Photomic

2012-02-12T09:08:00.000-08:00

Pettygrove Park

Lovejoy Park

These two parks were part of the Urban Renewal built over a demolished neighborhood made up primarily of Italian and Jewish immigrants. The parks were named after Francis Pettygrove and Asa Lovejoy who as the story goes flipped a coin to choose who would name the city. Francis, who was from Maine, wanted to name the city "Portland" and Asa, who was from Massachusetts, wanted to call it "Boston". The two parks names as I understand it were also named by the flip of a coin. The parks were built in the late 60's and opened up in 1970 along with the forecourt fountain in front of the Civic Auditorium. The tiny, tiny parks in a dark canyon of buildings I think are kind of dark, ugly and overgrown but can make for a pleasant walk to escape the heat of the city in Summer.

2012-02-07T07:53:00.000-08:00

Contact sheet making and detailed scan of one image

2012-02-04T18:32:00.000-08:00

Finally got those two rolls of film developed and tomorrow I'll make my contact sheets and maybe, maybe a print or two if something just really stands out.

2012-01-29T12:29:00.000-08:00

Giant Solar Panels at Tri-Met Green Line Max Station.

Here is a portion of the 370,000+ dollar solar array that will save about 3000.00 a year in electricity that Tri-Met will sell to PGE. This savings will return the investment after 60 years of course if the Solar panels will actually last that long minus cleaning and maintenance costs. It's not really about the money though but about maintaining an image that Portland is a shining city on a hill demonstrating to the world how we can have it all. A modern city that is efficient, green and sustainable. Nothing could be further from the truth but it looks good. I wonder how many people might think this powers the Max Train and not the Coal Burning Power Plant in Boardman, Oregon.

2012-01-29T11:20:00.000-08:00

I have enjoyed photographing the way the city is changing around this one Victorian stalwart. Owned by a lawyer who runs his law firm out of this house he has had to deal with the expansion of Tri-Met and PSU trying to take over his little piece of property containing one of the last few slivers of the community that was once here. He will not be moved.

2012-01-28T15:03:00.000-08:00

Some images of Witch Hazel taken today on a walk in our neighborhood. Used the Canon Pro-1 digital on "Super Macro" which doesn't allow me to shoot in RAW but still it's pretty good for extreme close-ups. A very flexible camera. The quality is not as good as the 55mm Micro-Nikkor but it's not like I am shooting for National Geographic. The top picture is upside down because I think it improves the composition though not botanically accurate since the anthers hang downwards not up.

2012-01-15T09:35:00.000-08:00

Castor Bean taken with Micro-Nikkor 55mm f3.5. Printed out on Ilford fiber warmtone paper.

Castor bean taken with Canon Powershot Pro-1. This plant is in a park near where I walk on my lunch hour. I find it most interesting in the Winter.

2011-12-19T16:32:00.000-08:00

Peacock Lane. Black and White from last year and digital color from this year.

2011-12-16T07:24:00.000-08:00

"In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter, long ago."

Christina Rossetti

2011-12-11T16:58:00.000-08:00

From August what might be one of my last rolls of 35mm color film.

Black and white work done of one of my favorite subjects this year Occupy Portland. I still have two rolls of 35mm film yet undeveloped.

Some work done with my Canon Powershot Pro-1 digital camera.

A favorite black and white image of mine from a dark gloomy Summer.

An old 6x6 negative taken back in 1970 that I never printed.

Digital color work that convinced me to probably give up using color film.

Another Occupy Portland shot one of hundreds I took with black and white film and digital color.

Another image from 1970.

Peacock Lane on a dreary December 24th. I may go back and shoot around dusk just as some of the lights come on in color but I like these somber black and white.

Pictures from 2011

Not one of the most inspired years. I guess I might be going through an artistic slump.

2011-12-10T10:42:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I attended a 40 year reunion of our high school class. Most of us attended the same grade schools and so spent a lot of our childhood and adolescence together. I had my 1st grade class picture and someone from the reunion put up on the internet our 8th grade class picture. I liked pairing those images of us as children against what we became and it made me think of this Cat Stevens song.

"Oh Very Young, what will you leave us this time

You're only dancin' on this earth for a short while
And though your dreams may toss and turn you now
They will vanish away like your dads best jeans
Denim blue, faded up to the sky
And though you want them to last forever
You know they never will
(You know they never will)
And the patches make the goodbye harder still.
Oh Very Young what will you leave us this time
There'll never be a better chance to change your mind
And if you want this world to see a better day
Will you carry the words of love with you
Will you ride the great white bird into heaven
And though you want to last forever
You know you never will
(You know you never will)
And the goodbye makes the journey harder still.
Will you carry the words of love with you
Will you ride, oh,oooooooooooooh
Oh Very Young, what will you leave us this time
You're only dancin' on this earth for a short while
Oh Very Young, what will you leave us this time"

Cat Stevens.

2011-12-03T11:54:00.000-08:00

More images from what will probably be my last roll of color film.

2011-12-02T06:15:00.000-08:00

I had some color film developed from last summer. I think it will be the last color film I shoot. I can control color much better using the digital camera.

2011-11-27T14:37:00.000-08:00

Picture taken at the House of Reptiles today in Tigard.

2011-11-26T10:24:00.000-08:00

Some photos from a visit to the Zoo with a photographer friend of mine. It was her digital camera that inspired me to buy the model that I now own. She recently graduated though to a full on Canon DSLR that is HUGE. I like that one can view truly through the lens with the DSLR like a film camera SLR but other than that I am fine with the more compact and "simpler" to operate Canon Pro-1. Afterall I am first and foremost a film photographer. This picture of two ducks is my favorite. The pond had this yellowish colored bottom that makes the picture look like an antique Japanese Print.

I like that I could incorporate our shadows in this image. It adds another "dimension" to the photograph by introducing features in to the composition that are not in front of the lens. The trees, the fence, and us. We take the picture and we our part of the picture at the same time.

I borrowed my friends polarizing filter for this shot. The shift is not as dramatic with digital the way it is with film though the sky did come out a little darker.

These frameworks of lights are a feature for Christmas time when the Zoo opens at night so you can see these elaborate light displays. Later as we were leaving and dusk was approaching the lights started coming on but I was getting tired of taking pictures.

2011-11-20T09:45:00.000-08:00

The Occupy Movement in Portland is on the move. Here last Thursday they staged a march and occupation of several downtown banks for short periods of time which led to one of the first pepper spraying incidents.

2011-11-19T09:59:00.000-08:00

Some images taken the other day with the digital camera. I've really been taking it out and playing with it. I use it exclusively on manual setting only using the auto-focus since the camera doesn't have through the lens viewing like a DSLR. The other settings for apeture, shutter speed and color balance can really give you a lot of creative control without all the fuss of filters and the limitations of color film.

