“Cold Fronts, Clouds and Islands…”

A ‘cool’ front was passing through last night and this morning when I took my walk. So it was still humid and interesting looking clouds moved across the sky. I could see blue sky through the clouds, and figured they would not ‘hang around very long.’ This one is looking east just a few steps from our front door. About a mile down the road, looking across the water at Atsena Otie Key, there was for a brief moment, a break in the clouds and I could see a bit of blue sky and this contrail far above the low flying clouds.I really don’t think of myself as a landscape or ‘cloud’ photographer, but I have certainly enjoyed my recent photographs which have concentrated on those scenes.

“Cyanotypes and Waterwomen…”

Let me start off by saying that on my screen at least, this scan looks way to magenta and ‘harsh’ – pretty lousy in fact. When I have it open in Photoshop it looks pretty good – so what you see on the screen is just an approximation……

I just replaced the scan with a photo and it sure looks better. Still not quite as good as the print, but…..

Finally I have managed to make a decent Cyanotype print. I used to do them all the time, with ‘no sweat’ and for some reason, on this ‘go around’ I have had loads of difficulties. Here is what the negative looks like:

So I coated another two sheets of 8.5×11 inch Arches hot press watercolor paper this morning, gave it a couple of hours to dry and then exposed it on the Arts Center porch. One for 4.30 minutes, that came out a bit too dark, and the next one for 3.30 minutes that came out fine. Here it is washing in the sink. I developed it first for a minute or so in vinegar, the bottle on the left, and then followed that with a water development/wash for about five minutes. The print

in this photo looks a lot more like the original than the scan photo above. What I confirmed today was that I simply have to expose the paper within about a couple of hours of coating it or it oxidizes, or whatever it does, and is no good. That’s what happened to me the day before yesterday when I coated the other two sheets, and yesterday morning they looked like this:

“Funky Clouds, Atsena Otie Key and Cyanotype…”

This morning I walked down to the Arts Center to coat some Arches watercolor paper with Cyanotype emulsion. The moist and warm weather is still around, and as I was getting towards the Beach Front Motel, the clouds around the sun were making a rather funky pattern. They were changing rather rapidly and I really wanted to photograph them. The tide was out, and there were some dolphins playing  in the water in front of me. I desperately wanted to get the dolphins into the picture, but they weren’t surfacing and the clouds were moving. So, this one is without dolphins. [Atsena Otie Key in the background]

When I got to the darkroom, I did coat my paper with Cyanotype emulsion, and left it to dry , hopefully to use tomorrow morning. The sun was still behind the clouds, and it was not shining strong enough to give me the kind of exposure I was hoping for.

This time around I am using the pre-mixed Cyanotype chemistry from Photographers Formulary.

“Driving to Tallahassee…”

This morning I had to drive to Tallahassee for an appointment. Although it is still January, spring like weather was spreading over northern Florida, with the temperatures expected to reach the upper 70′s, and moister air moving into the area. There was no doubt in my mind that air was moist. There was dense fog covering Cedar Key and the mainland as I started driving at seven this morning. I had my camera in my pocket and wanted to make some photos, but thought I’d be better off keeping both hands on the wheel, and watching the road. As it got later in the morning and I was on highway 19, with its four lanes of divided highway, I could not resist and took three photos of the surrealist looking fog and sky/cloud combination. I think this one is a ‘keeper’ for my 19/98 portfolio.

At first I was a bit bothered by the parts of the dash and windshield showing and also the partial trees on the right hand side, but then I realized those things were really in keeping wiht the rest of the portfolio, conveying the sense of driving on highways 19/98.

“Five Cedar Key WaterWomen…”

Top, Mrs. Beckham and her daughter Jeanine between Atsena Otie Key and Cedar Key. Jeanine wrote about herself and her upbringing, “Although my father died while harvesting oysters on Corrigan’s Reef when I was only 10 months old, and wasn’t in my life to influence me, I have still been drawn to the follow in his footsteps by making a living working on the Gulf of Mexico…My mother was left with four children & one on the way. She set a great example for me that sank into my heart permanently by being a strong water woman…”

Next, Diana and April building a clam belt in April’s backyard, and bottom, Lynell Fine on her boat with crab boxes in the background.

