Last night I did go into the darkroom - my beautiful darkroom at that - and developed four more rolls of film. Once I get in there and start mixing the chemicals and the timers are going and I'm shaking away! - it's so much fun. I get lost in there and really don't want to come out. I can't wish for wanting to have had this luxury of a darkroom 20 - 30 years ago, it's here now and I'm happy for that! Thank you hubby! Tonite I cut the film and sleeved them all.
Earlier today I drove down to Sacramento to buy more chemicals. I'm going to try to get in there and start making prints this weekend, but first I have a family photo shoot and this time because I am pressed for time, I'm using my husband's digital Canon. So after the shoot I can go thru the shots and get them printed out for my daughter-in-law by this weekend. Tonight I went thru the camera and cleaned the lenses and got out the tripod, as well as my trusty Minolta. I will take some pictures with film - I have to! It's just moi!
As an aside, I LOVE music! And today I went into Starbucks and treated myself to a coffee, and as I'm ordering I see a Marc Cohn CD, "Listening Booth: 1970". I loved Marc Cohn's first album, "Walking in Memphis" and haven't really heard anything else since then of his that I liked. But this one is pretty awesome. He sings Paul McCartney, Van Morrison, Cat Stevens and more. You definitely need to go check it out!
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Six Days and Counting
This year has been eventful to say the least. Family loved ones passing away, dear friends terminally ill, vacations, and surgery! If you've been a follower of this blog by now you know I suck! I've tried to keep it just about photography, but that is really hard especially if people are expecting something elegantly technical coming out of mouth. It ain't happening. Not now, maybe not ever - who knows?
I know what I need to do and there is so much at times that I can't always just throw myself in the darkroom/studio. I want to, but life gets in the way. And now I'm going to have surgery on my right foot. So I've been getting everything ready: getting a TV set up in the downstairs bedroom, adding a phone, and I need to get some projects lined up and ready, so that when I can't get out of bed and I'm bored, I'll just ask my hubby to bring me the box labelled "X" or "XY". I won't be able to be on my foot for 4 weeks, but when I can I'm going to have my studio set up for painting acrylics with a card table and then I can put my foot up on the futon - hope it works out.
But now I am going to throw myself in the darkroom and hopefully have some luck making some great B&W prints!
I know what I need to do and there is so much at times that I can't always just throw myself in the darkroom/studio. I want to, but life gets in the way. And now I'm going to have surgery on my right foot. So I've been getting everything ready: getting a TV set up in the downstairs bedroom, adding a phone, and I need to get some projects lined up and ready, so that when I can't get out of bed and I'm bored, I'll just ask my hubby to bring me the box labelled "X" or "XY". I won't be able to be on my foot for 4 weeks, but when I can I'm going to have my studio set up for painting acrylics with a card table and then I can put my foot up on the futon - hope it works out.
But now I am going to throw myself in the darkroom and hopefully have some luck making some great B&W prints!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Return to Reality
My husband and I just returned from a two week vacation to the east coast: visiting my son and his family and touring Cape Cod. Personally I thought we managed to skip the so-called bad weather - everywhere we went, people were spouting the words: it's so hot here! We didn't think it was that bad - it was just the 'moist-ness' of it all and that really wasn't that bad either.
Driving thru the eastern states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts was beautiful. I don't want to knock it because it was a great change from the west coast, however, we Californians are so used to to the 'open' spaces where you drive along and actually SEE the area and the landscapes changing. Not so back there. What you SEE is the beautiful greenery of the trees along the extremely clean roadsides mile after mile. It's refreshing at first, but then, it's like, hey, I want to see something! Anything! A house, possibly a lake, or ?? whatever, but you can't.
And the signage - holy moly - not good! First you see a sign telling you the right direction with the posted mileage to get there. Then you come upon a fork in the road and there's no more signage! Very aggravating to say the least. They also have alot of rotaries or if you were in France they would be called 'arrondissemonts'.
However, I did take my trusty 20 lb Minolta and I did shoot some B&W film of Cape Cod scenes in: Hyannis, Plymouth, Nantucket, Newport, and Provincetown (or P-Town)! I only have 2 rolls of B&W, and the rest are color digital photos. Actually the Minolta I used this trip was an SRT 101 Minolta that a good friend of mine gave me. It belonged to his father. It worked very well for a while and then the mirror got locked in the up position. But after a few gentle nudges it came back to the down position! And then I didn't think there would be THAT much difference between a
50mm lens and a 58mm lens - but yes there is more than I imagined. I'm so used to the 50mm capturing a 'whole' scene - I've never used anything close to it. I would usually step up to a zoom lens. I've learned a lesson. Luckily I had a wide angle lens that did the trick.
More later!
Driving thru the eastern states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts was beautiful. I don't want to knock it because it was a great change from the west coast, however, we Californians are so used to to the 'open' spaces where you drive along and actually SEE the area and the landscapes changing. Not so back there. What you SEE is the beautiful greenery of the trees along the extremely clean roadsides mile after mile. It's refreshing at first, but then, it's like, hey, I want to see something! Anything! A house, possibly a lake, or ?? whatever, but you can't.