2011-11-13T09:58:00.000-08:00

Portland has apparently pulled off ending the Occupation of the parks not with a bang or a whimper. The Police, News crews, hundreds of witnesses, "a bike swarm" all came together and just kind of stood around waiting to see what happened. About an hour after the official closure of the park someone threw something at the police and was promptly arrested and that was the extent of the police action. This morning the Park is still open but the occupation is over I think. Police are just cleaning up the mess that wasn't cleared out the day before. It was an interesting 37 or so days. I'll take a few pictures on my lunch break tomorrow and then start developing the last two rolls of the five rolls of film I shot. Along with around 300 digital images I covered the event from it's inception to the aftermath.

2011-11-12T14:29:00.000-08:00

           "Is that all there is? Is that all there is?
     If thats all there is my friend then lets keep dancing.
     Lets break out the booze and have a ball if thats all there is."

Looks like occupied portland is about to be occupied by the Portland Police after midnight tonight.

2011-11-11T16:58:00.000-08:00

Working with the Digital Camera yesterday in the Japanese Gardens I was pleased with the flexibility of being able to change ISO settings depending on light conditions. I stayed between 50-200 though for all the pictures. It was Sunny but not in the gardens where most of the time I was there the sun did not rise above the tall firs that surround the gardens.

I didn't bring a tripod but found places where I could brace my camera for longer exposures. I like to work with a minimum of equipment anyway and just make what I have work for me. Less is more.

In the shadows a problem with color film would have been the color of light that might have made everything blue and desaturated the colors. I could adjust the white balance and boost the color though something that would be difficult with film. I find the digital format works better with flat even lighting rather than bright sun.

I continue to work with Raw Format when I can. Some shooting functions don't give you the option.

I am pleased with the results that I can get a dark brooding image with color thanks to the way the image can be manipulated with the camera and later with editing software.

2011-11-10T23:12:00.000-08:00

Another beautiful Autumnal Day perhaps the last before all the foliage gone. Took the day off and spent it in the Japanese Gardens.

2011-11-10T08:05:00.000-08:00

I hope to do some more photos within the darkroom using the safe light illumination with long exposures using my new digital camera in my darkroom. I really like this still life of the Zone VI enlarger with it's "high tech" time and light controls with that huge Saunders Easel all lit by that lovely amber glow of the safe light. I wish there was someway I could easily fuse the Zone VI head with my D-2 chassis. I saw a set up for sale on e-bay so I know now it can be done but probably it involves some customizing. That would be the ideal set up for me. I have a lot of accessories for the D-2 and few for the Zone VI.

2011-11-09T18:44:00.000-08:00

A few more photographs taken this week at Occupy Portland. I have two more rolls of film to develop of five that I have taken there in the last three weeks. I will keep shooting both digitally and with film until it's all over which I think will happen before the year is out.

2011-11-07T07:57:00.000-08:00

Two pictures printed out this weekend on ilford papers developed in Dektol taken with Tri-X pan.

2011-11-06T17:23:00.000-08:00

A time exposure done in the darkroom by safelight illumination. Using the digital camera with an exposure of around 10 seconds ISO setting of 200 and at f 2.8. Manual focused the lens since I didn't think the auto focus would work in the poor light.
I thought it came out pretty good.

2011-11-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

Occupy Portland is now over a month old. Last night a story was out that the "Real Occupiers" wanted to apologize to the city and the police for starting something that has spun totally out of their control. This may have just been a rumor. On Thursday the ersatz mayor of portland gave a press conference in front of city hall warning the protesters not to pull off another spontaneous parade and disrupt traffic like they did the night before. As he was saying this to a very small collection of local media some of the Occupy Portland folks came up to listen. As they gathered mayor sam wrapped things up and tried to get the hell out of there fast but not before a few of the protesters came up to shake his hand and thank him for his support. I can see the college kids and the mentally ill buying his line but I would think that the street people could smell a load when it's in front of them.

2011-11-03T07:07:00.000-07:00

"I really love what you've done with the place."

I have been walking through or around the Occupy Portland Camps for close to a month now. My first pictures taken of the demonstration in the park on the waterfront were taken exactly a month ago using my newly acquired digital camera. Since then I've been working with both digital and analog. I've taken hundreds of pictures and still have work on 4 rolls of film that I have barely begun to print out. That will probably take me most of next year to work on. Though the parks are packed with people I'm just not that good at including people in my compositions. I like to photograph people but only if I am engaged with them and I normally don't like to be engaged with people. Sometimes I see a group or individual that adds something to the picture but mostly I take pictures of the environment without people which isn't that difficult. Most of these are pretty boring but sometimes I catch something interesting. I've been meaning to do some work with medium format film. I think this has a ways to go and the aftermath of the mess once it's been closed down should be interesting as well as the park once it has recovered. I'll have to look for some work I've done within the park before this event but I rarely photographed there the park really wasn't all that interesting.

2011-11-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

Variable contrast fiber Ilford Warm toned glossy paper.

Zone VI grade 2 fiber glossy paper

Both prints developed in Dektol.

2011-11-02T06:43:00.000-07:00

If you are going to work with black and white film and do your own printing your first step with your new negatives is to make a proper proof sheet. When I was first learning photography this was emphasized but I didn't always follow through. Now it is an important step not only to be able to see what you have but as a guide to printing your enlargements. Once the negatives have dried I cut them in 6 image strips and make a proper proof which will be stored with the negatives in a folder.

2011-10-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

Developed two rolls of film today from my trips through Occupy Portland this week and hope to do some printing tomorrow. Mixed up a gallon of Dektol for printing. I love the process. Perhaps tomorrow I can take some time to make some digital images of the printing process.

2011-10-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

Occupy Portland has held on for three weeks now but those who organized it have lost control of it. That is if they ever had any to begin with. A memo released by Occupied Portland Inc. (registered trademark) suggests that the core group wants to shake off it's ties with the motley crew of street kids, homeless, and mentally ill who have occupied downtown Portland for years. On Saturday they plan a demonstration and a march to Jamison Square in Portlands toney Pearl District perhaps in hopes that they won't be followed by the Chapman and Lownsdale Square crowd that they welcomed with free meals three weeks ago but now want to scrape off their shoe like so much dog poo. A similar issue with the free-loaders has also arisen in Occupy Wall Street in New York where instead of haute cuisine they are going to serve only red beans and brown rice until they go away.

Our local excuse for Government has given warning to Occupy Portland that they should stay put but someone named "Matt" from Occupy Portland fired off an e-mail salvo basically saying "You and whose Army is going to make me!" Along with all of this is the very bad timing of a Union March of Solidarity with Occupy Portland that happened on October 27th and on October 28th another Progressive Juggernaut showed up at Pioneer Square to voice their support. It's really hilarious to watch Portlands Progressive Elective Officials twisting themselves in to idealogical knots. It makes one almost nostalgic for politicos from the old days like Terry Schrunk and Frank Ivancie who had a pair and weren't afraid to "use em".

