Category: Blitherings

Light

The other day I was putzing around, looking at photography books, thinking about painting and drawing and photography, and something I read about Galen Rowell hit me.  He was always looking at the light – how it worked, what it looked like, what it was doing to the scenery.  Of course I have read about it – we all do – and thought about it a bit now and again.  However, that moment seems to have one of those clarifying moments in my creative life.

Last week I went out with my newly CLA’d Yashica D TLR camera (beautifully done by Mark Hama) and took some pictures, just to use the camera and see how it was working.  It was great – I had a serious issue with using it as the focusing screen was full of crud.  Anyway, I used Fuji Pro 400H as it has wonderful colors, but I had never used the 120 film.

When I went out with the Yashica, I thought about contrast, the differences between light and dark, but not specifically light itself.  I got some good images, just thinking about contrast, really obvious contrast, and more subtle contrast, perhaps in smaller areas.  While the processing was done in a local lab, my own post-processing was done by scanning the negatives with VueScan, my V600 scanner, and a new-to-me software, Negative Lab Pro (more about that in a later post).  I always increase contrast in post anyway – maybe it’s just my poor eyesight – because I like to have a clear picture.  Here are some of the images from that roll.

Because I was limited to 12 pictures at the most with the Yashica, I took my time.  I thought about contrast.  Plants against the sky, light coming up between the trees, backlit leaves – all of these are easily evident when contrast is considered.  More subtle color contrast, such as leaves on the same plant, some in shadow, some in sun, required more analysis prior to making the shot.  Other thoughts on contrast consdered were the contrast of light flowers against a darker background, or the light bark of the sycamore against the darker fence and foliage behind it.  In general, things worked.  DOF also adds to a sense of contrast when softly blurred items allow things more sharply in focus to come forward.

The same ideas of contrast came out when I decided to shoot a bunch of black and white images using my Canonet GIII QL17 and Kodak Tri-X 400.  Here are some of my more successful photos from that roll, again with the idea of contrast (not light) as a foremost thought – light against dark, dark against light.

Contrast, for me anyway, is not a subtle thing.  Short scale (less shades of grey) is really easy to visualize because the difference between light and dark is evident.  The images above are strongly contrasty, and to increase the contrast, I asked the lab to push the film +2 (whether they did or not, who knows!).  Long scale is more subtle, with variations between light and dark far more.

Yesterday, I went out with my Yashica D and a roll of Ultrafine Extreme 400 black and white film – only looking for light before taking a picture.  The idea of light – not contrast – was in my mind when I went out last week.  I looked for the play of light on the scene, not just contrast. This created a very different mindset.  I saw contrast quite clearly, but in looking at the light itself, and its nuances, made me look much more carefully.

It may be a bit before the roll is processed, but hopefully not.  We are planning a little road trip / photo shoot today up in the mountains north of us.  I want to use up film in the Yashica, as well as the film in a few other cameras.  Mountain road driving in a sports car with stops for a picture (or 2 or 3) is not a bad way to spend part of a day.

Film

Lately I am shooting a lot of film.  Hopefully I will be processing some once I master the Lab-Box, first in black and white, and then later in color if I find the frustration level not frustrating!

Anyway, here are a few pictures taken with my N90s and 60mm macro lens, which I dropped, but do not seem to have damaged either.  The film here is Fuji Pro 400H, which is great for color.

If you take a look at the camera in the pictures above, you will see it is a Contax IIIa ca. 1953. It has a rather amazing lens, a Zeiss-Opton Sonnar 50mm f1.5. It’s sharp and lovely when I nail it. Being a rangefinder and a new-to-me camera, I am still learning to “get” the focus. The following images were taken using the camera along with Fuji Super 200. Some pictures I did with the Sunny 16 rule, a light meter, or the suggestions from the camera’s readout.

Editing film certainly beats breathing smoke and listening to sirens!

The Next Day

It seems as if the worst of the fire in our area (the Easy Fire if you want to look it up) is under control. Part of it is that the wind has dropped. Mandatory evacuations in many areas have ended, power has been restored, and all might be right with the world. The air is cold and smells fresh, just a tang of wood smoke in it, unlike yesterday morning when the house was filled with it. We went for a walk last night, finally able to get out of the house without howling winds, and the sky was clear and bright. Yesterday was surreal. I can only imagine what it might be for people who return to neighborhoods devastated by fires, or those who live through an invasion of their country and find their lives totally overturned.

We spent yesterday morning packing things up. Josh doesn’t have the collections I have, so his packing was pretty straightforward. On the other hand, I had to sort through things, deciding what to take, deciding what to leave. Making those choices is actually rather draining mentally. It forces you to think about what you value. Luckily, nothing happened, but what if? Very strange in my rather settled life.

