darkroom

August 2016 Postcard Swap

Random

The August Postcard swap is now live! If you would like to participate fill out the form below. We are are exchanging postcard sized prints of our original photography. Both film and digital photography are welcome! Fill out the form and you will be matched up with a person to send a postcard to, and you will receive a postcard in return (from a different person).

This past month I finally made it back over to Newspace’s darkroom and made some prints of a pinhole photo I made at the Slowing The Selfie opening. I was really pleased with how they came out and really enjoyed the process. I have really missed the darkroom. I should make a point of going back at least once a month.

I’ll be sending one of the prints out this month for this month’s postcard swap.

Darkroom fun! Finally.

Photography

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Way back in April I talked about my home darkroom project. Well. The dream is alive! A few weeks ago I made my first print! I And last night I worked on my second print, which is featured on this post.

I have been making contact prints from my 4×5 zero 45 shots. This camera is very challenging on many levels and making prints adds a whole new level of challenge, but I am enjoying it. This is not the best print in the world but I like it. Darkroom prints of your own photos are infinitely better than negative scans, in my opinion.

Exciting things!

Photography

Contrary to how things look from the lack of activity on this blog, there has been lots going on! Lots of really great things. It all relates to photography, which is why it hasn’t been on this blog. I’ve been posting lots of that stuff on my photography blog. Also, I think I might have spread myself a bit thin in the blogging department because I am finding less time for personal blogging. Which is a shame because I miss Blatherskite. I am going to try to make more of an effort to update here. I am thinking that in April I will post everyday.

I thought that today I would an update with some of the photography projects going on. The first of those things is my latest camera acquisition!

http://instagram.com/p/lMDqStILAQ/

It is a large format pinhole camera. Which means it is a camera that uses sheet film – 4×5 sized. It’s a whole new, exciting world for me! This camera is really great because it is so versatile. I can use 4×5 film but I can also put a back on it that takes medium format film as well.  This camera also has zone plate settings, which I am looking forward to playing with.  Last week I played with some 4×5 film – even developed it myself. You can read all  about my adventures here.

The next exciting project is that I am finally going to build a darkroom in my apartment. This has been coming together really quickly and I’m super excited! My biggest hurdle with having my own darkroom has been lack of space. But last week my Twitter friend Jeff offered up a small, old, enlarger that he wasn’t using anymore.  I ended up being the lucky recipient of it! When he offered it all of a sudden the possibilty of a darkroom appeared in my mind and I could see how it could happen, and pretty easily. He sent me the enlarger’s dimensions and, sure enough, they worked for my small space. So off it went in the mail! I got it on Monday and put it together. It. is awesome.

http://instagram.com/p/ltEGU8oLLm/

It only takes 35mm negatives but that is just fine. It’s perfect for my postcard exchange project.  I am going to start collecting all of the things I will need to make this happen. It will be a temporary darkroom. I will set it up and take it down when not in use.

I am going to blog about this project so stay tuned! I may even do a Youtube video about it too.

from the darkroom

Photography

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I mentioned that one of my goals is to shoot a roll of black and white film each week and develop it. If I have time I also want to play around in the darkroom too. Since the Mr had to work yesterday I had lots of time!

These photos were also the first look at results from my new (to me) camera. I bought a friend’s old Canon EOS 650 and I am super excited about it. It is my first Canon and I can use the newer EF lenses with it! Apparently the camera has only been used a few times and has been in her brother’s attic since the late 80s. It was hard to contain myself when she was offering it to me.

Anyway, I was anxious to see the results of my new toy so after I developed the roll I made a few prints. Making prints is challenging for me. I have no idea what I am doing. I always make a test strip (which I hate. It’s the equivalent of knitting a swatch before embarking on a knitting project, which I also hate). However, the test strip really doesn’t do anything for me at all. I still end up wasting paper trying to get things right. On the other hand, it isn’t really a waste since I am learning (I hope). My philosophy in life is that with practice you learn. Even if it seems like it doesn’t make sense at the time.

Here are a couple more:

The apple stuck in the fence.

The path in the park

I am enjoying taking my camera with me everyday to work and capturing things that I see randomly. Today I am going to head into Portland with my new camera to the Japanese Gardens.

Negative Stacking, part 2

Photography

attack of the killer baseball

Last night in my darkroom class we learned some image manipulation techniques. Weirdly and unexpectedly my teacher mentioned negative stacking. I wasn’t planning on doing this yesterday in the darkroom but I had to give it a shot, since she mentioned it. I picked out a couple of photos from the negatives I had just developed and sandwiched them on the light-box. As soon as I saw the baseball and the alley I knew I had to try it.

I love it! I want to do more. I want to get all cheesy and over the top with it. It would be hilarious if I could take a photo of the murderous, bird-killing neighbor cat and substitute it for the baseball.

This could get scary.