2011-10-26T06:51:00.000-07:00

Super Macro Mode. The Canon Pro-1 has a nice extreme close-up feature that works very well.

2011-10-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

Lone Fir Oak Tree in Digital Color and Analog Black and White

I've photographed this oak tree quite a few times over the years. I haven't taken a camera through Lone Fir in quite awhile so yesterday I took a walk through Lone Fir with my digital. The black and white image was done on 35mm Agfa film with a Nikon using a 24mm lens. The digital photograph was taken using 28mm the widest angle on the Zoom lens that the Canon Pro-1 comes with. You can see that the format of the digital image is not identical to the dimensions of 35mm. Something I didn't notice until just now seeing the two pictures side by side.

2011-10-21T06:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the sky was cloudy bright. I set the white balance on cloudy and changed the color setting from neutral to vivid. This seemed to boost the colors just enough but not too much. I wish I'd shot some black and white film this week though and today I have a lunch engagement so I can't shoot. Shoot.

2011-10-19T07:11:00.000-07:00

Occupy Portland is now entering it's second week and continues to grow larger, more complex, more problematic and more entertaining by the day. As I have said before the show Portlandia can never be as funny as the reality of Portland. You can't write stuff like this.

It's a microcosm brew of many ingredients of Portland Weird. A hoppy, heady mix of PC Organic Progressives, Hipsters, Homeless, Free-Range Mentally Ill, City Government officials (as well as those seeking office) and Police all concentrated right in the heart of the city and fermenting like a bad batch of homebrew.

Above you see Amanda Fritz a member of city council addressing a small percentage of the 99% like a patient public school teacher lecturing a bunch of 8 year olds in the typical passive-aggressive Portland doublespeak. I heard her say that the peoples first amendment rights "trump" city park ordinances (so it's legal to be illegal?) bbbbbuuuuuuuttttttttt your ruining the park environment and your taxing the limited resources of a city already running on empty bbbbbbbbuuuuuutttttttt we are still real proud of you for standing up for your free speech rights bbbbbuuuuuuutttttttt remember your really only 1% of the 99%.

2011-10-19T06:32:00.000-07:00

A couple new pictures taken yesterday with the Canon Powershot Pro-1. Above picture shooting in to the sun but hiding it behind a tree branch. I need to find a Polarizer for this to see if that can tone down the glare off the bricks. The bottom picture taken using the focal range of around 100mm compressing perspecive and bringing Mt. Hood in closer. I was pleased with the sharpness of the image at this setting.

2011-10-17T06:51:00.000-07:00

Couple of new prints from yesterdays darkroom session of images from inside Occupied Portland.

2011-10-16T16:36:00.000-07:00

Analog vs Digital

I have had a little over a week now to try out my digital camera and then to swap back to one of my 35mm SLR's and shoot a roll of film and develop and print in the darkroom. The weekend was nice and I could have been out in the sun with the digital but once I got in the darkroom again I stayed submerged in the dark most of yesterday and again today. I was having a lot of fun. Perhaps I am more interested in the making of photographs as opposed to the taking of photographs and that is what draws me to the process of shooting film, developing it, and then printing images a process that can consume most of a weekend with development, washing, drying. I spent several days in the process of making 10 prints something I could have done in 10 minutes with the digital camera and a computer and printer but what is the fun in that? The darkroom and the "digital darkroom" have nothing in common. It's not the same it's not even close. I can remember being at Citizens Photo once years ago when I started using the camera again and listening to a former analog photographer talking about the joy of the digital process over the old ways. I thought to myself that he probably was enjoying digital so much because he sucked as a photographer. Digital doesn't require a photographer really, just some idiot to push a button. Don't get me wrong I really love this digital camera, I'd take it to bed with me but it can't replace the magic. There is nothing magical about it.

2011-10-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

No Polarizing Filter

Polarizing Filter

One issue I am having with my digital camera is the ability to use filters. It came with a canon adapter for filters but there is a UV filter jammed on it so tight I can't change filters. I am having problems finding another adapter for this specific camera. Too bad the design of the lens couldn't just be threaded like a normal lens but perhaps it's a digital thing. I experimented with stacking a polarizer over the the UV filter and took some pictures of the sky to see if it made much difference or caused any degradation in image value.

2011-10-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

In the above photo one can see a demonstration going on in front of the Justice Center while a Occupy Portland representative and the Police keep up a dialogue.

The Thompson Elk center of Main Street downtown Portland.

This city that has been created here in a public park is beginning to remind me a bit of the old film by King Vidor called 'Our Daily Bread' a film that I think got the film maker black-listed because it was about a Socialist Commune being formed by a group of unemployed people during the Great Depression. It's also reminding me a bit of the community in Ursula LeGuins novel 'The Dispossesed'. For awhile one could have called this movement 'Occupy Main Street' because Main Street runs between the two parks that are occupied and the movement blocked the street. After the Mayor asked real, real nice for them to liberate it from their control the groups General Committee had a meeting and said 'No'. The Police then had to take it back and 8 people were arrested.

More pictures from Occupy Portland. These taken last Friday using a Nikkormat with tri-x pan film. Developed in HC-110 and printed out on warm tone ilford paper.

Working with film after using a digital camera for a week was an adjustment. I would forget to think about focusing but I would think about aperture and shutter settings which I still do with the digital because I use the manual settings so I can shoot in RAW format.

2011-10-14T06:55:00.000-07:00

Occupy Portland has been going on now for a week. I've been using it as an opportunity to experiment with my Canon Powershot Pro-1. Digital does offer advantages to be able to concentrate on composition and the snap shot. An event likes this allows me to move around and photograph freely and be ignored. The totally self-absorbed make perfect subjects for shy photographers.

I am surprised the movement is getting as much cred and tolerance as it is. Everyone playing nice and getting along. Political theatre and a party with donated food and their entertainment for the lunch hour crowd.

After a week of use I've come to use the camera on manual setting and shoot RAW images. I have been primarily shooting in the 28mm-50mm focal lengths.

The media is around but there is not much to report. They stand around rather bored and waiting for something to happen.

2011-10-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

‘It’s what I’ve never seen before that I recognize.’ –Diane Arbus

I recently finished Emergency in Slow Motion and have had a little time now to think it over. I have been re-reading Patricia Bosworths biography on Arbus and looking at Arbus photographs through the psychological lens provided by Schultz insights. The above quote had always been one of those Arbus Koans that puzzled me but now I think I understand what she meant. I think that like a lot of photographers she used the camera to take pictures in hopes that the camera might reveal something she would miss. We see the world in a dynamic continuium filtered by our beliefs. We don't observe so much as project. The camera captures the world in static fractions of a second that we can than study and see what our eye cannot. It reveals things to us that we have never been able to see but we know and recognize when we confront it.

