Trees from an Imaginary Memory

Zero Image pinhole taken May 2014

For whatever reason, this forested path reminds me of Russia. Not that I've ever been there or that the trees are the same trees you'd find there. Perhaps it's the result of having read so many Russian novels. There were frequently dachas described in the books (especially in Tolstoy), so perhaps this is the image of the environs surrounding the dachas I imagined while reading.

It's interesting how I create "views" for settings I read about in books. In a lot of cases, the imagined location actually has nothing to do with the book. Perhaps it's a location association built from the era in which I was reading the book and my daily travels. I remember associating a particular corner of 42nd St. by Grand Central Station in NY with Faust. Obviously it had nothing to do with Goethe's novel, but perhaps I think of that corner because I was frequently in that area while reading the book. Then again, I associate a particular scent from my childhood with pharmacies (actually a very pleasant smell...not medicinal at all...I can't even describe it). I know that Proust talked about scents triggering memories so maybe it's all part of the same apparatus of building memories - places, descriptions, scents, flavors - all tucked away in obscure areas of the brain to be triggered by what appears to be random.

So this photograph is my triggered memory of a place I've never been. An imaginary memory.

Georgia likes baked goods

Georgia at the Rocking Horse Bakery, Winthrop

My friend, Georgia was a good enough sport to sit for this pinhole portrait. I can't remember how long I made her sit still, but I think it was about 2-3 minutes. Taken with my Zero Image pinhole when I was in Winthrop, WA a couple weekends ago with my mother.

Georgia is a big fan of baked goods which is why this post has the title it does.

Bean Plant

Bean Plant - Othello, WA

Shot with a Zero Image pinhole box camera on Worldwide Pinhole Day 2014.

My photo for Worldwide Pinhole Day

Lower Crab Creek Road, Washington State 4/27/14

Worldwide Pinhole Day was a great success (I only speak for myself since I have no idea how anyone else feels about it). We drove to Eastern Washington and took photos along the Lower Crab Creek Road, which is located in the Channeled Scablands. If you've never seen the Scablands and you live in Washington, you should change that right away. They are beautiful, geological wonders that were created by the great Missoula floods which took place in the range of 13,000 - 18,000 years ago.

The weather was incredibly beautiful on Sunday. Blue skies and big poofy clouds that created interesting plays of light and shadow on the landscape. I took the image above using my Zero Image pinhole camera and TMAX 400 film. You can see the piece in the Pinhole Day gallery. It looks surprisingly good for an online gallery. If you go there and then search for photos from Washington State, you can see works by other pinholes, including my friend, Karen Howard.

Wander around the gallery site a bit and you might get the inspiration to join us next year for Pinhole Day.

Museum of Glass Pinhole

Museum of Glass - Tacoma

Yesterday, I took advantage of the nice weather to run over to Tacoma to test my pinhole camera. The Zero Image had been scratching my negatives but I was blaming it on the lab that processes my color film (I haven't been shooting a ton of black and white, which I process myself, so I hadn't realized the problem was my camera). (Sorry, lab processor, for thinking you had dirty film spools.) I added a little gaffer's tape to the contact points between the camera and the film and, voilá, problem solved. This means I'm ready for Worldwide Pinhole Day on Sunday. Hurray!

Pinholes and rain

Double sunflowers

Just a reminder that all the rain we've had here in the Pacific NW brings beautiful flowers and that Worldwide Pinhole Day is on April 27, 2014. This pair of photos was taken last summer with my Zero Image pinhole camera. I'm finally getting around to developing a number of exposed rolls of film. This set of pinholes was included in one of the rolls.

Get out and take your pinholes next Sunday!!

My first quilting adventure

A couple weekends ago I took a workshop with an artist named Bergen Rose. The workshop was called "Transforming Fabric with Digital Image Transfer Techniques." Such a great workshop with a lot of different techniques covered. Bergen's work is beautiful - combining paintings, photographs, transfers and fabric - a perfect combination for her pieces. You should check out her artwork at the Fountainhead gallery in Queen Anne, Seattle or her online shop at mochimochifiberart.com.

Anyhow, I tried a number of the transfer techniques with varying degrees of success. My goal this week was to actually finish one of the pieces. Whether it was good or bad, I just wanted a finished piece from the workshop to hang on my wall. This piece is pretty simple...I printed a 6 image grid of dahlia pinholes I took recently onto silk organza. I then applied free-motion stitching to a quilt "sandwich" (backing, batting, top fabric). I attached the organza to the quilted part using 2-sided tape. I then attached a sleeve to the back so I can run a dowel or a piece of bamboo through it and hang the piece.

I think any self-respecting quilter would have a minor heart attack to see my quilting technique but I don't care. I like the way it looks with the silk over it...almost like the flowers are on the quilted part.

I'm very excited to try out more daring things with the transfer techniques I learned and my trusty Brother sewing machine (thanks to my pal, Darcy).

The whole piece, front side.

Detail of a few of the squares.

The reverse.

A mini-pinhole

These are a couple film canister pinholes I took a bunch of years ago in Portland, OR. I was taking a self-portrait of myself and the fellow on the right asked me what I was doing. When I told him I was taking a pinhole shot, he volunteered to "sit" for a portrait. I taped the canister to the railing and exposed for probably about 15 seconds. I used lith film since it was easy to load in the darkroom and easy to tray develop. Because it's lith film, there are lots of little black and white marks in the negative. I removed some with Photoshop but it's really too thankless a job to clean up entirely. Plus, I consider it part of the aesthetic. The negatives were contact printed on silver gelatin paper. I scanned from the print.

Another pair of pinhole images

Yesterday I posted a couple Zero Image pinholes that were part of a series of pinholes of people reading. Here are a couple more from that same series. Bridget is my subject this time.

I especially like the second picture since you can see that she's got her hands resting on an anatomy book that's opened to an illustration of the arm.

Zero Image pinholes

A while back I took a number of portraits of my friend Crysta. In addition to color film and digital shots, I also took some black and white photos of her. I subjected her to a couple pinhole images. Fortunately, she didn't need to sit long since it was outside on a sunny day (in the past I've forced people to sit still for 20 minutes for a pinhole that didn't turn out...brutal!). Now that I have an Epson Perfection V750 scanner, I can actually scan my larger negatives at a much higher quality (oh happy day!!).

In honor of my new scanner and Crysta, who said she was most interested in the pinholes, here they are.

This is part of a project I've been working at off and on...pinholes of people looking at books. Sometimes you can see the pages in motion. Sometimes less so.

Inclement days ahead

The weather has definitely turned itself toward winter...tremendous rainstorms earlier this week and snow dumping in the mountains (what joyful news to a skier!). Winter in the Pacific NW is generally a grey event that causes many to wax poetic about the brief outbursts of sunshine in August and September. In honor of the grey days ahead, here is a sunny little pinhole photo taken with my Zero Image camera. Take heart, friends. Miss Tomato is out there somewhere bathed in warm sun.

Miss Tomato