APUG - Blogs - TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/ APUG.ORG is an international on-line community, completely devoted to traditional (non-digital) photographic processes. en Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:56:14 GMT vBulletin 5 http://www.apug.org/forums/images/apug4/misc/rss.jpg APUG - Blogs - TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/ Hie thee hence, 2011! http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/403-hie-thee-hence-2011.html Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:05:56 GMT Despite the title of this blog post, 2011 was not THAT bad of a year, although it could have been a hell of a lot better. Kicking things off, I was... Despite the title of this blog post, 2011 was not THAT bad of a year, although it could have been a hell of a lot better. Kicking things off, I was still in temporary employment limbo, waiting for my current employer to bring me on board officially. Then, in March (just about the same time my employer picked me up as a permanent employee) I split from my partner of 3 1/2 years, and it was an ugly split. I'm still paying the lawyer's bill until January. Yeah, it was THAT ugly that I had to get a lawyer, even though we weren't even married! On the upside, I'm now a free and happier person, and my house feels like my home again, instead of a place I went to sleep and endure the emotional acid vented by my ex.

The summer passed relatively uneventfully, until the police found a dead person in front of my house. THAT was a bit of a to-do. Then in mid-October, everyone in my studio building was informed that the building owner was tearing the place down in January and we had to get out before then. And just as I was planning to start moving stuff out of the studio, my appendix burst, putting me in the hospital and then home recovery for almost ten days. The upside to the appendectomy was that a: my recovery has been remarkably smooth and uneventful, b: although it was an inconvenient time to happen, it could have been a lot worse, and c: I had a great support network of friends and family who really came through.

All the frol-de-rol that has transpired this year has given me a new perspective on life and the things I value. I've grown a lot closer to my parents, who helped me through the separation and the surgery recovery. I had to sell some camera gear I wasn't using to pay the legal bills, and frankly, I think in some ways it was the best thing for me - it's helped me focus my interest and think seriously about what I want to do photographically, and distill down what I have until I only have the stuff I need to accomplish my goals.

I don't regret 2011, but it will NOT be remembered as one of my 10 best years either. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/403-hie-thee-hence-2011.html More studio updates http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/370-more-studio-updates.html Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:37:01 GMT Ok- the storage locker is now assembled, and the studio is being maintained to a reasonable semblance of cleanliness (a bit challenging when your... Ok- the storage locker is now assembled, and the studio is being maintained to a reasonable semblance of cleanliness (a bit challenging when your studiomates are a pair of hippies and a painter/3-d installation artist). It looks way more professional now, and I think the other guys will in the long term appreciate the improvement when they can raise their billable rate for the space, even though they were grumbling about not needing the storage locker (if you saw the place before, you'd understand why - they had gear and junk furniture just piled up randomly on one side of the studio, looking like part of the Lower 9th Ward post-Katrina). The remaining step is to actually get some models in and start taking pictures! ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/370-more-studio-updates.html Been busy http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/368-been-busy.html Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:32:23 GMT I've been busy working away at getting the new studio set up. Added an INKA studio mono stand to the arsenal for shooting large subjects and/or working with the 14x17. Rolled the Century Master portrait camera out yesterday to shoot some still life stuff for a print exchange. I'm working on getting some classes on the calendar to take advantage of the studio space as a teaching space again. Watch for announcements about an intro to studio lighting class, a photographing the male nude class, and possibly a platinum/palladium printing class in the next two months. I've been writing a fair bit on my other blog, http://dcphotoartist.wordpress.com, most of it about collecting antique images. As I'm finally getting back in to shooting my own again, I'll be writing more about that and posting examples of the new work I'm shooting. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/368-been-busy.html Stieglitz Steichen Strand exhibit review http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/348-stieglitz-steichen-strand-exhibit-review.html Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:47:08 GMT I've posted a review of the Stieglitz, Steichen and Strand exhibit, from my perspective and regarding my interests in the show over on my blog. To read the whole review, check out