2011-10-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

More work with the digital camera. I learned about RAW format and found the software to work with it. Here are some pictures I took this morning of a Southeast Portland Mansion that has fallen on bad times. I explored the grounds a bit and got up close. I really am having a good time with this digital camera but I will continue to make black and white prints because that is a craft and this a convenience. I could never feel as connected to an image made with this digital camera the way I feel connected to a print made in my darkroom from film taken with a real camera.

2011-10-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

My first outing with my kinda new high tech digital camera was to take pictures of the "Occupy Portland" event yesterday. It was dark and gloomy out and I probably would have been a little more successful using tri-x pan with my Mamiya twin lens camera. One feature I like about this Canon model is the very flexible viewing screen that pulls out and rotates so one can hold the camera at waist level and compose looking downwards a passive approach that makes candid photographs of people easier.

I usually feel uncomfortable pointing cameras at people and with focus and aperture settings I can take a loonnnnnggggg time and not be very surreptitious about it. Though I am still getting accustomned to the controls I can work a little faster with this camera.

2011-10-07T06:37:00.000-07:00

So I upgraded my digital camera. Gone from a 5 megapixel Canon point and shoot to a 8 megapixel Powershot Pro-1. Here is a pretty in depth review. I had been using a digital camera I bought for my son around 6 years ago that went through double A batteries after about an hour of use and I have been meaning to retire it. This is used and appears fully functional. It has a much better lens and a hybrid "through the lens" view finder like a conventional camera as well as a screen like most digital cameras. I think these were new around 2004 so a used model didn't cost very much on e-bay. It was about the equivalent of a box of my favorite photographic paper. I am not planning on going digital but I'd been wanting a better digital camera and a good photographer friend of mine had this model and I liked it so much I started pricing them on e-bay. I hope to run it through it's paces over the next couple of days to see if it is operating properly and if not I can return it.

2011-09-26T07:33:00.000-07:00

Did some printing in the darkroom yesterday of two images taken this Summer. Above a Labor hissy fit in downtown and this quiet peaceful image of one of Portlands oldest restaurants.

2011-09-24T18:29:00.000-07:00

"I really love what you can't see in a photograph. An actual physical darkness. And it's very thrilling for me to see darkness again." D. Arbus.

I've been thinking about Diane Arbus a lot lately and reading about her and looking at her pictures and thinking of how she approached photography and how I approach photography. Not to say that I share anything in common with her but that in learning to use the camera we have both tread similar ground and her pictures resonate with me in a way that no other photographers work does. Some things she says I get only because I've worked with a camera and film and a darkroom. Her first monograph published after her death just has her pictures and a series of quotes. In reading this quote I thought of this picture that I took and how I purposely printed it so that the shadows would reveal nothing. Lately I've been printing images with very low contrast so that everything is revealed, even photographing on cloudy days to avoid the shadows as if these are weaknesses in an image. To see darkness is rare especially in broad daylight but there it is in the photographic image. I also have to remember that there is no one way to take and make an image.

2011-09-11T08:35:00.000-07:00

I am mystified why in the digital age of photography photographers still want to hold on to these ancient icons of another age of photography. When the term "Photographic Proof" actually meant something. Perhaps because now that cameras no longer "capture" an image on film but instead use digital manipulation to create images the photograph no longer can be trusted but the camera perhaps can. The need to link the anlog world to the digital world is a way of maintaining the integrity of photography in a digital world where that is now suspect. So photographers hold on to these symbols like holy relics so they can feel linked to the objectivity and craft of Photography in the pre-digital age.

There is also the former analog photographers who have gone digital but still keep their hand in the analog world and feel they need to explain why they still use film. (even though they really don't).

"I use film any time I want to make an image I feel is important to me. It preserves the option of making "real" prints for that uncertain future time when I might have a darkroom again." The emphasis here is that you need film to take a real picture. It's difficult though and the results are not initially as impressive. I still have the very first photograph I ever took that was in focus. For me that was a huge step. My "A" image.

I used film for years and then abandoned it before the digital age because I hadn't the time, the money, or the focus anymore and because I really wasn't very good at it. A lot of time passed and then I picked up my camera again but rather than go in the digital direction I wanted to pick up where I left off to finish what I started and find out if I was any good. A lot of my inspiration was finding a copy of Ansel Adams first book 'The Camera' something I wish I had been introduced to back when it would have really mattered but still here was a comprehensive guide to returning. The process has been a frustrating one. Though equipment is cheap the materials especially film and papers are limited.

Of course if I were -heaven forbid- a "Professional Photographer" I would use digital over analog. Why take the risks involved in using film if your livelyhood depends on it? If you ever photographed a wedding for someone in the pre digital age when cameras had to be focused and film developed you know the anxiety involved in all the things that can go wrong before and after you push the shutter release button and you do not want to go back to a Bride and tell her you have no pictures. I never did more than a few weddings the stress was too much. The photojournalist Robert Capa landed with the D-Day Invasion carrying a twin lens Rolleiflex to record the event. He was being shot at while he was shooting with a camera that required focusing, and exposure setting and changing film after every 12 exposures. Only a few of the images made it because a darkroom tech in England screwed up the development of most of his film. He wasn't all that upset, probably because he knew he was lucky to still be alive (though years later he would die stepping on a land mine in Indo China). Analog photography made photographs and photographers in a way that digital photography never will and this is why I think photographs and photographers will die along with film, paper and chemicals. If you want to practice real photography then do it now while there is still some equipment and materials left and it's a long learning curve and time is short. I've been doing it since 1968 and I still feel barely adequate at the craft but I have developed an appreciation for the craft which can be an end in itself.

I love to work in my darkroom. I love to expose film to just about anything just for an excuse to see what develops in the film tank and in the print trays in the dark room under the amber glow of a safe light. To see first what the camera saw. That was magic the first time I witnessed it and I still feel the same way over 40 years later. I only want to attempt "real" pictures. True pictures. Film is a direct link to a specific moment in time formed by reflected light and lens by an independent chemical process not digital manipulation ruled by some programmers algorithymn. Film is more difficult to lie with. I choose to wear this Cilice photography vest because I would rather risk failure for the rare moment when I succeed at something that requires craft then eliminate the risk to produce something I am in no way really attached to. For what it's worth. That is why I still use film. A simple truth is better than an elaborate lie.

2011-09-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

Photograph by Hiroshi Wantanabi

For the Anniversary of My Death

By W. S. Merwin

"Every year without knowing it I have passed the day

When the last fires will wave to me

... And the silence will set out

Tireless traveler

Like the beam of a lightless star

Then I will no longer

Find myself in life as in a strange garment

Surprised at the earth

And the love of one woman

And the shamelessness of men

As today writing after three days of rain

Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease

And bowing not knowing to what"

2011-09-06T06:54:00.000-07:00

Mill Ends Park Portland.

Portland "quirky" vs. Portland "weird". This tiny, tiny park established long ago and a monument from our quirky period sits adjacent to one of the four famous Portland "Loos" Solar Powered toilets that cost more than my house. Monuments to the weird.

