one of two...

Music | Last Goodbye by Jeff Buckley

Shooting plates has certainly honed my ability to seek truth in a more focused and concentrated manner. With my limited amount of the Fuji 3000B Instant Film, I've taken a similar approach. I will however shoot until I get at least one image I am happy with, but as it has been, I haven't had to take more than 3 exposures to meet that need.

My latest is of Cadence, one of two... I need to say it again, I really love this film, specifically the negative to positive conversion. The textures and muted tones, the natural frame created after pulling the print... I love chemical photography.


Cadence | 2014-05-12

The Nude

Music | Red Dust by Zero 7

What is it about the nude human body that people find so disturbing . There's a big gap between a nude body and pornography. But for whatever reason there are people out there that can't make that differentiation. The other day, I knowingly posted a photograoh of a women with her breasts exposed. Yes,I know the rules of facebook, no nudity... I'm not surprised that my image got pulled, but the one thing I said I would never do is complain in facebook about it. I did post a message however, to try and start a dialogue to the person who felt it was necessary to report my image. I'd love to know why they felt so compelled to take the time to do so.

Beyond that, I later found that I was prohibited to post anything for 24 hours... A little slap on the wrist for my dirty deed. I know it makes no difference, but I decided to deactivate my account.

I guess I have a lot of frustration about not only facebook and the many, including myself who have become so dependent on it, but how the annonymity allows people to speak out without having to be responsible for what they say and mean. It is lame and cowardice.


Blasphemy

Ambrotype

Music | Natale's Song by Sia

In a rather bold move, since having gone thru my mistrials with the ever evolving process called Wet Plate Collodion, I decided to shoot on glass, instead of the trophy aluminum that I have been using from the very start. I found it to be more difficult because of the surface tension of the two materials are so different. The glass of course is a much faster. It is also much heavier and more difficult to maneuver. As I was making my pours, I know my focus was more intense, not just because this was all new to me, but also, I could make a big mess by dropping the glass. With all of the detriment involved, I can see the allure of working with this medium over the aluminum.

As I said, I am much more in tune with the process. Fragility is a big influence of becoming more connected with every move you make while the glass is in the hands. As slow as this process is - I shoot maybe 3 plates per hour, the glass makes me feel I need to move even slower. In these days where everything we deal with and expect in daily life is instant, I love going against the grain.

More importantly than any of that, the final image on a glass plate has even more voodoo going on. Being able to see both a negative and positive image in a fraction of a second is magical. The smooth surface of the glass invites us to see the image, but because of the thickness of the glass, the appearance of depth subliminally messes with the mind.

You can't see what I'm talking about viewing these images here on screen, but I invite you to see a real Ambrotype, Wet Plate for yourself and see the magic. A great reason to turn off your screens and view real pieces with your own eyes...



Eyerish | 8x10 ambrotype

Moon | 8x10 ambrotype

Light...

Music | When it Falls by Zero 7

Mitsu, a woman who I've been wanting to shoot for quite a long time was spending an extra day in Portland, so we could do a last minute photo shoot. I was honored and had to make time to make it work.

I decided I wanted to do an outdoor shoot as the weather was going to be nice. I also wanted the open feeling of daylight as I did when I first started shooting Wet Plates. The lighting was directional, but much more subtle than I could create using my strobes. The only issue I had was gauging the exposure. It seems I was a stop off all but 1 of the plates as the sun rose rapidly overhead.




I realized after this shoot I still have a lot to learn. Changing a variable certainly changes things down the chain. You always have to be ready to adjust...

Mode Bulb

Music | Spazz by N.E.R.D

A future exhibition I am a part of is being spot lighted on Mode Bulb. Brush up on your French...


2013 Bound by Circumstance Bound by Choice

Anatomy of a Shoot... w/ Irish Heather Collins

Music | Breathe by The Cinematic Orchestra

There are people in the world that you just know you can collaborate with. I knew this the first time I worked with Irish a few months ago. After that session, I came up with an idea of doing a shoot with her in silence. We wouldn't use words to communicate with, just maybe grunts and hand gestures. I think I have way more confidence in her than she does in me, but I still think we would make some amazing images.

Our last 2 sessions, quite similar to each other kind of went like...

I pick her up from her studio in the industrial part of town. She comes out with a huge blue rubbermaid box filled with stuff. She is also dressed in part of her first outfit for the first session. Most of her make up is all ready on as well... You can imagine it is quite a sight to see! On the way to the studio, we talk generally about the shoot, not too much as I think we both understand the process... Surprise is a good thing as well as happy accidents.