http://dcphotoartist.wordpress.com

The biggest interest to me in seeing the show was getting to examine the Steichen prints up close and personal. I don't know if he worked from enlarged negatives or was he shooting ULF, but most of the prints were much larger than 8x10- I would guess 11x14 or 12x15 at a minimum. There was something about the surface of his gum prints that made them look as if they were hand-lacquered, not photographically printed. The color subtlety and variety as well as the depth of detail (or lack thereof - he must have been shooting with a Vitax dialed to 11 out of 5 on the soft focus diffusion scale) cannot be appreciated in a book or other printed reproduction. I could easily have spent an entire day in just the Steichen room at the show, or more, but the madding hordes tramping through the exhibit made it hard to spend too much time in front of any one image. Great news for the museum, bad news for me, but I'll put up with the crowds as it helps keep the museum's doors open and excellent shows like this being produced. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/348-stieglitz-steichen-strand-exhibit-review.html New Studio!!!! http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/339-new-studio.html Tue, 11 Jan 2011 02:34:05 GMT I've just gotten the lease for my new space, so the photography studio and teaching space is back in business! I'm in a much better location this time, walking distance from two different Metro stops, a short bus ride from Union Station, and also a short walk to Chinatown. As soon as I get settled in, I'll be putting together a calendar of classes. Look for classes to begin in the March/April time frame. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/339-new-studio.html New Blog http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/333-new-blog.html Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:57:09 GMT I've set up a new blog on Wordpress, which has a bit more flexibility as far as look/feel/content management. I'll be writing about my collecting vintage images, my gum and platinum printing, large format photography, and anything else relating to my photography experience. The URL is

http://dcphotoartist.wordpress.com

I've already got some content up there which I hope people are finding useful and/or interesting. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/333-new-blog.html <![CDATA[Gum Printer's bane]]> http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/322-gum-printers-bane.html Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:15:58 GMT No, it's not humidity. No, it's not finding the proper balance of pigment to gum. No, it's not the balance of pigment/gum to Ammonium Dichromate. All that stuff's easy. Relatively. The true bane is registering your negative(s), especially when trying to print a relatively darker layer over a relatively light layer. I was just working on an image where the under layer was Burnt Sienna, which in the real world translates into peachy-colored, fairly light pigment. Couple this with having a relatively high-contrast image and then choosing Sepia as a second layer over top the Burnt Sienna, and I'll be damned if I could find the under-layer image to align to. What made it even harder was the fact that I was doing a diptych - two negatives side-by-side. I tried eye-balling it, which wasn't working well, then I tried putting it on my light table, which made it worse, so I went back to eyeballing it and found my original pencil-marks I had used to guide the corners of the original print. Or at least I thought I did...

Somehow, in a fit of miraculousness, I managed to get one of the two almost perfectly aligned. The other, however, ended up being at least a good several millimeters out of whack, so I have this ghost under-layer to the Sepia. In this case, thank god it was a very light, complimentary color underneath, or it would have been a glaring disaster. I think the next time I try this image, I'll mask very tightly to the negative border so it won't be so hard to find where to put the film. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/322-gum-printers-bane.html More adventures in gum printing land http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/318-more-adventures-gum-printing-land.html Mon, 06 Dec 2010 12:29:26 GMT Well, I've been keeping at my gum printing, and I'm starting to rise to the level of not incompetent. I think the biggest takeaway from my experience so far would be best summarized by a line from John Malkovich's character in "Art School Confidential": "Don't have unrealistic expectations". Every gum print is a new experience. Results are unpredictable. Learn to like happy accidents. Despite your best intentions, when masking the border, the coating will bleed under the masking tape when you least want it to, and if possible, where you least want it to. Sometimes, with gum, less is more - although the tendency is to keep adding more layers, I've hit the nail on the head with just two a couple of times now. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/318-more-adventures-gum-printing-land.html Gum printing, experimentation and premature demises http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/314-gum-printing-experimentation-premature-demises.html Tue, 16 Nov 2010 16:59:46 GMT My latest foray in alternative processes has been delving into the world of gum bichromate. I've gone down this particular garden path for a reason - no, not personal insanity, but rather I have a commission that requires it. Gum is pretty sensible all things considered, not any harder on paper than say platinum. However, there are so many other variables you have to work in - how much pigment to mix for a given color, how much exposure to give, what strength of dichromate to use, what paper to use, was the paper properly sized, what hardener to use for the sizing, and so on. Oh, and don't forget proper humidification. It took me a bit of fumbling around to get my process back under control - when I learned it initially, of course everything worked flawlessly, but then I had to put it aside for the better part of a year and come back to it.

