Hot weather

Sea of Seats



Well, the big news today is that Kodak has announced that they are abandoning the silver-based black and white printing paper market. Not a bit surprise, and frankly, not an issue for me - I haven't purchased any Kodak paper in at least 10 years, maybe more like 15.

For several years, I have used Arista almost exclusively - Arista VC is really Ilford MG, and I have been very pleased with the results that I have been able to achieve with it. More recently, however, I have been experimenting with Ilford MG Warm, Adorama's house brand warm tone, and Kentmere. Kentmere has a really good reputation, and the results that I have been able to achieve with it support that reputation.

Of course, Ilford has had difficulties this year also, and as a result, Freestyle appears to be looking elsewhere for a supplier for their house brand (Arista).

This image is the Sea of Seats image that I visualized the other night. Making it was not without difficulties. I made an initial exposure, but then recognized that I had misread the meter and underexposed the film. When I went back, I found a much better location (the lighting was much better). Processed the film without problems. Then I made a print, spotted it, mounted and matted. Then (and only then) I realized that I had mounted the print on the back of the mounting board rather than the face - and since I had cut an oversized opening in the mat, it looked terrible. So this morning I cut a new mat that is slightly smaller (a true overmat). I plan to enter this in the Saratoga - Inside/Outside show at SCAC next month.

Very frustrated with the lawn. I thought I had arranged to have Tom do some erosion repair and drainage work, but he never showed up. I called him last Mondayand he admitted that he forgot - and promised to call back that night with a schedule. When I called again this Monday his brother Chris said that they were too busy do help us. So I called three other lawn services - two promised to come out to look at the problem, but so far I haven't see either of them. And the third has not returned the call. Arghhh!

The weather has been unbearably hot and humid - and it's not even summer. Fortunately, that seems to be breaking today although the price for relief may be some thunderstorms.

Photography day

10" Rodman


I had trouble getting to sleep last night, so as I lay in bed I thought about what I would do today. I decided to go to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center to do some photography, with the secondary objective of capturing an image that I can enter in the Saratoga: Inside-Out show at SCAC next month.

As I was laying there, I thought of two images that I wanted to make. One was of the seats in the amphitheater, done in close with a wide angle lens and with the seats moving off in curved lines converging in the corner of the frame. The title that came to me was "Sea of Seats" - a takeoff on the famous "Sea of Steps" image. The second image was in a mens room, also done with the 90mm lens, focusing on the urinals.

When I got there this morning, I found that there was a crew on top of the amphitheater removing the old asbestos roof, and another crew with a bucket loader painting the scrim over the stage. But I was able to frame the "Sea of Seats" image in a way that excluded the tarp that the painters had draped over the first ten rows of seats. Unfortunately, about a half hour later I realized that I had misread my meter (repeat after me - the orange number are whole seconds, while the white numbers are fractions), so I went back to make that image again, only this time working from the other side of the amphitheater. Actually, this was a better image because the sun was almost directly behind the seats from this angle. I used hyperfocal focusing, together with a slight amount of tilt on the lens, to get everything sharp. The negative appears to be everything that I had envisioned while lying in bed last night.

Unfortunately, the men's rooms were all locked, so the urinal image didn't happen. But I did get a neat backlit image of the entrance to the new restroom complex, and another great negative of the arcade behind the Hall of Springs. I also was able to get out on one of the catwalks that run toward the stage from the balcony (remembering the Verdi "Requeim" performance many years ago with the off-stage trumpets on this catwalk) - another great image of seats.

As I was shooting, I noticed that the light was very contrasty, so my annotations called for N-1 processing of all but one negative (the one from the catwalk). HC-110, dilution H, 11 minutes at 68 degrees is N, so N-1 is 8 minutes

Yes, I really enjoy the precision and control of LF photography!

Oh, I ordered some Efke film from J&C last week - had it shipped by USPS. The problem is that the letter carrier puts the mail in the black mail box to bake in the sun. Fortunately, I was walking up the driveway this afternoon when the letter carrier drove up, and she handed me the box of film. Perfect timing!

This is the 10" Rodman cannon at Fort Knox near Bucksport, ME. I saw a similar image of the 15" Rodman at Fort Knox done by Eric Boutillier-Brown - it's OK, but larger gun is outside, while the smaller model is in the arcade and out of the direct sun. Therefore, the lighting is much more friendly.

