Potash Road, Moab

Moab is another place near and very dear to me.  The rock formations, arches, and the mighty Colorado River make it a timeless place.  While walking around the area you can hear and feel the spirit of the early explorers whispering in your ear.  It's magical!  If I wasn't so enamored with New Mexico, I'd want to live in Moab....who knows...maybe one day I will.

This was made with a homemade 4 x 5 pinhole and some ERA 100 sheet film.  I really liked this film from China, but I can't get it anymore.

It performs like T-max but was about half the cost.

Fort McKavett in slow light

Fort Mckavett is a dear and special place.  After you arrive, your pulse will slow, a grin will permanently affix itself to your face and the sky will share its stars like no other place on Earth.

True, it does get cloudy sometimes, but friends and food more than make up for any pesky clouds trying to spoil a good time.

These photos were all made with a pinhole camera this past fall.  I've made hundreds of photos here, but each time I go to the Fort the sky is different, the light is different and my walking around in a pinhole trance is different so I keep adding to my collection.

The most impressive ruin on the site is the old Commanding Officers Quarters.  It looks small in this photo, but believe me it's huge!  Unlike some other parks or historical sites, you can walk up to and inside this one and feel the history leaking out of the walls.  I love this building!

This is a view of the parade grounds.  As you can see it was windy because the flag is blown straight out. This old tree is known as the hangin' tree.  At one time the folks at the site were thinking of removing it because it's long dead, but changed their minds and decided to let it stay.   I'm happy they did because I'm very attached to it.

It's the first thing I look for upon arrival at the Fort and I always tell it hello and touch the rough bark.  Little critters use it for shelter.  I think a lot of other folks are attached to it too and hope it stays.

Here's another view of the Commanding Officer's Quarters through some live oak trees.
This is one of the first views I ever shot with a pinhole camera.  I keep working on getting a really good one, but for now this one will do.

The shirt says it all!  Star Party!
This is my dear friend Dan.  He's a past president of The Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society and was gracious enough to remain still for this pinhole portrait!

Some of my fondest memories at the Fort involve sitting on this porch and visiting with my good friends.
Dan is an exceptional conversationalist!

Up a Tree

This was a practice shot made with a Holga I converted to pinhole.

I've converted several Holgas to pinhole and each one of them shoots a bit differently....this particular camera went to Patagonia to a teacher!

It really makes me happy to spread some pinhole fun around the world!

Dirty Laundry

I have always liked laundromats.  A lot!

I don't know if it's the sight of all that shiny glass and chrome around the doors of the washers and dryers, or just the fact that there's big-time instant gratification about having clean warm clothes just out of the dryer that smell fresh.

It's also a quiet place, one where you can hear your own thoughts, unless one of the washers is out of balance and then the whole building sounds like it's coming apart! But normally it's very peaceful.

I'm also rather fond of folding clothes...even fitted sheets, which I fold well enough that the woman that runs the laundry calls me "the sheet lady".

Today I took my Illy coffee can pinhole along with me to pass the time while washing clothes. I usually read while I'm waiting but I had just finished a book and didn't really want to start another one so played with the pinhole instead.

This was a 10 minutes exposure on Arista Ultra 4 x 5 sheet film.
Marinated in caffenol for 7 minutes.

What could be easier than that?

Working Out!

It's been bitter cold for about 5 days and instead of staying inside with a bad case of cabin fever, I went outside for some pinhole fun while my hubby cut up some firewood.

The only heat we have in our house is from a small wood-burning stove, but hold on before you start offering sympathies.  It's not a bad way to heat, plus it's a renewable source, plus cutting and gathering firewood is a great workout!

Our home is small, so it's easy to keep it warm with the wood stove.

This is a 2 minute exposure made with a 4 x 5 Santa Barbara pinhole camera.
Ilford FP4 125 speed sheet film.

Winter Window Garden

Click on the image to see it bigger!  It looks better large.

It is my pleasure to offer something new...new as far as I just shot this, today!

While working on  getting my pinhole groove back, I noticed that I had a few exposures left in my Zero Image 2000 pinhole.  It shoots 120 film and was loaded with Fuji Acros 100.  Perfect!

What to shoot, what to shoot?  It's blowing a gale outdoors so I decided to shoot my little indoor window garden.