Now that I have it more or less dialed in, I'm in to the experimentation phase. I've been doing some gum-over-platinum (or more accurately gum over Ziatype) prints. This has been instructional as it has showed me where the flaws in my gum process were that by its rather forgiving nature gum tends to cover up. I only wish I had been more on the ball with this a month ago so that I could have gotten more of these gumover prints ready for a couple of juried show submissions I'm planning to enter. The real killer on these competitions is that they have back-to-back submission deadlines- one this Friday, the next on Saturday this week. And I have a TON of things I need to do this week other than printing. I'll have to try and re-shuffle the schedule I think.

As to premature demises, Art Reactor is having to close its doors (hopefully just a temporary situation). Just as we were starting to get a name and a little visibility, our landlord decided he wanted to try and get full market rate commercial rent for the space, as two major restaurants and a grocery store are preparing to open across the street and we assume he thinks he can find someone else to take the space. I think he's nuts, because it's a storefront which would attract a primarily retail business, but there's nowhere near enough foot traffic. But move we must, so as of this weekend we have ceased operations, and are looking for a new reasonably priced space. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/314-gum-printing-experimentation-premature-demises.html Whole Plate Project Show http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/296-whole-plate-project-show.html Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:14:22 GMT Well, we had the "closing" reception last night at Art Reactor Gallery for the Whole Plate Project. I say "closing" in quotes because the show is up on the wall for another two weeks almost, but since the last weekend we will have the show up is the Labor Day holiday, I had the closing this weekend instead. Attendance was lighter than that of the opening reception, but quality made up for quantity. We had some serious viewers come through, and I got to spend some quality time with each of them talking about the work and getting their feedback. I think that's one of the biggest rewards of being a gallerist - getting to interact with patrons and hearing what they think about art. Today I did a gallery sitting from 10-4, which was also worthwhile - I had a half-dozen visitors in the first three hours, which given that today was a GORGEOUS day weather-wise, beat expectations. It was also helpful from a marketing standpoint because it showed me from where people were finding out about the show. I owe a big thanks to F. Lennox Campello's DC art scene blog, as I think most of the people coming through today read about it there. We'll have open hours next weekend on Saturday and Sunday, 10-4, so please stop by and check out the show. For information and directions to Art Reactor, check out the Art Reactor website - http://artreactor.org .
Attached Thumbnails
]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/296-whole-plate-project-show.html So many things, so little time http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/253-so-many-things-so-little-time.html Sat, 24 Apr 2010 01:04:58 GMT I've been home from work sick with a cold the last couple days. I've been using the downtime to catch up on some reading - I'm working my way through a book of photographic theory, and reading the WONDERFUL "TruthBeauty: Pictorialism and the Photograph as Art", which is the exhibition catalog for a traveling show coming to the Taft Museum of Fine Art in Cincinnati next month. On wednesday night, I had my first session of "The Four Traditions of Photography" class at the Smithsonian. The class is a discussion about the history of photography and the four traditions that shape the photographic aesthetic: Depictive Involvement, Constructed Artistic, Representational Artistic, and Directed Reality Artistic. If you had to pin me down to a single tradition, it would be Constructed Artistic for my work in the studio with nudes and portraits.

Depictive involvement best describes things such as the geographic survey work of Timothy O'Sullivan or war documentary work of James Nachtwey.

Representational Artistic is exemplified by the works of the f64 school.

Lastly, Directed Reality Artistic is things like Nan Goldin's work where she uses the snapshot/documentary aesthetic under an artist-directed but not controlled environment.

