Yesterday morning I had some business to attend to in Saint Johnsbury, VY. It took me just a bit over two hours to get there via the interstates. The trip home took six hours… I meandered!
The foliage is pretty much peak in the northern part of NH and VT.
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I left the house yesterday morning about ten on a mission. I first headed to Littleton, MA to meet my friend (and stalwart commenter here) Joe.
Joe’s car was loaded with cameras… roughly four dozen. A friend of Joe’s had decided to down-size his collection of antique cameras and I was glad to facilitate their donation to the Vermont Center for Photography.
After transferring the cameras to my truck I headed directly to Brattleboro (where the VCP is located) to deliver the goods.
One the way back home, I made a couple of stops at favorite places to photograph in Marlborough and Harrisville. The late afternoon light was nice and, at least in some directions, there were interesting clouds.
I pulled into the driveway at six on the dot. It ’twas a successful day.
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This morning Joan and I headed out for a hike on the Peirce Wildlife and Forest Reservation in Stoddard. Our goal was Trout Pond, a beautiful and completely undeveloped body of water. Of course, I took along my camera.
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On Saturday, I took my camera obscura out for a “spin”. I had not used it in a while. I have had a photo in my head for some months now and Saturday afternoon I thought that the conditions (skies, light, etc.) might be good, so I headed out.
The photo I had in mind is the last one in this set. It is the old railroad trestle across the Contoocook River by the paper mill in Bennington (NH). In addition to the light being right and having a good sky, this photo required that the river level be fairly low as I needed to “rock hop” out into the middle of the river in order to get the angle of view I wanted. It all worked out pretty well, except that I strained a muscle in my left thigh “hopping” the rocks. I put “hopping” in quotes because in reality there was no hopping done; only a slow cautious crawl out and back! In the end I made the photo I had in mind and as the saying goes one has to suffer for one’s art!
When I got back to the computer, I discovered that there were some exposures on the memory card that I made back at the end of April (the 28th to be exact). I had never downloaded these files and, in fact, had completely forgotten about them… sort of like what happened back in the day of yore film when you developed a roll of film and found exposures at the beginning that you made some months prior. This doesn’t happen often in the digital age, but it is fun when it does!
The first four photos below were made back in April. The last three were from Saturday.
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Yesterday morning, one of the photo groups I belong to met (in Brattleboro) for the first time since March. We met outdoors in a park, wearing masks, etc.
I got up early and left the house before seven hoping to catch some good light and make some photographs. My first stop, as I headed west on Route 9 was “the truck”. This derelict truck sitting in a roadside field in Stoddard has been a favorite subject since it appeared a few years ago.
The light was just perfect and I spent fifteen or twenty minutes photographing “the truck” and its neighbor. I just discovered “the neighbor”, a second derelict truck maybe fifty feet from “the truck” and hidden from the road by some trees. I have no idea how long “the neighbor” has been there. I’ll be going back as the light on “the neighbor” will be best late in the day.
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After breakfast at the diner in Keene (with outdoor seating) my next stop was the Stonewall Farm in western Keene. I took a short stroll around the farm and found lots to photograph.
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My original plan was to make a third stop at the Chesterfield Gorge. However, I looked at the time and decided I did not have time. This was the correct decision as I made it Brattleboro with about twenty minutes to spare before our 10 AM get together.
Here it is the end of April and I have not posted any new photos since the 10th of March. Early spring is usually a slow time for me photographically, but this year given the pandemic, has been especially slow.
I have been spending much of my time thinking about and making cyanotypes and I continue to do this. I have made some new photographs in April mostly by taking a camera with me on my regular walks around the area, although I did not download any files off the camera until today.
So, here are ten photos made in April… the earliest from the 6th and the most recent from the 28th. They are displayed in chronological order below.
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It has been just a month since my last post. Like most of us, I imagine, my world has shrunk in these strange times. I have not made many new photographs in the past month. I have been busy though.
Back on 3 January, according to Amazon, I bought some “black light” LED strips with the intention of refitting my UV exposure unit. This unit is used for making alternative process prints via contact printing.