Here is a picture courtesy of the city showing the typical Portlander, bearded and riding a bike and bringing his own roll of officially sanctioned bio-degradable TP.

2011-09-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

The home during better times.

A 1927 Mediterranean style home built for the Doernbecher family in Southeast Portland designed by Herman Brookman. The first time I saw this place probably around 20 years ago it amazed me. It was the nearest thing to a Los Angeles style mansion right in southeast Portland. It's in the Laurelhurst neighborhood right next to the Park. Laurelhurst Park is probably one of Portlands most beautiful city parks (which is saying a lot since there are so many) with lots of expensive and beautifully designed homes built around it but this one stood out. Now it stands out for a different reason which can be read about here. I shot a few pictures here in July and came back a few weeks later. I wish I could wander around the grounds and I probably could but I'd rather respect the property and the neighbors who I think find this a pretty horrible embarassment so I keep my legal distance.

2011-09-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

"The coldest Winter I ever spent was a Summer in San Francisco"- Mark Twain.

That could certainly have been said for Portland Summer this year. May and June were downright frigid with average temperatures in the 60's and dark cloudy days that would usually not clear up until 5:00 in the afternoon.

I wandered about downtown on my lunch hours taking pictures of the moody skies and the flat light which shed very little shadow.

Things improved wonderfully by July and August though with the days being a very comfortable 75-80 and only a couple of days that climbed in the high 80's and 90's. Portland can also be known for an extended Summer through September and early October.

2011-09-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

This better be good.

I have always been fascinated by Diane Arbus and her photographs. I have written about her several times over the years in my blog here, here, here.

This is the first Diane Arbus photograph I saw, reproduced as a tiny stamp sized image in Time Magazine in an article about her first show in 1971 when I was 17. The image just blew me away. Though I had seen a lot of great photographs I'd never seen anything like this. It transcended the objective lens in a way I would have never thought possible with a camera. A camera took photographs of what was in front of the lens the photographer just made sure everything was in focus and properly exposed. You found the great subject and photographed it. End of story. Here though was something that seemed to reveal way more than what was in front of the camera. Almost like an image captured from a dream or the "minds eye". Who was this person who took this picture and how did they do it? She would be dead in a month and at that time she was not that well known outside of New York. It would be another year before her first collection of work would be published and over 10 years before a biography about her would offer a little more about her life. A few years after her biography was published a new collection of her images was put out of her work done as a professional photographer and a show of hers was held at the Portland Art Museum. Years after that her estate released 'Revelations' in conjunction with a retrospective show of her work. This most recent work is referred to as a "Psychological Biography" and perhaps will shed more light on my questions about this woman I consider one of the 20th centuries most interesting people. It seems a tad thin for such a huge subject but I am both anticipating and dreading reading it.

2011-08-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

This morning I awoke to find this Dragonfly sitting on a plant support. It spent hours there and I was able to photograph it with a couple of digital cameras and my Nikon with film and several different lenses. Finally it flew away.

2011-08-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

Recent work done this weekend in the darkroom of pictures I have taken in the last few weeks.

2011-08-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

Developed a roll of film yesterday. Tri-X Pan with Hc-110. Did a couple prints this morning that I'll scan later when dry. I wanted to work sometime in the darkroom this weekend since it's the 7th anniversary of my darkroom.

2011-08-10T06:47:00.000-07:00

More windowsill pictures. I used to take a lot of these in the early 80's.

This weekend will mark the 7th anniversary of my completion of my darkroom.

2011-07-19T06:39:00.000-07:00

1978 was an interesting year a mix of good times really bad times making some of my first really great friends but still falling in to toxic relationships. Still I remember the house on 41st street where I lived with several art students from the Museum School and enjoyed exploring Mt. Tabor Park.

2011-07-19T06:36:00.000-07:00

Scan of first print heavily cropped made in 1971.

New print from the old negative uncropped.

I worked in the darkroom yesterday. Channeling the Annie Dillard quote about artists needing rooms with no views where imagination can meet memory in the dark. Using my old negatives with my new skills developed in my not so new anymore darkroom that I have been working in for the last 7 years. I took the above picture on January 2, 1971 while walking through the South Park Blocks on a gloomy Portland day.
Portland probably wasn't near as gloomy as I was when I took that picture over 40 years ago. 1970 was a closed chapter in my life and 1971 had just started. I would be finishing High School and going on to College. It was the first winter of my discontent but I was still dreaming of the previous summer. Remembering too brief a time when I was not so alone and the air was bright, warm and fragrant not dark, cold and musty.

2011-07-08T07:09:00.000-07:00

A couple of recent colour photographs taken on lunch hour walks.

2011-07-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

Dueling Victorians. Much of Portlands earliest sturctures were made of wood because of all the lumber. Easy to tear down and get rid of. Heres a couple that have survived several city renovations. Interesting that both are owned currently by law firms which is probably why the city leaves them alone.

2011-07-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

Ilford Multigrade IV matt surface coldtoned FB(fiber based)

Ilford Ilfospeed Deluxe Grade 2 Pearl Finish RC (resin coated)

Same negative two different papers. Both developed in Dektol 1:3 dilution.

I don't use RC papers but I have found this particular brand and grade to produce a print I really like better than a print done with a variable contrast paper or a similar grade fiber based paper. And I accomplish it with a minimum of effort since I am only concerned with the proper print exposure. The bottom print just looks "right" to me. I have been using matt paper for awhile now and I just recently ordered some gloss which usually to my eye improves print contrast just enough.

2011-07-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

Another print from 1970. I liked the sign over the door, "You need not walk alone". I notice in the upper left corner there is a sticker placed on a sign that I think says "Work for Peace". This was probably left over from the May protests in the South park blocks around PSU after the Kent State shootings.

2011-07-02T12:59:00.000-07:00

Tri-X Pan and HC-110

I have for years now been using Agfa Pan ASA 25 and 100 with Rodinal as my film of choice but I think I am going to go with Tri-X Pan and HC-110 for awhile. I am finding the Agfa a little too slow for me except in bright sunlight which we are not getting a lot of lately in Portland.

2011-07-02T07:48:00.000-07:00

I thought this image was pretty good by my standards in 1970 when I was 16. I revisited the negative yesterday in the darkroom. I still had my original 11x14 print of it that was severely cropped to fit in to a rectangular format, straighten up the composition since the camera wasn't exactly perpendicular when I took the picture but this time I worked on a smaller print about 7x7 that used the entire negative which reveals all of its flaws. I'm not sure if that light area in the upper left is lens flare, or a light leak or a screw up in the development.

2011-07-01T07:28:00.000-07:00

Soft contrast light

Hard contrast light

Finished print a combination of a 17.5 time units of soft contrast exposure and 3.4 time units of hard contrast exposure on variable contrast paper.

(Top) Test print done with soft light. Highlighted 17.5 unit exposure.
(Bottom) Test print of hard contrast light exposures done on top of 17.5 unit soft light exposure. Highlighted 3.4 unit exposure.