Although these are all older photos, I am reworking them for an exhibit coming up in April. I will be making about fifty 13×19 prints, and I will be posting a lot of the prints I am making here and also on my photo-store blog.

“Diana at the Old Tebo House….”

Diana at home working on the water and as an elegtant southern lady in the old Tebo house. Or as she wrote “…floral and salty aromas linger in the warm summer air.”

“The Atlantic Monthly Blog – Post Card From Cedar Key…”

Thanks to a tip from John Wall’s blog:  Southern Photography, one of my WaterWomen photos is on The Atlantic Monthly’s Arts & Lifestyle blog today.

ps. The photo was taken with a Holga.

“Deadman’s Key…”

The TINY speck of land, about three quarters to the right on the horizon, is Deadman’s Key. The bigger one, center left is Seahorse Key. The reason you can see Deadman’s Key at all is that a cold front passed through last night, and there is very little moisture and haze in the atmosphere. On a lot of hot and humid summer days you can’t make it out at all, and sometimes it seems closer, and sometimes further away, and I swear, sometimes somebody has moved the Key altogether

After decades of shooting film, I find it refreshing that I can go our for my morning walk, take a digital photo and post it – all before lunch. There are loads of wonderful things to say about film photography, but I truly enjoy this part of digital photography.

“Jeanine at her Oysterhouse…”

As I mentioned in a previous post I basically never saw her when she was not working, and at a pace I certainly could never have kept up with, even had I had her skills, which I don’t. Here she is getting ready to shuck oysters in her oysterhouse, and how she does that hour after hour and still look stunning and alert, I will never know.
As usual, I photographed her with my SLR, 50mm lens and Fuji Neopan 1600. There is not that much light in the place and it comes from behind Jeanine’s back – so there is a lot of contrast and deep shadows all around.

“Of Friends, Film, and Photography….”

My friend Linda stopped by today and we discussed making a whole slew of prints for an upcoming event in which she is involved. We went over paper choices and printing costs. Hopefully we will end up making a bunch of 13×19 b&w prints. I was surprised to figure that the material cost for each print would probably be around $6.70 per print. That is figuring in the cost of ink and paper, and some leeway for making test prints, or messing up a print. I probably underestimated the cost. To come up with some paper choices I relied on Chase Jarvis’s blog post Printing & Hanging a Photography Show

I first ran across mentioning of Chase Jarvis on the APE’s blog. Jarvis was catching all kinds of flak from readers who did not like his photography, his persona, nor apparently anything else about this guy. Well, I went and looked him up and found him to a lot of fun and interesting, although he is a bit full of it sometimes, but hey – he is doing what he likes to do and in the process seems to employ a bunch of people who also like what they are doing. Isn’t that what most of us would really like to be doing? So, giving him a lot of crap seems to me to be just plain envy, nothing less. Do look him up.

This brings me around to what I want to say about friends like Linda. We all need them, somebody who believes in our work, pushes it when they get a chance , and models for us when we want to work on a personal project, letting our creativity take over. This portrait of Linda was done a while back indoors, where there was not much light, without lights or reflectors.I used my cheap Yashica SLR, Fuiji Neopan 1600 film, and a 50mm lens. For a while I had subscribed to the conventional wisdom that one needed an 80 to 100 mm lens for 35mm portrait work. Well, I found that I like working with a 50mm better. I could get closer to the subject, and really see what was happening, and interact much better on a personal level. Like everything else in photography/art, it really comes down to finding ones own way of working. Others can give advice, but as I tell my students, if you develop your film by sticking it into a toilet bowl and flushing, and your film comes out to your liking, GO FOR IT!

A brief note about Fuiji Neopan 1600. I keep mentioning it because I used it almost exclusively. However, I want to point out that since the fading of film photography, many films and papers and cameras have disappeared. I was totally shocked to discover that there seems to be some sort of ‘scalping’ going on in the film trade. There is a place on Amazon that is advertising the cost of ONE roll of Neopan 1600 as being $62.93. That is insane, and I sure hope none of the readers of this blog will ever pay that kind of price for a roll of film. I guess the film is basically no longer available – I really want to make it clear that my mentioning the film does not mean that I suggest you go out and buy some at a ridiculous price!

