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Tag Archives | 4×5 photography

Getting down to brass tacks….

By on January 13, 2011 in Uncategorized

47 days until I leave for Greece.  I was lying in bed last night and realized, again, that my goals for the next 5 years are not as formed as the previous set.  I’ll ask around and see what people think.  I feel like the path I am on is correct, but where does it lead?  I suppose I have little choice but enjoy the journey.

I have to begin some test packing today.  I am able to bring one camera bag on the plane with me and it will be pretty well loaded.  I’ll have a 4×5 press camera and the film holders, a medium format TLR, my Canon 5D Mk II with the two lenses, my Voigtlander R4m and one lens, and my Canon G11 and my iPod and its speakers . Add into that two boxes of 4×5 sheet film, batteries, cables, cleaning gear, some roll film (120 and 35), a book or two, charging dock (iPod) and assorted paperwork for the trip and it’s full.  I’ll pack my tripod in the checked baggage.  Since I am traveling Business Class there are no weight restrictions so I am OK with packing as much stuff in the backpack as I can but I need to test pack the camera bag and see how I can best use the space.

OK.  Time to shovel snow off of my roof.

JDCM

A new year begins…

By on January 2, 2011 in Uncategorized

Happy New Year to all!  Please let this new year be a bit kinder and warmer than the last, with all of its fears and worries over what people felt to be really important.  Money.  What we need to do is act a little kinder towards one another and stay away from Belarus!  No a place to go these days for a vacation.

Longnook

I leave for Athens in 59 days.  I am going back to the Aegean Center for the Fine Arts for another term.  I have been courted by both the digital printing guru and the darkroom sorceress and have chosen the ways of the darkroom for my work-study program.  I will be working with my 4×5 and medium format primarily.  I’ll bring my new digital–oh yes, I have upgraded to a Canon 5D MkII.  It is lovely and full-frame which finally allows me to use the L-Series lenses to their full effect.

I have submitted 5 pieces for a juried show in Hudson, NY to be exhibited in the old Opera House in February.  I hope that at least one is chosen and they give it a good space to see it.  The pieces are all 11″x14″.  As you can see by the image, it is following the abstract path I have been on for the past year.  Whether I stay there, I don’t know.  The Aegean Center will see to that.  If this spring is half the catharsis that last spring was, then I should be in good shape for whatever the arts world throws at me.

I recently had the chance to visit a friend’s home and look at his art collection.  I was unimpressed.  Yes, it was all “very important” art and the artists were all “very important” but the work itself left me cold and uninspired: Modern art devoid of warmth, life and verve.  It left me grateful that I love the work that I love and this work varies throughput the ages.  Trust me, there is some very modern work that blows my mind as well as some older pieces that find dull and insipid.  I think that actually it was the collector that I found dull, with his repetitive phrases of “important” and which museum wanted which pieces when he died. Very tacky.

The light is very flat today, but I hope to get out and shoot a roll or two.  Tomorrow is supposed to be sunnier and I will take the 4×5 out and make some exposures.  I am working on farm images these days.  I have to call a nearby farmer and get permission to shoot on his property.  That’s all I’m saying about it.

JDCM

4×5 Crown….

By on October 30, 2010 in Uncategorized

Graphlex Crown, 4x5 camera

I am back in the darkroom these days, developing film and beginning to formulate a working model for a new project, one that I might engage in for many years to come, weaving it through my waking days and dreaming nights.  Beekeeping, I have found, is a fascinating subject.  The interaction between the Keeper and the hives, the product resulting, the need to allow the bees to keep the honey in order to survive and the recent onslaught of Colony Collapse Disorder are all intertwined for me.  Documenting this would be a fascinating adventure, one that I could pursue throughout the world.  I can use digital and film, anything, really.  I am hooked.  And its all because of Brueghel and his “The Beekeepers” lithograph.  With this inspiration comes the possibilities for a photo shoot this Wednesday in Harlemville with a Beekeeper and some of his handmade, sacredly-geometric hives.  I am ready to go.  The weather is supposed to be nice, with lots of sun which means dynamic light.

I have purchased a Crown Grafix 4×5, my first foray into large format work.  The film is not a problem to find and the development is easy.  I find that it is wonderful to develop the film in complete darkness although I have a small tank that can immerse 6 sheets at once.  I’ll be doing that this afternoon.  As of now I can only make contact prints, but I hope to be able to scan the negatives sometime and also find a 4×5 enlarger to do some printing.  This, by the way, is similar to the camera used by an inspiration of mine, the photographer and writer Wright Morris. I think he used a different model of Graphlex, but I feel like I am on a well-worn and honorable path.

OK.  It’s a sunny day and I have errands to run; the PO, the bank, the gym and then home until I skee-daddle out to meet friends for coffee.

More to come…

JDCM