MorseBlog

Back in February when I took the photos made in this previous post . I also took along my Fuji G617 panoramic camera. I managed only one photo but it was one I really wanted to see. So I finally got out to take some photos at the local RSPB refuge at Fen Drayton. (I feature my photos from here at another blog called At The Water's Margin .) The first photo on this roll however I had anticipated quite a lot. On the way to Lynwood Arboreteum I drove through the middle of the Fens on a rather bleak looking day. The Fens were created in the reign of Charles II and drained with the help of the Dutch much like Holland was. As a result it is unremittingly flat around here. The sky is immense and intimidating. My wife feels quite anxious driving through this area. I too feel something almost dark and foreboding when the weather is gray. My family is from the Midwestern US so I am no stranger to flat lands... As I drove alone I really wanted to capture the mood and so looked for a safe ...

There is a lot for me to unpack in this title believe it or not. I have been shooting 6x17 (with a Fuji G617) for just over a year and loving it.  During this time I discovered other wide format photographers and in particular to this post,  Carwyn Davies  who contact prints 4x10 on Lodima. They look very nice. Below is one nice example. Sprawling 4x 10 Contact Print on Lodima Paper by Carwyn Davies He creates a nice white border with some room on the bottom for the title and a signature. I like what he has done here though I am not sure if I would mar my work with the scrawl that passes for my handwriting. Another gentleman Alexey Belov contact prints 6x17 as a palladium print. These too look intriguing. One example below. Silence Of The Snow. Palladium print on Kozo paper by Alexey Belov These are of course small prints but I am sometimes afraid that printing big takes one away from a whole other avenue of expression. Further unpacking...! Sev...

This is the one of a what I hope to be a series of posts on the creative process. As I have posted earlier I am trying to raise my game in photography and in addition to refining or learning technique I also want to expand my creative process and be more intentional about this aspect of my work. When I picked up film photography as a hobby almost 10 years ago I did spend some time learning and practicing new skills. In particular I benefited from a study of composition. I am now revisiting this subject and as a consequence of this I am more aware of it. I was watching a Nick Carver video on YouTube today. If you haven’t seen his work look him up. He has a unique perspective and his videos are engaging. As I understand it he makes a living photographing architecture and I think this influences his landscape work. I follow him as he works in film and so his passion as a landscape photographer is aligned with my interests as well. That being said however he often has a very different...

Recently I have been focused on getting back into the darkroom and making prints again. I have also been improving my darkroom printing process by reviewing the process and adopting more techniques used by master printers. As a part of this I have made a series of three prints from a trip to Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales last October. Whernside is the tallest point in Yorkshire and part of the Three Peaks. It is a good strenuous walk to the top with wonderful views. When I visited I came away with 3 printable photos taken with my Fuji GSW 690 medium format camera. I used Ilford FP4+ which is my go-to black and white film. The three images featured are... Ribblehead Distant Whernside Greensell Tarn Force Gill The day was cold, blustery and spitting snow at the top. Challenging conditions to be sure. The light was shifting with the clouds and this lead to some of the drama present in the photos. The process of printing these photos has been detailed in previous blog posts. ...

My next prints are somewhat esoteric. Last summer I traveled with my father to Atlanta Illinois to visit the family farm. We met the farm manager and the farmer who farms the land. Both knowledgeable and friendly men. We visited with my great uncle Dick and my cousin David. Atlanta is a clean, and I suppose, typical small Midwestern town. It sits on Route 66 and clearly has a great deal of pride as the town is neat and well kept. With the industrialization of farming it has turned into a bit a bedroom community for nearby Bloomington. We happened to be there for a local celebration and had some great food in the community hall. It was an enjoyable visit for 3 days and it was certainly good to spend some time alone with my dad. I brought along my Fuji GSW 690 camera and took some photos of the town and environs. Atlanta is corn and soybean country. This was about a week before harvest so the corn was tall and browning. The whole town of Atlanta seemed hemmed in by walls for cornstalks...

About 3 years ago  wrote about my experience reloading 35mm black and white film. As I have hinted before 35mm is not my favorite film and one reason is there are so many photos on a roll these days with 36 exposures being typical. I have a hard time getting through that many exposures. So when I shoot black and white 35mm film I hand load my Ilford FP4+ with 12 exposures to a roll. Problem solved. Recently I was perusing Reddit and came across a person who had the same complaint about 35mm film. I explained my solution and pointed him to my blog entry on it. He replied 'What about color?' I thought good point. One cannot find readily bulk rolls of color film like you can for Black and White. (Film Photography Project has some here however the selection is limited.) I thought a little and replied that one could in theory bulk load from a roll of 36 film. I replied back in this vein and how I would go about it. Later I thought, will all the steps work and can I get it proc...

A few days ago I posted on using Les McClean's printmaking tutorial. At the end I reconsidered post flashing vs pre-flashing. Here I pick up the same print but apply the post-flashing technique Mr McClean uses in order to more faithfully follow his methodology. Along the way I ran out of the Ilford Warm-tone RC paper I used and was forced to move to Ilford Warm-tone FB paper that I had a full box of that I too was worried would get old. This paper is very similar but enough different that I had to readjust my exposures a little. I opted not to start over again. Original Negative Post-Flashing (Ilford Warmtone RC) Here is my first test strip starting with the base exposure but before any burning. This is to see where the tone starts to form. I marked the 1 second intervals from right to left increasing flash time. Test6 f8 #5 19 sec #0 19 sec Flash test 1 sec interval This I judged at about 4 seconds. This flash however was done directly under the lamp I use for flash...