Grain

Music | Come Here Boy by Imogen Heap

Real grain.
Not noise.
How beautiful it is...
The wonders of nature.

Light
Chemical reaction
Chemical structure
Grain



an image

The Beginning...

Music | Gold by Chet Faker

So begins the movement to shoot, process and print large format film. I have been lucky enough to have been benefactored close to 250 sheets of 4x5 and 100 sheets of 8x10. It has been awhile since I have processed sheet film, so I am very excited to start doing so. Of course I also have to shoot and even more excited about that.

I have a solo show scheduled, but not for over 17 months. I am hoping to have my technique of shooting, processing and the absolute new to me printing via Platinum Palladium refined enough to have a showing. Lots to eff up, lots to learn. The time frame will make things interesting!

ElizaBeth Rohloff

Music | When I Fall in Love by Bill Evans







Part of a series for ElizaBeth Rohloff. The theme is about breaking out of the binds that hold you down.

I love having clients that step out of the norm and take a direction that is a bit off center.

Françoise Weeks

Music | Check the Rhime by A Tribe Called Quest


Elizabethan Collar | Profile | Wings

Elizabethan Collar

Creative Collaboration

Music | Protection by Massive Attack

I get to work with great, creative people. I think our energies mesh and wonderful things just happen. During one of my meetings with ElizaBeth Rohloff Millinery for an upcoming shoot, I saw a few of her display hats that were more couture. Whenever I go there, I want them to shoot with. This time, she lent me 2. I had Phanthia come over for another shoot, but ended up using her to model the hats.







This was the 2nd time I've worked with Phanthia. She said she had never modeled in front of the camera before, but liked the experience of our first shoot. We worked well together and I thought she would be great for a few of my jobs. She'll be working again for another client on Monday.

I love it when things just work!

Cyanotype II

Music | Piano Sonata No. 14 In C Minor by Ludwig Van Beethoven

I made more Cyanotypes, but this time with 4x5 negs. I also bleached and toned with black tea for the 1st time. I've all ready made plenty of mistakes, worst of all making a print while the paper was a bit damp, which transferred spots on my neg that I don't think will come up. Ruined... I have since purchased a hair dryer to ensure my coated paper is totally dry when making more prints.

I know I need to take a class and get my technique sorted out, but I am learning a good amount on my own. I will need to figure out things like neg density in order to get the best print. As it stands, I am not sure how to make a good print great. I know in time I will get there. I am happy with my lack luster efforts and my better ones. It is all about the process of learning...


Amanda, 4x5 Cyanotype bleached and toned with black tea...

Cyanotype

Music |  Unlike Me by Kate Havnevic

Quite excited about venturing into new grounds... With the addition of a field 8x10 camera, I can start shooting the format outside. And with big negs, I can make contact prints. I am starting for the 2nd time to print cyanotype. My first go around was contingent on using the sun as my light source. This time, I have a indoor light source where I can get consistent exposures anytime of the day, night, summer winter...

A few weeks ago, I was able to test my 8x10 Burke and James with Shayna Rae. I only did 2 exposures, but used the neg to make my first test strip. 4 min, 30 sec exposure, which makes me extremely happy!

I think I'm off to a fantastic start, but always respecting the process. I know the photo Gods can strike at any moment!

A post on Facebook...

Music | Polaris by Zero 7

I am apparently banned from posting on my own profile for a 24 hour period...

Forgive my reactionary post hear... Yes, I know the rules... blah blah blah... Never mind constitutional rights of free speech... Heaven forbid, I posted a photo of a breast. Not 2, just 1. And yes, it had rope involved. I'm not sure how many people I had to offend, maybe 1 or maybe 69, but the image was removed and I was banned for a short period. I get that their are sensitive people here and get their panties or tidy whites in a bunch and their is no way of changing a closed mind... but really. Simple as FUCK solution. Give everyone the opportunity to have their profiles set as, Not Safe For Work or I Have Been Known to Be Offensive and let people decide to turn off your profile to theirs and be done with this BULLSHIT. We are managing to be profiled here on Facebook for advertising and who knows what else, let us FUCKING express ourselves...

Update

Music | Here's That Rainy Day by Bill Evans

Been almost a month since the opening of Haute Couture Botanique. It is interesting how the time has gone by progressing up to the opening and how I moved on after the opening. I gave myself a week to come down, to have the idea of having nothing in my head to think about and let the nature of things have it time with me. I think I needed that. As the energy of preparing, then being in the midst of the show, then coming down waned, new ideas and thoughts just naturally started to come in to my head. I know I've been riding this wave of staying creative for a long time. I don't question or doubt it. I'm just happy.

