While out and about this morning I came across an estate sale a few blocks away. It was an interesting assemblage of ecletica. The garage contained not only a lot of tools but an actual British Ford Escort from the 1960's and a motorcycle (that someone bought and coasted home on down Belmont street). There was lots of furniture, a piano, toys, toy trains, Japanese records , even a photo enlarger. I saw this camera which intrigued me but once I got it home and took a good look at it I can't see myself making any use of it. It's a Kodak Bullet No. 4 made in 1896. It used some kind of giant roll film, but I believe also could be loaded with glass plates. The apeture is a piece of metal with three different sized holes and it has a shutter and a lens of sorts. Two view finders one for composing a horizontal picture by tipping the camera on it's side and the other for vertical. There is even a way to focus the camera by sliding a switch on the side which moves the film plane forward or backward about an inch. There might be a way to load 4x5 film holders on to the back so I could try taking pictures with it. I also got with it a very flimsy old wooden tripod and an old lens and lens plate that at first I thought was for this camera but must have been for some other camera possibly a view camera.

Today I went to the Newspace juried show 'Flora and Fauna.

Here are a few samples of the work in the show and if you go here and scroll down a bit you can read a review. I almost entered some work in this show but after seeing it I was relieved that I changed my mind. Nothing I've ever done would have fit in here. As a reject though I would have had a lot of company. Something like 300 photographers submitted close to 2000 images, and only 26 were chosen to show 32 works. Tough juror.

This was my favorite piece in the show by Susan Bein titled "2.7 dogs and 6 trees" it was a wonderful little picture. It appears to have been the only piece that sold.

I wanted to see the show before it closed but didn't have much time to absorb it. Here is a list of the photographers and their web sites most of which are pretty impressive.

A photograph I worked on this weekend printed from a negative from 2005 or 2006. I want to try and print each week at least one negative I've never printed before as well as reprinting select negatives. I've made a lot of progress in print quality due to experience and darkroom "upgrades".

This needed to be said. I've mentioned before how dissapointing a visit to the Museums photographic collection has been for me since I became a member and visit the museum several times a year. The collection of something like 5000 works with a designated gallery to display them has kept the same prints up now for over a year and half. I heard once that the collection was one of the most complete on the west coast but you wouldn't know it from a visit. Sad.

Picture I worked on today in the darkroom. A negative from a couple of years ago when I was experimenting with infrared film. The negatives have very high contrast and I printed this with a 1/2 contrast filter. I haven't shot a roll of infrared film now for a couple of years though I have a pretty good supply of it in the fridge.

Print I worked on yesterday of a waterfront fun center picture taken from the Morrison Bridge probably in 2007. Camera used was my Mamiya 220, 6x6 format. I need to start using this camera a lot more because I really love printing negatives I've made with it. Top print another shot from further back. I made a mask for this print to help bring out more of the sky. I may have used a yellow filter with both of these pictures.

updated 3/8/09 printed two other shots from this "series" of pictures I took a couple of years ago from the Morrison Bridge. This is a great vantage point to photograph the fun center and each year I take a couple pictures from there when I go down there on my lunch hour and take pictures.

Last weekend I did some gold and selenium toning. The picture on the left is gold toned, the one on the right selenium toned.

I put this picture in a different frame. The image size was 5x7 but I framed it in a 11x14 mat in an all glass frame. I didn't think it looked all that great so I found a bordered frame which I believe works better. The frame is wood but has a metallic gold finish that works real well with this photograph since it was a dual toned print using selenium and gold.

Another blast from the past. The forecourt fountain at the Portland Civic Auditorium ( now the Keller Auditorium) probably in 1971.

Couple more pictures from Portland in the 70's. The top one is taken from Salmon Street looking East. Lincoln High School on the left. Another one of those pictures I need to go back to the same spot, with the same lens and film format combination and reshoot to illustrate the changes. The bottom picture was taken in fall of 72 during a McGovern Rally. I'm not sure what street this is and I can't remember where the old downtown Fred Meyers was. I know this picture was taken near Meier and Franks so perhaps this is Yamhill looking East. I'll have to go back there with a camera and reorient myself and see if I can take a picture from the same perspective.

Here are two enlargements of the same negative. The top one is 5x7 the bottom one 8x10. The smaller enlargement doesn't bring much more to the print but on some of the images I feel it improved them to print them smaller. These were exceptional negatives, especially these taken with the Micro-Nikkor lens which I have mentioned before is a very sharp lens even by Nikkor standards.

More Winter Foliage pics taken near my workplace on a lunch hour walk in December. Using Agfa 100 film, 35mm, and a 55mm Micro-Nikkor lens.

Two lovely trees in Lone Fir. The Oak at the top is one I have photographed before and I see it every day when I take the bus in to work. It always calls out to me to take it's picture. These were taken two weeks ago after a small snowfall. Film used was Agfa 100, camera Nikkormat, lens 28mm. I was printing some of these images at 8x10 but went back down to 5x7 which looks a bit sharper. There's just so much enlargement a 35mm negative can take.

Enlarger and prints.

Two of the pictures I took last weekend in Lone Fir Cemetery. Probably the first pictures I've taken in 2009.

An Artic Blast photo taken on December 23rd when the snow was at it's best. Agfa 100 film, Nikkormat FTN with 28mm lens.

Three pictures taken of a pile of rotting foliage that I found on a lunch hour walk last month. Used an old 55mm micro-nikkor. Very nice and inexpensive lens. Film used Agfa 100 developed in 50:1 Rodinal, printed on Ilford warmtone fiber paper, matt finish.