"Under the Cloth"

[Bruce Barlow]

Happy birthday to me! My wife gave me a copy of John McPhee's latest collection, "Silk Parachute." He's a favorite author.

In it is a short piece about his daughter and her collaborator, who use a Deardorff 8x10 together to make images, titled "Under the Cloth." Two women collaborating on an activity dominated by solo men, McPhee writes.

It's a delightful read about LF photography, written by someone only marginally familiar, but who, obviously, has been a good sport over a number of years. Gives me a perspective on how others view my distinct, uh, oddness.

Buy yourself a present and get the book.

Best wishes for the holidays.

[darr]

"Happy Birthday Bruce!" :)
I'll pick up a copy for myself as a Xmas present.

Happy Holidays as well,
Darr

[kevin4x5]

Happy Birthday Bruce
My birthday was yesterday
I will have to get a copy of the book
kevin

[Richard Wasserman]

Happy birthday!

My birthday was 10 days ago, it's never too late for a belated gift for myself. John McPhee is a favorite of mine too, I've been reading him for years. He has a talented daughter.

[David Aimone]

A merry Christmas and a very happy Birthday, Bruce! I'll have to check out the book over the break...

[Bruce Barlow]

Happy Birthday Bruce
My birthday was yesterday
I will have to get a copy of the book
kevin

And back at you, Kevin and you other Holiday Babies. Most of you are Saggitarians (howz that shoe leather taste?) while being a cusp Capricorn (bringing full meaning to the term "Old Goat"), I will admit to having a Sagg ascendant, which governs my personality.

I prefer the taste of sneakers. Especially really sweaty ones.

Happy birthday and happy holidays to all, regardless of the actual date of your birth.

[MIke Sherck]

Happy birthday, Bruce! Many happy returns!

Mike

[PViapiano]

Happy birthday, Bruce....thanks for the tip on McPhee's latest. Living here on the left coast, I especially enjoyed Assembling California.

[Bruce Barlow]

Happy birthday, Bruce....thanks for the tip on McPhee's latest. Living here on the left coast, I especially enjoyed Assembling California.

Haven't read that one. But now I have it to look forward to.

My favorite McPhee piece is "54 on a Continent" about the Ford Fellows in Africa. Completely inspiring for young people. I think that's in "A Roomful of Hovings."

[Nathan Potter]

Bruce, McPhee is an amazing writer with a marvelous ability to capture the essence of subjects he has limited knowledge about. My recent find was his book about a trip across the US. with a Princeton University geologist. I think the title was "Basin and Range". A must read for geology enthusiasts. Fine gift, and "Happy Birthday".

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Ian Lascell]

Happy birthday Bruce and Kevin. :cool:

[pdmoylan]

Met McPhee in Princeton on a number of occasions through a mutual friend. He was very taciturn, almost unemotional as I find his writing, extremely dedicated to his craft; but always seemed on the verge but never quite eliciting a smile. He married a portrait photographer, the divorce I think skewing his view towards the objective I believe. He loved the outdoors then, and the labor intensive research and resulting epiphanies of identifying science and its process in even dated crafts such as making birch bark canoes in NE or tracking down wild orchids in NJ. Now if you have never tried to photograph the latter using LF with the variables of wind and changing light, without flash at beyond one to one, you have not lived the agony and the ecstacy of this medium.

[eddie]

happy b day bruce!

i thought old f@ckers like you no longer had birthdays!?!?!? har har har!

[Bruce Barlow]

eddie, not sure why I bother.

The McPhee book is delightful. Just learned more than I ever thought I would about chalk, and the billion (with a "b") bottles of champagne that are in chalk caves in France.

Blizzard on the way. 12-16" of snow forecast. I'm ready: amidol, VersaPrint, PyroCat, and lots of paper. Gotta get out and make some negatives before the weather closes in.

Taking an idea from here a while back, I splurged $4.04 on a set of red Christmas lights, which I strung around the higher parts of the darkroom. Festive! Bright! Shadowless illumination! Safe! Hunker in the bunker! Bring it on, Mother Nature, you b*tch!

[BILL3075]

Happy Birthday, Bruce !

Hope You're Feeling Better.

Wishing You A Happy & Healthy New Year.

Bill:)