A time for craft
As you may have noticed from my last few postings, I have switched almost exclusively to B&W. You may be asking yourself why, or perhaps that is me asking myself. There are a few reasons:
- I am reading George Dewolfe’s book: Digital Masters: B&W Printing: Creating the Digital Master Print. I used to be fairly decent in the darkroom, being able to produce a print the way that I wanted it to look. In the digital light room, I am not so savvy and want to learn how. This book, along with George’s PercepTool goes a long away in helping with that. This weekend, I printed perhaps the best B&W print that I had ever printed. The one shown above. When my wife looked at it, she couldn’t stop admiring it. I have to admit. It looked very good. I was pleased. This one will be framed. I just have to follow through.
- My purchase of the Mamiya 645e and its subsequent use has triggered something inside of me that is difficult to explain. I guess that it is simply a desire to be better, or not simply better, but the best that I can be. I realize that it’s just a tool, but somehow, it represents a bit more.
- I feel more at home with B&W. It is where I started. It feels like home.
I’m also considering being mentored. I believe in mentoring! So, I’m looking at George Dewolfe’s mentoring program. It lasts a year. I plan on contacting him to see what is involved as well as the cost to do it. I like a lot of what I have seen on his website and believe it to be along the lines of what I am looking for. He has a nice, contemplative style of photography that I find appealing and in line with how I view the world. You can see his galleries here.
Dark/Light room
I was reading Tom’s post: Fiber Print “A Boys Life”. In it he said:
I have still never seen a print come out of my Epson 3800 Pro that comes even close to one of my Fiber Prints.
I would probably agree with him in that regard. I have an Epson 3800 printer and really like the prints that I get from it, to be sure; however, in all fairness, I’ve not tried many different papers. Some are quite impressive I understand. I remember printing fiber prints. They were, in a word, glorious. There was nothing that could compare with my favorite fiber paper, whose name escapes me. The paper was a creme colored paper and the prints were unparalleled! The down side to the fiber print was the washing time and trying to get the thing to dry flat. Fiber paper loves to curl. 
I didn’t have a sophisticated darkroom, to be sure, so didn’t have paper driers or print washers. I simply came back and changed the water every so often and hope that I got it right. In retrospect, I wish that I had saved some of those prints. I wonder how good of job I did at washing them.
Being in the middle, or perhaps at the beginning of a renaissance, I split my time between the dark room, and the Lightroom. I’m enjoying the heck out of shooting film. This morning I went to Earl’s favorite shooting grounds, Bull Hole, in Coolomee, NC. I took both digital and film cameras, but decided, one again to shoot exclusively film. Again, it was a different experience. I shot perhaps 30 – 40 shots, but the difference was I was not in a hurry to get back home to see what I had shot. As a matter of fact, after I felt satisfied with what I had shot, I tarried a bit and just enjoyed the roar of the water cascading over the dam. This is something that I’d not done in a while. The film is still in the bag and I’ll probably develop a roll today when I get back to Charleston, SC, and a roll tomorrow evening after work. Then, I’ll be all caught up.
I do need to order some film sleeves and some Rodinol developer, which I remember was my favorite developer of all time! It makes nice, contrasty negatives, and the stuff lasts forever, it seems!
Anyway, it’s been fun splitting time between the two worlds, analog and digital. My darkroom technique is getting better, but there is still lots of room for improvement!
SoFoBoMo: Sophomore Slump
Over the past few days I’ve been having a look at some of the SoFoBoMo books and some of them are quite good. Also, more interesting is what some of the photographers are saying about SoFoBoMo. The newbies are enjoying it. Some of last year’s participants don’t seem to be enjoying it so much, but just want to get it done and over with. As for last year’s participants, there have been fewer blog posts about SoFoBoMo. I, especially, have been very silent about it.