Besides pinhole and peanut butter, I do like to tinker with plants.  I come from a long line of green thumbs, (almost all of my ancestors were farmers in the mid-west) so having a small garden is par for the course.

I have a couple of Amaryllis that are in various stages of growing and blooming.  An African Violet that just won't stop blooming.  A Jade tree that weighs a ton that I started from a little cutting from a friend, and "Big Mama".

Big Mama is an aloe Vera plant that I brought here with me from Texas.
She, and I know she's a she because she is constantly having babies that I re-pot and give away, weighs about 60 pounds, blooms in the summer and has saved me many a blister from assorted burns I've suffered over the years.

Big Mama is 12 years old and makes me smile every time I see her.  This may sound goofy to just smile about a plant, but I do like her a lot.  She spends the cold months indoors with the jade tree, African Violets and my Christmas Cactus.  The rest of the year she and her buddies go outside in the sunshine and warm air.

The Christmas Cactus just finished blooming and will bloom again around Easter.  Some people have told me they have trouble getting them to bloom again after they bring them home from the store, but mine seems to be really happy in my south window.
So there you have it. My family of plants.

Oh! And yes, that is an avocado pit growing in water on the far right.  I can't help myself but to grow one each year.  There's something primal about seeing the tangled mass of roots twining around themselves in the water that I can't resist.

This Zero Image 2000 pinhole is 2 shots welded together in PS.  I say welded because the seam is visible and not too neat, but it was the best job I could do considering I moved the camera too much when setting things up.
Anyway, I've totally rambled on about it too much, so enjoy.

Next time I'll shoot this in colour so you can see the delicate hue of the violets and Amaryllis.   I love those bulbs!

Let's get this pinhole party started!

Since it's been a month since I've really posted any pinhole stuff, I've got a lot of catching up to do.

Blondies, Corona, New Mexico.
July 2013 road trip

This was made with a Holga that I converted to pinhole and some Fomapan 100 film.

I really like this camera because it is small, it's extremely lightweight and it uses 120 film so I don't have to reload too often.

It's truly easy to travel with.

Peanut Butter and Pinhole

Peanut Butter and Pinhole

One has nothing to do with the other except they are two of my all-time favorite things!

They each sustain me albeit on very different levels.

Peanut butter (always crunchy) feeds my late night cravings before I go to sleep and pinhole feeds my imagination and creative soul.

It seems they are forever entwined now because I can’t dream without either one of them.

If I think a little bit more about this unlikely combo, I can link them further.

Peanut butter is pure, at least the kind I eat is.  No sugar, no oil, no fluffifiers, nothing but ground up peanuts and salt.

Open the lid and eat it right out of the jar with a spoon!  It's simplicity at its best.

Pinhole is pure too.  It's just a light tight box with a hole in it.  No dials, no blinky lights, and no fooling around. 

Open the box, insert a film and make a photo!  More simple goodness! 

I'm going to stop writing now before you figure out I'm just a light tight box full of nuts.

I'll post a few pinhole photos in a day or two….after I have some peanut butter.

Beck

p.s. I've missed being here!

I'm almost back.....

It's been a while since I've posted anything but it's not from lack of being busy.

How about a turbo update?
I spent a weekend in Tucson perusing the latest and greatest in all things astronomy last weekend!  Looking at telescopes is what makes my heart and mind the happiest!

I've been watching Comet ISON and LOvejoy in the mornings but not making any photos.

Two of my pinhole images were selected for the LenZless show at Plates to Pixels.
You can see them at http://platestopixels.com/blog/exhibitions/lenzless/

I was featured in BLUR magazine.

My "one month one camera'" project with the Shakey's has gone by quickly and I feel a bit of melancholy that it is winding down.

My next project will be exclusively with pinhole...I'm still working out the details of it, but it's going to be fun!

Solstice is just weeks away so I'm already building solargraph cameras for it.

Winter unofficially arrived with 10 inches of snow this weekend.

I did a lot more stuff, but mainly I am a re-organized less cluttered, happier person now!

Oh, and I'm skipping Christmas this year.  No gifts, just good tidings!

hiatus...of sorts

A few weeks ago I decided I would use one camera, and one camera only for the month of November
The camera I chose for the "one month, one camera" project is a Shakey's.
The Shakey's is a Diana clone, except it doesn't have any controls at all like some Diana's do.  No focusing, no aperture control, no nothing.  Just a shutter that clicks.

