Emerging Flower and Hostas
I found a little gem at the Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery in Keene earlier today. They had a signed, silver gelatin print of “Frosted Window No. Two” by Paul Caponigro on display as part of the Expressive Voice: Landscape of Emotion exhibit. There were also a number of other silver-gelatin prints on display within the exhibit.
Seeing these prints made me realize that while I have been targeting the silver gelatin look in my digital editing, I have not been out looking at real silver gelatin prints to get a good sense of what to look for. I need to do this more often. I am inspired to start working in black and white again. I have never felt completely at home with color photography, so this may be a good opportunity to narrow my focus and specialize.
When editing black and white photos digitally, I need to think “smooth” instead of “harsh.” And yes, I do know that the best way to get the look of film is to actually shoot film. However, after doing just that for a period of time late last year it became clear to me that a digital workflow better suits me. If you are going to shoot film, you really should print in the darkroom to get the full benefit.
Fun With Clouds
Sometimes you can combine two elements that occupy the same space in a different way to change their relationship. On that note, I present today’s fun with clouds photo.
Old Murdock School, Winchendon, MA
Earlier today, I returned to my hometown of Winchendon, MA to visit with my father and take him out for breakfast for Father’s Day. Before stopping at his apartment, I visited the Old Murdock School where I went to junior high school, and where my father worked as a custodian when I was growing up. I wanted to take some new photos of a building that was very special to us both.
This is the clock tower of the Old Murdock School. In the mid 1970s, my father and his co-worker Jim Abare were custodians at the school which had re-opened after a period where it was not used as a school and had fallen into disrepair. The bell in the clock tower had fallen silent. As part of the work that they did to restore the building, they cleaned and repaired the mechanism for the bell and restored it to working order in time for the bicentennial in 1976. The bell continues to chime at the top of each hour to this day.
A Forest Walk
After setting out with a collection of zoom lenses hoping to see a Great Blue Heron, I soon realized that I had ventured out much too late to see one. I decided to shift my attention to one of my favorite subjects, and one that I never grow tired of — the forest around me. My first subject was a beautiful old tree stump which had the richest deep-red colors in the morning sunlight.
Sitting on a bench behind the Cheshire Medical Center near the Ashuelot River, I noticed the morning sunlight on the ferns just a few feet in front of me. I had paused there hoping to catch a duck or a Great Blue Heron flying by, but fortunately my eyes were still open to seeing other things.
Cutting through the Drummer Hill forest on my way home, I came upon a Canadien Tiger Swallowtail butterfly that was lying upside-down on the forest floor near the edge of the trail, its wings twitching in spasms. I gently coaxed it into a right-side-up position, and it seemed to gain a bit of strength before resuming the twitching. I decided to leave it be, since I was not sure if it would live or not.
Forest Prayer Wheel
During a hike through the forest this morning, I came across a piece of foam rotating continuously in a small stream. Unfortunately, the audio was full of scratching noises and wind noise, so I decided to record a short piece of classical guitar music using my iPhone.
The guitar music is the first part of Ciacona, written by Silvius Leopold Weiss (1686 – 1750).