“A Pinhole Sunrise…”

Another new addition to my photo-store, this is one of Cedar Key’s enduring views. I love the ‘corner’ where this was taken. There is the old fish-house which no longer serves that purpose, unfortunately. Across the street are Rain’s cottages, and remnants of the old wooden bridge that now serves mostly as a storage place for crab traps. The fast food store with its gas station [the only one in town], or as it is known locally as the ‘New Jiffy’ even though it has been there the thirty so years that I have been in town, they collectively make, at least for me, a very important ‘Cedar Key’ place.

This photo was made with a pinhole camera, which is nothing more than a little plywood box with just a pinhole for its lens. One neat thing about pinhole cameras is that it is no problem taking photos almost directly into the sun.

The camera I used here is a somewhat fancy version known as the Zero 2000 . I have several pinhole cameras, ranging from the old Quaker Oatmeal box to a crude 16×20 plywood box I made to take that size enlarging paper for making pinhole paper negatives.

One thing that is very nice about the Zero 200 is that it takes 120 roll film, and thus I can make 12 exposures before it has to be ‘reloaded.’ It takes either b&w or color film. This particular photo was made with b&w Neopan 400 film, I developed myself and then scanned the negative. Of course I have also made regular b&w prints from the negative, and the ones that ‘worked’ for me the best were the ones made with lith developer.

“With April on the Gulf, somewhere in the Cedar Keys…”

Here is another one that just went up in my photo-store:

It was a glorious May morning when April and Diana invited me to come along while they went out on the lease to ‘pull some bags.’ Looking at the bags full of clams it is easy to see how good and healthy they were. Fishing, and clamming, and farming all have their ups and downs. This photo was made before the ‘bust.’ When looking at a picture so full of cheer and good health it is easy to forget that things do change and that people who work for themselves and work hard also get hit hard when ‘the stars fall out of alignment.’ I have not seen April in a while, but we have kept in touch, and I am looking forward to getting together with her and going out on the water or accompanying her on one of her ‘supply runs.’

As with almost all of my waterwomen photos, I used my 35 mm SLR and Fuji Neopan 1600 film.

“Sunday Morning with Jeanine…”

Those of you who have been following my work will realize that a lot of these are older photos. I am showing them again because I am posting them to my photo-store in conjunction with my exhibit at the Arts Center, and a big showing I have coming up in April. More about that later.

And although I probably should put a little more variety into the images I upload, I can’t help but post another one of Jeanine, this one not oysterfarming but relaxing off Atsena Otie Key. She had invited me to come along with her family and do some photography. That kind of opportunity does not come very often, almost never, so I gladly went. For one thing, I almost never see Jeanine not working. No matter when I drop by her oyster-house I always find her going full tilt, and although dressed for shucking oysters or some other equally messy task, she always looks like she is ready for a cover shot on a glossy magazine.

I mostly worked with my 35mm Yashica SLR and its 50mm Zeiss lens that morning, but I did remember that I had also brought my Holga along, so I waded out into the Gulf, with the ‘plastic fantastic’ over my head trying to keep it dry. Along with the cameras I had brought some fabric and I tossed a white piece of it to Jeanine, who dove with it wrapped around her and  surfaced looking like The Madonna of The Gulf of Mexico.

 Now I have to be honest and also tell that when I went to develop the film, I forgot to put the stem holding  the reel into the tank – with the result that I got light leaks while developing the film. Probably photo mistake #35784.498 – 5a – what can I say. I am not new to this, but I guess it does happen. So, when I looked at the film it seemed that all the images on the roll were a total loss. Fortunately I did not throw the roll away, but finished processing it, and eventually got around to printing it, discovering that with a lot of burning and a little voodoo, I had a very compelling image – at least I think so.

“Oyster Planting with Jeanine on Corrigan’s Reef….”