On a completely different yet not totally unrelated note, my new-to-me Canham 14x17 arrived in FedEx today. WOW. That's a CAMERA. The camera is to accomplish a commission I've been given to re-photograph a portrait. The relationship between this and all the above ramblings is that I've been asked to make the final image a multi-color gum print to end up on an approximately 20x24 piece of paper. So I'll be meta- pictorial, making a painterly rendition of a photograph of a painting.

now if I could only shake this nasty cold, I'd be in hog heaven. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/253-so-many-things-so-little-time.html Art Reactor classes http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/248-art-reactor-classes.html Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:53:58 GMT I've posted a number of classes I'm offering at Art Reactor, a community gallery/studio/workshop space in Hyattsville, Maryland that I've joined. We are targeting our classes at folks who want to get their feet wet with various alternative processes, large format cameras, or even just wet-darkroom photography. The classes currently on the calendar are Photographing the Male Nude, So You're Going to be in an (ART) Show!, and Introduction to Platinum/Palladium printing. I'm also curating a show of Whole Plate size large format images. Links to all of the above can be found at http://artreactor.org. I'm one of several artists offering classes, seminars and presentations at Art Reactor. I hope folks will get out there, check out the offerings, and find something to their liking. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/248-art-reactor-classes.html LTNB (LOOONG Time No Blog) http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/244-ltnb-looong-time-no-blog.html Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:04:22 GMT Well, it's been ages since I've posted here, mostly because I've moved over to Facebook (dragged kicking and screaming, but now I like it alot). I went in my local camera store and picked up a deal on a Mamiya RB67 Pro-S with a back and a 180 lens. My intent was just to shoot portraits, but I took it out for a spin at doing some night shots last night. It will at least let me do color photography economically. I'm still getting used to the beast, and I know on several occasions either I forgot to remove the darkslide or conversely forgot to advance the film (it's an RB 67 back, not a Pro-S or Pro-SD back so it doesn't have any multiple exposure prevention). I'm going to drop off the film over the weekend and hopefully have some great shots of sunset at the Tidal Basin (Jefferson Memorial reflected in the water) and the high-rises in Rosslyn reflected in the Potomac river as seen from Georgetown. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/244-ltnb-looong-time-no-blog.html New (to me) 5x12 film holders http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/204-new-me-5x12-film-holders.html Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:18:24 GMT I just bought a trio of new-to-me AWB 5x12 film holders from another APUG user. They arrived yesterday in UPS, in perfect condition. They're a great match to the three I already have, and if they didn't have a production date stamped in them, I wouldn't know they were used. My original three are walnut, these three appear to be cherry. It's too bad Alan Brubaker has effectively quit the film holder business. I've been trying for almost 2 years to order more from Alan but every time I checked, the only thing forthcoming was delays. I feel very fortunate to have found someone with a few of these to sell. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/204-new-me-5x12-film-holders.html Gum Printing Workshop @ Project Basho http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/201-gum-printing-workshop-project-basho.html Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:49:56 GMT This weekend I went to Project Basho in Philadelphia for a gum bichromate printing workshop with Scott McMahon. What a terrific experience. There was... This weekend I went to Project Basho in Philadelphia for a gum bichromate printing workshop with Scott McMahon. What a terrific experience. There was only one other student in my workshop, so we had lots of darkroom time and space, and were able to get a lot done. I came out of it with two finished prints and one partially finished print, which if you know anything about gum printing, is pretty productive for just two days.

Scott is a great instructor, very knowledgeable, very hands-on. He doesn't give you HIS "party line" about gum printing, but instead tells you "this is what works for me, other people have done this THIS way, you can try it and see if it works for you".