Summer has arrived

Railroad Bridge


It's June, and summer has really arrived. Weather is hot - and we need rain.

Linda and I are talking about some trips that we want to make. One would be to Richmond and Roanoke to visit family. That would be a lot of driving, but we haven't seen Joseph in a number of years and don't know how much longer we would have the opportunity. We also haven't seen Laney in a while - we keep inviting her to come here for a visit, but she's busy also.

The other trip would be to California. We would plan to spend a day with Dave, and then wander around, probably up to wine country for a couple of days. I would like to photograph some of the old military installations at Marin Highlands. Probably wouldn't take Jeff this time - he needs to concentrate on getting a job.

We are also struggling to plan for the trip to China. The conference part of the trip is easy - the problem is that we would also need to plan for a post-conference tour, probably to Beijing. They are supposed to have tours set up, but information isn't available yet. And of course until we know the details of the tour, we can't book the Hong Kong hotel, and certainly can't book travel.

This picture is in Schenectady - behind the Amtrak station. I think it was a back entrance into the freight area of the old train station - the one they tore down back around 1970. But the array of doors and windows, and the old subway tile, is really mysterious.

Conferences

Parking Garage



It's been a while since I've updated the blog - very busy with conferences.

The conference here in Saratoga Springs went very well. Attendance was about normal, and we generated a surplus. No major catastrophes. There were a few grumbles - borderline between normal whining and issues that ideally should be avoided but that ultimately weren't major problems. The guest tours came off OK in spite of the fact that the company who were supposed to do them went out of business - Bob did a great job of bird-dogging the process to assure that people were satisfied. The hotel started refurbishing the top floor on the week prior to the conference, and the noise in the 4th floor guest rooms was greater than they expected. Nothing we could do - and unfortunately, not really anything that the hotel could do. Weather was cool on Sunday, but sunny and warm from Monday through Wednesday.

Then there was the Large Format Conference in Springfield. Really enjoyed that. Excellent program, good trade show, nice exhibit. Great oppotunity to meet people face to face who I had been reading about or corresponding with on the 'net for many years. I cam away with a long list of things that I want to do - creatively and technically. Really glad I went.

Supposed to be a cool, wet week. That's OK - we have had a dry spring and need some rain. The front lawn looks great. I spoke with Tom about a number of things that I want to do, but he hasn't shown up to start yet. He said three weeks, and that was four weeks ago.

The picture this time was done just yesterday. I saw this as I was pulling into the Marriott yesterday morning, so after parking the car I walked back to set up and make the exposure. It was a 2.5 minute exposure at f32 - including compensation for reciprocity failure. I had the tripod mostly on a sidewalk, but fortunately no cars came by during the exposure itself.

One thing that I noticed at the show was the preponderance of roots and rocks - I can understand why LF photographers gravitate toward those as subjects, but I am drawn to citiscapes and other manmade things.

Cape Cod 2005

Afternoon in Chatham


We had a fabulous vacation! The weather was cool, but with cloudless, sunny days. A little overnight rain on Wednesday.

We arrived Friday evening. Saturday, we tooled around Brewster, Dennis and Orleans. Lunch at the TownHo - light shopping, etc. On Sunday we drove up to Provincetown - planned to walk around, but Linda decided to check out the whale watching boats, and we made a snap decision to take the cruise then rather than take a chance on rough weather later in the week. Saw a number of right whales (at a distance - they are a highly endangered species, and the minimum approach distance is 500 yards), one fin whale, a minke, and several white-sided Atlantic dolphins. After lunch at Ross's Grill (fabulous place!), we walked around P'town for an hour or so.

On Monday we went down to Chatham for shopping and lunch at the Chatham Squire. I found a cache at the Yellow Umbrella, but can't take credit until they update their webcam images. Then to Sandwich on Tuesday (lunch at the Daniel Webster Inn). Had a great time at the Greenbrian Jam Kitchen. Tried to find couple of caches on the way back - one attempt was successful, but the other was not. Stopped at the Brewster Grist Mill to see the alewives - they started their annual run that afternoon and the seagulls were having a feast. What an experience that was!

