‘Pizza wheels’ be darn

I just finished printing this image on a 13×20 inch sheet of watercolor paper on which the image area was gold leafed – perhaps I should have waited for thing to dry just a bit more before I started printing, hmmm…

Anyhow, as anybody who has done this kind of thing before knows, the ‘pizza wheels’ on the printer can drag through the wet ink surface of the print, and make these notifiable straight lines you see on the left hand side of this print.

I do think I can probably spot it a little to make the marks less noticeable – I am not willing to ‘disable’ the ‘pizza wheels ‘ on my Epson R2400.  Actually I don’t mind them all that much, they simply show the ‘process.’

Photographing or scanning my gold leaf prints is pretty tricky.  In this case, I think I have come pretty close to what the actual print looks like.  I am very satisfied with it.

The original image is a recent one, titled “Screen Door.”

More “Live Bait”

Back in August I posted a color image of this area.  It is just one of those places in Cedar Key that totally fascinates me every time I walk by.  Yet I have never been able to get a perfect picture.  Here is another Holga image from the roll of expired XP-2 I just got back.

Cedar Key claming boats

A three frame Holga panorama from a roll of outdated Ilford XP2 that I took earlier this year and just had developed.

“The Vortex”

Metamorphosis

Here are a couple of panormas showing the  current exhibits that went up in the 621 Gallery last Friday.

Metamorphosis

In the Main Gallery
Opening First Friday, April 3rd, 6-9pm
April 3rd- 27th, 2009

In April, The 621 Gallery presents Metamorphosis, an exhibition revealing the metaphorical context of images and objects through psychological reactions and association. Brandon C. Smith captures emotional, intellectual and psychological moments in a visual context that relates the gross, comical, and kitsch aspects of contemporary culture to frailty and power of the human condition. Carole Loeffler pushes the boundaries of ordinary materials in order to create experiences, personalities, and environments imbued with themes of passion and sensuality. Daisy Winfrey explores themes of emotional trauma, fear, and memory through nostalgic materials intended to captivate the viewer with visual connections to the past. Julie Guyot creates ceramic objects that comment on concept of branding, labeling, and tagging.

Also, in the Nan Boynton Memorial Gallery will be the FSU Art Students’ League.

More ‘oysterplanting’ pages

It is slow going.  Here are a couple of pages I did today.  The question comes up, why show the images that are go0ing to be in the book?  Doesn’t that take away the suprise and joy when the book is finally published.  Well, I don’t think so, and I don’t think anything is going to be as nice as holding the book in your hands and looking at the actual work.

[remember, because of the compression, the images look a bit blury here, just click to see the larger version]

Pinhole Portraits

There are many things I don’t do often enough, one of them is do pinhole portraits. Whenever I do them, I invariable come away with a print I like.  So, while going through my negative files scanning and pulling together images for my Cedar Key/WaterWomen book, I am more than occasionally  sidetracked scanning negatives that are from another portfolio.  So, today I became sidetracked by a couple of 35mm pinhole negatives, and I thought I would post them now, and at the same time be on the lookout for the rest of my pinhole portraits so that I can collect them physically in a portfolio.

Another Zero and Holga image

I just finished scanning another couple of ’setting the mood/scene’ images for the book.  On was made with my Zero 2000, the other with my Holga.

Using the Holga and the Zero 2000 pinhole cameras

Putting together the layout for my Cedar Key WaterWomen book, I started looking for images that would ‘flesh out’ the visual story, and help set the mood for the documentary.
I am finding out that the images that seem to work best for my purpose are those done with one of my Holga or pinhole cameras. Many of the pinhole photos were made with my Zero 2000.

Garage Darkroom

Thanks to Alexandria’s hard work, the darkroom is finally taking shape in the back of the garage. It won’t have running water or a sink, but then I have never had one that had those luxuries.
What amazes me is how long it takes me to get all the odds and ends together that go with having a functioning darkroom.
I packed up a functioning one, but somehow, somewhere things got misplaced and perhaps even thrown out.
Little things like having a wire stretched on which to hang negatives and prints to dry. Where is the hypo check? Did that lid go with that film developing canister, and the search and ordering of stuff seems to go on and on.
I am sure anybody a bit more organized than me would have not trouble with this. One thing that seems to be slowing me down with getting the darkroom up and runnning faster is that I really do enjoy working with the scanner, computer and printer. How the times are changing! :)