After a year of working with the Zone VI enlarger I've settled for now on this printing technique. My first test print will use only the soft contrast (green) light. After making this print I look at the exposures looking for an area where I want the darkest tone to be around Zone V middle gray. I will then expose a second test print using the soft light exposure, in this case 17.5 units and then follow with gradual exposures using the hard (blue) contrast light. In this case making exposures "over" the 17.5 unit soft exposure with the hard contrast light starting with 2.2 units going to 4.2 units. I want to purposely "under expose" with the soft exposure because when I use the hard contrast (blue) light over the soft contrast exposed paper for the second exposure all the zones will shift downward. The Zone V, gray, with the soft contrast light will move to a Zone III or II closer to pure black. The most exposed part of the negative which may represent a reflection of light or light source will hopefully remain at Zone IX, and zones VII & VIII will shift to VI and VII. Multiple contrast papers have layered emulsions of different contrasts that respond to different light wavelengths which can be manipulated by filters, or in this case varied exposure from two different colored bulbs. This technique of exposing multiple layers of different contrast emulsions rather than just one allows you to tap in to the full potential of multiple contrast paper. After looking at the second test print I will then choose which combination of the two exposures should produce the best looking print. In this case I used a 17.5 units of exposure with the soft contrast bulb and 3.4 units of exposure with the hard contrast bulb.

2011-06-26T15:08:00.001-07:00

Another view of Lovejoy Fountain.

2011-06-26T06:50:00.000-07:00

Despite the nice weather and a large lawn to mow I've been getting in a little darkroom time between yard work.

2011-06-25T22:17:00.001-07:00

Salmon Street Springs a downtown Portland Fountain.

2011-06-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

William Shakespeare - Sonnet #18

"Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And oft' is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd:
But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

2011-06-20T21:54:00.000-07:00

Lovejoy Park

Recent Photographs taken around Portland

Pettygrove Park

Rose Festival Fleet Ship

2011-06-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

This years entry in the Waterfront carnie festival or "fun center" as they like to call it where the City of Portland prostitutes a city park closing her off for a week and charging all citizens admission to enter her. I always take a picture of the ferris wheel from the Morrison Bridge with city in background.

Here is a previous years entry, 2006, a bit more dramatic but back then I used to try harder.

And another, this done with a medium format 6x6 Mamiya camera.

Another from 2006 using Infrared film, from a different angle. The Ferris Wheel gets moved around a bit sometimes being on the North side of the Bridge, sometimes on the South side. Sometimes the Ferris wheel is in a North-South orientation and other times in an East-West.

2011-06-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

"When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste;
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long-since-cancelled woe,
And moan th' expense of many a vanished sight;
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before."
Shakespeare

"...artists need a room with no view
a place where imagination can meet memory
in the dark."
Anne Dillard

This conjunction of imagination and memory has been on my mind a lot lately. A symptom of age when so little lies ahead when compared with what we have left behind. The perspective from this point in my life of my past. I remember when I took this picture in June of 1970 and I was just 16. Near the beautiful old Library in Portland I was sitting on a stone bench resting in the shadow of these large elms and saw this lone figure walking slowly up the street about to emerge from the shadow and in to the light seemed to me at the time rich in symbolism. I felt a connection to that person. I still have the negative and I only made one print that was too large to put on my scanner so I think I have to revisit it. I look at it now and it's a little window with a view in to the past a negative is a physical manifestation of a memory that in the darkroom you can conjure up that moment in time that links the present to the distant past in a way that memory cannot. I still take new pictures. I even have a roll of film I need to develop but lately these old images are what I am drawn too.
A couple of years ago I wrote in this blog about visiting a gallerist with a portfolio of my pictures to see if she might be interested in showing me. She wasn't. She was though one of the first people that I showed one of these old images too and I confessed that I found something very powerful about them. She dismissed it as a bit of fun but that I should keep them to myself. I was a bit hurt because I really felt there was something powerful and fresh in them that my current work lacked.

2011-06-08T07:14:00.000-07:00

K-12. 18 years of my life have passed by in the blink of an eye.

"Remember the days of the old schoolyard
We used to laugh a lot, oh don't you
Remember the days of the old schoolyard
When we had imaginings and we had
All kinds of things and we laughed
And needed love... yes, I do
Oh and I remember you
Remember the days of the old schoolyard
We used to cry a lot, oh don't you
Remember the days of the old schoolyard
When we had simplicity and we had
Warm toast for tea and we laughed
And needed love.. yes, I do
Oh and I remember you"
Cat Stevens

2011-05-31T06:26:00.000-07:00

This is another 6x6 negative from 1970 that I never printed before. Picture taken probably in August a few months after the Civic Auditoriums Forecourt Fountain officially opened. It was then a very popular place to gather and cool off on a hot summer day. It was also popular in the evening as well. A favorite blog of mine, Vintage Portland, has been posting some wonderful old color photographs taken around 3rd and Clay before and during the beginnings of the South Auditorium renewal project. The photographs are high resolution scans and can be clicked on to reveal a lot of detail.

2011-05-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

My new 16x20 Saunders Easel

Another great find from Hollywood Camera a very pristine 16x20 Saunders Easel that my huge new Zone VI baseboard can accomodate to replace my meager 11x14 Saunders. The price was too reasonable for me to pass up, I rarely enlarge anything over an 8x10 let alone 16x20. A new piece of equipment also inspired me to do a little darkroom work this weekend.

2011-05-08T09:44:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting counterpoint from 2008 to an event celebrating the Lawrence Halperin designed fountains the centerpieces of the South Auditorium Urban Renewal Project. Explaining the significance of the architecture to us is former Oregonian writer Randy Gragg who devoted a book on the Halperin contributions called; Where the Revolution Began "... the story of how these plazas came to be. Born of the creative experimentation and collaboration between Halprin and his wife, pioneering choreographer/dancer Anna Halprin, the Portland Open Space Sequence came to life in the unlikely setting of the city’s first scrape-and-rebuild urban renewal project. But Halprin defied the conventions of both American urban renewal and midcentury modernism, designing the kind of inviting, exuberant public space that hadn’t been seen since Renaissance Rome’s Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navonna" Yeah right. Let us now compare and contrast.

Lovejoy Fountain

Trevi Fountain

Pettygrove park sculpture.

Piazza Navona Sculpture

Again this is Rome.

This is Portland.

2011-05-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

Pettygrove Park one of the Halperin designed Plazas behind the building that always reminded me of the Ministry of Love from Orwells 1984.

Pettygrove park consisted of a series of grass covered mounds which were once quite comfortable to relax on but now have evolved into weed infested dirt piles

This solid black glass building was erected in the early 1970's and one of the Skidmore Owens and Merrill apartment towers in the back.

Pettygrove park in 1970.

