post your trees!

[CreationBear]

Thanks very much, Eric and Ben.

At any rate, I always thought that Harold "Hands" Bloom (if you pardon a bit of inside baseball) was one of the few critics that can usefully inform an artist--I'm mostly familiar with his exploration of Gnosticism in American culture/literature, but he's almost always interesting, even when deeply, tragically wrong. (BTW, Eric, I've been rolling with your replenished Pyrocat idea...works a treat, I think.)

At any rate, speaking of coeds, no fewer than three accosted me at separate times in my local "urban wilderness" yesterday, wanting to know what I was videoing with my Sinar Norma. Hey 19, that's Aretha Franklin...

[CreationBear]

Acer negundo down in the holler last week:

57boxelder1801A by J Barnes, on Flickr

57shadowrun1801A by J Barnes, on Flickr

The morbidity and mortality conference over on Flickr was very helpful running down why the last is a bit soft (probably focusing error and an overzealous choice in aperture) but in my own defense, given the humidity and early morning light, I could have used one of Vaughn's plasmats-as-big-as-your-head and a sqeegeeman for the ground glass.

[Corran]

You are controlling contrast very well there.

[CreationBear]

controlling contrast.

Well, I'm afraid I cheat and get up early in the morning--by 7:30 I'd be at my wit's end. I am having to adjust to the tonality of green leaves, though...much lighter than what I'd originally envisioned.

[esearing]

Love these images. If you are getting too much contrast with the replenished Pyrocat, make the second pass a bit more dilute. If doing EMA dilutions adjust your time downward a minute or two. I'm switching back and forth between normal and EMA and I can't decide which I like better. Most of my scenes are busy like your woodland shots so the edge details make some things pop where there is local high contrast. I also found a bleach/second pass develop routine seems to make the whole print appear sharper and warmer.

[CreationBear]

I also found a bleach/second pass develop routine seems to make the whole print appear sharper and warmer.

Thanks! I've not yet begun to print, so I'm viewing all this as remedial LF Summer School (learning to use the camera, etc) but hopefully I can start to dial-in over the next few months as I cross a more of those "operator errors" off the list. Right now, the plan is to contact print 5x7 negs on Ilford MC, but I'm already fairly sure the path leads through some sort of sepia/selenium regime. (BTW, diluting the second Pyro bath more makes a lot of sense, especially since I've been quite surprised at how high the SBR's have been, even on a cloudy day.)

[orgraph]

Anxiety of Influence Weekend last week in East Tennessee...

5x7redwood2401B by J Barnes, on Flickr

5x7pond1801A by J Barnes, on Flickr

Nice!

[CreationBear]

Thanks very much, Yuriy--I definitely appreciate your work as well. While I'm here, another from the past week--taken while an older gent on a mountain bike chewed my ear off (as we say in the American South) as I was under the darkcloth. Turned out he had helped build the trail (gravel lane, really) we were on a couple of decades back, when the this little patch of land was the site of a notorious Knox County chop shop--he had tales of finding a 1971 Mustang stripped to the frame, and an entire Ford Escort left upside down in the ravine I happened to be shooting:

57margaretrd3602A by J Barnes, on Flickr

[ljb0904]

Acer negundo down in the holler last week:

57boxelder1801A by J Barnes, on Flickr

57shadowrun1801A by J Barnes, on Flickr

The morbidity and mortality conference over on Flickr was very helpful running down why the last is a bit soft (probably focusing error and an overzealous choice in aperture) but in my own defense, given the humidity and early morning light, I could have used one of Vaughn's plasmats-as-big-as-your-head and a sqeegeeman for the ground glass.

Really...just wow. I hope my images come out this good some day!

[CreationBear]

Thank you kindly, but it's really a 50/50 proposition at this point whether I pull the darkslide correctly. Lots of kind and patient teachers on this board, though!

Otherwise, I'm sure you have a lot of great opportunities in Tucson--I was actually due to visit last month but had to cancel because of all the Covid-related disruptions.