Saturday evening, I sat down with my jar of ‘stuff’ for making photograms and played with patterns. Early Sunday morning, I set up some photograms based on my ‘play’ the evening and headed for Brattleboro. Shortly after I returned home in the middle of the afternoon I processed the now well exposed anthotype paper.
This morning, I headed to Brattleboro to see what was up at the Vermont Center for Photography’s “tag sale’. Not that I need much in the way of ‘photo junk’, but I like to support the VCP and can always find something that will be useful. I came away with a few books, some mats and developing trays.
On the way home, I meandered and made some photographs. I made a few with the camera obscura but mostly, I made infrared (IR) photographs. It was a bright sunny middle of the day… good for IR landscapes and not much else.
Our neighbors down the road about a half mile are in to stockcar racing. Both the father and one of the (teenage) sons race. A couple of months ago, I was chatting with the dad and discovered that they race regularly at the Claremont (NH) Speedway, a bit more than an hour’s drive from Antrim.
Yesterday, on a cool and threatening rain, afternoon, I decided to head to Claremont to ‘check out’ the scene. I was hoping to get there early and spend some time in the paddock photographing ‘behind the scenes’. Alas, that did not work out and I arrived only a bit before the first race. They got in about an hour’s racing before the rain began. The good news is that, because of the rain, my ticket is good for next Friday night as well!
Yesterday (Tuesday, 8 June 2021) evening we received a report that a loon chick had been sighted… right on schedule! Joan had estimated that the chick were due around the 10th.
This morning we headed down to the bridge to see what was up for ourselves. We arrived at about 9:15; the temperature was in the mid-70s and there was a high, thin overcast. We did not have to work very hard to find loons. There was an adult with two chicks hanging out in the area between the two bridges. The distance was pretty much ideal for photography.
After a short interval the second adult arrived, with fish in beak, to feed the chicks. We observed feeding three more times in the two hours we watched. One adult and the chicks stayed within a small area between the bridges the entire time we watched. The other adult made forays into the main part of the lake to hunt.
As the morning progressed it became sunnier and warmer. Eventually we decided that we had spent long enough and headed home. It was about 11:15 and 85 degrees when we packed up.
If things follow the same pattern as last year, there will be a short window of easy photographic opportunity while the chicks and one adult stay on the north side of the road, near the nest site. Eventually, when the chicks are big enough, the whole family will move to the main part of the lake for the remainder of the summer*. At that point they will be ranging widely and one will need a to photograph from a kayak. I did not try this last year, but I just might try this year.
I made 788 exposures in the two hours! Many are what we photographers call ‘similars’. With up to four critters (in this case) all doing their things and not taking direction from the photographer (to say the least!), the best strategy is to make lots of exposures and to sort out the best frames later.
I processed about 10% of the frames but will only show you eleven. As I said, the rest are ‘similar!
This sequence of one of the feedings deserves its own gallery! And yes… that fish did slide right down the gullet of that tiny bird!
* UPDATE on Thursday (10 June) afternoon: The loon family has been spotted on the main part of the lake already.
I “cooked up” a batch of anthotypes on Saturday.
On Sunday, I beat the heat by making salted-paper prints in the basement.
The first of the anthotypes is 6.5 inches square on 8×10 inch paper. The rest are 4.5 inches square on 5×7 inch paper. The salted-paper prints are either 4.5 inches square or 4×5 inches on 5x7ish inch paper.
Yesterday morning, I started a bunch of anthotypes early and then spent the rest of the morning finishing up the batch of salted-paper I had sensitized earlier in the week*.
I put the anthotypes out at about 9:30. This is as early as the sun reaches my ‘anthotype spot’ (AKA the bulkhead leading to our basement). At about 5:30, I began the process of disassembling the frames and spraying the anthotypes. I finished the clean up just in time for a 6:30 webinar on ‘hand-made photographs’ sponsored by the Photographic Resource Center in Boston.
The astute observer will note that I have expanded the subject matter of my anthotypes! There will be further expansion to follow as time and sunny days permit… I have ideas!!!
* There were no new images in this batch of salted-paper prints, so there will not be a post about them. I am trying to get in the habit of making an ‘edition’ of two or three copies of each image I print on salted-paper.
I have been ‘mining’ my archives looking for photographs that I think would do well as salted paper prints.
Here is the latest batch made yesterday evening. The images are 6×7.5 inches or 6.5 inches square on 8×10 inch Hahn. Platinum Rag paper. I made two copies of each.
Josiah Rowe, who died in 1814 at the age of 81 years, was (presumably) a veteran of the Revolutionary War. Buried next to him is his wife whose name I can’t quite make out in this photo. She died in 1819 at the age of 70. Their graves are in the cemetery associated with the church in Bradford Center, New Hampshire.
Visiting (and photographing) in old cemeteries is, for me, always an interesting experience. Most of these places are quiet and peaceful. This is certainly true of Bradford Center. I rarely meet anyone else there, even though I have visited dozens of times.
The serenity is conducive to thought. My thoughts often turn to the lives of those commemorated by the grave markers. In so many ways lives lived two hundred years ago were so different from ours. Yet, at the very core of existence, their lives were exactly the same as ours. They were born as we were. They loved as we do. They died as we will.
Hopefully you were not expecting a new snack food!
I have been ‘mining’ my archives for photographs of dragonflies that might make good salted paper prints. Here are three examples made yesterday.
It is hard to believe that it has been more than a week since my last ode post… where does the time go?!
A week ago, the predominate ode in our yard was the Hudsonian Whiteface. There were also small numbers of chalk-fronted corporals present. This afternoon, with the temperature about 70 deg. F, the skies mostly sunny and a bit of a breeze blowing, the most common odes in the yard were the chalk-fronted corporals (there were dozens, of both sexes), next most common were frosted whitefaces (again, dozens, of both sexes, were present).
Hudsonian whitefaces were essentially absent. I saw one or two. Presumably they have headed back to water where they will mate and lay eggs. I’ll have to find the time to go look!
Additionally, there a single individual of another species present (see the third photograph, below). I know that I have seen this species before, but even with a quick look through the book, I could not identify it… I’m rusty, I guess!
I have yet to see a damselfly this season. Although Joan says that she has see a few while she has been working in the garden.
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