1972 photograph of the office tower and apartment buildings of the South Auditorium renewal

More photographs contrasting 1970's with views of the space as it is now. The more I read about the area the more I mourn the vibrant neighborhood that once occupied this space.

2011-05-07T18:18:00.000-07:00

From left to right Ira Keller first director of the PDC, Mayor Terry Schrunk, Lawrence Halperin architect of the Forecourt Fountain (now Ira Keller Fountain).

"You must burn the village to save the village" Burning of a community for the South Auditorium Urban Renewal Project 1961.

"The only slums we have in Portland is the garbage in City Hall, the Courts, the Portland Development Commission. When did the Portland people crown Ira C. Keller? When was he ordained King? Who gave him full authority to rule over the destinies of the people?" Sign in the window of Korsuns Kosher Delicatessen protesting the South Auditorium project and Ira Keller who as the first director of the Portland Development Commission was the driving force behind it. Here is an interesting link about what was lost.

2011-05-07T17:13:00.001-07:00

Lovejoy Fountain 1970

Like much of the center pieces of the South Auditorium project the Lovejoy Fountain has not aged well. Popular early on the site is now a vacant and ugly space.

2011-05-07T12:39:00.000-07:00

Forecourt Fountain 1970

Ira Keller Fountain 2011 complete with rusty patina.

South Auditorium Renewal District 40 years later.

From where I work I am about 4 blocks from the Northeast corner of the South Auditorium district that was built in the 1960's replacing a "blighted" area that was composed of apartments, single dwelling homes, brick buildings left over from the 19th century and inhabited mainly by the descendents of Italian, Jewish immigrants that at the time was declared a slum and torn down, burned and replaced by a more modern and sterile public place of parks, large condos and office towers with no consideration for those who lived there. What was lost and what was gained can now be assesed from the perspective of time. Though I don't remember the area as it was prior to 1960 I did spend time in the area in the 70's and took some photographs of the then fairly new structures. Lately I have been walking through the area and seeing how poorly the place is holding up and am starting to take some new photographs just with a simple digital camera and doing a little online research of what was once there and also searching out the few still standing renemants of what was left. If one wanted to imagine how the area might have looked had it been left alone I think you could get an idea by visiting the Lair Hill Neighborhood in the shadow of "The Tram" which contains a lot of fine examples of modest wooden and brick structures from the 19th century. They seem to be holding up much better than what replaced their unlucky siblings to the South and shows what might have been if the area had been left alone.

2011-04-16T15:28:00.000-07:00

                                             "April is the cruellest month, breeding
                                                 Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
                                                 Memory and desire, stirring
                                                 Dull roots with spring rain."

2011-04-12T11:27:00.000-07:00

Walter Tevis 1928-1984

I have been home sick since last Friday and haven't had any energy to do much of anything but sleep and when I am awake to read. I just finished The Queens Gambit by Walter Tevis and am now reading The Hustler both books are studies in characters who are 'the best there is' at two of the personal passions of Walter Tevis; chess in The Queens Gambit and pool in The Hustler. I know a little about chess and even less about pool but I still enjoyed both books. He writes the stories demonstrating that he knows and loves his subject but he doesn't write the stories so that if you don't you are going to be lost or bored. The books are about people who have a passion and talent for a game and want to prove they are the best at it but their personal demons especially pride brings them down just like a classical greek hero. Perfection is just outside their grasp but their desire to attain it and the heartbreak of failing is part of the baggage of being human. To love anyone or anything is to risk having your heart broken as much, if not more, than attaining what you want and living happily ever after. In games we condense the larger human struggle to win and the consequence in that contest that someone has to lose.

2011-03-30T07:26:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite blogger sites. I love this guy or at least his blog where he often writes about Portland from New York. He made me laugh with this posting and I really needed a laugh. Here are some pictures of me with some of my sweetest rides through the ages.

2011-03-25T05:59:00.000-07:00

The April opening of this exhibit at 23 Sandy looks really good.

"These new images explore the notion that the time spent ‘crafting’ a photograph versus ‘taking’ a photograph gives the photographer space for thought." Laura Moya.

Do you think?

2011-03-22T06:17:00.000-07:00

Spring always makes me think of youth when you are anticipating your life beginning, and fall is like old age when you realize that pretty much everything that's going to happen has already happened and all you can do is remember and regret. Like Ursula Leguins novel Planet of Exile where the seasons last over 20 years and you are born in Spring and you die in Winter.

2011-03-15T06:17:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to a show put on by a class taught by Sharon O' Keefe who has started Northwest Center for Photography. This was her last class with PCC now that she is going to devote her time to NWCP which I noted here in my Blog in January sounded like an interesting place and hopefully an alternative to Newspace which I think is kind of stagnating. She seemed a very enthusiastic and motivated instructor and now that I have met her I want to check out what she is doing. She had a very inspired group of students many who were gifted photographers like my friend Lorita.

2011-03-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

Three different prints from the same negative printed at different times with different enlarger heads. Top image done this weekend using my Zone VI enlarger, the middle one done in 2006 using the Omega D-2 condenser head using contrast filters and probably selenium toning to soften the darker areas. The bottom one done with the Omega D-2 with the V-54 cold light bulb using a 1-1/2 filter. I feel like the bottom picture has the mid range covered but the blacks need to be "blacker". The middle one is all washed out in the highlights and too dark in the shadows. I don't like any of them. Shooting in to the sun, even though it wasn't high in the sky yet was a big mistake. If I had taken the photograph earlier before the sun had made the sky so bright I would have had more even lighting. The upper center and to the right is the problem area. Pre-flashing might have solved the high light problems but it would have made the middle values too dark. I was only testing a new lens for my Koni-Omega camera and wasn't really thinking about the picture all that much but I discovered the childs grave with the teddy bears after developing the image and liked that so I worked on it some more but I'm tired of working with it for now. Maybe someday I can figure out how to make a good print from the negative.

2011-03-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

New negative carrier

Yesterday I did some work with my new Zone VI negative carrier that will hold 120 format film. The carrier is cut for a 6x7 negative but I can also use it for 6x6 as I did for the bottom negative which I took back in 1970. I had been using pieces of glass before but a good negative carrier that holds the negative nice and flat and centered over the lens sure makes the work easier. Also the negative cleaning process is harder with pieces of glass since you have to clean all 4 sides of the two glass sheets, as well as both sides of the negative before you can start printing. I try to minimize the amount of retouching I have to do because I am not very good at it so if I can reduce dust spots on a print to just a few problem areas I call it good. The cold light does eliminate a lot of the problems one has with dust, scratches, and chips in the negative emulsion and I do not notice any drop in print sharpness. I had a variety of negative carriers and lens boards with my Omega but I have only found one extra negative carrier now for the Zone VI and I have only one lens board which will accomodate a lens with a 39mm mount. Nikon fortunately made all of it's el-nikkors with the 39mm mount so I can use any of my el-nikkor lenses; 50,75,105,135mm with my Zone VI enlarger. For these two prints I used a 105 el-nikkor. With my Omega though I had a custom built lens carrier that would accomodate Nikon camera lenses and I used to do all my printing for medium format negatives with a very high quality Nikkor 105mm bellows lens. I am hoping someday to find a 4x5 negative carrier and a 150mm el-nikkor or another lens board that can accomodate my 150mm Rodenstock enlarger lens so I can start working again with my view camera.

