Early November

Blacksmith's Barn

I've been running a little behind here. The trip to Maui for the Fellows Committee went well - every flight was full, but had an on-time departure and early arrival. Maui itself was OK - unfortunately, all I was able to see was the resort hotel and the airport, so I really can't tell what the island has to offer, if anything. Edmonton was OK - cold and wet the day I arrived, and cool and nice the rest of the week. The meetings all went very well. I've been trying to keep up with the leaves this Fall. So far, so good. This morning I blew the leaves on the front lawn, and then mowed everything. So by 1pm the lawn was almost completely clear of leaves. Not so any more - but the accumulation appears to be in the front more than in the back. I don't expect to have to mow again, but I may have to blow the leaves one more time. Need to get the porch furniture stored and install the driveway reflectors in preparation for winter.

The last few weeks have been hectic with Linda needing to go over to Albany at least once per week. Hopefully, that is over for a while. I have to get an entry ready for the Winter Solstice show at SCAC - I think it will be the Battenville Barn. Also need to do some photography - I've been so tied up with other things that photography has suffered. And of course, next week I have my 'adventure with fiber optics' again.

The lead-in image here is the old Blacksmith's Barn at Peters Valley. I exposed the negative about 6:15am, and when I first visualized the image the moon was in the sky over the trees behind the barn. But it was amazing how fast the moon fell - by the time I got the camera set up, the moon was entirely behind the trees.

The image itself required some manipulation. The background shadows were pretty deep, so I used the dye dodging technique to open those shadows and also hold back the curved roadway leading to Congelton and the Ceramics Studio. Both of the images shown here were made on Kentmere, which is a neutral-cold paper. For the Battenville Barn, I simply toned the print in selenium. For for the Blacksmith's Barn, gave it a brief immersion in sulfide toner followed by prolonged toning in selenium. That's an interesting technique - something that I first saw in some prints by Roman Lorenc in a gallery in Carmel last year. I think it is capable of more than I am current accomplishing with it.

In looking at these two images together, I note that I seem to have a thing about barns, and also about including foreground in front of the subject. Hmm.