On Wednesday we went to the Audubon Nature Preserve in Wellfleet. Walked out to the beach (where we found a beached dolphin), and then around the fresh water pond. Very nice walk. Had lunch at the Wicked Oyster, and then drove up to N. Truro to try another cache - no success. Finished the day walking around P'Town. On Thursday we went back to the grist mill - more alewives, but no seagulls this time - and then drove over to Wynchmere Harbor and then to Chatham. Had a light lunch and did a little shopping, then drove to Orleans. After resting for a while, we had a nice dinner at Sparkfish.

So there was a lot of driving (about 975 miles), a lot of pictures (4x35mm rolls, and about two dozen 4x5 sheets). Some wonderful meals (Ross's and Sparkfish are fabulous!). Unbeatable weather. A nice time overall.

This picture was done in August, 1994 - the last time we were together at the Cape as a total family. The scene is in the Dunkin' Donuts shop in Chatham - how mundane - but the light was delightful!

Vacation

Heat


Jan Panek once told me that retirement is exhausting, and occasionally you just have to get away on vacation. Linda and I are leaving for Cape Cod tomorrow for that reason. Look forward to doing some photography, some geocaching, some art galleries, some whalewatching, and eating some seafood.

Went to New Orleans last weekend for the POE meeting. Had a nice time walking around the French Quarter Thursday afternoon, and again early Sunday morning. Shot some film - HP5 in the Olympus 35RC - and processed it in Rodinal. Negatives look pretty good - look forward to printing a few. Nice dinner with the IAS publications crowd on Thursday night at Ralph & Kacoo's. The meeting itself was long and tedious, but I came away with some ideas that we need to implement in the Magazine.

When I got back I found that I had over 200 e-mails, most of which were pro forma announcements from APUG, RIT Photoforum, or spam. Ugh.

Found that some bozo had posted a comment on a couple of entries of the blog that amounted to little more than a group of porn links. For some reason, Blogspot's instructions for clearing comments didn't work, so for now I've had to disable the comment function.

Registration for the confererence looks to be about on track with previous years, and I think we have passed the minimum number of hotel rooms. Whew! That doesn't mean that we don't have more hustling to do, but it feels good to know that we are not facing a totaly disaster. Of course, we have the problem that the company that was going to do the companion's program has announced that they will be going out of business at the end of April. Bob Smith is working with them to develop an alternate program using another company.

Monday night Linda complained that her computer wasn't working. To make a long story short, the wireless connection had come undone and I couldn't get it restarted. Spent three hours on a chat circuit with Linksys last night troubleshooting the problem - eventually had to switch the wireless connection to a static IP address. I asked the Linksys tech why it worked just fine for 6 months, and then wouldn't work at all. His answer - "I really don't know". What a sense of comfort that brings!

This image is one of the first that I did with the Crown Graphic. I've always presented it as a contact print - it really doesn't need to be big.

Spring Forward

Touch of Skin



Changed the clocks last night - or at least some of them. I am amazed at how complicated Timex watches are. Of course I choose to have an analog/digital combination with an alarm function, that has the ability to track in two time zones and keep two separate alarm times. Setting that watch is a major challenge. I was careful to save the instructions, but of course they aren't the most legible document around. Eventually, it got done.

On Friday I took Linda's car in for its recall. Took advantage of that to find out where things stand on getting the issue over the defective key resolved. We first encountered the problem the first week in January, I called the salesman in late February, and had to make a face-to-face visit in April. Even then, they wanted to "negotiate" - but eventually they admitted they ordered the wrong part number, and the distribution center erroneous cut the key for the wrong model year. The finally agreed to provide the correct key, and to pay for the tow charge if the insurance company won't cover that cost. I would never choose to buy a car from that dealer again.

I got out with the camera on Wednesday - rode through Saratoga Park, and found a nice image at the Roosevelt Baths. Linda took off on Thursday, so we drove over to Arlington, VT. Did some pictures at the East Arlington stream (the shops weren't open yet), and also at the Sunderland Union Church, and then had lunch at the Equinox. Beautiful spring day.

We went to the NYTRS retirement seminar yesterday. Interesting day, but nothing really new.

Today, we went to the Northeast Wookworker's Association show at City Center. Neat - lots of nice displays, and the two presentations that I sat through (one on dovetaiils, the other on laminating tapered legs) were very interesting.

Starting to worry about registration for the conference and the hotel. Sent out an urgent message on Friday to the TC chairs asking them to contact everyone to remind them that the registration deadline is Wednesday.