I have written about this photo before, but since this is the first time it appears in the Photo-Store I think a repeat of how this suite of oyster planting photos came about is ok:

There was no doubt that it was going to be a hot Cedar Key summer day. Although the Cedar Keys stick out a couple of miles into the Gulf of Mexico, and one might think they get nice cool ‘ocean breezes’ in the summer – that is not the case, quite the reverse. The Gulf becomes extremely warm then, with water temperatures above 80 degrees, day and night. When the tide is out it gets even warmer on the sun burned flats and oyster bars surrounding the islands. So when Jeanine invited me to come along with her crew to photograph them while oyster planting, I prepared by wearing a wide, floppy hat, lose clothing, and carrying a small cooler with loads of water and sandwiches. Oyster planting involves moving oysters from exposed oyster beds to deeper water where they can grow better, and later can be ‘harvested’ and sold. While I thought I was prepared, for the day, I was mistaken. Gathering clumps of oysters into their big red plastic buckets, then carrying these buckets out to the boat and emptying them into wooden crates, to be transported to deeper waters and dumped, was enormously strenuous and back-breaking work for the crew. So that there is no misunderstanding, I was not doing that, I was just standing around on the exposed oyster beds observing and taking photos. I was also beginning to be extremely thirsty and hungry. There was no way that I could, in good conscience, eat and drink while the crew was working at top speed, without any breaks. Eventually they did take a short break, but what saved the day for me was getting some great photographs and a thunderstorm that materialized early in the afternoon forcing all the boats with their crews to return to Cedar Key earlier than planned.

“Annie’s Cafe…”

No, this is not Annie’s Cafe, but it is the storage shed just outside the main entrance to the cafe. You can see it in the background to the left of the shed.

We almost made it there for lunch today. We had to spend the morning in Bronson, which is about 30 miles away, but then it got later and later and so we had to skip the stop here. I was really looking forward to a small burger with fries and a beer. Hopefully next time.

Just about every-time I walk past Annie’s I want to take a photograph, and this structure and its wonderful sign has always fascinated me. Despite several tries, I never felt that I ‘nailed’ it. Finally I took my trusty Holga camera, and as so often is the case, I got the kind of funky image I was looking for. One of the problems in photographing the shed is that the sides are roofing tin, facing south and east. So, if the sun is out, [which here it is most of the time]the image contrast is simply overwhelming.

An archival inkjet version of this print is for sale over on my photo store.

“Faster Than Lightning…”

Glenda was kind enough to let me photograph as she was working in her restaurant Annie’s Cafe. It is my favorite place to get breakfast or a burger for lunch. When I moved to Cedar Key air-conditioning wasn’t used in most restaurants and homes, and unless you have been here in August you can’t imagine how hot it gets here, even though we are stuck out into the Gulf of Mexico. Anyhow, Annie’s is still without a/c or much heat, for that matter, and that’s the way it should be because it makes it ‘feel right.’ It’s a reminder as to why we live in Cedar Key and not some ‘high powered’ place.

Now, photographing Glenda was an extreme challenge. Firstly her kitchen is small and secondly, she moves like ‘greased lightning.’ I was working with my 35mm Yashica SLR with manual focus and manual exposure. Keeping track of them and Glenda proved to be next to impossible. Although I did end up with quite a few good photos, this one is my favorite because it embodies so much of what makes Annie’s special, from the open kitchen door [to cool the kitchen down] to how dynamic and powerful Glenda is, working hard and moving fast!

The silver print version of this is on exhibit at the Arts Center. An archival inkjet version of this print is for sale over on myphoto-store.

“Slick Calm…”

“…Morgan Fine on his birddog after a day of mullet fishing. With his pocket net on the net table and fish in the ice box.” Diana

This is a Holga photo I treasure. It was taken just before the net-ban went into effect and put lone fishermen like Morgan out of business, and away from making a living the way their families had practiced for generations. I used Fuji Neopan 400 for this photo and had and have a devil of a time printing it. The negative is very dense with a big light-leak in the upper right hand corner that I can only partially ‘burn–in.’ And on the left hand side it also has these weird light leaks that I think must have happened in the developing tank, but I am not sure.

The silver print version of this is on exhibit at the Arts Center, and for sale in my photo-store.

“And a dedcade or so later…”

Alexandria and Diana at the opening of my little show of WaterWomen prints at the Arts Center.