It shoots 120 size film and makes 16 exposures on each roll.

I am doing this not as punishment, but more as a way to hone my skills as a photographer and focus on subject matter and light and not futz around with a bunch of cameras that do different things.
Simplifying  and getting back to basics.

This means, well it almost means there will be NO pinhole photography for a month.

That is unless I hack the Shakey's and put a pinhole in it somehow...which I might, but I'm going to try and use the Shakey's au jus, and tough it out.

Sure, I'm a bit anxious about this project, but I need to step outside of my comfy pinhole box for a while.

With all that said, I will probably post some photos here from the Shakey's camera just so you know I'm still clicking and to keep things moving along.
At any rate, thanks for stopping by, it really means a lot to me that you visit.

I shot a full roll of Kodak Ektar 100 today, using the Shakey's  and hope to have something to share with you on Monday.

Tajique, New Mexico

I  took a wander down to Tajique on World Toy Camera Day, (October 19) and made this.

It's a pinhole shot made with a tin can loaded with some expired Black and White photo paper.  The exposure was probably about a minute long, I'm not really sure since I don't time my exposures and was too busy watching a grasshopper in the dense weeds here.

This is a lovely place, just off the road and on the way to 4th of July Campgrounds.

streaming into the Alien City...

Sometimes a pinhole photo idea gets stuck in my head and then I try to make it happen....not always easy. This one is pretty close to what I imagined.

Zero Image 2000 pinhole with color film

mushroom, mushroom

Another mushroom from the back yard.
Same as the previous post, just a different 'shroom.

I was in Texas last week so should have some Texana type pinholes to share soon.
Yee-ha!

mushrooms galore!

With the recent rains I have an abundance of mushrooms, er..toadstools growing in the back yard.

Holga pinhole on fuji Acros 100 marinated in caffenol.

down came the rain and washed the spider out....

....and many other things for the past few days.

The rain has caused a lot of damage, death and worry in the western states, namely Colorado and parts of New Mexico.

I took a little road trip up and alongside the Rio Grande just to see what it was up to. Near Taos, the river seemed deceivingly calm with a few rafters running the cool currents of the river as it made its way south.

I watched a kayaker practice his rolls and maneuvers around boulders in the water as I set up my pinhole gear to make a photo.

Today's pinhole is from the re-habbed Galiceno that I cut the front off of last week to make it shoot wider. This is a much better configuration and I'll be using it more now that it is a much happier box.

Harman Direct Positive paper exposed for about 4 minutes, developed in caffenol for about 6 minutes.

Have an amazing day and thanks for stopping by!

fast birds, slow lens

I don't know why, but I keep trying to get a pinhole shot of hummingbirds.
Not entirely impossible, but nearly so!

and something from a coffee can

It's been raining like mad around here the past two days, but the Sun peeked out of the clouds for a few moments today-just long enough for a 6 second pinhole.
This one on some old B&W 4 x 5 sheet film.

Marinated in caffenol for about 8 minutes.



Enjoy!

"the underneath of sunflowers"

I know it's been a while since I have posted anything, but a lot has been going on around here.  I've just been busy with out of town guests, a bout with food poisoning (not fun by the way) and re-doing a pinhole box I have.

The little Galiceno pinhole box I built earlier this year has never been quite the focal length I liked, so Saturday I took it out to the shed and trimmed about an inch off of the front of it and then glued the front back on and did some light sealing and made a test shot.

It now has a focal length of 2.5 inches and shoots wider, which I like a LOT better.

Here's the first shot out of the rehabbed box.
An up close shot of the undersides of some Sunflowers my hubby bought for me to cheer me up while I was getting over my bout with food poisoning.

Harman direct positive paper
marinated in caffenol

Road Trippin' on Route 66

The long weekend was put to good use!  I made a short-ish (200 + miles) trek over to Grants, New Mexico and made a few pinholes along the way.

This one was made with the homemade 8 x 10 at an old roadside stop in Budville.

8 x 10 photo paper negative
exposed for about 2.5 minutes
dunked in caffenol for about a minute.

oh cool! I'm in another show!

