Wizened fruit

When fruit is too old to eat, it's still good for photographs.

Chipmunk nearly Berkeley Park

Last weekend we spent a night at Berkeley Park in Mt. Rainier. The camping area is about 4 miles north of the main parking lot at Sunrise. Nothing to complain about - beautiful weather, dry, sunshine, quiet. We were lucky enough to spot a herd of about 17 mountain goats on a ridge to our west. In addition to the big critters, we saw quite a few little guys like picas, marmots and chipmunks like this fellow.

Alternative Processes - Done Digitally

I've been spending quite a bit of time working on recreating alternative processes using Photoshop. I've had varying degrees of success. I've been a bit stymied by gum bichromate. Fortunately, I've finally managed to get something that feels more true to the process than my previous attempts.

3-colour digital "gum bichromate"

Here is the original image that I started with:

I'll have to see how I like it when I print it on nice paper.

This is an example of a "cyanotype" I created as well:

All in all, I feel as though I'm moving forward and learning how to reproduce the techniques a bit better. It will still be digital approximation of the techniques, which I'm preferring to look at as more freeing rather than a lesser imitation of the original processes. I've dealt with the chemistry and the fussiness of the processes before and feel as though it was enough. I'm happy to deal with digital fussiness which also means less toxicity.

A Proud Pigeon at the Puyallup Fair

This pigeon was posing for me beside his award. He just kept standing there, making sure I noticed that he was a champion. I must say, he was very good looking for a pigeon.

Progression from negative to encaustic

I thought I'd post a 3-picture progression of how I progressed from a negative to a finished encaustic piece.

First, I scanned the 35mm black and white negative and made some adjustments in Lightroom.

I then printed the picture on lightweight paper (in this case, plain old copy paper) so that it would adhere more easily to the board.

I then did a little doodling and hand-coloring to change things up a bit. I used colored pencils, Pitt India ink pens and a Sharpie white poster paint marker.

Finally, I coated the picture with wax medium and fused it to a board that had also been coated with  medium. I then added oil paint, incised marks, some oil pastel, and metallic paint pigment that was mixed with water.

All I need to add now are a couple of eye-screws and wire to the back for hanging. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Hummock at sunset

Another picture from the scab lands

Scab Lands

Because I have so many photos that I like but seem to be slow about printing, I thought I'd try to post some of them to the blog.

I took this shot during last year's Thanksgiving trip to the Washington scab lands.