Photographs by Frank

25 October 2010

Ferric Gum Printing — Experimental Images

Filed under: Alternative Processes,Ferric Gum — Frank @ 3:14 PM

As some of you know, I have an interest in alternative photographic processes. Alternative processes can be loosely defined as processes that form images without the use of silver salts and that involve contact printing. This group of processes are sometime also characterized as “historical” since most of them date from the late nineteenth century during the period in which modern photography was first developed.

In the main, I stick with making cyanotypes one of the easiest alternative processes to master;  examples of my work in cyanotype can be found on my main web site.

Additionally, I have experimented a bit with making gum bichromate prints as well. However, despite their inherent beauty, I have pretty much given up on gum prints because the  chromate compounds needed are toxic and very “un-green” in the environmental sense.

Thus, I was intrigued to read an article describing a “‘new”  method called the “ferric gum process” at one of the web sites I peruse on occasion (i.e. Alternative Photography.com). Over the past week or so, I have spent a bit of time experimenting with this technique and have found that it lives up to its billing… it is an interesting but still imperfect process.

I have posted the details of my experiments on the discussion board at alternativephotography.com and so will not repeat them here.

UPDATE (17 Dec 2017): It turns out that the record of the original discussion at alternativephotography.com was lost at some point when they switched discussion software. Fortunately, I had printed out most (all?) of the discussion for my records. I have scanned these paper copies and have added them here as thee pdf files: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. While not a perfect replacement for the original, it is the best we have.

Rather, I’ll just show scans of my best efforts to date:

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Clearly, these images are not perfect and much work will be needed to perfect the process. I hope to play a part in this, along with Michael and Peter (see the link, above, to the on-line discussion). The combination of art and chemistry really hits a soft spot in my heart!

I’ll post more both here and on the message board at alternatephotography.com when I have new results to share.

16 October 2010

The Butterflies of Sachuest Point

Filed under: National Wildlife Refuges,Other Insects,Uncategorized,Wildlife — Tags: — Frank @ 10:57 AM

Last Monday (the Columbus Day Holiday), Joan and I took a drive to Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge in Middletown Road Island.

This refuge, which is about a 45 minute drive from the house, is one of my favorite photographic haunts in winter when there are many ducks, including harlequins, in residence.

I suspected that early October would be too early for many overwintering birds and this proved correct. However, we were pleasantly surprised by the abundance of butterflies. We saw dozens of monarchs, presumably on their migration south, as well as smaller numbers of three or four other species.

Flowers for nectaring were few and far between… the most abundant being goldenrod… so I suspect that we were seeing the trailing edge of the migratory wave.

Photographically, I went equipped for birds, taking my Sigma 50-500mm lens. While this is not the ideal equipment for shooting butterflies, it is serviceable with subjects as large as monarchs as long as you are willing to accept some cropping of the final images. Thus, most of these shots represent about half of the full frame.

Here are a half dozen images from the afternoon:

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5 October 2010

Mystic Seaport

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — Frank @ 7:23 PM

Last Saturday, my friend Dana and I spent a very pleasant day at Mystic Seaport.

It was a gray, overcast day so the flat light limited the possibilities with regard to grand landscapes, but there was still plenty to see and photograph… lots of details to keep a photographer busy. One could definitely be kept “off the streets and out of trouble” for a day or even two by the photographic possibilities

One mini theme that emerged during the day was “windows”:

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Here are the other “keepers” from the day:

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and

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Comments and critiques are welcome, as always. Thanks!

17 September 2010

Hanging Out with the Ecologists

Filed under: Odontates,Other Insects,Southeastern MA — Tags: , , — Frank @ 12:07 PM

My friend Kevin teaches ecology lab on Thursday’s. I had some unscheduled time during the middle of the day yesterday, so I tagged along to see if I could get photographs of the critters they caught… better than sitting in my office working!

The field work for the lab takes place in Wyman’s Meadow, a parcel of conservation land near campus. I arrived at the meadow about 10:45, a half hour before Kevin and the students, and was treated to the sight of a red-tailed hawk lazily circling high above the fields… too high for photographs. I watched “him” make three circuits of the fields before heading off. There were also a large number of dragonflies (mostly darners) moving rapidly and feeding fifteen or twenty feet off the ground in the warmth of the bright mid-day sun; also too high, and too fast, for photographs.