My pinhole photo looking off the back of the train was selected for the "Holga Out of the Box" show in Longview, Texas.

I'm really excited about this because Ted Orland was the juror! He was an assistant to Ansel Adams and is a very good photographer himself. I'm pretty honored to be one of the chosen.

Ondu Kickstarter Pinhole camera review

Yesterday I took delivery of my Ondu Kickstarter Pinhole camera.
I was #47 on the list, so I was one of the lucky ones to get their camera early.

There were several models offered, but I selected the 35mm size since it was advertised as a pocket size camera and I don't really have a pinhole camera that small.  This one is 4 1/2 x 3 1/4 x 1 5/8 inches.  A nice compact size and easy to take along anywhere!
So let's get to the review.

The box arrived and at first look I was a bit concerned.  Look at the photo below and you'll understand why...

But I really wasn't too worried because how much damage could happen to the wooden pinhole box inside?

The next photo shows the packaging (which could have been a bit better in my opinion) and the camera looks like it is undamaged.

The camera itself is quite nice and well built.  The Walnut and Maple go well together and I selected a light face with dark trim.  Some cameras have dark faces and light trim, but I like mine better.  A hand made camera is a thing of beauty and this one does not disappoint.
Front view.

Front view with the shutter open.
The shutter mechanism is probably my favorite part of the camera because it's one of those simply elegant things you come across every so often.  The shutter pivots on a screw and then snaps in place with the magnet.  There's no jerking or tugging it open or closed- just butter smooth action! This is a real nice feature.

Top view.
The winding knobs are nice and work well.  I will probably file some grooves in mine to give them some extra traction, but more about that later.

Back view.
Nice maple back.  No complaints about that!

Bottom view with the tripod socket.

Let's take a look inside.
The back is held on by 3 very strong magnets that are indexed so the back will only go on one way. Inside is a folded instruction page that describes details on operating the camera.  The instructions are easy to understand and have small photos for clarification.

A deeper look inside.
It looks good initially...but how about that shiny brass piece that the pinhole is drilled into??
It's okay, but I went ahead and put black tape over that to cut down on internal reflections that might bounce around inside.  This is a small extra step that could have easily been done, but hey, for the price of this camera I'm not really going to complain, plus I like to dink and tinker...so all is good.

Oh, and before I forget, since I build cameras I'm pretty picky about the pinholes being clean! I'm not uptight about the size, but I'm a stickler for the hole being clean and round.
I used a 10x loupe to inspect the pinhole and it looked pretty good. It had a few minute bits of debris, maybe dust from packing and shipping, so I used some canned air to blow it out.  I also took a needle point and delicately twisted it around in the hole to clean it a bit more.
Other than that, the pinhole looks nice.  I can't see any tooling marks, so I'm guessing it was made with a laser..but don't quote me on that because I really don't know.

Okay, here's the blacked out insides.
I used a fine point Sharpie and drew a small circle around the teeny pinhole so I would NOT tape over it.
You can also see the film take up canister that comes with the camera. I wondered about this, and wondered why the camera would work like this and not with just a spool.  I figure it's because if the back does happen to come off the camera while in use, you have only ruined a couple of frames and not the entire roll of film.
The screw inside the right chamber serves as the pivot for the shutter on the other side.  I was going to paint it black, but since it's under the film cannister when the camera is loaded, there's no need.

The included instructions tell how to load the film and also state to wind the film 1.5 turns to space the frames apart to not have overlap.
I think this is a bit too much, and as you can see from my test strip below 1.5 turns is more than enough. Next time I'm going to only turn one rotation between frames and see how that works out.  This will be a trial and error type thing, and I plan on making little index marks on the winding knobs so I can see when a full rotation has been made.

And now for a couple of test shots.
I used Fuji 200 color print film.  The instructions have tables for different film speeds and times but since I am a "I am the emulsion" type shooter, I just loaded the camera and took it outside for some fun.
It was late afternoon and the Sun was pretty low so I made my exposures about 5 seconds long.

This first one was directly aimed toward the Sun and I must admit the fringing is pretty good!  I like the rainbow effect and can see it being used artistically in the future.

This next one was also 5 seconds long.  There was a light breeze blowing so the out of focus fuzziness is due to that.

Another shot aimed toward the Sun.

Once again it was breezy, so the Sunflowers were moving a bit.  The Sun flare is nice too!