Fires and natural catastrophes are unavoidable, but the older I get, the more I am sick of the winds and fires of California. I talk about moving, but the fact is, I won’t. We are settled here with family and friends and a job (Josh). In some ways, we are lucky we chose where we moved 13 years ago, but it was luck, not careful planning around potential natural disasters. We are in the middle of a suburb far enough from open land and mountains and canyons to avoid the worst of the fire potential, and have underground utilities. There is a natural gas pipeline (or some kind of major pipeline) not too far from where we live, which could explode and cause a bit of damage, but in general, we are okay. Fires have been on all sides of us over the years, but it seems we have enough distance to be bypassed. Much as I would love to live on a mountain top, I am glad that I am flatlander!

I plan to keep things boxed up for a bit.  Josh will work from home all day,  We will monitor the fire potential, but get on with daily living.  I made moussaka last night for dinner, and this morning I want to get out in the brisk air for a walk and some photography and some badly needed exercise.  Air quality looks good as the wind is up, but particulate matter is hard to assess.  Painting, reading, and drawing also sound good!  We have been pretty fortunate altogether, and while I am at it, those of you who wished us well, your messages were truly appreciated!

Busy Morning

I am not sure where things will end up.  This morning I woke up to the smell of smoke filling the house.  Somewhere, a fire.  The sound of the winds was up, curling around the house and howling.  It is fire season and Santa Ana wind season in my neck of the woods.  Phone calls from SoCal Edison warning of potential power shut-offs and calls from the school district letting us know schools are closed.  I am drinking my coffee to wake up enough to figure out what to do.  Writing all this is a way to clear the fog from my morning brain to make a list of what to pack in case we are evacuated.

Confused, Hands, Up, Unsure, Perplexed, Young

Themes: A Bit Rocky

For whatever reason, the last few weeks have found me discombobulated.  Nothing seems to be consistent – pursuits and interests are all over the place.  Painting is sporadic.  Drawing is sporadic.  Photography is here and there and which camera and which film and which what and where?  We all get like this, and in some ways it can be a fallow period wherein we just flop around until something clicks.  Other times it points to ennui and aimlessness and a need to renew and refresh.  Or take a breather.

Retirement gives me time.  I want to use it.  For awhile I was on a sort of schedule – get the morning stuff done, then sit down to paint or draw in the studio, when the light is best.  And then a glimpse out the window and the pull of good weather moved those activities to the afternoon.  And the good weather pulled again.  Afternoon coffee, too, has its attractions, and that pulled me out of the house to meet up with a friend or just go out on my own.  When Josh is off work (Sunday to Tuesday) other activities occur.  Having gone from always being around people – students, fellow teachers – to being home made me realize how much I like being around people.  Suddenly I am chatting up sales clerks and yakking with strangers.  It’s bizarre, after years of being so exhausted at the end of a 10-hour teaching day and not wanting to even text someone, to find myself wanting to have guests and visit friends and family, make a phone call.

There is a restlessness here that is like a dream that you find yourself in.  There is a place to go, but you cannot find a pathway.  It’s foggy but not unpleasant.  It’s confusing and enlightening.  What it is, I think, is a need for a destination.  When I want to change something in my life, whether vague or quite specific, I set myself a goal.  For example, if I want to improve my drawing, it becomes a goal, the destination.  I leave the pathway there open and assume I will get there.  It generally works.  However, in the area of creative endeavors, I suddenly am finding myself perplexed and confused – so many things, so much I want to do, and I am running out of time for all the things I want to do!  I think of scheduling myself – but schedules are something I feel guilty about breaking once I make them.  Rather a quandary . . .

The overall theme here is just my own personality.  I am one of these people who finds something of interest, pursues it intensely, and then finds something else.  It’s rather magpie.  Glinting and flashy gets my curiosity, which in and of itself I think is fine, but it is the lack of ongoing pursuit of a particular art that gets me into trouble – the lack of consistent practice.  When I lack consistent practice, my mind and eye wander.  Trouble happens.  When my interest is piqued, I collect.  That is the magpie.  My collections are ridiculous.  They take up space.  I need to divest myself of much in my collections and divest myself of stuff.  In our younger years, we acquire – in our older years we divest and reinvest in the stable themes of our lives, whatever that may be.

So, goal?  Divestment?  Mastery?  Continuation of gaining skills?  Boredom has a bit to do with this, a lack of days structured by work schedules?  Writing, as always, helps clarify problems – but not necessarily the solutions!