This picture is from the workshop with Ernie Rubinstein in Burlington, VT two years ago.

Easter Sunday

Strong Shadows

Linda and I drove up to Bolton Landing yesterday, mainly to get out of the house for a while. Found a nice restaurant right next to Chic's Marina that had opened for the season on Friday - sat by the window looking out over the lake. The ice was still fairly thick out at the center of the lake although the pumps at the marina kept things fairly clear around the docks. The waitress explained that the ice would be receeding away from the shore over the next week or so, and the people who were out yesterday were probably taking advantage of the last opportunity this season to get out on the ice.

Stopped at the outlet shops on the way back, and then detoured around Moreau Lake State Park. Found the Spier Falls Hydro Plant - want to get back there some time. Also found a very nice scene just below where Spier Falls Road intersects with Mountain Road (outside Corinth). Made a couple of exposures that I developed this morning, one N-1 and the other N-2, to compensate for the fairly contrasty lighting.

Quiet day today - we will be going over to the Bistro later for dinner. Jeff just got a call changing his work schedule, so he will be able to be with us after all. Expect to call Dave in a few minutes.

This image was shot right here in the study last year. I saw these shadows on the closet door in the hallway, and make the exposure using my Nikon FM-2.

Good Friday

Nauset Light

Spring is getting close. I walked out in the woods behind the house on Tuesday. Found some fresh deer tracks in the snow, and an obvious deer run across our property and down the hill into Rubinstein's lot. Also cut down a tree to make a hiking stick - and when I later removed the bark I discovered that it was sassafras. Great! Need to allow it to dry 3-4 weeks before sanding, staining and varnishing.

Talked with Jason about the driveway problem. He suggested doing a naturalized tree arrangement - peel off the grass and add mulch, and then plant a couple of trees. After a year or so the area will blend into the woods and look natural, while eliminating the hillside mowing problem.

He also suggested putting a planting bed at the intersection between the parking apron and the walkway (for annuals), and the planting a large boulder to keep cars from wandering too far off the pavement. Both ideas are less expensive than doing a lot of stonework, but they involve more work for me. But that's not a bad thing.

Still thinking about what to do with the drywell that doesn't drain. Clearly need to pipe the water from that downstpout over to the other drywell. I would prefer to also get the water away from the house, but I don't want to bore under the driveway.

Had a great session with Shelley on Monday. I think the plans are coming along very nicely for the conference. Jojo should finish the conference record this week (I have the hardcopy version done), and then it's only a matter of how many people will actually come.

This picture is one of my all-time favorites. Did one 4x5 negative in the Crown Graphic (with an orange filter) during a Feburary vacation on the Cape. I think it was about 1996 - the first year that Dave was at Brown. When I processed it, I recognized that the composition, exposure and tonalities were great, but there were going to be some spotting problems, so I determined to make another negative the next year. But when we drove into the Nauset Beach parking lot I almost freaked - they had moved the lighthouse! Not far - just far enough to spoil the composition.

Lesson: always make two negatives.

Friday!

Wedding portrait


It's Friday. I have to keep telling myself that because Linda has taken the day off, and that makes it feel like Saturday.

Last night, we went to the high school production of Les Miserables. The kids really did an great job, but I have to admit that I found the whole thing a bit confusing. There were two reasons for this. First, the acoustics were not the best, and while the kids were energetic, not all of their voices were really that professional. As a result, it was hard to follow the plot of the story. The second reason was that it was a big production, and from where we were sitting, it was hard to see and keep track of the characters. As a result, the production came across as musical, but with a somewhat elusive story line.

It's been a slow week. Between issues of the magazine - but because I am really starting to thing in terms of next year's calendar, and because we are really half way through this year's publication effort, I did go out to update the authors in the last three issues for this year. Once again, one of the authors (in Germany) has an e-mail problem. That leads me to be concerned that he may not get his material in on time, and if I have no way to contact him, then we have a problem. Need to avoid that problem next year.

Have a similar problem with the conference - there is an author who has not submitted her (at least we think its a her) manuscript yet, and we are several weeks past the deadline. The good news is that the team quickly identified a backup paper, and that author agreed to get it ready to go in the event the late author fails to respond by today. So I think that is moving along.

Dave got home last weekend. We tried calling him several times on Sunday but never got an answer - turns out he got back Saturday morning, did his running around that afternoon, and then took off for Sonoma on Sunday. Perhaps we can talk with him this weekend.

