Strange realization

Oddly enough, after years and years of wanting to go to Prague and the Czech Republic (I originally wanted to go when it was still Czechoslovakia), I took just a small number of photos while there. I found myself much more shutterbuggy in the countryside and outside of Prague. I'm not sure why that is. Prague has got tons of stuff to shoot. Could've been because of the frightening number of tourists. Or perhaps I didn't feel like I could shoot much that hasn't been shot before. Lots of people go to Prague. Less go to Podmoli.

That being said, I've posted a small collection of Prague shots on my SmugMug site. Enjoy.

Color film image - Mamiya C220

Today I was able to swing by the photo shop to pick up some of the color film I had shot with the Mamiya C220. I'm definitely having issues with the exposure. Could be because I'm using a light meter - perhaps too high-end for me (when I shoot with my Lubitel, I just use a little cheat sheet that covers the basics by film speed: cloudy, bright, snow.) I have to do a test and actually take notes based on meter readings and the settings. I have some film still in the camera that I need to finish shooting so I'll shoot my tests with that.

Here is a color photo I shot of Levi. I posted the black and white film image of the same shoot a couple postings ago. I obviously can get good shots with the camera and available light since this one looks pretty good. I just need to get my pea-brain around shooting settings.

Mamiya C220 shot in color

Tight on time

I've committed to writing on this blog about three times a week. Unfortunately, this week is extremely busy. Hopefully I'll have a bit of time to post on Sunday or Monday evenings. I'm heading to the Washington coast with a group of students tomorrow. I've brought both the Lubitel and my G9 so I'm expecting to snap something worth looking at. Still haven't had a chance to pick up the color Mamiya C220 shots. Should have them in my hot little hand by the middle of next week.

A long weekend

What a great weekend! First off, the weather was absolutely spectacular. Finally, tons of sun and some solid heat (Northwestern heat is very mild compared to the rest of the country's concept of heat). Today, we went for a bike ride in the middle of the day when it was the hottest. Good ride, though I'm still a little pooped from it.

On Friday night, we drove up to Smoke Farm in Arlington for an event called Symposium. I went two years ago to the inaugural Symposium but unfortunately, missed last year's. There is a general Symposium theme that each of the presenters builds a talk around. This year's theme was "All that is solid melts into air." Here is the program so you can take a peek at each of the talks.

Although the presentations are always interesting, the real joy of the event is the peripheral conversations that occur between talks, over meals and during walks around the property. I joke about needing to bring my "big brain" to Smoke Farm - there are always thoughtful and engaging conversations happening. The people that attend events at Smoke Farm are also high-caliber. I had interesting conversations with a number of people who are doing interesting things in their fields including a Seattle ceramic artist named Kathleen Skeels and a writer named Pete Brook. Pete writes about and runs a website dedicated to prison photography - I visited the site today and was amazed at the amount of articles he's written and the research he's done. I also spent some quality-time talking and drinking coffee with Scott Schuldt, who is the resident artist at Smoke Farm this year.

I spoke with many more people than those I named and was able to take some photos of quite a lot of the attendees. Hopefully, the Mamiya will come through for me (though really, it's not the equipment, it's the photographer, right?). I'll be dropping off this round of film when I pick up the other rolls from the lab this week (hopefully).

In addition to all the humans, there were quite a few dogs attending the event. Here is Bunny. She's one of my favs since I had a dream about her trying to move into my tent during the night. Plus, she was just so cute.

Southern Moravia Gallery

I've posted my gallery for Southern Moravia at my website. I will also change the rotating gallery link on the right side of the blog to be my France 2011 gallery (in case you were getting tired of Iceland). Enjoy!

First images with the Mamiya

I'm not super-pleased with the first results I've gotten with the Mamiya C220. I don't think I'm being self-effacing when I say that the problem appears to reside with the photographer rather than the equipment. The images are too dark and the negs too flat to get an image I'm entirely happy with at first try. Here is an example of a B&W image I took with the camera:

First, let me say that this is a neg that I've scanned on my flatbed scanner using a piece of glass to hold it in place. Not ideal, but I don't have time to actually get in the darkroom today to make contact sheets and prints. The other problem with it is the fixer with hardener may be too old and appears to have left little "crystals" on the negative - some can be brushed off, some appear permanent (I spent a little time retouching in Photoshop but didn't want to do too much since I wouldn't print this from the computer anyhow). I used Rodinal developer with TMAX 400 film at a dilution of 1:50 for 10 mins. If I had a time base for TMAX 400 at 1:100, I would give that a shot since it might produce a better overall tonal range. I also need to get a better idea of exposure values using the Gossen light meter (something I'm not used to doing since I'm used to TTL metering).

It's not an awful shot, but I've got a long way to go to get a true understanding of the Mamiya. I'm hoping my color negs are more promising than this B&W roll. Lots more work to do.

Sunny days in the darkroom

This morning I took photos of my neighbor's kids who are all teenagers (well, the youngest is about to be one). It was a lot of fun for me since I was shooting with the Mamiya C220 (and my Holga and my Canon G9) that was loaned to me by a friend. I don't have any idea how the pictures will turn out yet since I haven't actually seen any prints from the film I've shot with this camera. Although I was claiming to swear off using the darkroom a few posts ago, I shot one roll of B&W film and developed it just an hour ago. The negs look a little over-exposed but I've never been greatest judge of negative quality, so I'm not really sure. Once the film dries I'll be able to actually look at the negs on the light table and see if I have a hope of success. Hopefully, the end result justifies the time I spent in the dark instead of out in the sun.

On a different subject, but one that still pertains to art: I just picked up a beautiful print of Mt. Rainier by artist Chandler O'Leary. I've gotten into the habit of buying prints for my husband at birthdays and anniversaries. In the past, I've tended towards Japanese prints but Chandler's work is so lovely and I like being able to support artists I know.