In the studio she greets the 2 cats and by this time, they are amazingly in love with her. About 10 miinutes from walking in the door, she is ready for the first plate... With not a lot of words, we go thru a progression of themes, poses... Usually, when I have trouble coming up with a decent looking image, I pull out the digital camera and quickly go thru a mini shoot, that may last 2 minutes at most. We get in a flurry of ideas, poses and go thru what we like. It is a great way of coming up with a starting point. However, with Irish, I shoot digital to have more images to work on later...

It is funny how when we nail our first image we are both pleased with, which so far happened to be the first plate, we go on cruise control. It seems to give both of us freedom to just go with the flow and make more amazing images. It was quite difficult to go thru my progression of which plate I loved most, but for this shoot with Irish, it ended up being the last. I realized we would be there for way too many more hours to be able to surpass what we got...



Irish Heather Collins

Give and Receive...

Music | The Truth by Handsome Boy Modeling School

Some people bring out a conduciveness to collaborate. Jenn had only sat for one other photographer before we got together. She readily admitted that she had no ideas or what to do and sometimes that can be really difficult. We started out a little stiff, but as she found it easier to work with me and was able to interpret my words to her actions, things began to roll. Our first plate was a winner and as she saw the result, she quickly built confidence. This was the last plate of the session, it is by far not only the best plate of the evening, but one of the nicest pieces I've shot with a Wet Plate.


Sa Jouet

Anticipation

Music | I Have Seen by Zero 7

In conjunction to my last post and to expound on the title, Why I Love What I Do, as we become more and more reliant on technology - to get the things we want, I'm feeling much more at home in doing my Wet Plates. I've been down that road of explaining why I love to get my hands dirty, smelling the aroma of the various fumes, taking chemicals and combining them to help create what I love...

I've spent close to 4 years now slowly learning the process, gathering my materials, building with my hands, trading and buying my equipment. I've made sacrifices and dealt with a lot of POS moments to move forward and keep trying to get to that feeling of seeing an image emerge from nothingness... I realize it is that moment of anticipation is what I live for...


... nothingness ...

Technology in Modern Times for an Old Process...

Music | This World by Zero 7

Along with change comes new ethical questions that like everything I've been working on lately is a challenge. I imagine over time, when I have become acquainted with the Wet Plate process, I won't have to deal with the purest attitude I have regarding this medium. Because of my lacking ability, I am using digital technology to correct some of the issues I've been having. My thrust in moving backwards was to get away from digital, but as time moves forward, I'm realizing that sometimes technology really is a good thing.

If I have the purest attitude I think I have, I'm gonna have issues.






I'm gonna have to draw the line...

More Photos, HERE

Thing That was Missing, You didn't Know You Missed...

Music | Pieces of the Past by The Vandermark 5


Ironically almost 2 years to the day, I was introduced to a photographic technique called Wet Plate Collodion. With the exhibit called Resurrection at the 23Sandy Gallery which I have thought to be one of the most important shows I've ever seen, I was romantically introduced to this 150+ year old technique.

Yesterday, May 1st was Wet Plate Collodion Day, to celebrate the life of Frederick Scott Archer, the creator of the Wet Plate process. Around the world, the few photographers who still practice this technique was encouraged to shoot plates and post them to the Wet Plate Collidion Day website. What better occasion to try and jump start my entry into this most mesmerizing process than this. As soon as I learned of the Wet Plate Day, I contacted my informal mentor, Ray Bidegain who has become a master of this process himself. He had agreed to let me come to the studio and shoot off a few plates as I learned on the run.

I haven't felt like a kid in a long time. I love to be in a situation where things are new, I'm interested in the subject at hand and I know practically zero. Suddenly you realize you have something in your head you haven't used in a long time. Synapses suddenly start popping, your eyes widen, and you feel more alive than you can last remember.

Coating and going thru the process of sensitizing the plate is critical. Timing is everything. On my first go around, nothing could have gone better.



Jen, my model and could easily become my muse was wonderful to work with. With minimal words, and some simple gestures, she fell into place during our pre shoot rehearsals. When it was time to shoot, because time is so critical, only minor adjustments needed were necessary before the actual shot was made.





So, two years and one day since my introduction to the Wet Plate Process brings me to where I am right now. Though I did photograph Ray here about a 21 months ago here, it is this last session where I feel I can take more of the credit to getting to where I am. I'm looking forward to moving forward!

Thanks Ray, Jen...

Anna from 2008

Music | Mad World by Michael Stipe off the soundtrack, Donnie Darko

This year has started out in flux between ups and downs, mostly up. However, I've noticed as the days go by in the new decade, I'm having a bit of trouble jump starting my creativity. I haven't shot a personal photograph in a few months. I hate this feeling and the only walls around me are the ones I have created myself...

