The work that goes in

Ok it has been a bit since I updated my photography world here and surely my legion of peeps are holding their breathe to know what could be next…HaHa!!  Anyway, it has been a bit slow as of late mainly due to me.  I have taken a few rolls of film, but have been unable to enlarge (print to paper) them due to the fact I have been a slacker and not picked up any new paper.  So I decided to write on the process of developing film today.  It is a very tedious process, but necessary…obviously.

Well first let me explain our set up, its very basic, but perfect for the house or apartment.  We have a huge black plastic sheet blocking out all light in the kitchen so it covers the door and another to cover the window.  It is “I can’t see my hand in front of my face”  dark.  It is n the kitchen because you need the water and the light is usually minimal in there.  You have to lay out 4 chemical baths and a water bath, so space is a requirement as well.

It all begins by taking the spool of  film and cracking it open in the total darkness.  You then locate the scissors and cut the spool and end off  and then respool it onto a carrier…all in the pitch black, like close your eyes now…that black.  This is not very easy, but gets better with practice, unfortunately I do not have a lot of practice and once the film is out of the case no light can be turned on.  Once you get all 4 rolls spooled on the carriers you put them in a mixing tin that has a light proof top, you may now turn on the lights.

Now before you start you mix all these chemicals in these pitchers that you pour in the mixing tin.  There is developer, stop bath, fixer, wash and photo flo.

That is not lemonade on the counter

So the first chemical you mix up for 6 and a half minutes shaking it for 5 seconds every 30 seconds. The second one is even worse it goes the same for 10 minutes with a shake every 30.  Like I said it is tedious and time consuming.  The other 3 aren’t so bad, but there is one where you fill it with water 20 times and dump it.  This where all my years of bartending actually paid off  shaking that shaker like a Friday night bartender!!

Now that all that is done you squeegee the film and let it dry hanging from the towel rod like a pair of pantyhose…HaHa!!! Then in about an hour you have your film.  Now you can look and see if that once in a lifetime shot from 3 weeks ago even worked out.  If there is one thing this whole process of photography has taught me is patience, there is not any instant gratification in film photography.  Well until next time, which will either be about some new shoot, printing photographs, or if I get off my butt and go buy some paper I will have some shots for y’all.  Take care.

KevC

 

First Sale!!!!…..kinda

SOLD!!!!!!

Wortham Falls

Car Wash

Well I sold my first 2 photograph’s…kinda.  My neighbor had a benefit and I donated these 2 photographs, well they sold.   My friend told me now that I have sold something I am officially a photographer…I laughed.  Not going to lie it was really cool, some of the people interested were asking me questions about it. I of course acted as if  I had been doing it all my life.  It is nice to know that something you saw and liked is of enough interest to someone else for them to purchase it…good stuff.

I haven’t shot too many new things as of late, so i will be due for a good run.  I have a couple of fun ideas for my bike series, but those are mainly for me.  I am looking for shots locally, like real local, in the Heights local.  There is a slight plan involving this, but I am not ready to pull the curtain back on that yet…all in do time.  We went out one night shooting last week and it was just not a good night, found nothing, just didn’t have the eye.  Its odd some nights we can spend hours on one block seeing all kinds of shots and others we drive all around and end up with nothing.  Oh well we always have a blast looking for the next great shot.

Well thanks for reading and take care!!

KevC

Naming Stuff

Well I did the strangest thing this past weekend, I actually named, signed and numbered my first set of prints.  It was nothing at all, they were gifts to family for just being there for me, but still very odd.  I try to live a very humble life and it goes against everything I do to own, name and say there will be 13 of something.  As my mentor/guru (she digs reading this stuff) says these are things we “artist’s” must do.  I hardly call my self a photographer, but I play one one in my life!!

The first one I gave to my brother and his wife.  I named it “Beach Mill”, it was taken on one of our excursions down to Galveston and while on the bayside of the west end we found these ranches.  When I printed the negative, it instantly made me think of my brother and his family and their ranch.

Beach Mill

So while it would be nice to just push a button labeled print and be done with it, I use film so here is the process it took to make the photo.  Mind you this is a scanned in version of the negative, to make the photo it took about 23 seconds.  Lets say to get all that brush to look right you had to “dodge” (moving cardboard over the image to block the light for a few seconds) the area.  I really had to work at the section on the bottom left for a few extra seconds, and let me tell you about the sky.  It took about 3 tries to get it right, but finally we used the right contrast (the difference between dark and light) filter and burned it in enough.  To do this you cover up all the rest of the image and let just the sky burn into the paper for a few extra seconds.  Doesn’t sound bad, except all this is going on at once in a span of 23 seconds…awesome fun!!!

Next up is a photo for my Mom.  I named it “Historical Influence”.  My mother is/ was a teacher and was enthralled with History.  So this was an easy one!!

Historical Influence

The hardest part of this picture was taking it, I think I have been by there like 5 times have 3 shoots and the last one was the only one that worked.  I mean there was a bad tripod, no film once, a terrible shoot and something else that kept me from getting this shot.  I had literally been wanting this shot since April, its almost as bad as my downtown one (another story).  Ooops, ok she didn’t get the one with the bike in it.  That is a whole other series I am working on…I have said too much.  Well thats what I learned this weekend, stay tuned there will be more to come.

KevC

Earlier photographs

Dandelion

Lucky, that’s all I can say here.  I was taking a picture of just the pipes, then 20 seconds in to the photograph it came back on.  That is why you can see all the pipes in side the water.

Light Bridge

      This is one of my favorites, I could actually see how this one was going to turn out in my head.  The play of light and shadow is what drew me to take this picture.

Light People

These sculptures were just too fun to pass up. If you look closely you can see my friend and mentor taking her photo from the other end.  Also they can be found in the Light Bridge photo in the background.