Why do this?

There are a lot of reasons.

1. Cost- It would cost me somewhere between 1-2 thousand dollars to get a comparable digital camera. I bought my N90 off a co-worker for under 200. Each print costs me as little as 60 cents (although practically speaking it amounts to much more than that).
2. Curiosity- I've always wondered how the whole process worked, you see it in movies like "Ghostbusters" or "The Crush" and these characters just seem to be able to work in a darkroom like it's second nature.
3. Fun- Working in a darkroom is cathartic.
4. Weirdness- This hobby is a counterculture statement as much as anything.
5. Art-Last but not least. There is a great deal of creativity to be had not only in the composition of the moment, but the exposure, and the process of creating prints.

Digital photography has proven that the mass appeal of photography has only two aspects. Journalism and narcissism. In some respects, that's made it easier to zero in on the kind of artistic style I'm pursuing. It also means that it's difficult to explain to people who see me with a camera, and make assumptions about what I'm doing. They pose for pictures and express shock that it's a film camera. This is fun too. :)

Below is tonight's print, scanned in with my new scanner. Actually, I've made two prints of the same exposure to help bring out some of what you can do on the printing end. In this case, the darker photo is a 4x5 proof, while the lighter one is an 8x10 for my portfolio. They were made with the same enlarger, with the same chemicals, the same timings, from the same negative. So why are they so different? I'll post why in the next couple of days, along with more details about the location.

Enjoy, and as usual, let me know if you're interested in a signed framed print.

Canoscan!

The day after I printed the large brass lion in my previous post, I ordered a Canon Scanner for 55 bucks from Provantage.com. The very next day, today, My order arrived at around 9 am. They sent me an email confirmation of my order at 4:11 pm on Thursday, and delivered it at 9 am Friday. Crazy. So I busted out the new scanner and tried it out on my previously posted prints. Here's how they turned out.

I've decided that unless I state otherwise, all digital images on this site are hereby licensed under the creative commons 2 artistic license. If you're want to, you can print them out and display them or give them to whomever you like - although they'll probably think you're cheap for not buying a signed, framed print from a struggling artist. :) I'm not really worried about corporations profiting from my work, the scans are 600 dpi and there's dust on the scanner mixing with the imperfections in negatives and the prints themselves. And anyways the recognition would be just as valuable if they did.

"How they lived"

Ok, I think I'm going to give up on trying to take digitals of the prints while already framed.  Next time I'll try taking pictures of the prints in my portfolio notebook - that's where I'm going to put them anyways. 

Featured tonight is another print from our trip to DC last weekend. This digital copy of it really sucks. On the print you can see the words in the stone which say "It is not how these officers died that makes them heroes, but how they lived."

I need to start scanning these in.

Anyways, I also found some really cool modernistic black frames today, which look way better than the ruddy brown frame in my last post. 

Edit: While trying out the new black frames, I cut the hell out of my finger. So far - blood and sweat. Now all I need is tears and I'll have a trifecta. 

Cubs

As you can see, it's kind of challenging to capture a print with a crappy point and shoot. I'll try to always post two of each print to make up for it.

This picture was taken the same day as the title print "Photography Not Permitted". The National Building Museum is in the background, and this is one of many brass lion sculptures that make up the National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial at Judiciary square. I highly recommend visiting the memorial. It's a similar experience to the Vietnam memorial; an unknown gem.

This exposure was with the same roll of 400 speed Neopan, at F/4 and 1/2000th shutter speed. It was a fairly bright day. If you're interested in this print, remind me that I used a 14 second exposure - which was perfect for the light in the negative.

Black and White

I intend to use this as a showcase for my photography work. I haven't yet worked out any of the details for the off chance anyone is interested in purchasing framed, signed prints, but for now just email me and we'll work it out. 

The main picture on this blog includes a print that I made this evening using my beseler condenser enlarger. The negative was a 35mm exposure taken with my Nikon N90, using a Nikor 2.8 lens. Unless I specify otherwise, this is the only hardware I have for now. I used Fuji Neopan 400, which I've been favoring lately. I made the exposure at the Philip Trager exhibit at the national building museum this weekend. 

You can also see in the digital picture some of my other darkroom bric-a-brak. Believe it or not, I did not have to do anything to compose this shot other than toss the completed print onto my workbench.  If there's any interest, I can do a post on the whole process.