New Website

With the upcoming demise of my old website, I finally got in gear today and started working on the new one.  I pretty much spent all day on it.  Got the basics going, dialogue About Me, and all that other stuff; uploaded two galleries to it.  Wrote a lot of notes of other galleries I want to add, with one gallery devoted to some of my own favorites, rather than posting more of my older stuff.  I want fresh and new!! ; )

The new hosting company is RedFrame.  They seemed to be one of the most reasonably priced web templates, including hosting and e-commerce with no commission taken.  I won't have my e-commerce up right away.  I'm just concentrating on designing and completing the galleries for now.  Then Blue Cat Studio will help be re-direct this Blog to the new website, and tie up any loose ends.  For the most part I am doing the work.

Worked my two shifts at High Hand Gallery (within a 5-day period) learning our new POS (Point of Sale) system.  I think I'm getting it down.  There are approximately 33 artists learning this new system so it will probably be a couple of months until we all are on the same page.  But I really like this new system.

This weekend I will be taking in three new images of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles to High Hand for the new re-hang.  I posted one of the images my last post, and here's another.  I really get a little crazy when I see such great architectural designs for many of the museums.  They are a piece of artwork themselves!

Black and White Gallery Wraps

I finally made a decision to use one of my very own VIVID black and white images from Bodie Ghost Town Series instead of worrying about whether or not I had a vivid color shot!  I'm all about black and white, so I'm sticking to it!!  And that's it!  I'm actually the image I last posted of the small out building on a hill in Bodie with a sky full of vivid white clouds all across the top.  Once I decided on the image, I went online to Big Canvas and ordered a 2 x 3 ft canvas!  I have not ordered a black and white image from Big Canvas to date, the images ordered were always color.  So I'm anxious to see how it turns out!  I mentioned in an earlier post that I had ordered a black and white canvas wrap locally and it came back purple!  So, as far as I'm concerned, this project is done!

I received an email yesterday from Epson that the third interview sessions were now available online.  Again, here's the link if you were interested in listening to more photography info from John Sexton and Kim Weston.  http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Landing/black-and-white-printing-tutorials-expert-interviews.do?RMID=PI_20130710_BW_Part_3_N&RRID=3167862

Another site that I found interesting (I still wish I had been born at least a decade sooner for this) was in regards to a "Call to Photographers" contest from One Life.  Not only is it a contest, but it's a website that allows photographers, artists, musicians, much more, to showcase your work, your art, your passion.  I think you might want to check this one out:  http://www.onelifephotos.com/?f=ol2013_pdn2

Studio Tour Layout

The first day of the Studios Tour is over and it was encouraging to say the least.  Have several sales and a commissioned piece too for a photo transfer!!  How fun is that!?  Here are a couple of photos of my studio setup I wanted to share with you this morning:

I've been hearing great compliments about my work like, 'wow...you do have an eye' and I lots of people recognizing the places I've been that they've been to also.  The temperature is really cold here today, so I'm taking down my small heater just in case I'm not warm enough!!  More later!

Double Mats

Rain, rain, rain, and more rain!  That's good, just not good for satellite reception!  However, Hughesnet was having a bigger problem, mainly the satellite.  We had no Internet for most of the day.  When we did get reconnected, I spent most of my time uploading the images to the High Hand Gallery's Facebook page.  Just now it took me forever to just sign on to my Google blog.  IT gadgets and gimmicks can fill up one's day and you're still not getting anything accomplished!

So as I'm cutting mats the last couple of days, I'm showing them to my hubby for his input.  His take was that I need to cut double mats and do the photos justice!  Grrrrrrr, that 's not what I wanted to hear.  Dangit I hate cutting double mats - it's HARD!  To make a long story short I bought four more colors of mat board yesterday.  I'm still working on them.

Monday I finished up my gelatin silver print of the Mountain Quarries RR Bridge for the Centennial contest.  At least I thought I had, and again my husband says right off the bat, "...that frame doesn't do it justice."  Just like that.  "You need to frame it in just a black frame."  And then he leaves.  Hhhhmmm.  So I change out the frame to a plain black anodized metal frame v. the rustic brown and black wood frame.  I have to admit, it does look crisper.

