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.

Japanese maple

Japanese Maple in Spring

Taken with my Lubitel 166.

Petzval lens

I recently got a Petzval lens through a Lomography Kickstarter project and this is an example of a film test I ran. I used the lens on my Nikon FE2, a film camera. I originally tried to meter through my camera but wound up with extremely underexposed negs (basically I developed blank film). Finally, I broke out my handheld light meter and was able to get some good exposures. The film I used for this roll expired in 2007 but I guess refrigerating it all those years helped keep it usable. It was one of my last rolls of Agfa 400 (sadly, the film division of Agfa went bankrupt a few years ago so I was forced to find a different film brand to rely on).

This is a photo of a stuffed quail, nicknamed "Papa Quail." A number of years ago, this quail and his brood of adolescent chicks walked through our front door thinking it was part of their habitat. When they tried to fly out the windows, all hell broke loose. By the time we heard the commotion coming from the living room, Papa Quail was in his last death throws. We managed to get all but one of the chicks out of the house before there was more death (they were EVERYWHERE - in baskets, behind the couch, above the closet). We froze Papa until quail hunting season was open (I should state, I would NEVER shoot a quail...I love them too much and shooting them seems to be pretty stupid and wasteful) so we could get a license and get the taxidermist to stuff him. The license was about $125 and then there was the taxidermy costs so it wasn't cheap. The taxidermist did a pretty lousy job. He managed to mess up the top knot on Papa's head so he made some wanker-looking top knot with an extra couple feathers. Oh well, what can you do? At least I can look at Papa and think about the crazy circumstances that brought him to my living room to sit in the same spot on a piece of wood for eternity.

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!!

Icelandic horses

While traveling in Iceland, it is common to see the horses that are unique to the country. There is something special about them - thick coats, disposition, hardiness...I'm not sure and I've done zero research on them. I can tell you that they're generally friendly and curious. They are also very beautiful with thick manes.

Embroidered piece

I've been working on a large embroidered piece with tree images on it and have been going a little nutso with the fine detail work so I decided to take a breather and work on something smaller. I started this on Thursday or Friday and finished it last night. The creases and wrinkles are a bit vexing. I've pressed it once already and am planning to try another method of getting it to lay flat. I don't know if I'll be 100% successful with that plan, since there is crinoline acting as the substrate for the fabric and it has a tendency to keep its creases. We'll see...I'm feeling as though I'm still in experimental mode for how best to work these pieces. Perhaps I need to move to a frame or hoop system (currently, I'm doing everything by just holding the piece in my hands).

It may not be perfect, but I really feel as though I'm making some progress.

 

Posted with Blogsy