“Diana shifting her boat…”

Diana wrote of the thoughts that were going through her head when looking at this photo of her: “…Always dreaming and knowing that if you want to go somewhere or do something – first you must place one foot in front of the other to get any closer to the destination. The sky is no limit!!!…”

I took this photo the first time I went out on the water with April and Diana. Since then she has married, is raising two children and is the proud co-owner of the clamming co-op Clamtastic.

A print of this photo is for sale over at my photo-store.

“WaterWomen Sisters…”

As I said in the previous post, I will have smaller versions of the gallery prints available through my on-line photo store. Well, to do that I have to make sure all the prints up on the gallery walls are actually posted in the store. This is the first print I am working on, and I realized that that photo was taken in the same room, which is now the little gallery. I simply hung a black cloth on the wall and photographed Diana and April, who are sisters, with my Yashica FX3 and a 50mm lens on Fuji Neopan 1600.The photo was made in the summer, before we had A/C in the Arts Center, and you can see the effect of the powerful fan that was blowing, in April’s hair, on the right.
Both April and Diana are accomplished waterwomen, probably six or seventh generation islanders who have no trouble navigating their boats at full speed through the shallow waters here. They also have no problems lifting heavy clam bags, that would buckle my legs, into their boats.
This was among the first of the photos I was able to take of them. It took me almost eighteen month to talk them into letting me photograph them. We are now good friends, and you will see them in loads of my photos.
By the way, this photo totally cured me of the ‘conventional wisdom’ that one should not take portraits with 50mm lenses.

“Little Gallery……”

With Alexandria’s help I have installed 18 matted silver gelatin prints from my WaterWomen portfolio in the little gallery of our Arts Center. Although the prints are not under glass or framed, I think they still look pretty good.Of course, the gallery does not look quite as surreal as this composite photo makes it look. The walls are not curved, and the table is rectangular. Anyhow, should you somehow happen to be in Cedar Key during the month of January, do stop by. None of the prints are for sale, but smaller versions of them will be available through my on-ling photo store.

“WaterWomen in Garden&Gun Magazine……”

This is from a few years ago – my waterwomen photos were published in Garden&Gun Magazine and this was the leading photo – still looks good. Pardon the sense of nostalgia here!:)
The photos in the article were all done on film, most of them with my trusted Yashica FX3-S and 50mm Zeiss lens. The film was Fuji Neopan 1600.I tremendously enjoyed working up the negative files on my laptop and FTPing them to the magazine, much more fun than doing them all in the darkroom!

“Silver Leaf & Guns, Bows & Tackle……”

This is probably going to the last time I upload one of these metal leaf prints. They look just too depressing when scanned or photographed. The originals are lovely, I guess you will just have to take my word for it, and if you are interested in the process, give it a try. One more thing I did learn is not to let the print dry for too many days before spraying it with a clear protective coat. I have been spraying mine with Sureguard. For the metal leaf I like the glossy spray best, although I do use the matte one for a lot of my other prints. I waited too long on one of them and the ink started to ‘shrink’ leaving funny looking spots on the print.

Now on to ‘Guns, Bows & Tackle…’I have set up a ‘Fine Art’ blog for the [hopeful] sale of some of my fine art images. I have never been happy with the term ‘Fine Art’ but it is in such wide use that I feel that I have no other choice but to use it, to distinguish it from my documentary work. I am starting out with the 19/98 photos that were published in the November issue of SouthxSoutheast magazine, and then will move on to work published in Black and White Magazine and others.
I certainly would appreciate any feed-back you might have. And if you should be so inclined, please becomer a ‘Follower’ of either or both blogs, I am shamelessly trying to drive more traffic to those sites.

With my best wishes for the New Year to all of you!

-c-

Designing WaterWoman – print for sale

I have posted this photo previously. However I just posted it on my Cedar Key and Its WaterWomen blog where it is offered for sale. As Click and Clack on NPR would say, this post comes from my ‘Shameless Commerce’ division. If you are so inclined, I would appreciated greatly if you would help drive some traffic to that site. And by the way, have a very Happy New Year – best wishes, christian.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,500 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.