2011-03-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

Working with the Zone VI enlarger.

Here is an example of the two test exposures I made one with the soft contrast light, the other with the hard contrast light and the final print done with two seperate exposure based on my best guess at what combination of exposures will give me a mid zone gray and a true black. The upper left image is the soft contrast print. The light from the soft contrast lamp is much brighter but takes a much longer exposure to impact the paper in this case 25 units of time with the dial on the soft light set at G. This gave a unit of exposure that was about .5 of a second in real time. The hard contrast lamp units of exposure were from 2.4 to 5.8 units though each unit of time was probably over 2 seconds in real time with the hard contrast light set at E. I settled on a 5 unit exposure with the hard contrast bulb. Two exposures one for 25 units of soft contrast light and 5 units of hard contrast light were probably closer to 23 seconds in real time. The Zone VI enlarger has way too many variables and it is taking me time to get a handle on how to make a proper print. At this point in time I am still hanging on to my old Omega enlarger with a V-54 cold light that I can use with filters and variable contrast paper. The Zone VI enlarger uses two seperate bulbs and contrast is a variation on time and light volume from each bulb. I haven't been able to find a definitive instruction guide to using the Zone VI so I am still experiementing.

2011-03-08T06:32:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple new pictures taken in November for my "Oak Grove Gothic" an ongoing project I have been working on since 2006. The top picture was taken along the "Trolley Trail" at the Evergreen stop along the old rail bed left over from the historic Inter Urban Trolley line that connected Oregon City to Portland. The bottom picture is of course the decaying Bomber which once stood over the famous Gas Station along Super Highway 99. Here is a really well made web site showing old pictures taken along the interurban line.

2011-03-06T16:13:00.000-08:00

I was able to finally get another negative carrier for my Zone VI, 3 of them came up for sale on E-bay and no one bid real high. Last year when I tried to get one for 6x6 the bids went up to over a hundred bucks and I wasn't going to pay that for a negative carrier. This time 3 came up for bid, a 6x6, 6x7 and 4x5 all for the 1st model of the Zone VI which is what I have. I bid on all three but the 6x7 was the only one I got. I could still use it for 6x6 I'll just have to crop on the enlarger. I do have a 6x7 camera, the Koni Omega 200. Great Camera.

2011-03-06T09:18:00.000-08:00

I worked in the darkroom yesterday. These are from my last roll of developed film shot between August 2010 to January 2011. These are three pictures from a street near my house called "Peacock Lane" where every home is under orders to decorate for Christmas and it's a big draw in the evening when they turn on all the lights. There's no crowd during the day though and for the most part you get left alone though one old woman came out and wondered why I was taking pictures during the day when it is so pretty at night. I told her that the deflated Santa really captured my mood during the holidays. She just shook her head and walked away. What can I say? "I was born this way" as Lady Gaga says.

2011-03-04T16:42:00.000-08:00

I took this photograph in 2009 in waterfront park. She was very cooperative which for me as a photographer only requires that you ignore me and allow me to photograph. I had never seen her before and she reminded me of a friend of mine who is also a harpist and used to play locally back in the 70's and 80's before she left town. Anyway after I took her picture I didn't get a chance to talk to her and find out who she was so I could send her a copy of the picture later. Recently I saw her name mentioned in a Willamette Week Article on local street musicians. I googled her name and found her website hoping to finally send her a copy of this picture so she could use it if she wanted. Surprise she already had it.

2011-02-27T19:58:00.000-08:00

Todays print. Dark day and had to shoot at a slow exposure and brace the camera on a wall. Didn't work very well but the picture has a certain significance to me and it was the last picture on the roll of film I just developed.

2011-02-27T15:33:00.000-08:00

Today I took some time to make a contact sheet of the roll of film I developed last week and then selected one negative for a print. From the top down here is my print finish technique. The print drying between nylon screens, print after being in photo-flow excess water is squeezed out of the print gently, photo-flo solution after washing, a dip in perma wash for elimination of fixer saves on water rinse and protects prints for archiving by eliminating as much of the fix from the washed print. I wash my prints for a short time, dip for two minutes in perma wash and then follow by a final wash of a few minutes before putting them up to dry.

2011-02-27T15:26:00.000-08:00

Here are two test prints the one on the left made exclusively with the "soft" contrast light, and on the right made with the "hard" contrast light. I select an exposure from each and then make my first test print as a combination of the two. In this case I liked a .38 second exposure with the soft light and a 4.5 second exposure with the hard light. I expose the paper then .38 seconds using only the soft light, followed by a second exposure of 4.5 seconds with the hard light and see what I get.

2011-02-22T14:19:00.000-08:00

Developed my first roll of film probably since last Summer. Haven't worked darkroom for months. I have everything mixed and ready to go so it doesn't take that much prep time, just select some music and get started. This was a roll of Agfa 100 I developed in Rodinal at a 1:50 dilution, development time was 18 minutes. I use distilled water rather than stop bath. I let the film sit in a water bath around a minute, then change the water let it sit another minute and change again. I do this about 4-5 times allowing the film just a little more developement time than fix, wash, perma-wash, final wash, photo-flo and then hang them up to dry. The negatives go back as far as last August. This next weekend I'll make a contact sheet and then start the process of printing what I think is interesting.

2011-01-25T19:24:00.000-08:00

Interesting Blogger site.

Another lover of the Twin Lens medium format. I really need to use my Mamiya more.

2011-01-22T12:08:00.000-08:00

New offerings at PAM in the Photo Gallery

I was excited to finally see something new hanging in the 2nd floor gallery devoted to photography at PAM. A very large and wonderful collection of portrait work that included these two pieces. Called "Likeness" the themed exposition borrows it's name from a 19th century term for a portrait. It was wonderful to look at the Yousuf Karsh photo of Robert Frost and his dog. The print on display was surprising for its display of a zonal range almost entirely within the values of V-0 (Middle gray to total black) with only a few small areas that I thought approached Zone VII+ (light skin values; light gray object to highest values in which some texture is discernible.) from the light hitting the subject from the left. Perhaps the light showing on the prints in the photo gallery are intentionally of low wattage in order to preserve the work because I don't think the work would have been printed to be displayed under such low light because it would appear a little too dark. The Irving Penn portrait of Collette has always intrigued me where no light is placed on the eyes so they appear as just dark pools. This seems also the case with the Karsh photo of Robert Frost leaving the eyes in darkness but emphasizing the way the face forms around the eyes to catch the character of the face.