This picture was done just last Saturday of Jojo and Heather. They chose to wear their traditional Indian wedding garb, and that led to the notion of a traditional, formal Indian wedding picture. Done in LF, the light is windowlight and reflector.

Snow Day

Spiral Staircase

Linda got the day off because of snow - seems to me that the schools tend to close whenever there is snow now. Didn't used to be that way. I suppose the liability situation has gotten the administrators pretty nervous.

Mel called as I was clearing the driveway to cancel Bunz, so other than to work on the driveway, I haven't been out of the house today. Doing the driveway this morning was pretty easy, but this afternoon it was a major chore. The temperature was up to the point where the snow wanted to convert to ice, so the auger in the snow blower was freezing up every foot or so. Finally put it away and finished the job with the shovel. It was hard work, but it was done. Looks like another inch or so and perhaps more to come. Ah, winter.

Booked my reservations for NOLA yesterday - going down Thursday morning and returning Sunday afternoon. That should provide some time to walk around the French Quarter.

Haven't heard from Dave, but he should be back from Singapore, and in another week or so, will be leaving Beijing to return to California.

This staircase is in the Ariel Rios Office Building in Washington, DC. I visited there in 1980 and grabbed a few frames with my Olympus, and one of them won a prize in the local newspaper photo competition. Unfortunately, they scratched the negative. So when we went back to DC several years later with the kids, we looked around for the place so that I could shoot it again. I think this is the original negative.

February Vacation Week

Christ Church, Reformed

Linda has the week off, so we are mixing activities. On Sunday she got excited about shopping for new bedroom furniture, so we drove over to Bennington to a furniture store that we had heard about but never visited. Saw some nice stuff, but clearly no decisions. Yesterday, we went out to Pattersonville to loook. Found some more nice stuff - now she is trying to decide between cherry and maple. My guess is that she will eventually decide to stay the oak set that we've had for many years. But the process is fun.

Tomorrow (or perhaps Thursday - not fully decided yet) we will be going over to Queechee. Main objective is to have a day trip, with the proximate target to have lunch at Simon Pearce Restaurant. But its a scenic drive on a nice day.

Made a couple of negatives on out trip to Bennington on Sunday. Found a covered bridge that we had driven by a hundred times but never seen, and when we crossed it we found a dam with the remnants of the old wicket gate controller. Captured an image of the controller, and also a wide field image of the bridge and dam. The process was a bit stressful since the controller was on a concrete pedestal, and there was nothing to keep one from falling into the stream about 20 feet below.

I made a new 2-sheet slosher yesterday - I was surprised to see how severely the lens board I made last summer had warped, and was concerned that it might have a light leak, so I wanted to process the film before taking another day trip. Since I didn't want to do two sheets in trays, and I didn't have enough film to justify the six sheet slosher, it seemed appropriate to make a two-sheet version. Since I had all of the material left over from the other project, it only took some time - about an hour - to do the whole thing, and then I was able to use it last night. That is really the way to go in processing sheet film.

This image was done with the old Yashica TLR on Tech-Pan film. Orange filter. I drove up to this church in Pattersonville on a Sunday afternoon - and found it was cloudy and overcast. Turned around and started home, got about two miles down the road when the sun came out. So I turned around again and dashed back. Made an entire roll of exposures.

Valentine's Day

Windsurfer

It's Valentine's Day. We kind of celebrated that and Linda's birthday this weekend. Started with dinner at the Gideon Putnam on Friday night. Nice occasion - dancing. Meal was Ok if not the best ever, but we would probably do it again just because the overall package is nice.

On Saturday, we drove over to Williamstown to visit the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Wow - why haven't we dont that before? Amazing work - I think the thing I most enjoyed was a Gainsborough double portrait - a woman and male child. The eyes were amazingly lifelike. Got a couple of nice photographs in the show outside the gallery. Had lunch at the Waterside Grill before walking around the very small downtown area and then driving back.

Yesterday, Jeff invited his girlfirend for dinner.

Trying to decide what to do for a workshop this summer. I will be going to the Large Format Conference in Springfield in May, but I haven't decided what to do at Peters Valley. I'm pretty sure that I don't want to do Tillman's thing on platinum printing - I have nothing against platinum, but I need to focus on one thing, and my choice is silver printing. That leaves either Ernie's weekend or Chip's large format session. I think I will do Ernie's program (third time?) - doing Chip's program two years in a row doesn't seem to make sense, and with the LF conference in May, doing a LF workshop in August doesn't make a lot of sense.

