoked!  So tomorrow I will take it to FedEx to have them package and mail it to its destination.  I've posted that image before, but here it is again:

Troubleshooting in the Darkroom

I am finally back in the darkroom.  I was performing a lot of checks and double checks with the enlarger, put on the new foam gasket, checking for light leaks (still have them from the enlarger even after adjusting the head and re-adjusting!).  I spent the day in there printing out another 5 images.  It took longer because of me having to re-adjust the head for almost every print.

However, I moved the safelight higher up after reading that it should be a minimum of 4 ft. away from the developing trays (mine was 4 1/2 ft.).  So it's now 6 1/2 ft away.  I also added a black cloth around the head which helps a lot, and I'm going to add another piece of material over the top of the overhead light.  It is a square 1 ft. light and I'm seeing reflection off of it because it is glass.  The prints came out pretty good, but I'm still not seeing bright whites.  They look not foggy, but yellow-ish and that's not right, I tell ya!!  So before I go in there again, I'm going to cover the light up.  

Here's one from yesterday.  It was one of my first views of when we set foot on Corfu.  There were quite a few long hallways, in fact the whole city had covered walkways in front of all their buildings!  This one could use some dodging on the man on the right who is on the cell phone.  I scanned it in in 16-bit grayscale so you can't really see the yellow effect, but trust me there is a slight yellow tinge to it!