Through the rest of my life, do you wait for me there?

This project has totally consumed my brain and my time for the past week...Struggling with some decisions now though. When I started, everything was already pretty much decided - the negatives had already been developed so all I could control was the scanning and processing, and I had no plans or expectations so I guess I was just winging it, and trying to be as faithful as possible to the negative/scan, dust, streaks, and all. Now though, I have four rolls of black and white film that need to be developed and I'd really like that to happen soon....

Originally I was going to develop them myself once I got the equipment and chemistry, but now I'm not so sure. I have all the equipment and could probably get chemistry pretty easily (I have some but most of it is expired), but right now the idea of setting up a space just for these four rolls seems a little excessive and overwhelming. Plus I had planned to use Diafine to develop the film (which somehow works very well with high contrast/over-exposed film, which is common when shooting with a Holga) but I really like the results I've gotten with the film I shot with a Holga and developed in D-76. It's nice to have the highlight details though, and I like the color film converted to black and white, which was slower film and thus has a much greater range of values.

So I'm torn. Part of me thinks I should developed the film in Diafine, so I have the detail if I want it and just do a little more work in Photoshop, but the other part of me really likes to stay true to the negative as much as possible and so I don't want to manipulate the images any more than necessary. Plus it will probably be fast at this point to have someone else develop the film and I really want to keep the momentum going.

Decisions, decisions...


Color film converted to black and white.


Black and white developed in D-76 (I think - I'm pretty sure I only used Diafine on one roll and it wasn't a roll from the island. Can't be sure though, it was a few years ago. One more reason to start keeping notes!)

Will the summer make...

I've spent the past three days mostly working on old film shot with a Holga...It took all of Saturday morning just to scan the negatives in. To be honest I had no idea what to expect - I don't have a film scanner, I'm just using a regular flatbed. I knew the images weren't going to be the highest quality, at the time I was just more interested in seeing what I had shot, since most of this film is from a few years ago.

Well somehow these photos have just totally consumed me. I'm not sure exactly why I'm so obsessed, but I've been doing almost nothing else but working on these photos. I'm getting stuck with the color negatives but every attempt gets a little better.

There's a few things I can think of that really draw me to this work - I've been thinking a lot about layers and taking pictures through windows, screens, etc. Also, as always, interested in ideas about looking back, nostalgia, juxtapostion of old and new. I don't know, I feel like there's a lot of thinking to do about these images, and they need more work but I was just so excited about them...Guess I rushed through them a bit.

Some old polaroids

So I've been distracting myself with movie/TV watching and sorting through/getting rid of a bunch of stuff (selling a bunch of craft stuff on Craigslist, Facebook note about it here) but I'm trying to get back on track...Brought in nine rolls of film to be developed yesterday, four rolls of expired 120 color slide film shot with a Holga, which are being cross-processed, and five rolls of black and white. I really want to continue shooting with the Holga, but I'm going to run out of film soon! If anyone knows of anyone looking to get rid of some 120 film, let me know!

While we wait for film to be developed, here are some old polaroids I finally scanned.







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And yonder, wild and blue, the wild blue yonder looms...

Getting back into shooting - mostly shooting film, and most of that with a Holga. I'm really eager to develop that film, but I don't have my own processing set up and I want to develop the Holga stuff with Diafine, so it will have to wait until I can get some chemistry and a developing tank, etc. I guess I could get the rest of the film developed somewhere - it just seems strange to get black and white film developed by someone else when it's so simple to do myself, and I feel like I have more control. Plus if anything goes wrong I only have myself to blame.

Anyway, here are a few images from last Thursday - Think there were some 50 knot gusts that day!









The usual color vs. black and white dilemma...I think that's part of the reason I started shooting film again, so I wouldn't even have to make that decision! Though I've been shooting some color film too, but that's more because I'm interested to see what happens with the color film in the Holga, especially since most of the film is expired. Some of it is slide film too - trying to decide if I want to have it cross-processed or not. Do places still develop slide films? Without having to mail it somewhere? It might be a total failure either way, since the film is so old, and shoot in a Holga...

Also, something I hadn't thought about until a friend asked - If you shoot a roll of film, and then it expires, will the results be different than if a roll of film expires and then you shoot with it? I know that film generally tends to lose sensitivity over time, so I'd assume if the film expired after shooting, you'd still have properly exposed images. Thoughts?

Color correction dilemma

So I run into this problem a lot, and maybe others do too: I never feel like I'm getting my white balance quite right. Usually I tend to go a little too warm...



Or at least generally can't decide in which direction to lean...Weddings seem particularly difficult.







Also, all of these look so much better against black than against white. Frank, it's been a long time since your intro to digital class, what should I be aiming for? I think the room I'm editing is too bright too. Also trying to decide if it's worth getting a monitor calibration device. So many things to think about!

Another dilemma

In looking at the photos from this post I realized it would be very difficult to color-correct them in an aesthetically pleasing way...so, I'm wondering if black and white is the way to go?