I haven't posted any pictures here recently, so I thought I'd post a picture of the cat who likes to climb onto my deck and occasionally sneaks into my house if the door is left open.

Sukey the creeper

Perseverance pays off

After much tweaking and a number of email conversations with support people, I have managed to connect my domain name with my photo gallery at Smugmug. Joy joy! To access all my galleries from my main page, go to www.leslielevenson.com. I love it when things work the way they're supposed to work. Now to go out an play/work in the sun.

Giving up on film?

I love my film cameras. When I say cameras, I'm not just talking about two or three. I own at least ten film cameras of different makes and models. Unfortunately, I find myself only shooting color film these days. There are a couple reasons for that: a) I find I can express myself better in color at this point in my life, and b) I've become darkroom averse (I could say "lazy" but I think there's more to it than that).

I used to adore spending hours in the darkroom and could completely lose myself in the process. Now, I find it confining, frustrating (perhaps because I'm so out of practice) and irritating to my senses (I can feel my nose hairs curling when I think of stop bath and fixer). I can count number of times I have been in the darkroom in the past year (uh...twice...maybe). Don't get me wrong. Every time I look at a Walker Evans, or a Diane Arbus or a Ralph Eugene Meatyard, I get the hankering to shoot B&W again and immerse myself in the dark, dank space between chemistry and creation. But, if I'm honest with myself, I can say that I'd much rather spend that time shooting pictures and poking pixels on my computer.

I don't expect to get rid of my film cameras any time soon (well, maybe I'll sell a couple of them - I should be able to get, what, $25 for my Nikon FE2...sigh). I can continue shooting color and working from digital copies of the negs. We might actually sell the darkroom equipment, as well, since it never gets used.

Change is hard, especially when it involves something you love and are committed to. I still have a few rolls of B&W film and lots of chemistry that I could have a final hurrah with. Plus, my friend lent me this bad-boy to try out:

Maybe one more year before I let go completely...

Getting things done

The other day I had a conversation with another photographer who asked to see some of my work. Did I have it on Flickr? No. Yes, I have a website but it's ancient and I never seem to have the time or the inclination to update it (for shame...I know). I finally decided that I needed to just put up something so I wouldn't feel like a complete scammer. I decided to go with SmugMug because of the protections you can set for your galleries. I've had it for all of two days but have already managed to upload a couple galleries (one being a very small Woca/Holga gallery and the other being a larger gallery of digital images I took in Iceland in the summer of 2009). Here is the link to the gallery: leslielevenson.smugmug.com. It works really well with Lightroom 3, which means I'm more likely to utilize it. I'm just happy to have a gallery with images on display for a change. I'm hoping to get another one done before the end of today but that may not happen the way it's going. At least I'll be able to say "yes" to anyone who asks if I have work they can look at. Little victories.

I think I might actually put the start of my aquarium project in there since it might inspire me to go get more images. Here's one of my favorite images, so far, from that project:

A duck in water

Mixed media fun

So, I went to the workshop I talked about last night. Initially, I was nervous since clearly I had misunderstood the instruction about collage (I was supposed to bring collage materials, not a collage). However, it turned out all right. Teesha had plenty of collage materials for us to work with and I was forced to be a bit more creative in terms of creating a journal around fish.

We first prepped our books by painting watercolor paper with acrylic paints. Next, we bound them into a small journal. After that it was collaging time - first the borders of some of the pages (there wasn't enough time to do the entire book). Next, we worked on our content for the pages - the collages of our various beasts. Then came time for pen work, which meant we added color and marks to the collage primarily with pens. Finally, we got to the cover and how to do the collage and paint it.

Mine's nowhere near finished but I finished one two-page spread. I think it turned out pretty nice:

I guess I was still thinking about Moby Dick and that eye of his, though my whale isn't white. All in all, it was a lot of fun and really freeing to just start making marks without worrying too much about how it turned out. That's one of the joys of the "beginner's mind" - fearlessness and pleasure at just having created something you didn't know you could.

Workshop tomorrow

A very short post this evening. I'm attending a workshop held by Teesha Moore all day tomorrow. It's a mixed-media workshop so I'm hoping that I'll get some additional ideas for using my photos in different ways. I'm a little nervous since I had to create a collage to bring with me and I have almost zero experience in collage making. I chose a theme of fish since I seem to be big on the aquarium world these days. Hopefully, I'll have something interesting to show at the end of tomorrow.

Oh, and as an addendum to the last post about hands...my friend, Carla sent me this link to a very creepy iPhone cover. Can you say, "Creeeeepy?"

All hands on deck

That phrase really has nothing to do with my life. I just happened to be watching Moby Dick last night (pt. 2 is this evening - I'm sooo excited - though I promise I will, eventually, finish reading the entire book) and that came to mind as a good title for this posting. I recently purchased a piece of artwork from a blogger I follow named Seth Apter. The piece is called Fides.

I love the hand position in the piece - it's originally from a religious statue. I feel as though I'm perpetually being blessed.

I had originally planned to place it in a more quirky spot beside Godzilla and a fake orange, but it didn't seem to go. Instead it's beside a pine needle Tarahumara basket, a miniature painting by a Georgian (think Russia, not peach) artist, a enameled Russian box and an Acoma ceramic piece. I think this is a better location.

This piece is a nice companion piece to a porcelain hand/plate that my husband gave me. It came from the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, CA. The admonition on the plate is "Fairly Safely Venture."

Fides also reminded my husband of a monument we saw in Prague. It commemorates a student protest that occurred on November 17, 1989 during the Velvet Revolution.

A round of applause for the hand in art. Sorry...I had to say it.