When I made this unit, probably fifteen years ago, I used fluorescent bulbs designed for reptile cages. These bulbs were getting old and cranky. I know… just like me! Three of the six bulbs would not start at all no matter how much I fiddled.
Thus about two weeks ago, I finally broke out the screwdrivers and pliers, removed the fluorescent fixtures and replaced them with the LED strips. It took me all of a half hour. I’m not sure why I waited so long!
Light source at hand, and a bunch of virially induced downtime available I have begun making cyanotypes again. It has probably twelve years since I last worked regularly in cyanotype
Since 31 March I have spent six sessions working in my “dim room” in the basement*. I basically started from scratch by determining exposure times with the new light source. The LEDs are about twice as fast as the old bulbs were. Exposures are taking 5 minutes give or take.
I moved on to printing step tables in order to optimize the curve applied when I print negatives digitally. These curves are used to control contrast.
I then explored variations in processing and a number of different papers.
Yesterday, things really started to come together and I made decent prints from three negatives as shown below**.
Shown are files straight from the scanner with no further processing. They show the entire piece of paper… I even left in the step tables for those who care! 😉
The digital versions are just a bit flatter than the actual prints. The images are 4.5″ square and come from my camera obscura.
The first two are printed on Arches Hot Press, a traditional watercolor paper. The third is printed on Stonehenge White, a traditional printmaking paper. Both papers are very smooth, 100% rag papers and are relatively “heavy”; 300 gsm for the Arches and 250 gsm for the Stonehenge.
I’m close! Another final tweak to the curve to, hopefully, improve contrast in the highlights and I’ll be ready for serious work!
After that it is back to experimenting with toning of cyanotypes. This is something I had much fun with previously.
Then maybe I’ll move on to Van Dyke Browns or salt prints. Those will take much more effort in terms of a darker workspace and how to handle the waste. Having a septic system makes one think very carefully about the latter!
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* One reason that cyanotype is nice is that, being a UV sensitive process, one does not need a strictly dark room. Avoiding sunlight or fluorescent lighting all together and using dim light otherwise suffices.
** I picked these three images to test with because, for cyanotype, these represent difficult tonality. Cyanotype has a fairly short range and contrast is somewhat limited compared to silver-based processes or, especially to digital prints. In my view, these three images push the limits of what is possible with cyanotype.
This week is town meeting week. Elections for town offices were held today and the town meeting is Thursday evening.
“Meeting” is one of the three “M words” associated with March in northern New England. The other two are “mud” and “maple”. Mud season has been unexciting this year. Judging from the great plumes of steam emanating from local sugar shacks, the sap is running well.
After I voted this morning, I meandered, with cameras in tow, through Hillsborough and Deering with short traverses through “corners” of Hennicker and Francestown. I stopped at a favorite farm on Bear Hill Road in Hillsborough and discovered a new (to me) church in East Deering.
By the time I got to East Deering the interesting skies had turned smooth gray and it had begun to drizzle. I’ll be returning to East Deering when the conditions (light and skies) are better.
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Last Saturday morning I headed to Brattleboro for the monthly meeting of a group of “photo friends”. We show each other new prints and discuss some photographic topic each time we get together. After lunch and a visit to both the used bookstore and the art supply store, I meandered home hoping to make some photographs. It took me three hours to make what is a one hour drive if I head directly home. The light was ugly and the skies cloudless. I stopped only once, in Lempster, NH as the sun was beginning to set and made the first photo in this series.
This morning, the light was much better. There were thin, high clouds and thus nice soft, yet directional light. After a visit to the grocery store, I made a loop through Hillsborough Center and East Washington where I made the remainder of the photographs in this series. I arrived home (with the making of a sald) just in time for lunch.
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This afternoon was cold and blustery. There were a couple of brief snow showers but the clouds were broken and moving fast.
After moving some firewood (a daily chore) and filling the bird feeders (a roughly weekly chore), I headed out for a short drive. My initial goal was the orchard on Norway Hill in Hancock. I am toying with the idea of an “orchard project”. We’ll see.
From Norway Hill, I headed to my favorite hill top… Meeting House Hill in Antrim.
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