Trillium Lake

Full Moon Snowshoe

Photography

I FINALLY have photos to show you! These are some pinhole photos I took in January up on Mt Hood on a hike around Trillium Lake with some friends. The hike was meant to be a full moon hike but the clouds didn’t clear so we didn’t see the moon. But the sun set about halfway through our hike and it ended up being really fun hiking in the dark. I didn’t shoot any pinhole in the dark, for obvious reasons!

40207981645_a1714001fb_o

Trillium Lake

A snowy meal

These were both shot with a Reality So Subtle 6×6 and Ektar Film The exposure times for both were around 2 minutes or so.

For developing, I did something different. I sent them off to The Darkroom for developing AND scanning. It was nice to not have to scan these and I didn’t have to do any post processing at all, apart from cropping out the vignette. The only downside is that I got the lowest quality scan and they are not very big files so if I ever want to print them I will have to re-scan them.

OH! And I can’t believe I didn’t blog about this! I was interviewed on a new podcast about pinhole photography: The Lensless podcast, a few weeks ago. You can listen here.

Self On Lake Shore

Photography

self on lake shore (pinhole)

Today’s photoblog is a pinhole self portrait I took a few weeks ago at Trillium Lake. It is my first paper negative. I have since made several more images using photographic paper and I’m really enjoying learning how to do this. I will post more about this in a future blog post.

I might have mentioned that I really love doing pinhole self portraits. I don’t know why, but the why is not really important I guess.* The point is that I am drawn to this kind of photography.

I have been reading The Diary Of Anaïs Nin and am very much inspired by it. It reminds me that I used to write more about myself and my life on this blog and I miss it. I might return to that kind of writing here (in addition to the photography, of course).

And, while we are on the subject of self reflection, I think that this will be the first of a series of pinhole self portraits for awhile on my photo blog.

———————————————————————-

Geeky bits
Camera: Zero Image 4×5 25mm configuration
Paper: Illford RC glossy (I think?)
Development: Illford multigrade developer 1 minute 20 seconds.

Continue reading →

Lazy Afternoon

Photography

Lazy Afternoon

Every once in awhile I will look at one of my photos and I will say to myself, “Monica, you’ve made a pretty good photo there.” I can probably count on one hand the photos I feel really and truly good about. This is one of those photos. I really like it alot. It helped that when I took it I was hanging out with two very talented pinhole photographer friends of mine, Donna and Gretchen, and that I basically stole their composition. 🙂 Well, copy-catted them anyway.

We had such a great day! I swam in the lake with a unicorn mask on. It was fun!

this was made with my Zero Image 4×5 camera and a 120 roll back. Ektar film.

Urban Sketching

Books, Music, Art, Movies
November 4 2012

11/4/2012 Trillium Lake on a pretty evening.

Not long ago I became fascinated  with Urban Sketching. I am not sure how it happened or what drew me in, but I found myself surfing around in this online world of journal sketches from all over the world. There is even a book written about it! And  a manifesto! I decided that I wanted in on this world. This hobby. Now, I can’t draw to save my life (as you can see from the above example) but, still. I love the idea of capturing what is in front of me via the slow process of drawing (as opposed to the quicker process of photography). It seems like an interesting mindfulness practice. So I thought I would jump in and try it, lack of drawing skills be damned! The image above is my third sketch ever. I am going to do this everyday. Just draw something in front of me, no matter how mundane it is. In the meantime I will (hopefully) learn to draw. I will post my sketches on Flickr and on my blog occasionally. Maybe it will be fun to watch how my drawings progress?

The wonderful thing about this new hobby is that my husband IS an artist so the supplies are already at the ready. AND we can go out and sketch together. Which is exactly what we did yesterday. We went up the Mountain  to Trillium Lake and found ourselves a seat in the outdoor amphitheater. We sat and sketched for a while and can i just say? It was amazing. It was fun and relaxing. I just focused on my surroundings and it was so beautiful. Normally we just walk around the lake and chit-chat, which I like to do, but it was amazing to just sit down, be quiet, and pay attention to what was right in front of me. At one point I looked up from my drawing and noticed that the sun made an appearance; evaporating the water on the lake which created a fog. It was breathtaking.

untitled (4 of 7).jpg

Being a photographer at heart I had to drop the sketching and grab the only camera I had (my iPhone. doh!) and shoot a photo. Or three. I realized that if I hadn’t been sitting there sketching I would have completely missed out on this scene.

As we walked back to the car the clouds completely cleared and Mt. Hood  graced us with her presence, just in time for Magic Hour.

untitled (7 of 7).jpg

Flickr Time Machine – invisible mountain

Random

Ghost Mountain

My brainz are full of fog today so we are pulling a Flickr Time Machine post out of the hat. This photo was taken on this day in 2010. It is a photo of Mt. Hood reflected in Trillium Lake (one of my favorite places to photograph). I had just purchased the new iPod touch (the one with a camera) and was going a little nuts with Hipstamatic. I have since moved on to an iPhone but I have to admit, I loved using that iPod at the time. I loved that it was always there with me in my pocket. Way easier to carry than my big-old slr.

Also:  :looks at calendar and realizes: that TODAY is my three year anniversary of moving to Oregon!