I stalked dragonflies and butterflies while waiting for Kevin and his students to arrive and got a couple of shots of a female common whitetail and some other small insect sitting on a milkweed pod. I also got a few shots of some of the vegetation… although the harsh mid-day light was not ideal.

The day’s task for each group of students was to lay out two distinct 24 square meter plots of ground and to sample the insects in each area three times. Sampling insects involves rapidly sweeping a large net back and forth through the vegetation and collecting whatever is caught in a zip lock bag. If preying mantis are caught, their presence (and number) is noted but these insects are released; the other insects caught are taken back to the lab for further analysis.

The students did sweep up a number of preying mantis and I did get a few shots… the combination of the harsh light and the fact that these critters were fairly well “spooked”, having just been swept up into a budding scientists net did not make for ideal conditions… but then again, one rarely gets ideal conditions when photographing wildlife! Any way, I did get a few usable frames.

After a couple of hours, I headed back to my office for a 1 PM appointment and Kevin did the lab a second time with another group of students.

As I was packing up to head home around 5 PM, I had passing thought of heading back out the Wyman’s Meadow on the way home just to see what was there and expecting better light, at least for a short while. Feeling tired and noting the heavy overcast, I decided just to head home.

I was headed out the front door of the building, I ran in to Kevin who about to return the van he used to shuttle students around all afternoon. He informed me that he had tagged a milkweed plant covered in engorged aphids if I wanted to try to get some photographs.  I guess that my “second wind” must have kicked in since I pointed the truck in the direction of Wyman’s Meadow instead of home. I spent less than an hour there in the fading light, but I did indeed find the plant Kevin had tagged and got some interesting shots of the aphids.

As I packed things back into the truck a few minute after six, I noticed a few raindrops on the windshield. A few minutes after I arrived home (it is a very short ride, five minutes at most) the rain began in earnest.

Anyway, here are the day’s photos:

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12 September 2010

Caterpillars

Filed under: "Camp",Other Insects,The Yard,Wildlife — Tags: — Frank @ 10:31 AM

And now for something completely somewhat just a little different…

Twice over the past week, Joan alerted me to the presence of interesting caterpillars in the neighborhood.

Of course, as a husband photographer who wants to keep on the good side of my wife chief wildlife spotter, I came promptly with my camera sporting a 90 mm macro lens with a 32 mm extension tube in both cases. Off camera flash was also used in both cases, flash with softbox, set to 1-2 stops under ambient, and lying on the ground nearby.

Both of these “fellows” were found literally with in feet of our front doors… the brown furry “guy” at our “camp” in NH over Labor Day weekend and the multicolored “guy” at the house yesterday.

I have no idea on their identities, but here are the photos:

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29 August 2010

Praying Mantis

Filed under: Other Insects,The Yard — Tags: — Frank @ 10:32 AM

On Friday, I spent the late afternoon doing yard work; one of the chores was “weed whacking” the overgrowth in a bed that Joan had decided not to use this year. You can only imaging how high the weeds were after a summer of utter neglect!

After I finished this chore, I headed into the house to work on getting dinner ready. A few minutes later Joan announced that she had seen a praying mantis in the bed where I had just cut down the weeds.

Of course, dinner preparations were put on hold as I grabbed the camera (with the 90 mm macro lens) and headed back out to the yard… now you know what my priorities are!

As I was photographing one individual, Joan spotted a second individual a few feet away. Both were very cooperative, staying mostly still and posing politely!

Here are the resulting frames:

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28 August 2010

The End of August

Filed under: Amphibians,Other Insects,Wildlife — Tags: , , — Frank @ 8:00 AM

Well… here it is, the end of August and we are back home trying to get our heads wrapped around the idea of going back to work! (I know we won’t get much sympathy from those who did work all or most of the summer!)

