The Grasshopper Lies Heavy . Picture taken in 1985 in Botanical Garden on Maui.

A year ago I was experimenting with lit backgrounds for my macro work. I used an old slide projector screen set up about 5 feet behind the subject and lit with a seperate flash. I took these pictures with a Nikon 105mm bellows lens attached to a PB-4 Nikon bellows. In my Nikon I had black and white film and in my Nikkormat I had color. I could then remove one camera from the bellows and replace it with the other and shoot the same compositon with a different type of film (just noticed that the composition is slightly different. damn plant it didn't hold still). No desaturation for this guy. NO WAY.

The Darkroom: A dark place where negatives are developed in to positives.

Eugene Atget (1857-1927) I'd like to introduce in my blog photographers that I feel inspired by. Atget mostly wandered the streets, parks, graveyards of his home town recording images of what interested him. Fortunately for him his home town was PARIS, FRANCE. I believe Walker Evans said of him that he followed his own agenda rather then trying to create work done in the style of that time. He also liked to photograph trees which are one of my favorite subjects. He didn't seem to be very interested in people for subjects and many of his cityscapes seem to be devoid of citizens as if he was all alone. I like that quality in his pictures.

What I believe to be one of the greatest photographs ever taken of one of Portlands absolute worst public sculptures. Quest, carved by the immortal Count Alexander Von Svoboda for the Georgia Pacific Building (Now Standard Insurance). This photograph was taken in August of 1970 by moi then only a high school junior and out on a photographic expedition in downtown Portland with a trusty Yashica twin lens. I printed this picture in our high school darkroom 37 years ago on kodak polycontrast paper and it still looks just fine. I can only hope that this will be the photograph I am remembered by.

My Dream Team. Just got 10 rolls of 120 Agfapan 25 yesterday that I bought on e-bay. I have quite a lot of the Agfapan 25 in 35mm format but this is the first supply of the film in medium format I've been able to find. I look forward to making many beautiful prints from negatives taken with my Mamiya.

"May I compare thee to a Summers day..." Summer begins today. Enjoy

Nepanthes. Here is a photograph of a tropical pitcher plant trap and the subject of the photograph after pressing in a plant press.

More Goldtoned photographs.

Some more gold toned images.

Gold Toning . I think I'll post a more detailed and illustrated blog entry for the process but of the 12 prints I made this weekend this was one of my favorites which looks very much like an aged Albumen print.

Rose Festival Fun Center 2007. One of my "lunch hour" photos. I took this last week not much going on because it was lunch hour on a week day. Too bad office workers don't flood this place on their lunch hours filling up the rides. That might make an amusing photo. Shot these with ultra slow Agfapan 25 using an orange filter on my Nikkormat with a 24mm lens.Printed out on Ilford warm tone semi matte paper with a touch of selenium toning.

Graded Papers. In the dwindling resources available to darkroom photographers graded papers are difficult to find. I found 20 sheets of 8x10 Forte Fortezo Elegance in a Grade 3, fiber based and in warm tone semi matte on e-bay and did some printing this weekend using my cold light on my enlarger. Nice contrast, and I like the more gradual shift in tones between the sunlit parts of the tree trunk and the shadows. I'd love to find a supply of this paper.