Gelatin Silver Prints

I'm not even bothering with the 8x10s on my European images - I'm going for the 11x14s!!  Currently I do not have any gelatin silver prints, which is what I say I do the most of, hanging in the High Hand Gallery and I really want some new black and white images there!  It's just that it seems hard to get the attention or appreciation of a good darkroom print from the public.  I'm just saying it doesn't happen very often.  I'm considering taking down all the color prints and color photo transfers and just leaving in the gelatin silver prints.

Today I printed six 11x14s from Venice.  I just moved on to Murano, of which I really didn't have anything spectacular from that island.  I only have one more to print from Murano and then I'll move on to Burano, which again I didn't have a lot of film images because I have to admit it was so colorful, I whipped out the Canon T2i more often than the film camera for those two islands in Venice.  Once those few images are completed, then it's on to Dubrovnik, Croatia.  Those really look interesting.  The ones I printed out from Venice have a lot of texture in that I captured images that included the old buildings, well, heck, they're all old!!  I seem to be getting the hang of being in the darkroom.  As I've mentioned before, I don't normally do test strips.  I did early on, but once you start printing your work you start to have an understanding (or feeling) of what and where to start at f-stop/aperture-wise and seconds-wise.  I can tell by where I was, when I was there (time of day), when the time of day started to change, etc.  Some people will say it really is technical from the mixing of the chemicals to the agitation of the tanks/trays, and on and on.  I'm not technical, and I'm not going to get hung up on it. And that's why when people ask me, "Oh, do you give lessons??"  No.  I don't.  I can give you general information, but I don't plan on giving lessons.

However, I do have another request from my girlfriend Janie to come in the darkroom with me!  I like it!  My second and third guests (her and her mom).  I'll let you know how that goes after they've been here.  Right now I'm thinking that I need another drying rack, because I had to stop developing this afternoon only because I ran out of drying rack space.  They're not drying fast enough for me.  I could make one more rack since I have the space.  I would just have to get my husband to cut out the tray bottom so I can staple in the screen.  Tomorrow I'll be able to post an image once they dry and I've pressed them overnight.

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.