Monday, June 30, 2008

I needed to take a walk today (June 30th), so I strapped the Shen-Hao kit on my back and headed up the Goose Pond Mountain SP trail from LaRoe Road. I had seen this little woodland detail a while ago, so I knew what I was looking for. I made four exposures...two with the 210mm Nikkor, and one with the 250mm Fujinon. This is the latter, and though the difference between the two lenses is slight, I liked this somewhat tighter approach better. It's a great privilege to live so near such a gem of a state park, and I am always very happy to spend time there.


Tuesday, June 24, 2008

These two photographs are negative scans from a completed 120 roll of black and white film I've had sitting around since early spring that also has some winter images of Round Lake (the willow over the ice). I had very little expectation that anything I'd taken was going to be appealing, but now that the negs are scanned and I can visit them after such a long interval (April to June), I kinda like these two. The top one was made on a little wooden bridge on the trail (an erstwhile road) that runs the breadth of Goose Pond Mountain State Park. I used a 65mm lens on my C220 that I don't think is very sharp, but I like the slight softness of it nonetheless. I'm eager to make some actual prints to see if either of these work as well as I hope they do.











Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The gallery that represents my wife and me has moved to an historic new location. It's the Patchett House, built in the early 19th century, and occupied variously as a home, an inn, and...a funeral home...yikes! (yes, there'll be ghost tours in October at Halloween time!) Here's a link with a color picture of the building. http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3CT7
It is beautifully restored, and I took myself there yesterday afternoon (June 17th) to see what I could do with the interior photographically. I've never done much architectural work, and using the appropriate movements proved to be a challenge, but I'm fairly pleased with this staircase photograph. There's simply no way it could have been made without a view camera....digital, or film, getting this much depth of field wouldn't have been possible any other way. I actually went a bit beyond the limit of front fall and rear rise as there's a bit of darkening in the lower right hand corner....but it'll just be our secret...no one else will notice...okay?



This is a very big crop of a 4x5 negative that didn't interest me much except in this small area. The distortion is due to the ancient rolled glass. It's a view from one of the gallery rooms looking out to the rear of the building where there is an enormous copper beach tree that's probably a good deal older than the Patchett House itself. I think it is going to be considered for landmark status as well as the house which already is on the national register.


Friday, June 6, 2008

Here's another from the several negatives I made in early May. The one I posted earlier I was printing in the darkroom this evening (June 6th), and this is a different one that I've cropped square from it's original 4x5 size. I'm not certain how I like it yet, but if it grows on me, I'll perhaps print it later this weekend. It is originally a vertically oriented (portrait) negative, but I think there is too much in it that doesn't contribute to the image, so this crop is the result.