"(and) Did you exchange..."

Exp: 50mm + 17 diopter @ f/1.8 - 1/8th
Film: Kodak Tmax 400
File: 9-6
At: - / 40
On: Resin Coated Grade 4 pearl (matte) 8x10

Exp: 50mm @ f/4 - 1/125th
Film: Ilford Delta 3200
File: 10-5
At: 1 / 50

On: Resin Coated Grade 4 Glossy 8x10

Since the birth of my son, I haven't had a chance to do much with photography other than do a little reading and try some experiments. The first print with today's title "(and) did you exchange" is an enormous enlargement of a dime using a 5$ set of diopter magnification filters I bought a couple of weeks ago. They fit both of my 52mm diameter lenses, and should provide lots of fun possibilities. I used the +4 for the feet picture on our family blog - teamsax.blogspot.com. They are split into 4 lenses, 10, 4, 2 and 1, and are additive- I used them all for this picture. 

The exchange made here is not only monetary, but also I've exchanged magnification for depth of field. Being a few degrees off of perpendicular means that the top and bottom of the coin would not be in focus. I didn't have enough light to stop down any further without my hand vibration blurring the picture, and by getting close I imposed quite a shadow on the subject. Photography is often about exchanging one variable for another.

I couldn't get away with not putting a picture of my new baby boy up too, and I'm proud to display the first print I've made of little Karl - the fourth Sax to bear the name in the last century. The exchange here is in reference to the pictured care provider on the day of his birth. We exchanged a hospital birth for a home one, an OB for a midwife, and medical interventions for the Bradley method. It is rare in our society to encounter such a value, for 3k$ we had a team of them standing by with us at every contraction, checking to make sure we were safe and guiding us along the way throughout the night and most of the 21 hours of active labor.

Without these wonderful people, and our commitment to our own success, I am certain that Karl's birth would have ended in a cesarean section. Instead, we got a *very* healthy little boy, and my wonderful wife is sitting beside me with a *much* easier recovery than she would have had otherwise. The only downside is that our insurance did not cover this wonderful experience. Where a hospital vaginal delivery would have cost 6k$, and the inevitable c-section would have cost 12k$ (and put Claire at risk for MRSA, among other things) the insurance company fails to realize the enormous savings that would result if they did not deny this coverage, and allowed more women to choose a midwife. This is why we need health care reform, and why we shouldn't be so fearful of how our society might "pay" for it. Often, a doctor knows best, and acts in the best interest of the safety of their patients, but in some situations, such as birth, they are acting on the needs of a society more concerned with litigation and convenience than on sound medicine.

With health care reform, we just might save money, and lives.

"A walk on part in the war"

Exp: 50mm - f/4 - 1/60th

Film: ilford delta 100

File: 8 - 30

At: -/55

We ran into this blue heron while on a walk in Great Falls Maryland. It's important to the title to understand that this bird is hunting, as part of a constant fight for it's survival. We were able to be within feet of it because we are so insignificant to this fight. In this case my part was the walk on role.

I have a few other nice negatives and prints from this trip that may show up later on in this series as well.

Edit: This picture looks much nicer if you click on it and view it at full resolution. 600dpi doesn't do it justice, but that's a huge improvement over the small picture shown in the body of the post.

"(for a) Lead role in a cage"

Exp: 28mm - f4 - 1/15

Film: Kodak Tmax 400

File: 7-19

At: - / 30

I've decided that any additional writing in the posts of this project won't compromise my artistic vision. Some people have been thrown off by this project, so I'll reiterate that I am composing an image with a title that happens to belong to each lyric of the song "Wish you were here" by Pink Floyd. As each piece is an individual work that I own, this is a clear cut case of fair use. It's a good way to keep me thinking about my new hobby, and my way of taking back some of our culture from big music labels.

Well, I obviously sort of floundered with this lyric (its been over a month); it was hard to come up with a composition that wasn't too obvious. In order to keep myself moving I'm going to try to commit to making a print to post for every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This may be hard in the next few weeks as we have a baby due.

Also, I've been doing a lot of reading - Ansel Adams' series "the camera", "the negative", and "the print." It's a different experience than textbooks in school. Maybe it's the more directed learning experience, learning something you actually want to learn makes every page a revelation, instead of a chore. I wanted to get through more of these books before I made more prints.

I got a new lens, a 50mm f1.8 series E nikon that's probably older than me. Fantastic quality for an insanely low price, and it's a good companion to my 28mm f2.8 series E. I'll include which lens and maybe fstop and exposure information with my prints ( if I remember or write it down) along with the information I already post: File: negative page- frame number, At: filter-print exposure time.