Lots of things to do today - mail the Mini #3 portfolio, get stamps and mail the conference program to the Canadian addresses, go to the bank, get to Target to pick up some medicine, look at clock radios to replace the only junker that can't stay tuned to a station, etc. Weather is supposed to be ugly tonight.

I made this negative many years ago at Wellfleet on Cape Cod. The print is special, done using the partial solarization process described in Petersen's January 1977 issue. That process required the use of high contrast GRADED paper, Agfa Brovira #5 or #6, soaked in developer, before being exposed under the enlarger. There are two exposures - a brief, very bright exposure, followed by a pause while the initial image starts to appear, followed by a longer, less intense exposure, and then conventional development. The process resulted in some some tonal reversals and Mackie lines, but also put detail into bright hightlights and caused some wonderful silvery gray tones. Alas, it's no longer possible to find the paper needed to apply this technique.

February

Plant Leaf

It's February already - I suppose that means that Winter is about 1/3 over. We'll see what Punxatawney Phill has to say later this week.

Bunz this morning - then walked over to the Arts Center to see the current display. Insteresting work - all collages. One of the artists works in photography, one in typography, and the other mixed media. Very creative.

Linda and I went to the Saratoga Library this past weekend for the first time - their collection is smaller than SCPL, but it's different for us so we can enjoy it for a while. Of course, because we live in the greater Saratoga area, we can't use the newer materials. Too bad, I supposed, but even new stuff eventually becomes old stuff.

Resolved the conference dinner last week. Still up in the air about entertainment, but there's lots of time to deal with that.

Also did some more hand coloring last week. All one image - "Eve" from the Ernie Rubinstein workshop in Burlington. We'll see how that fares at SPS tomorrow night.

The weather has warmed up a bit - it was actually above freezing this afternoon for the first time in a couple of weeks.

This is a very old image - made with the old Mamiya-Sekor camera that died almost 25 years ago! But I still like it a lot - very graceful and timeless. A simple plant in a pot, sitting on the tank of the toilet in the upstairs bathroom in our old house. I could check the date, but it has to have been around 1978 or thereabouts.

Planning

Against the grain

I find myself thinking more about portraiture these days. Part of that is anticipation of doing portraits of Heather and Jojo, but part of it also is due to seeing some wonderful portraits in the APUG gallery. I know that I have a technical problem with lighting - my old Vivitar 283 really isn't all that powerful, and won't do much if I want to use the big camera. I looked at some e-Bay auctions and thought about bidding on some larger monolights, but at the same time I know that I really prefer window light to harsh artificial light.

I really concentrated on IEEE stuff today. Completed the first draft of the May/June news column, and also my editorial. Also found a more reasonable caterer for the conference dinner, and also spoke to a second caterer and presented the challenge to come up with a reasonable price. Visited a print shop in Ballston Spa who promised to give me a quotation for the program brochure.

When I started out to go to Ballston Spa this morning, I was distracted by the need to clear the snow off the driveway. Then I chose to do it with a shovel rather than with the blower. Turned out to be a nice hour of outdoor exercise on a cold but beautiful winter day. The neat thing is that, had I been working, I would probably not have bothered to do anything with the driveway, or at least I would have used the blower. It really is nice to not feel like I'm constantly stressed for time.

I really don't know what I want to do for a workshop this summer. The Peters Valley schedule is out, and they have a good selection. But all of the classes that interest me are repeats. That's a real shame - don't know what I will do. But I have lots of time to consider alternatives.

This image is one of my favorites from the 1999 Ernie Rubin workshop at Peters Valley. I shot this with the Yashica TLR, and the real print shows lots of neatly detailed textures.

Bowling

Leaves - Ghiradelli Square

It's been a nice weekend so far. Yesterday, Linda and I drove over to Great Barrington, MA for the day. I had been there once before, but we had never taken the time to walk around to see what the town had to offer. Actually, our plan was to go to Stockbridge, but we wandered into Great Barrington instead and found that there is a lot more to see and do there than in Stockbridge. Nice lunch at Pearl's. Several very nice galleries, including one that shows only photography. Drove back by way of Lennox, Pittsfield and Williamstown - I think our next day trip will be to Williamstown/North Adams. Made one photograph (actually, a couple of negatives) in Housatonic.