I quipped to a number of people over the last few weeks that we we spent the summer practicing for retirement. Of course, I also had to say that we seemed to be getting pretty good at it and thus maybe we should try the real thing. Alas, the reality of finances won’t allow for that quite yet.

Peak time for odontates is the month of July… by the time the end of August rolls around the numbers of dragonflies and damselflies are way down from the peak. Also, having spent the past six or seven weeks actively photographing the critters adds a feeling that there is not much too see.

These factors, and having the weather a bit cooler, lead us to spend a few days taking some hikes around the area… we revisited places that we had not seen in some years and saw some new spots that were not lake-side habitat. We also found some new photographic subjects.

We spent time in the area between Gregg Lake and Willard Pond on two days and visited the McCabe Forest (a Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests reservation along the Contoocook River in Antrim.) I also spent an hour or so one afternoon in the fields at the Bass Farm found a couple of cooperative butterflies to photograph.

On the ledges atop Goodhue Hill, one sunny early afternoon, we watched dozens of darners (one family of large dragonflies) feasting on insects that we could not see. They were in constant flight… which explains why I have no photographs! (Note to Joan: I can get photos of dragonflies in flight… it will just require a bit of new equipment!!!)

Anyway, here are a half dozen photos from these hikes:

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26 August 2010

Loveren’s Mill Cedar Swamp

Filed under: Odontates,Other Insects — Tags: , , — Frank @ 8:00 AM

In the interest of exploring new ecological niches, a few weeks back Joan and I took a hike at the Loveren’s Mill Cedar Swamp. This large preserve, in the northern part of Antrim, is owned and maintained by the Nature Conservancy.

The trail winds its way along the North Branch river which was loaded with Ebony Jewelwings, a damselfly that prefers fast running water. In the sunny spots along the roads we often saw white-faced meadowhawks; these were also present in the cedar swamp proper. In the pine woods we saw (but could not photograph) at least two different darners. I’m not sure if they were different species or male and female of the same species… the darn things (I know, bad pun) did not sit still long enough to get a good look at them. Lastly, we also saw a butterfly that makes a good demonstration of camouflage.

We also scared up a young bull moose while we were walking down the trail. We were about 50 feet away when he jumped up from behind a large rock where he was taking a siesta. He paused briefly (trying to decide which way to go?) before taking off down the trail away from us. I’m still not sure who was more surprised… the moose or Joan!

No moose photos though! One of the “problems” with the odonate rig is that with the lens mounted on the extension tube you can not focus more than about six feet away. So, by the time I got the tube off and the lens remounted, the big fellow was long gone. I can hear Joan now. “Excuses… excuses, a real photographer would have gotten the shot’!

Anyway, here are the photos, that I did get:

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25 August 2010

The Odontate Rig in Action

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Frank @ 8:00 AM

Loyal readers will remember, I started the summer by assembling and testing a “dragonfly rig“.

Most of the photos I have taken this summer used “the rig”. A few folks have asked to see the rig in action. So here are a couple of photos.

Joan took this (somewhat staged) one as I returned from an “expedition”:

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My friend Dana got a candid shot during his visit earlier this summer:

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Click either image for a larger view.

P.S. to Joe… no photos of me flat on my belly in the water yet! It is not that it hasn’t happened recently. It is just that Joan does not want to spend here day’s following me around waiting for it to happen!

24 August 2010

Dana’s Vist to Camp

Filed under: "Camp",Amphibians,Odontates — Tags: , , — Frank @ 7:47 AM

My friend (and fellow photographer) Dana Lipp came to camp for a day trip about a week ago.

As we usually do when we get together, we chat about many things, even photography on occasion. We also often find time to make some photographs.

This day we haunted, as is my habit, the lake shore near camp. The lake as been dropping all summer and so by mid-August there was a bit of dry(ish) land all along the shore. Thus Dana did not get the “full effect” but I am sure that he’ll agree he got the essential felling of the experience!

It was very interesting to see Dana’s photographic take on an area where I have spent an extensive amount of time; he saw subjects that I have overlooked for months and made some very nice photographs. Dana posts his photos on Flicker and so I will just link to his “Antrim Camp” set there.

And here are a few of the photos I took that day:

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