I'm including along with this message a scan of the two images I did at Project Basho, and a scan of the pt/pd version of the one negative for comparison purposes.
Attached Thumbnails
]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/201-gum-printing-workshop-project-basho.html Published in View Camera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/189-published-view-camera.html Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:59:55 GMT Well, I just found the May/June issue of View Camera on the newsstand yesterday. I've got an image in the article about Whole Plate photography, which is very cool. The image is one taken of the viaduct at Riley's Lock on the C&O Canal. I shot it with an 1860s/70s vintage Darlot Hemispherique Extra Rapide #2, which gives it a very atmospheric feel, the corners just barely vignetted. I'm pleased as punch :) They did a pretty good job reproducing the image and the write-up about the work. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/189-published-view-camera.html Artomatic: On the Wall! http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/185-artomatic-wall.html Wed, 27 May 2009 16:10:28 GMT Well, I've gone and done it. My exhibit is up on the wall now, all prepared and ready to go. Five images only, but I think five good ones. From a series of large format night photos of scenes in Washington DC, in and around the neighborhood where I live. Platinum/Palladium prints in whole plate (6.5 x 8.5 inches). I DEFINITELY need to get new lights for next year though- the little LED-based ones I'm using are nowhere near bright enough. I'll post a pic of the exhibit when I get home and can download a shot off my phone cam. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/185-artomatic-wall.html Artomatic time again! http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/172-artomatic-time-again.html Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:50:18 GMT Well, guys and gals and everyone inbetween, it's time again for that fabulous art happening thing here in DC, Artomatic. This year, we're across the street from the new baseball stadium. The address is 55 M Street, SE, Washington, DC. The venue is a new, not-yet-occupied office building. The content is 1000 +/- 2-d and 3-d visual artists and 300+/- performers. The when is May 29 to July 5. There will be at least two sanctioned "meet the artists" events in June.

What is Artomatic?

Artomatic is a month-long event by artists for artists. It is a non-juried occurrence, and entirely staged, managed and operated by volunteer efforts from the arts community. This year is the 10th anniversary of the event. It has grown from the first year with approximately 350 artists and 20,000 visitors to this year having 1000+ and an expected audience of more than 70,000.

I picked my wallspace on Saturday morning. I took an 8' wall on the 9th floor of the building, one row removed from the row with a stadium view. Another big plus is the proximity to the bar - that's going to draw the most traffic. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/172-artomatic-time-again.html First Class - Portrait II @ The Smithsonian http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/168-first-class-portrait-ii-smithsonian.html Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:30:59 GMT Well, we are off to a great start with the class. Some familiar faces, and some new ones - several of the women from the last class did not make it... Well, we are off to a great start with the class. Some familiar faces, and some new ones - several of the women from the last class did not make it for this one, but Robert and Kathleen (husband and wife duo) came, and Phil, the tall, skinny guy also came. We did a slight recap of the last session of the Portrait 1 class, with a twist - we used the diffuse lighting setup for "butterfly" lighting from the solo portrait/headshot setup, but this time, we used it to light group portraits. Some folks experimented with multi-level, multi-row posings of the group, but I decided we were going to have some fun with it, and had everyone pose with their cameras, then I got them all to do a rather silly "Chorus Line" type pose. I think everyone had a blast with that one, despite the silliness of it, as the process of the group pose was giving all of us flashbacks to grade school class portraits. I'd post a shot but it was done with digital, so it isn't germane here.

We also got our first major assignment - interview another classmate and come up with a concept for a portrait, to include backgrounds and/or props to convey a sense of personality and identity. I got Kathleen, who I think is probably the most interesting member of the group, certainly the most spunky. She got into photography because she wanted originally to just do the darkroom stuff for her husband, but her darkroom instructor made her do her own shooting too. She's more of a charcoal/pastel/watercolor artist, and she loves doing macro work, so I'm thinking of taking her to the Botanical Gardens to do a portrait of her drawing something. I MIGHT do it with the 11x14, or maybe just with the whole plate camera. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/168-first-class-portrait-ii-smithsonian.html Smithsonian Portrait Class Level II http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/167-smithsonian-portrait-class-level-ii.html Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:43:51 GMT I've got the first session tonight of the level II Classical Portraiture class down at the Smithsonian. I'm really looking forward to it. I've been in a bit of a creative slump lately, so having the class will hopefully spur my juices by making me get out and shoot more. ]]> TheFlyingCamera http://www.apug.org/forums/blogs/theflyingcamera/167-smithsonian-portrait-class-level-ii.html