Starry Night in Black and White

It's been a busy week and it's only Wednesday!  Sunday I was in the darkroom, or was that Monday.  Made some progress.  I think I just got myself overly worked up and started second guessing myself - again!  I made about 10 prints, 8x10's, and had no problems.  I decreased the magenta in the Beseler enlarger back to 45 as Ilford paper recommends and the images came out good.  I'm being more selective in which ones I  develop.  In the beginning they all looked so good, and I suppose they are to me, but I want images that will make a statement or hopefully have an impact on somebody!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I didn't make the cut for that International Photography Show in Redding.  Here's the link of who did win.  I was amazed to say the least.  Young people have such great, original and novel ideas.  I think it's wonderful!  http://nval.org/Photography_Show.html

Over the weekend I also got to thinking I should make a bra for the High Hand Gallery's 5th Annual Artful Bra Show which is coming up on May 25th.  I started cutting daisies out of some of my old glossy black and white images that I have tossed in a drawer.  Boy, did that make my hand hurt and I only got one daisy cut!  So I called up my girlfriend who makes cards and also does scrap booking and asked if I could borrow her punches.  That made it so much easier.  Only took about a half hour to cut up what I wanted and then proceeded to put together a bra made with black, white, and various shades of gray in-between.  Pasting them was pretty tricky.  I had two different glues before I got them to stick.  Then I added some rhinestones.  I think I like it a lot!  I'm calling it "Starry Night in Black and White!"

 This morning I went out around 8:30 into Auburn to photograph some of the historical buildings in town.  I am collaborating with another local artist who is also my friend.  She had this great idea for us to enter the "Celebrating Auburn's Past" Call to Artists by the Auburn Arts Commission.  When we get to the finished art piece, I will definitely share it here on my blog.  It was kind of exciting to know the names of these places and learn a little more about my town.  I had a list of about 40 historical places/buildings, and I managed to photography a little over than half.  And, I got my exercise in for the day!

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.