I'm going back to cutting mats for the time being.  This image from Oia, Santorini is one that I am cutting an under mat of white, then an over mat of gray that matches the gray in the photo.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Time is flying by and there's so much to do! First of all we need to stay home and I mean it this time! Got together in Monterey with my husband's family this past weekend. Great weather as it was supposed to rain, but waited until we left. It did rain Friday nite but we had just arrived and were inside having fun at dinner.

Last week I was having issues with my blog counter. Apparently my cache was full on Internet Explorer so by deleting the cache the counter eventually re-appeared for me as in just today. It was probably showing up for you, just not moi! One of these days I'll have to get another computer since mine's going on 7 years old. Macs are more but then there's the learning curve - always a learning curve - and I don't know if I want to spend that much money. It's my understanding you can go into the iMac store and play around with them, so I might just do that.

This morning I was thinking about my photography. I WAS around in the 60's and as I look back, I wished I could have really picked up the camera back then. There was so much history taking place back then: in the music industry, the Vietnam war, civil rights, fashion, to name few. Okay, so I was in Barstow, but it all affected us there too. I would have liked to have been in on the jazz scene and taken black and whites back then. Hopefully you'll be motivated from my yearning of "if only's and what if's" that if you have a passion then go for it NOW. Just take your trusty little camera and give it your best shot. And don't be hard on yourself by thinking they're not good images!! Look at the old black and whites that were taken by various famous photographers - they're not perfect images, they're not perfectly clear digitals, and yet they're invaluable pieces of artworks. Just go do it and do it today!

Studio Tour in Cool

Yesterday was quite the busy and fun day. My aunt and some of her high school classmates she has kept in touch with over all these years met me at the High Hand Gallery. I was able to show them around the whole place, and saved the gallery for last! They really enjoyed the tour and liked my artwork (and the other artists' artworks) very much! Then we all loaded up in the car and headed up to my studio.

They had never been on the canyon road from Auburn to Cool, so that was a treat in itself! I went slow for them. We got to my house and showed them around the place and then we had lunch. After lunch I took them out to my studio and they fell in love all over again. I showed them my work spaces, how and where I developed my film, the photo transfers, my equipment, my artwork. It was fun to share it with people, as I would never be able to be on the Auburn Artwalk. Cool is in El Dorado County and I am closer to Placer County, but so far out in the boonies, no one's ever going to come here! So, I'll just have to have my own 'tours' when I want them.

This black and white digital photo I'm posting is from Burano - amidst all the bright colors of Burano, I pulled out my film camera and clicked off this shot. I liked the simplicity of the old office chair against the concrete wall with all its texture. I found myself taking several of these types of scenarios on my trip. It lends itself to portraying a mood of some sort...

Toning and Transfers

Yesterday and the night before I started playing around with photo transfers and then simultaneously with the Berg Brown/Copper Toning solution. First lets talk about the Toning process.

Mixing the toning solution is probably the hardest part of the whole process. The water needs to be between 65 & 70 degrees. I've gotten a little smarter on the water part and started refrigerating some to use in mixing my chemicals v. using ice to cool the mixtures AFTER they've been mixed. It's a lot easier. You mix Part A with Part B (by the way the mixture color isn't dark brown like I thought it would be, it's blue!) there can be some crystallized sediment and you will need to warm up the bottles to melt them. But in addition, there is also some stringy sediment floating around once you mix it and you will need to strain the solution before you use it. That's what took so long. It kept clogging up my funnel strainer and it probably took about 15 minutes to get it done.

I made the test strips with various times: 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 6 minutes, 8 minutes, and 15 minutes, as well as a full image. I was going for the so-called 'copper' look. Well, it wasn't what I thought it was going to be. It's coppery-brown, but not metallic copper like I was thinking. However, I did like some of the results. I would probably stick with possibly 30 seconds and maybe even make it 45 seconds. That length of time is more of a very subtle sepia and still leaves some blacks/grays. I want to order some other toners, especially the selenium toner which adds to the life of your photographic image, as well as makes some of the blacks even blacker - so I hear. I'm not much into the blue toner.