Today, the neighbors got together for bowling. Lots of fun. We lived in a nice neighborhood before, but it was nowhere near as congenial as these folks. I'm really enjoying that aspect of the move. My bowling was not all that great - but it's been years since I've done that.

Don't know what tomorrow will bring - Linda will be home, but I suspect she will need to work on some projects for school. Also may need to go to the supermarket. I want to get back into hand-coloring but need to pick up some supplies first. Have the prints waiting - just need to find the time.

This image came from our second trip to San Francisco - we were wandering around Ghiradelli Square before having dinner on July 4th - found these plants in front of the architectural book store. It's been a successful image in competitions and salons.

Midweek

Broadway Detail

Buns this morning - this week, it was only Mel and me. Ernie left for Florida last week, and Jim and Cindy have gone to Hawaii. It was nice to have a chance to chat with Mel. We've known each other for 30+ years, but we really haven't had the opportunity to chill out and talk for a long time.

Then I went shopping for a printer for the conference program. I would really prefer to use the guy in Saratoga, but he hasn't faxed the quotation he promised, while the guy in Clifton Park did the estimate while I waited. Customer service makes a difference.

Mounted some prints this afternoon - I am really happy with some of the work I've done recently. Part of that has to do with the big camera, I'm sure. But I think some of it also had to to with the fact that I don't feel pressured to get a lot of work done in a short period of time. Afterall, if it doesn't get printed this week, I can try again next week - or maybe even tomorrow.

I made the negative for today's image back in September, and I printed it last week.

Snow!

Stairs, New York State Capital

The party went very well - 50+ people here for three hours, lots of food (too much, really) and drink. Very pleasant.

It snowed today - about 4 inches, but with some rain later in the day. I finally got out to clear the driveway late this afternoon, after the snow stopped falling. The street had been plowed, but the plow came back tonight, and also the truck that does the entire cul de sac. So I suspect that there will be a drift or ice across the entrance to the driveway in the morning.

Spent the day in the darkroom printing. Didn't produce a lot of work, but I'm pleased with what I have.

Went to SPS last night - first time in a couple of years. Didn't do well in competition - Phil Haggerty was the juror, and he was OK. I do believe that his choice of first was very good, but I think some of the other positions could have been different. But then the whole process is subjective.

We are going to the GE party tomorrow night - at the Gideon Putham. Should be a nice affair. This will be our last time since Hamid normally doesn't invite retirees to this affair. In this instance, he is using this as a substitute for the retirement luncheon that he missed.

This picture was done several years ago at the Capital Building in Albany. It's acutally a walkway under the main stairs that lead into the main ceremonial entrance to the building. I shot it using the Crown Graphic on roll film, and its an image that I have always liked.

T

New Years Day

Crabs at Pike's Market, Seattle

Getting ready for the party tomorrow - cleaning the house, preparing food, etc.
Went to Sushi Thai Garden for late lunch - great food and unbelievably reasonable prices. Then walked over to Borders to pick up a 2005 calendar (half price, of course), and then some shopping at Eddie Bauer. Tonight we are seeing "Dot Com City of Dreams" at Procter's - met Malcom Simpson, the producer, at a party at Ralph & Steve's back in September, and Linda has been anxious to see the musical ever since.

Don't know what I think about the crab image. Shot it in Seattle back in October, and just processed the film (HP-5) this week; scanned the negative.

Quiet day

Russian Orthodox Monastery at Jordanville, NY

Quiet day today - didn't accomplish much. Matted and framed some family pictures to make the house look like a home. Got Linda's indoor/outdoor thermometer set up.

Tried scanning slides tonight. I clearly need to spend more time learning how to use the scanner, but it's amazing what it can do. The image here was shot on July 1987 on Agfachrome RS film using my Nikon FE-2 (yeah, I'm anal). We were camping at Glimmerglass State Park, and wandered up to Jordanville to find the monastery that I had heard so much about. I must have used my 80-200mm lens, with a star filter to add the color starburst effect. Home processed the film using one of the simple E-6 kits.

While I enjoyed doing this kind of photography, I haven't touched color in at least 10 years. Mainly a matter of time and focus.