A few thoughts on the camera follow:

It's nice and worth the cost for a handmade Walnut and Maple pinhole camera.

The magnets are really strong and will keep the back on no problem.  I don't know if they are strong enough to keep the back on if the camera suffers a sudden impact, like dropping it, but I'm not too worried about them failing.

The winding knobs are kind of tought to wind once the film is about midway through the roll.  I think this will ease up over time.  If it doesn't than pliers or some grooves cut into the knobs for better traction might help. Only time will tell on that one.

The instructions are adequate.  Actually they are nice, and more than what I anticipated.

I think the internal packaging could have been better.  Maybe some bubble wrap and not just wadded up paper.  The paper was fine, but there should have been more of it.

Having the magnets indexed on the back and back cover is nice.  You can't put the back on the wrong way.

The final sanding could have been a touch better too.  But, I work with wood and this is just a picky point on my part.  I think the camera will develop a very nice natural patina from the oils in my hands after use.  This will  just make it that much more personal.

It's a fun camera!
Here's the link to the Ondu Kickstarter page if you want one of your own!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ondu-/ondu-pinhole-cameras

from the ground up...

I'm still getting to know this converted Agfa Viking pinhole camera, but so far, it's working out well.

I wish it had a tripod socket, and once upon a time it did, but I had to do a socketectomy in order to put a pinhole in it...

Oh well, not really a problem especially for a shot like this one where I just placed it in the grass and aimed upwards through some wild sunflower plants growing in the front yard.

Harman positive paper exposed for 7 minutes then marinated in caffenol for about 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

raining, raining, raining

Rain is good!
It's great actually since I live in a very arid place where water is precious.
I even heard frogs last night it rained so much.
However, rain is not good for pin-holing, so I'm going to share an older shot from a few years ago.

This one was made near Moab, Utah during a road trip around the area.  The photo was made on 4 x 5 sheet film in a homemade 4 x 5 camera.

Sometimes aiming a pinhole directly at the sun will lend some interesting effects, so I give it a shot every now and then.  It's good to break the rules of photography sometimes!

My oh my how times flies!

I'm not sure how time gets away from me so fast lately...

One way has been that I've been out each clear night watching for Perseid meteors and that I've been unsuccessfully trying to make photos of them.
I should know better!  For years I've been trying to catch some meteor streaks with my camera, and for years my camera has been the great meteor deflector!  I can see meteors zip across the sky but my camera always seems to be aimed in the opposite direction!
Oh well, the Perseid shower has subsided for this year and I'll torment myself with it again next year when it returns...but in the meantime I need to show you something pinhole related right?  I mean that's why we come here, to see something about pinhole.

I had an old Agfa Viking folder camera that had holes in the bellows and a stubborn shutter so I converted it to pinhole.

As you can see it's kind of rustic looking!  I removed the bellows and shutter and then just cemented the front closed.  The camera will never open again, but it will take photos again because I hand made and then installed a pinhole where the tripod socket used to be.

I spray painted the interior flat black and then painted the exterior metallic black.  The handle is a braided piece of macrame type cord I had around the house and the makeshift shutter is just a magnetic business card cut to fit.  Viola!

It works fairly well for a hack job camera.  My first shot is above and it was made with an expired piece of Ilford photo paper.  The exposure was about 30 seconds in party cloudy sky and then the photo paper was developed in home brew caffenol for about 4 minutes.

I can still use 120 size rollfilm in the camera since I left the spool holders intact.

This has quite a bit of vignette, but that's fine with me.  Anytime a camera can be recycled and make photos again is good in my world.

Have an amazing day and thanks for stopping by!

"through these doors"

is a pretty good pizza!

Took a coffee can pinhole with me to the UNM area for a pizza yesterday and made this of the front doors.

I like doors, especially if they are interesting and inviting and extra especially if there's a good pizza waiting behind them!

coffee can pinhole camera
Harman Direct positive 4 x 5 paper negative exposed for 3 minutes
marinated in caffenol for about 4 minutes

not missing, just busy these days

Well hello!

I've been busy and not posting but all is well in Palomino pinhole land!
My latest distration has been testing a 13 inch telescope for our local astronomy club and it has taken time and concentration away from my walking around time with a pinhole camera.