On to the transfers. Instead of trying to come up with empty sheets of labels to use as the transfer paper, the instructions from Jill Enfield's Photo Imaging book said you could also use the dry mounting tissue protective sheets because they too are waxy. The first round using label sheets I was able to get one fairly good image. Using the dry mount sheets it got even better. BTW, I'm just using my old HP Office Jet because I don't want to ruin or clog up my Epson 2400. This is a great process for me because most transfers require Laser jet printers and I don't have one of those. I'm also having better results with 130 lb cold press water color paper. I tried different weights and types. You want a smooth surface for the transfer. I transferred some B&W photography as well as color. Also after the transfer you can take a wet paint brush and do some smoothing out of the image and/or add more water colors. I haven't had to add anything yet. I also made two of the same image and they came out different each time which is great! The same photo with two originals!

The only thing about both of these processes is that I don't want to leave my studio!! ; )

Yosemite in Black and White

Yesterday when I posted I was unable to add the photos right away to my blog for whatever reason?? My PC was scanning and/or the fact that we have satellite - take your pick! So I added them later in the day.

Yesterday I did get in the darkroom and developed the 5 rolls of film! Looks like I got some good ones - sweet! I already cut the negatives and put them in sleeves, so now I need to go back into the darkroom and make contact sheets. Some film photographers don't make contact sheets, but for me it's like a visual library. I don't have to guess or try to remember. So I'll do that next and go from there. And again I haven't worked with the brown/copper toner yet that I was talking about. We've just been busy - outside of my studio. But I already do have some prints I can try the toner out on. I will just need to soak them before I run them thru that process. (So many fun things to do, and so little time!) I would like to have something different to put into the High Hand Gallery for the holidays. If that is to happen, I need to present one for jurying first though.

When we went thru Yosemite last Friday, it was a gorgeous day for anyone to see - first time or not. There were happy little puffy clouds, blue skies, and later the thunder heads rolled in. We missed the actual rain and hail storm and we lucked out with the aftermath of bigger puffy, silver-lined clouds and great shadows with the sunshine. We must have stopped 20 times to get out and take photos and look thru the binoculars. It was a pretty awesome day to end our trip.

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!

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!

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!

High Hand Gallery

This weekend the show ended at Blue Moon Gallery in Sacramento and so it was time to pick up my photos. Sadly there were no sales at this show - just cards. As I was discussing this with the owner of the gallery, she commented that photography is a good way to display art for the price! (So true!) When you see or watch design shows it's always B&W photography that is on the walls. I think it is the economy right now and of course we had alot of bad rainy days in February which didn't help either. I'm not one to cry in my gin, so it's off to High Hand!!

The theme for this month's show is 'Keepsakes' which I've mentioned before. I have already selected the photos and will deliver them to High Hand Gallery tomorrow as that is when the gallery gets changed out. It's always exciting to see the new art on the walls. This morning I sent three photos of the work I am putting in this show to the person who is doing the press release.

This weekend I also found out about a local art show right here in my neighborhood!! A fellow artist is putting this show together with local artists in this area. We live in a very rural area, so once I get the particulars I will post it on my blog here. And of course I will also send out information on the new High Hand show as well.

Bodie Ghost Town

Yesterday when I worked the High Hand Gallery, there were two specific visitors that I had lengthy conversations with about Bodie Ghost Town and ghosts in general. There is one photo that I took that I have titled, "Bodie Spirit". When I took the photo, because you can't go inside each and every building left standing there, I put the lens right on the window glass so that there is no reflections from behind me. Well, after the film was developed, you can see a white ghost-like spirit waving right there in the middle of the scene. When I saw it, yeah, it was like "whoa"!!

One of the women I spoke with had been to Bodie several times and taken lots of photos. She told me that she has a couple of photos just like that!! She also suggested that I join the 'Friends of Bodie' and I do remember seeing that in the brochure. When you join they will notify you of events they might have coming up in the future, as I definitely want to go there again.

The second couple I met were also admiring my B&W's of Bodie, and somehow again, we got talking about ghosts, and I showed them my ghost photo. They were really into seeking out the ghost towns and even have books on them. Even their children were into it. I mentioned that I've seen historical new publications of local pioneer towns and there is one in particular that is just about 'ghost towns'. So I think I will buy one and seek some of those out. This last couple were very interesting and proceeded to tell me about their ghostly experience at the National Hotel in Nevada City, where they both awakened at the same time in the middle of the night and felt some one's presence over them!! Yikes!!