Childrens Graves Lone Fir Cemetery taken between 1982-2007
"Peace! Peace! They are not dead, They do not sleep: They have awakened from the dream, Called Life- They have outsoared the shadow of our night: Envy and calamny and hate and pain can touch them not and torture not again. From the contagion of the worlds low stain. They are secure, and now can never mourn, A heart grown cold, A head grown gray in vain. In memory of beloved sons Eric Heibel 1897-1898 and Frederick Heibel 1898-1914." Fragment of poem by Shelley written on the death of John Keats

Another view from 2004.

Three views of the same tree in Lone Fir 2003-2005.

Hawthorne Bridge. Another of my 'lunch hour' pictures taken with my Leitz rangefinder a few blocks from where I work. Used a yellow filter to bring out the sky.

Portraits from 1975-1978 I found an old box of slides that I thought I lost. Pictures I took of family and friends. All were done available light with either my Nikon or my Leitz CL. Had some scans made just to see how they would turn out. I was pleased. Next time though I'll clean them carefully before I have them scanned.

 

Then and now 1996/2007
 

Several different views of the same subject taken with different cameras, film, and at different times.

Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932). When I first discovered a Karl Blossfeldt image I saw something I wanted to emulate in my own botanical work. Blossfeldt didn't consider himself a photographer. He taught art, and he collected plants. He made rather crude images of plants that he collected in order to use them as illustrations of design in nature for his students. His closeups of common plants, seed pods, flowers beautifully illustrate the architectural elements in biological forms. It is this scientific and academic approach to the subject that makes me admire them so much more then the flower images of Georgia O'Keefe. I read a quote by O'Keefe that she painted flowers because 'their cheaper then models and they don't move.", Blossfeldt photographed flowers because he saw something monumental in common flowers and "weeds". As I understand he was drawn to the vulgur (as in common) rather then the rare and unusual. Here is a portrait of the man himself, an example of his work, and my own crude attempt to emulate his technique.

End of 2006 and the beginning of 2007 I spent a lot of time in my darkroom this last weekend of the year. I had been too busy with other equally important aspects of my life since mid November to do any photographic work but I made sure that on the cusp I continued. In looking back I spent on average 25% of my free time working with a camera or an enlarger so I kept my hand in making up for lost time. 2006 was a pretty good year for me in this pursuit that I started in 2002. I also worked on many of my old negatives from the 70's, discovered a new toning technique, and added some 'new' equipment to my inventory.