Sure the telescope testing is during the dark hours of the day, but...well there are not buts.
I've just been distrated, that's it plain and simple.

To get back on the pinhole horse, how about I show you my latest creation?  It's an 8 x10 pinhole box that I scribbled an elephant on a week or so ago.

I built the camera out of scraps in my shed and then free handed the elephant with some Sharpies.
I decided to put the elephant on the box since they are slow and thoughtful creatures and pinhole photography is similar in nature.

                                                        Here's a shot out of that box.

I used an 8 x 10 inch sheet of black and white photo paper for the negative then developed it in a home brew of caffenol.  I had to invert it in photo-shop to make it a positive.

I think this box will work out alright and I'm looking forward to more adventures with it.

p.s.-  that show I mentioned in my previous post is going well! The opening was this past Friday and it was a hit!  I heard someone say (via e-mail, since I was not at the opening) that it was the best show they had ever had, so I'll be walking around with my big hat on! ;-)  Truly  honored to be selected.

Thrilled to be in this show at Serenbe Photography Center!

Thrilled beyond words to be an invited photographer at Serenbe Photography Center!
http://serenbephotographycenter.com/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=239

on the train to Silverton

Holga converted to pinhole with Fuji Acros 100 developed in caffenol!
I love trains and rode the Durango/Silverton train a few weekends ago.
The Brakeman, pictured below was nice enough to let me take a few pinhole shots from the the very back platform for a short while.

The ride to Silverton takes about 3 hours, and then of course there's the ride back to Durango.
It's gorgeous!

bats in my belfry....

I don't actually have a belfry, but I do have bats living out in the wood room behind the house.

This of course has absolutely nothing to do with pinhole, but as I was reading about bats this afternoon, it seems that they can squeeze into openings smaller than a dime depending upon the species.
Around these parts we have Mexican Freetails and since they are small little critters, they can probably live just about anywhere.

The moral of this story is, I probably won't be building any pinhole cameras with openings the size of dimes.

Today's pinhole was made with a Jasmin tea tin I purchased at the Talin International Market in Albuquerque.  It's a nice round cylinder that was just begging to be a pinhole camera, so after bringing it home and dumping the aromatic tea in another container, I spray painted the interior flat black with Krylon (my paint of choice) and then drilled a teeny .012" hole in the side.

A sheet of 4 x 5  Harman direct positive photo paper fits inside nicely!
The exposer was 2 minutes in bright Sun.  I developed the sheet in some home brew caffenol.

Hmmm....caffenol is pretty stinky....I wonder if it will make the bats leave if I left some out in the wood room.

I'll experiment later as it's nesting time for bats and I don't want them to abandon any little ones if there happen to be any out back.

back from a long holiday on the road...

I took off for a few days and totally unplugged! No computer and no checking e-mails!  It was fabuloso!

I made a lot of pinhole photos, one of which I'll share now because I messed it up and just want to show my blunder and attempt to make it better.

This one was made with one of my homemade tin can pinhole cameras and I "thought" I had loaded photo paper in it so I made a 90 second exposure which is normal for this particular pinhole tin.

Much to my disappointment when I unloaded the camera in a dark bag, I discovered it was sheet film and NOT photo paper!!!
UGH!  Overexposed by 3 stops!  

I underdeveloped the sheet by 3 minutes (Kodak's recommendation) and this is what turned out.

A lake between Durango and Silverton, Colorado.

the "inside" story..

It's not often that I get told not to make a photo of a place, but this place was one of those places.
It's a tattoo shop in Las Vegas, New Mexico on Bridge Street.
And as the saying goes, "every picture tells a story" this one has its own "inside" story....

I was doing a caffenol workshop two doors down from this place and had just turned loose 25 students with cameras to go shoot around the plaza and around Bridge Street so they would have something to develop in caffenol for the workshop.

I had my coffee can pinhole camera loaded with Harman Direct Positive paper and had just set the camera on the sidewalk facing the tattoo shop.

The students were off wandering around the downtown plaza in Las Vegas so it's not like there was a herd of people standing out front oogling the shop.

Next thing I  know a young woman sits on the bench and ask what's going on.  I tell her I'm making a photo of the shop and she immediately tells me the owner doesn't allow it.

Really?! I think to myself.  It's in a public area, I'm on the sidewalk and not trespassing.

