Author: -N-

West of Hwy. 101, Monterey County

We stopped by the roadside to get some gas on our way home from Monterey a few weeks ago.  Rather than taking the main highway, the 101, we ran parallel to it, west, close to the mountains that lie next to the Pacific range.  I’m glad we did.  From the freeway, you can see the fields, the houses, the ranches, but being on a 2-lane bumpy road brings it up close.  The area is vast and flat, a valley between two ranges.  Here, all sorts of crops are grown, and it is really beautiful countryside.

This is from a photo I took with my phone, all with the intention of using it as painting material.  I think it worked out rather well.

Sage

This time around I remembered I had the reduction mask in my 1937 Welta Weltur camera.  I also used a yellow(ish) filter I have that slides over the lens.  I have never used it before, but I am glad I did as it made the plants a bit more differentiated.  In theory, I get how filters work, but when I try to remember, it just disappears from my brain.  One day it would be really nice to get that clearly imprinted in my memory!

Okay, that aside, I so enjoy making pictures with these old cameras.  When they hit the sweet spot, there is something so beautiful in the final image.  This one I cleaned up – threads, spots – but didn’t do too much more to it other than upping the contrast a bit.  I wanted the white sage flowers to pop against the background.  The filter helped, but so did digital post production.

I know some people who claim that digital post is not the same as a real dark room.  No, it’s not, but it is a lot easier to do the same things – and then some! – you would do in a traditional dark room.

Anyway, more to come, but perhaps only a couple as a lot of the images are a bit dicey as far as putting out in the public’s eye.  I scanned these with the Epson V600 scanner and the film is Ilford Super XP 400, which is a black and white that can be developed in C-41, which is the chemistry for color negative film.

Nightmares on the Patio!

We all have those days – everything you think you are going to accomplish turns to some sort of monster or horror or nightmare as you do it.  I sure had different ideas for what I was going to do out on my patio this afternoon.  Ugh!  Ugh! to the point I have to laugh.  I really don’t know what to do with either of these except to chalk them up to experience.

This first one (above) is supposed to be some really brilliant orange geraniums on my patio table.  I don’t think so.  I get so – what?  Impatient may not be the right word.  What I feel is a need to work quickly, and perhaps therein lies the problem.  I drew them in with a pencil and set up all my paints and water and other supplies on a table outdoors.  In 85F or more weather, it was  hot.  But the heat is not the driving force for haste – it happens to me all the time, particularly with watercolor.  It’s something to really think about.

After shuddering at that first painting, I decided to just paint – no lines, nothing, just move along.  Sometimes in watercolor it has proven to be a great exercise.  Here, not so sure.  These are tabasco chilis that are ripening, and will soon be picked and dried, to later be ground into chili powder (we make our own every year, with different peppers.)  Like the first painting, everything went head over heels, and in the end, I just decided to make it more decorative than painterly.

I can always tell when I haven’t picked up a pen or brush for even a couple of days.  I felt all clumsy and disconnected.  Maybe being outside – something I have never done with gouache – added to it.  I really tried to paint from real life, plein aire, and I am not so sure that was for the best.

Oh, well.  I had fun.  Maybe there is something in that.

 

 

Strange View

Another picture I have no idea that I took!  The aliens that visit must have done it, or a cat.  No idea.  I have been thinking of doing double-exposures lately, and maybe this is an accidental one as my 1937 Weltur doesn’t have any mechanism to prevent that.  Whatever, it is rather interesting to me.