So, in an attempt to get going, I reviewed some older images to bring out. This photo was from a very good shoot I did with Anna. I do like seeing things with a different perspective that only time can create.



Often makes me wonder what other treasures I have passed over.

Music | Golden Rust by Robert Miles & Trilok Gurtu

Moving back in time, here is a shot I did earlier this year. I think the shoot itself is a treasure trove of great images. It is a matter of cropping and playing with the contrast of the lighting. There wasn't a lot to crop here, but I did enhance the contrast.

A beginning...

Music | Imhotep by Roy Campbell

Images from my all film shoot became reality today after processing 18 sheets of film. One by one, out of the reels the 4x5 sheets of film came off, into the last solution of chemicals before drying. There is a certain type of joy seeing images, even negs after having to wait for them. The instant gratification is gone, which tends to make me think I'm appreciating what I'm creating with even more gratification...

I'm still finding my way, and not to think I should even have a path at this point (I have to remember that). My mind is still clouded by this event. I imagine I'll be gathering my thoughts throughout the next few days, weeks, into my next shoot... I feel alive coming back... It has been around 10 years since I shot only film, processing my black and white images and printing... Running to and from the lab having my colour images processed... a decade ago...

I've written in a little journal/note pad a list of words that interests me...
-purity
-tradition
-history
-sincerity
-truth
I had in mind also photography and what was important to me - I think the culmination of those words circle my feelings of coming back to film. I'm obviously making the idea of shooting film again a rather monumental event in my life. Maybe, finally I am moving, reaching, yearning to allow photography and my passion for it to take me where I belong...

Anyway, not having a darkroom, I am scanning images and will be printing them with my ink jet printer until I move into yet another phase of photography that I have never before attempted. That will be another post a few months down the road...


Cain has become a muse of mine in the last several months. In her own right, she is also becoming quite a photographer herself...

Following the Crow and Moving Forward

Music | Impressions by John Coltrane

I'm lucky to be able to have some commissions where both subject and I want to move beyond more traditional means of the photographer, subject relationship. Though we did run thru a series of situations where the end result was going to be a beauty shot, we also were led towards a more dark series. I love the idea of capturing just line and form created with only shadows and small amounts of light - No detail... As if out of a dream sequence only the vague ultimate message becomes apparent and leaves with you the responsibility to decipher it if you so choose.





I'm also happy to present these images as this day, the New Year, brings about new work. I'd like to follow this path and see where it takes me. I was fortunate to have received a note from a fellow artist to tell me that she is seeing a progression of work that has grown in the past year. I feel somewhat validated that one of my peers has noticed this as it was a year ago that I decided to go down this road to be more expressive and not be so afraid to create for the sake of creating. Though I feel that I haven't molded a style that is of my own soul, I know I'm moving, slowly as it may be, towards that as one of my ultimate goals... There is still plenty of fear to fight thru, but I've got a year under my belt and I've at least have some knowledge how to sometimes conteract that fear.

Hope you all have a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year...

Back and Forth

Music | The Reason Why by Rachael Yamagata

A recent series that consciously started a few months ago... Faded and now re-inspired...





I hate when I read blogs and such that are vague on details. I'm sorry but this is one of those blogs. More on this at a later date...

Will

Music | First Love by Adele



Is there anything to say?

Baby it's Cold Outside!

Music | Reactive Switching Strategies by DJ Spooky

Though we've been talking about doing some nudes outside, Seré and I kept waiting for the weather and our time to coincide, but it never came to be... Though I knew conditions were not optimum for doing some photography outside, it was in fact chilly, a little rainy and very overcast. I decided to try and just go for it. Seré wasn't quite as up to the challenge as I was, but she was a trouper. Our first location was a bust as heavy construction was going on right at the base of where we wanted to go. As I started getting car sick, trying to sleep as we drove thru the gorge up and down winding roads, I almost decided to call it quits. Just where we decided to pull a U turn, it turns out it was an entrance to a very secluded public park. Just as we got out of the car, light rain drops started falling again as we quickly made a plan of attack to make the most of the moment. In all, we found 4 different views in just about 45 minutes and a 1/2 mile of walking and being out in the wet and cold. As much as we both complained, we felt fantastic getting back to the warmth of the heated car and cups of hot chocolate that awaited us.



Though there are the obvious challenges of trying to find locations to shoot nudes, I'm hoping I get the opportunity to do it again very soon.

A Sinuous Dance...

Music | The Key by Matthew Shipp

Beauty is a Rare Thing...

Music | A Ballad for Rita by Fred Anderson

Confused... and Dazed too!

Music | All Coming Back by Sarah Blasco

I don't often have conflicts selecting when a photo should be colour or Black and White when I make that initial decision. However, I think everything about this shot worked, including the colours in this photo...