Present Time

• March 16th, 2008 • 0 Comments • photography, supplies •

Happy Belated Birthday to me~

I received an external flash! Check out the difference it can makes:

The first picture is the on-camera flash. The second is the external flash. All the difference in the world. I read that the way to get rid of that bleached out look you get with digital cameras is to get an external flash. After experiencing the difference in photos myself, the quality change is amazing. It feels a little awkward, having a camera with a big honkin’ flash on top; it either screams, “I’m a highly trained professional photographer,” or “I spend waaaaaaay too much money on camera equipment.” I’m not really either; I just like to be able to take nice pictures and fudge around with camera settings to my liking. Now that the bleachiness of doom is a thing of the past, I’ll probably get over having the flash on my camera real quick.

Cameras!

• April 23rd, 2007 • 0 Comments • exploring, photography, supplies •

I hit the jackpot yesterday.

I wanted to do some scrounging in Michael’s Mother’s Studio yesterday. I’ve found some really cool stuff in there before, but Michael’s dad actually gave some of his old stuff to me yesterday!

I wish I had photos or names, but long story short, I came into possession of roughly 7 fantastically old cameras. You know, the kind that have two funky huge lenses in the front, and a viewfinder that pops up and you look down into. He initially offered up on just one, to which I happily accepted. (I’ve always wanted to experiment with old cameras; they’re fascinating. Sadly, cameras that have been taken care of fetch a mean price.) Next question: “Would you like a darkroom?”

Hell yes I would like a darkroom.

I am now the proud owner of another enlarger, tubs, a couple more cameras and other miscellaneous photography equipment. Unfortunately I won’t actually get to play with anything until Michael and I find our new house. Wahhh.

Programmer, I am not.

• April 3rd, 2006 • 0 Comments • photography •

As it is 2:00am, I figure I am justifiably exhausted after completing the initial skeleton for the Epicycloid Galleries. This project is massive with a capital ‘M.’ When I embarked on creating these, I don’t think I had much of a concept for how many simple combinations there are for the damned drawing machines! (This is despite the fact I did a handmade book depicting each combination for one of my Spirographs.) Programming this thing is a beast: someone with real know-how of PHP or .ASP or something would probably be done already. Me? I turtle along, cobbling together JavaScript snippets as best I can. Thank GOD I got DreamWeaver working with Pearl or I’d be done for!

In the meantime, I hope to catch up on my drawings and actually DO an Epicycloid-A-Day to get that blog going. Or maybe I should worry about getting some sleep? Whew!

Texas Finally Got Cold

• December 1st, 2004 • 0 Comments • photography, texas •

Brrr! The cold weather has finally hit Texas, so now my little garage studio is officially cold. Michael helped me to do one screen print. I noticed that when doing mulitples on fabric, I need more than ONE setup for the fabric to dry on! Oh well; after the cold, I wasn’t so interested in doing more than one print anyway. Rinsing my screen out was literally a chilling experience. Before I may have mentioned that there is a designated “car wash hose” near my garage that the complex provides. Handy, considering my kitchen sink lacks the power to properly rinse out screens. Unfortunately the nozzle was broken (it seems to be cheap) and the hose had somehow lost its gasket. So the screen had to be rinsed out in the kitchen sink -grr- and my pants were subsequently soaked by the leaky hose full of fridgid water -double grr-.

I am definitely going to purchase my own nozzle for the hose, but I am considering what to do about increasing pressure for the kitchen sink. Getting soaked with cold water when it’s 35 degrees out is not my idea of a good art experience.

The archival project is going well, despite a few initial problems. Some of the photos have a bizarre sheen which causes them to be scanned incorrectly by the scanner. Their images can only be viewed at an angle, thus the head-on light from the scanner distorts them. Strange! I am considering photographing them with light that can accomodate their needs.

The first item I am working with is different from all of the other photographs as it is an old album with the photos glued in. Delicate notations of what year it is and how much baby weighs are next to some of the pictures. However, I am faced with the age-old problem of conservation. The paper is old and acidic, not to mention the spine is falling apart. Should I attempt to remove the photos to save them? Should they remain in their album-state while I attempt to repair the actual book spine? I have already scanned the book as a whole: there is a digital account of the book recording it’s original state, including the front cover. A decision must be made, and I’m frankly leaning toward repairing the book, and adding an insert for a mini-cd on the back cover. That way when discovered: the original album may be viewed in its changing/transient state; the physicality of the cd leaves record of a new family member preserving documentation of visual material; and the cd itself may be viewed and enjoyed when the album “dies.”

New Printing and Old Photos

• November 20th, 2004 • 0 Comments • photography, screen printing •

Contrary to popular belief, I actually have been down in the garage working on art! My screen printing endeavor is going fairly well. Using drawing fluid and screen filler is devastatingly easy, though I have not done as well using the photo emulsion. I figure it could be three problems: 1) the photo emulsion and sensitizer are old. 2) my inkjet printout on denril is not solid/translucent enough to make a good exposure. 3) I am not exposing long enough with the lightbulbs I am using. Photo screen problems aside, I’ve made several solid prints on paper, as well as one on fabric. I’m pleased with all of my test results, and can’t wait until I am satisfied enough to get started on an edition of some sort!

Oh dear, speaking of editions, I really wish I could edition my prints I did in Scotland now. Last week I stopped by UNT and visited with both Justin Quinn and Catherine Chauvin, my former teachers/bosses. To my pleasure, I recieved high praise from both of them when they looked at my APs. The local community college is literally across the street from me and I have resolved to visit with the print teacher over there and see if I can buy some shop time. I very much wanted the Scotland prints to be an edition of 30 or so; this appears to be the best way to do it.

In art-related news, I am working on archiving the family fortune: scanning several thousand photographs, many dated back to the 1800s. My Uncle is the family historian, and has almost all of the family portraits and photos. Well, far be it from me to allow him to horde them all to himself! I believe that it is something of a rariety for a family to have such an enormous collection of visual history available in one place, especially with an historian that can identify 90% of the persons in the photos. Therefore, I am digitizing everything. Everything. I realize that this is an enormous undertaking, but firmly believe that the results will be well worth it. Who knew my job in the school slide library would be of some use? In addition to scanning and forcing my Uncle to type down whatever he knows, I am transferring many of the pictures to proper albums. Sadly, many of the photographs are in viciously acidic albums that are falling apart. (Yes, I already chewed out my Uncle.) The only thing I am unsure of how to handle is the old albums into which photos were glued. The acid in the paper is eating away at the photos, but there is no apparent way to separate the two. (Hence one of the reasons I am scanning them!) Surprisingly, some of the old photos are actually tin-types! Most of these are in very good condition; I am completely unaware of what sorts of factors could cause them damage, other than the obvious scratching or moisture. Here’s to good luck safely archiving and finishing the project!