I ask her if she's going to sit there a while and she says, yes of course, she works there and that's her bench.  Cool!  Now I have a sitter!

The woman glances briefly at the coffee can, but I'm sure it didn't register that "that" was my camera.  I kept talking to her, and she was talking to the owner inside in between talking to me.  I could  barely hear his comments, but the conversation went back and forth and she told him the photos were for students and for a workshop, but he didn't seem to care who it was for.
I can't see him but I have a vision of Walter Matthau in "Grumpy Old Men".

Finally she told him if he wanted to tell anyone no, that he had to come out and tell them himself.
He never came out, so I guess he didn't truly mind....?

Long story short, after having this convoluted conversation for about 3 minutes, I put the tape on the coffee can and left.

The result is below, and as you can see, the nice lady fidgeted her way across the bench perfectly!

I need more fidgeting subjects to pose for me.

Illy coffee can pinhole, Harman Direct positive paper exposed for 3 interesting minutes and then marinated in caffenol for 4 minutes. Voila!

Thanks for your visits and patience.  I know I don't post in any sort of regular way, but I do appreciate your coming here.

Thanks Becky

I Like Lichen!

I've always been fascinated by Lichen.  You know that fuzzy-mossy-hairy stuff that clings to the sides of trees.  Sometimes you will find it growing on rocks and old fence-posts too.  I've seen it growing on old barns out in the country.  Just open your eyes wide and you will start to notice it!

It looks like alien growth in some instances and seems to thrive on air.
The thing is, lichen only grows where the air quality is very high.  You can eat most of it and a lot of animals depend on it to survive.  Don't eat any of the yellow or orange lichen though, it's nasty!
Actually don't eat any of it.  I'm not an expert so don't call me if you get sick.

I decided to make some Lichen "tea" to use in developing some films and this is my result and recipe.

Bushy Beard 'Lichenol'   ( I had to make a word )

1.5 cups of dry lichen, the most common in my yard is the Bushy Beard variety seen in the photo above.

I gathered it directly from the trees and tried to not disturb the tree bark and only took the lichen.

10 oz. water --or enough to cover the lichen in small plastic covered food container.

Set out in Sun for 3 days and let it make "tea" on its own time.

Strain lichen to collect about 6 oz. liquid

I measured the ph of the lichen water each day.

Day 1=    6.5

Day 2=    5.5

Day 3=    6

Since day 3 seemed to be headed the other way acid wise, I decided to mix it up with some Vitamin C powder and Washing soda.

3.5 teas Washing soda mixed well  in 6 oz. water

½ teas Vitamin C powder added to the washing soda mix above

Combine the above washing soda/Vitamin C mix with the lichen "tea" and mix well.

The ph of this combined mixture was 10.

The smell was something like a musty Earth/ wet forest floor kind of smell.  Mossy scented and very refreshing! 

Not overbearing, curl your hair odor like the caffenol mix always smells.

I used it to develop a sheet of 4 x 5 Harman Direct positive photo paper exposed in my found tin can converted to pinhole and it turned out pretty good.

Here's my rough notes and the 4 x 5 pinhole shot I made with it.

It has a nice tone to it and this is right out of the 'Lichenol' mixture.
It was stopped and fixed and  rinsed like normal developing.

Nice to have organic supplies growing in my trees!
Try it!

Super Moon

The Super moon came and went but I caught it as it slowly trekked across the sky June 23.

I used a Holga Wide Pinhole camera loaded with Kodak Ektar 100 film and let the exposure run for 6 hours!
Yes, 6 hours of exposure!  From 10 p.m. until 4 a.m. the next morning.

Luckily the sky was clear and I got a good track recorded.  The spaces or gaps in the track are from clouds passing through and blocking the moon's light.  Pretty cool don't you think?

Welcome summer!

Pinhole solargraph of the track left behind by the summer Sun.

In truth, I don't like this time of year.  I'm a winter solstice kind of girl.  Even though it's considerably colder during winter, I prefer the longer nights.

Happy Summer!

VLA in infrared

This photo was made with a 4 x 5 pinhole and some EFKE infrared film with an R72 filter.
The exposure was 45 minutes long, and let me tell you, that's a long time to sit out in the hot Sun.  I thought I was going to melt.