From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009

Keep in mind I don't have much experience or knowledge when it comes to converting to black and white, and this is basically just the automatic conversion in Lightroom, plus a little exposure and contrast tweaking. Basically, I really like this group of images (there are many more than I've shared) and I'm trying to find the best way to present them.

Star Island - More Macro

First off, thanks Frank for your response to my last post. Having a fresh look at those photos made me agree that uncropped is the way to go - and made me realize they need more color correction! My monitor isn't really properly calibrated...maybe someday.

I've been continuing on the macro kick on the island...And yesterday was my birthday and I got the new Lensbaby Composer and the macro adapters, so I think I'll be doing close ups for a while. Here area few images from last week:

From Star Island 2009

What else but lichens?

From Star Island 2009

Sun-bleached crab shell

From Star Island 2009

More lichen...

From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009

Rosa rugosa starting to bloom.

A dilemma

I'm beginning to notice more and more how much I miss an art community. There are some times when you really need some critique and advice, and this is one of those times. Last week, I took quite a few pictures one night while a few of us on the island were hanging out. It was a dark, cozy space, and it feel like a good time and place to experiment a little bit. One of the many wonderful things about Star Island is that many of the people that work there are artistic or creative in some way. This means they are usually more comfortable being photographed, or at least seem to be used to it or able to ignore it or accept it. This makes my life much easier. I think I tend to get fixated on one thing or one person at a time when I'm taking pictures and for most of that night last week it was Mandy. The combination or lighting and gesture made her a really great subject, but I'm struggling with some of the images I got. I like the movement of her hand but I'm unsure about the framing. I think I'm a bit of a purist, so part of me gravitate towards the full-frame, the unadulterated shot as it was when first taken. At the same time I understand that there are times when extraneous objects are distracted, and need to be cropped out, and I really enjoy a square crop in the right situation. So, I'm left trying to figure out what feels right and I think this might be a good opportunity to get some outside input. So, what do you think?

(Just FYI, these are each a different image, but they all started basically the same in concept and composition. The gesture itself is the only difference)

Uncropped:

From Test Shots/Experiments

Cropped at the same aspect ratio:

From Test Shots/Experiments

Square crop:

From Test Shots/Experiments

Different square crop, excluding the spoon:

From Test Shots/Experiments

More Star Island Eye-Candy

I'm writing this post on the weekend and hoping I've set it so it will automatically post in the middle of the week. Just thought I'd share some more images from my first week on Star Island. As I mentioned before, I've become interested in lichens and moss, and exploring the smaller plant communities on the island (though I'm not sure lichens qualify as plants. Do mosses?). I'm reading a book called The Granite Landscape by Tom Wessels, which had a chapter on mosses and lichens and spotlights various areas of the Northeast with granite features. It's really fascinating for some reason I can't explain - learning the geology of granite and glaciers and the juxtaposition of tiny organisms thriving in such huge, barren places. My interest is always pulled in so many directions, I haven't been able to find a way to combine or tie everything together - I also really enjoyed shooting some candid portraits of people on the island last week, and I love fiber arts, felting, and sewing, and feel the need to create tangible objects. How do I get this to all work together? Or find enough time to pursue everything?

That's a big conversation, and obviously a tangent, so for now, here are more pictures.

From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009

I believe the white lichen here is reindeer lichen, which is a fruiticose lichen. Fruiticose lichens are the most plant-like in form, and are the most advanced form of lichen. In order for this reindeer lichen to exist, three other types of lichen had to come and go. I'm sure most of you know lichens take a very long time to grow, since they are most common in barren, extreme environments. It's amazing to think that this tiny organism has probably taken centuries to come into existence, and that could so easily be destroyed by a careless step. (By the way, it's called reindeer lichen because it is a food source for reindeer in the Arctic).

From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009

First rainbow of the season!

From Star Island 2009

Star Island 4/20-4/24

Here's a few images from my first week on Star. I still have a ton of images to process, but it's a start.

From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009

Spring Flowers

I've been really into my macro lens lately - I've been on the island for a week and I've become fascinated by all the lichens and mosses out there. Before going to the island, I started shooting a lot of rocks and seaweed up close (something I'm still interested in). Star Island is beautiful and really needs to be examined on many different levels, but I see myself sticking with the macro lens mostly for now. I shoot some portraits this week too, but haven't processed any photos from the island yet, so instead, here are some flowers I shot today at the Pawtuckaway Nursery in Lee, NH.

From Pawtuckaway Nursery

From Pawtuckaway Nursery

I find dominantly yellow images really hard to edit, the yellow seems to overwhelm the camera. Reds and magentas do it sometimes to. Makes it hard to figure out white balance vs. saturation.

From Pawtuckaway Nursery

From Pawtuckaway Nursery

From Pawtuckaway Nursery

From Pawtuckaway Nursery