MorseBlog

This is a series of prints made from my 'Lower Sand Creek in Winter ' project that I worked on last winter. The images were taken on my Fuji GFX 50s ii digital camera using a Fuji Acros film simulation. I also restricted the cropping to Xpan (65:24) aspect ratio and I used a Tokina 70-210mm f4 zoom lens on an Olympus mount for their 35mm cameras. I further twisted the methodology by making film negatives from these digital images. (A series of blog posts here ...) I made some conventional prints in the darkroom. Now I am making some lith prints from these negatives. Some of the images work better than others as is typical with lith printing.  For this project I broke out an old batch of obscure paper from Agfa called Rapidoprint. This paper was used in newsrooms to make fast prints on a special machine. It is a single weight paper and may have incorporated developer. I first used this paper in 2015 and though very fogged it did lith reasonably well. I am using Moersch EasyLith ...

 I recently was laid up for a week with what I would guess is Covid. Almost three years dodging it and it seemed to finally catch up with me.  It was with great relief to get out and about the past couple of days for my morning walks through Sandpoint. I always bring my camera just in case and sometimes I get some nice images though that is never my intent. One must be cognizant that even the most familiar or mundane surroundings can lead to some excellent images.  This morning it was very cold (-13C) so a brisk walk well bundled-up was called for. My walk usually takes in the City Beach area and a view of the lake. Yesterday a good breeze was blowing up off the water for some extra chill. This morning however the air was still with mist rising off the water and small flakes of snow precipitating from the moisture in the air as there were no heavy clouds overhead. This light snow seemed to increase as I got close to the lake so I surmised the moisture from the lake was th...

Having arrived back in Sandpoint a little over a week ago, I find the weather much changed from when I left just before Christmas. At that time I drove down to Spokane in sub-freezing conditions but have returned in much warmer weather, often 10 degrees or more above freezing. This has been accompanied by light to moderate rain at times. The mounds of snow are shrinking slowly and the roads are almost entirely free of snow and ice.  Meteorologically, the conditions create a lot of gray skies and swirling masses of fog at all different altitudes. The warm most air (humidity near 100% most days) touches the deep snow fields and there is a ground fog that develops. Higher up great banks of fog eclipse the mountains and then dissipate into thin wisps and skeins of fog.  Overall the palette of colors remains restricted to grays and blues where sometimes a little sun makes its way through the clouds to add a small touch of warmth. It feels generally like black and white weather. I f...

Here on Lake Pend Oreille the lake is lowered at the end of summer by some ten feet. This being my first winter here I have become fascinated by the exposed shoreline. It also means that due to laws regarding access to waterways and lakes that one is able to walk and fish and hunt these low water margins even if the high water shoreline is private property.  Lower Sand Creek runs into the lake here at Sandpoint and the lake in summer backs up a bay over the traditional last reach of the creek. So now the bottom of the bay is exposed and the original creek meanders over a barren frozen mud bottom smelling still of estuary mud and rotting vegetation.  And so I thought I should explore this mudflat with the creek edge in ice. Here it is bordered by houses and business on one shore and highway 97 on the other side. There are also some bridge crossings as well.  It is busy and distinctly urban but also picturesque.  This afternoon did not seem promising with the thermomet...