This year, for me, is different. I don’t have the desire to do it. In the past month or so, I’ve read 3 books and am about half finished with a 4th. All photography related:
The completed books:
- Within The Frame : David duChemin
- The Landscape Within: David Ward
- The Landscape Beyond: David Ward
Black & W Printing – Creating The Digital Master Print : George DeWolfe- about half way through this one. All of them, in their own way, speak of mastery. David Ward shoots everything with a view camera, so naturally, his approach to photography is slow, methodical, and very patient. David duChemin shoots digital, but his approach is very vision oriented. He really tries, and succeeds, to convey his vision of the world through his lens. George DeWolfe’s book is about understanding the difference about how we see vs. how the camera’s sees and making glorious B&W prints that just jump off of the paper.
After having consumed all of this mastery and vision stuff, it’s hard for me to “just finish it!”. This year, I might not finish it, or who knows I may get inspired and finish it in the remaining 2 days that I have. But, right now, I’m just not feeling it.
Anyone else out there having a sophomore slump?
Worldwide Photo Walk 2009
I didn’t attend last year because they didn’t have one in Charlotte, NC. The closest one last year was Columbia, SC and I just didn’t feel like driving 2 hours to walk for 2.5. This year, the number of walks has greatly expanded and, even though it is on a Saturday evening, I might attend the one in Charleston, SC.
The walk is set for July 18th and you have to sign up with your local walk leader. You can find details here. In Charleston, there are 17 spots left. I better make my decision … and soon! They set a limit of 50 people per walk.
Anyone else plan on attending? I think that it would be a great way to get out and meet other photographers and just have a fun evening shooting and then eating and drinking afterward.
Unintended consequences
There are days when I feel that I am simply a gatherer of images whose sole mission is to run out and gather as many images as possible on a given day, come back, give a cursory look at some of them, judge them, show one or two, then on to the next crop. Never looking back. Never stopping to consider the ‘why’.
Anymore, I don’t ask why things happen. When I purchased this film camera, I had no intention of it being my sole-use camera for any period of time. Sure, I thought, it would be a nice trip to “back in the day”, nothing more. Yet, it has become more. Lately, there have been a few posts about film either directly or indirectly. Paul Butzi talked about why he wouldn’t use film to do his theater project, more specifically, large format. His points, of course, were all valid. The other day on T.O.P (The Online Photographer), Mike talked about shooting film and using Leica for a year to become a better photographer and to be able to ‘see’ better. I think that there is some merit in his idea, though not necessarily that you ‘need’ a Leica.
So far, I’ve shot 5 rolls of film, processed 4. The final finished roll I will process this evening. All told, 75 shots. In my bag sits another 6 rolls of film, ready to go. From what I can see, my success ratio seems to be a bit higher. To be sure, I am aware that there is cost involved with each exposure and I’m not prone to shooting, shooting, shooting … even though I advocate this approach. I think that, early on, the shoot/feedback loop is very important … if you take the time to analyze the feedback. It never looses its importance, but with the lower cost of digital, and higher shoot rates, the number of shots to analyze can be overwhelming. Now, I find myself moving, looking, moving, looking, waiting, and feeling things out before even taking a shot. It’s a relaxing way to shoot.
I’m rediscovering my ‘tone vision’, if you will. Not all things photograph well in B&W and, when shooting B&W film, one must make a choice. There is no shooting it in color, then converting to B&W to see which one you like best. You get what you get. Also, the digital perfection is gone. Film has its own characteristics, like grain and tonality, and I’m finding that I really like the grain on some of the film. It adds a beauty all of its own.
So! Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Am I more contemplative because I am shooting film or am I shooting film, because I am more contemplative. It is, I believe, the latter. The photography just followed, I think. When I shot film when I was younger, I ran through many rolls of film, to be sure. Back then, I bought expired film almost exclusively and developed it myself, so it was still relatively cheap.
Though I never fully intended to do the one camera, one lens, one film thing, I think that it is happening. Will I shun digital and run back into the arms of film? Doubtful. However, I am enjoying this medium format film and the developing. As with all things in life, we’ll just have to see where it leads. Thanks for riding along.