So the opening of Haute Couture Botanique was just a wonderful time. The people, energy and honestly, the genuine sincerity was over whelming. Everything from the hanging of the images, the pre shoot of the models and art, the quick ramp up of people suddenly arriving all at once, to the giveaways, the meeting of friends and new friends couldn't have gone any better. Those moments are quick and fleeting, but memorable. Both Françoise and I were overwhelmed by the support we received in those 3 short hours. Thank you!

So in the last 10 days, I bought not 1, not 2, but 3 cameras. I can't believe the luck I had! Just simply crazy... One was a Craigs List find - an 8x10 Burke and James and the other 2 from a flea market/garage sale at New Space Photo. There, I got a beautiful Yashica Mat LM and a Graflex RB Series D 4x5. The shutter will need work, but for the price, even if it doesn't work, I will make a great profit from the lense that came with it. I also sold my Sinar 4x5 and a 90mm Schneider Super Angulon.

Earlier today, I finally got back to shooting more Wet Plate Collodion. After months and months of issues and not being able to shoot any, today I broke thru with 3. So happy to get back into the mix! And... just this evening, I processed my first batch of 8x10 negative film I shot with the Burke and James. I'm feeling great that I can process the film right here, instead of having to send it out!

Lastly, Françoise and I are working with a fashion designer of amazing talent. I saw her work online and was immediately taken by this woman's work. We had our first meeting yesterday and planted seeds to see in what direction we will collaborate. We are all of us excited to be working with each other.

What a great start to 2015!!!

Prints

Music | Tell Me Somethin' Good by Rufus featuring Chaka Khan

For the past several days, I've been working on printing for 2 projects happening this month. I just finished printing and framing 16 portraits for the Freedom Fighters series opening on the 25th and just started printing for the Haute Couture Botanique show opening the 20th.

Sitting at a desk, looking at a monitor and watching prints come out of the ink jet printer isn't anything like optically and chemically creating something from nothing, but I have to say I am feeling quite accomplished rolling off beautiful print after print.


Amanda with Floral Mask">

Always Something...

Music | Love is a Dangerous Necessity by Charles Mingus

There are still over 3 weeks for the Haute Couture Botanique exhibition opening. For me, it is a bit strange to have started the process and still have so much time before the event. Though I have only framed 2 pieces for the show, of which I probably have at least 12 more to go, I've designed and produced a postcard that is circulating, created header images for the FaceBook events page, located art work of which 2 major pieces were lost as far as I was concerned, and trying to keep the buzz going without over doing announcements and such. Today, I just finished producing and printing 5 posters for the venue to post...

It is getting to the point where I can concentrate on the art work. The plates need varnishing and framing. The other pieces have to be selected, sized and framed. I want to keep up the effort and energy, especially since I have so much time to work on this.

Feels good to be ahead of the ballgame!

13 x 19 posters for the venue...










Posters will be given away during the opening

Always Something...

Music |

Postcard for the Haute Couture Botanique show...

Music | Olive Refractions by Johnny Griffin


Françoise Weeks and I will be having an exhibition! Great collaborative images from the past 4 years including tin types, ambrotypes and digital images. 3 live models enveloped in Françoise's latest creations will be on hand for you to see her mastery up close.

St. John's Coffee Roasters
7304 N. Leavitt Av.
Portland, OR.

February 20
6 pm to 9 pm

24x36

Music | Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Ornette Coleman

5+ weeks and counting for Haute Couture Botanique. I'm actually getting an early start on this as I framed 2 24x36 inch images earlier this evening. Seems I am not going to wait til the last minute to get things done as I have in the past. Still lots to do from framing plates, selecting images shot digitally and printing them up and more framing. Post cards should be here in 2 days as well. It is coming together and the more I get done early, the less I will stress...


Me with framed Amanda 24x36

Nacre

Music | Natural Blues by Moby


Nacre Magazine : Spring Issue 2015
What a great way to start out the year. I just got the news this morning from Françoise Weeks. We knew we had the cover and what images they selected, but it is always nice to be the first to see the final product as the world will see it... Nacre Revue Art Floral is distributed out of Nimes, France.

The Portrait

Music | Les Nuit by Nightmares on Wax

Just yesterday, I took some photos of a woman I never met before. Ironically, I was initially interested in photographing her maybe 4 or 5 years ago, but never got the opportunity. She had recently seen a photograph I did of a friend of hers and I think vaguely remembered my name. A few weeks later, I got my opportunity.

I posted several images online, a few from our session in fact. I selectively pick and choose, edit and decide which of them go up, and often move on. However, one interesting comment on one of her photos struck a cord with me. It said she looked worried, or stressed.


As a photographer, that mostly photographs people, I was somewhat taken aback by the comment. Low and behold, Tara, my subject in my image of her suddenly took on a different appearance. She does in fact look a bit worried. Her eyes... her hands... I often shoot for beauty, not in the traditional sense, but in ways that the images are pleasant to look at in the sense there is no conflict. I'm starting to think that I don't look at my own photographs for what they are as opposed to how I think I want them to look.