And the signage - holy moly - not good! First you see a sign telling you the right direction with the posted mileage to get there. Then you come upon a fork in the road and there's no more signage! Very aggravating to say the least. They also have alot of rotaries or if you were in France they would be called 'arrondissemonts'.
However, I did take my trusty 20 lb Minolta and I did shoot some B&W film of Cape Cod scenes in: Hyannis, Plymouth, Nantucket, Newport, and Provincetown (or P-Town)! I only have 2 rolls of B&W, and the rest are color digital photos. Actually the Minolta I used this trip was an SRT 101 Minolta that a good friend of mine gave me. It belonged to his father. It worked very well for a while and then the mirror got locked in the up position. But after a few gentle nudges it came back to the down position! And then I didn't think there would be THAT much difference between a
50mm lens and a 58mm lens - but yes there is more than I imagined. I'm so used to the 50mm capturing a 'whole' scene - I've never used anything close to it. I would usually step up to a zoom lens. I've learned a lesson. Luckily I had a wide angle lens that did the trick.
More later!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Contact Sheets
Fourth of July morning and early afternoon I closed myself off into the dark room and proceeded to pump out the last of six contact sheets for the last rolls of film I developed. That's all done for now. However, next I really do need to practice, practice, practice developing prints now. I've pretty much conquered (1) the chemicals for both the film side and developing side; (2) the timing processes for both; and (3) developing the contact sheets. I will definitely be devoting my time now to developing 'showable' prints.
On another level, I am part of a collaboration of artists to paint 1/3 of a canvas of the Foresthill Bridge. I must have it done before September! Everytime I drive the canyon road I look and study it to hopefully memorize some of it and the hillsides for when I do start painting it. So, that's been eating at me too...why did I say I would do that??? ; )
On another level, I am part of a collaboration of artists to paint 1/3 of a canvas of the Foresthill Bridge. I must have it done before September! Everytime I drive the canyon road I look and study it to hopefully memorize some of it and the hillsides for when I do start painting it. So, that's been eating at me too...why did I say I would do that??? ; )
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Back to Developing Film
After a week of family visiting, I was able to finally get back in to the darkroom! I got 3 more rolls of film done yesterday. I'm amazed how some of my older film still develops out so good. I always kept it stored in my office drawer, which was always kept in the middle of the room - not near a window or any other heat source, so that must have really helped.
I will go back and make contact sheets for the rest of the developed film. Then I still have about 6 rolls from my son, who uses all sorts of the film speeds, which means changing times for developing: everything from 3200 to 100!!
I did receive the replacement bulbs for the Beseler and replaced it. Now it's back to darkroom!
I will go back and make contact sheets for the rest of the developed film. Then I still have about 6 rolls from my son, who uses all sorts of the film speeds, which means changing times for developing: everything from 3200 to 100!!
I did receive the replacement bulbs for the Beseler and replaced it. Now it's back to darkroom!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
My First Good Print!
I've been in the darkroom......figuring out the correct timing on the Beseler enlarger. Started to print.....and the bulb dies on me. So, I go online and order two replacement bulbs to have on hand, which of course won't be here until Friday at best. And I move on to the other enlarger, the Vivitar (good thing I had two!) So basically, I needed to start from scratch as I hadn't used the Vivitar as yet. The guy I bought both enlargers from said he used the Vivitar the majority of the time. And I've only used Beselers.
I have to admit, I had to quit for a few minutes and read up again on the test strip for the print (not to be confused with the test strip for the contact sheet). So I guess there's more than one way to do the test strip. I ended up trying it the way it was described in my 'step-by-step' book, which was to expose the entire strip for 5 seconds; move the card 1/5 of the way and expose for 5 seconds; 10 seconds; 20 seconds; and 40 seconds. That seemed to work out better at f5.6. That only took about two hours with all the practice strips I did and two previous prints. The print I was making was of the Lone Pine in Monterey. Voila!! I have to say it's not perfect and could use some burning in the upper right corner - but this is alot better than my first try.
In the meantime of me washing this print, my dog starts barking outside the darkroom and is chasing this 2" black bumble bee in the studio! She's chasing it and I'm screaming and getting the chills every time it flies past me. So I had to run upstairs and grab a fly swatter, and of course Chica is following me, and we both run back downstairs and I manage to swat the thing and kill it. It's always something, as Gilda Radner used to say! Makes even the little things in life exciting!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Photo of Moi in the Darkroom!
Okay so I said I would post a photo. Finally got around to loading up a bunch of photos for different people including this blog!
Also drove down to Sacramento and bought more chemicals, ink for both printers, and some Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper, as well as 11x14 fiber based. That always takes a good four hours out of my day.
Tomorrow I'm going back into the darkroom! I've got lots more film to develop. I found some really great shots of the Lone Pine in Carmel and also looks like some good ones from Hearst Castle - specifically of the indoor swimming pool. And that's only the beginning.
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