What is more interesting is that I posted another image of her, that reads somewhat the same as the first...


Maybe not so worried, but melancholy. Not all of the images I shot that day brings that same conclusion, but I did select these images to post and they both have a sadness to them.

By no means do I not like either of those images any less, but like them even more. My choices are emotional more than anything else. Portraits are supposed to be enlightening, and apparently not only to the viewer, but sometimes to the artist himself...

Busch 4x5 Pressman Model D

Music | You Leave Me Breathless by John Coltrane

I forgot I still had this camera. Upon organizing and re-shuffling things around, I came upon a dusty black bag. I vaguely remembered what was inside, but confirmed it was my very first 4x5 camera. I remember buying it in a neighborhood camera store in Bucktown in the mid to late 80's. The shop had that distinct smell of all things old. Even back then, it felt the shop had been there for 60+ years. Things were all over the place, without any distinct organization to it. I was specifically looking for a 4x5, but honestly had no idea what to look for. The Busch was the first to grab my attention and the one I eventually walked out with for a mere $50 with lens!




The camera always had those awful looking bellows, but did not leak any light. I'm not sure about that now, but will test them soon. The lens appears to be in good shape, but does not open for viewing. I'm sure a CLA will get it back to new condition. For aesthetic purposes, I bought another Busch and that ended up the camera I used until the Chamonix. I recently traded a light box with ring for that camera. I am extremely pleased to have found the original still in my possession.

I'd love to get the bellows replaced along with having the lens gone thru as well. A good cleaning is necessary to be sure. I'm guessing I have had that camera for 27 years! Would be very nice to keep shooting with it!

Choice

Music | Acute Motelitis by Roswell Rude and Archie Shepp

As another year ends, there is a sense of melancholy that buries itself just below the surface of being. Maybe it is because we are all judging our past... another year has gone by and we want to quantify the changes that we hoped to have accomplished, but often do not. I'm not much to slant to the positive side and know I am more pessimistic in nature.

I often feel sad also in the way our lives are being steered. I remember being younger and yearned to discover things in nature that were profound. I wanted to learn about and feel. Internet, cell phones, and generally, technology and its constant push to feed us more and more useless information is steering us to be idiots. We click on stupid memes and more useless facts about if we were a car, what car would we be, or what celebrity got the worst face or body alterations... We are viewing more photos than ever in the history of photography, most of which is quite horrible, but yet we click on the like button just to solidify someone else's horrible vision. Technology, which has made more accessible to do bad, what we once had to hire a true artist or technician to do has made things in general, to take a few steps back as opposed to moving forward.

More and more information - visual, auditory, uninteresting facts... It comes at us getting shoved down our throats and we have become accustomed to try and keep up, rather than stop. Just yesterday, I was flipping thru the hundreds of channels on the TV and I stopped at a movie that I have seen at least 5 times. Yes, I knew it was somewhat entertaining, but I found myself looking for something else when a commercial popped up. I landed on an Australian independent movie that I knew was going to move slow, tell a story and knew deep in my heart was going to be so much more fulfilling. Yet, I had a big conflict to switch back to something I was familiar with and knew every twist and turn. I had to tell myself to hold on and let the secondary movie to grasp me and fortunately it did. I missed some of the beginning but fell into a much more interesting experience and one that made me enlightened on things that interested me and other things that I could relate to...

So it seems I have defined a few that bothers me and affects me in negative ways. The struggle now is to act upon the issue and not be sucked into the vacuum of the useless...

More Aiméelisa

Music | Polaroid Girl by Massive Attack

Just because...







Digital tintypes shot with iPad.

15 cm f:3 Petzval

Music | Sour Times by Portishead

Over the weekend, besides hanging those fantastic large format prints with Susan de Witt, that afternoon I got to work with one of my favorite models, Aiméelisa. Specifically, I wanted to test the gifted Petzval that I received a few weeks earlier.


2014-12-07 Aiméelisa
As you might imagine, I am ecstatic about having this lens! I love the characteristics of this little giant! Without much foreshortening, the shallow depth - the butter like and immediate fall off, contrast... all lovingly distinct. One of the things I wasn't too sure about was the somewhat short focal length that I usually do not like to shoot with. I much rather prefer a longer lens, not only giving me some distance from my subject, but elongating and not distorting - objects appear closer than they are, quality. That is the beauty of this lens. I'm shooting maybe 3 feet away from Aiméelisa, but there is no wide angle effect happening here. Given that this image was shot with a paper negative, I'm more than sure I will be happy with this Petzval's sharpness. The eyes are deadly!

I'm looking forward to working more with this one. I think I can work more intimately with my subjects, but still keep that shallow depth I crave. I love that speed kills!