Entrance to Heaven?

Cover Art

Quite some time ago, someone contacted me through flickr and asked about using one of my Bread and Puppet photos ona book cover he was designing. I said sure, as long as B & P was ok with it - I just snapped the shot, they built the costumes after all! Then I sort of forgot about the whole thing.

When I walked into Borders last week, this was front and center on their "don't miss these titles" table!



That's my picture! And my name is on the back!

It was sort of exciting. And it looks like a good book, too.

Lightbox Revisited

There is lots of talk on etsy about the proper way to photograph - those pictures, after all, must take the place of any and all tactile experience a buyer would have with the items in questions. The one thing that usually comes up is using a lightbox, and from there it is a short step to the questions of making said lightbox at home. Not too hard, actually, that part.

I made one, from a tutorial on Strobist, some time ago and used it for a while until the box started getting in the way too often and the tissue paper got punctured and the whole deal went into the recycling. With a new paper doll ready to be photographed in all her finery, I decided to try the light box once again. This time I was inspired by this post from another etsy seller to make a collapsible version of the box.



You will notice that the current back drop is a placemat. Not a great option, as it turns out. Maybe wallpaper would work better? And my lighting situation is not working out quite right either. It seems that although making a lightbox is a piece of cake, actually using it requires a bit more effort.

'Droiding my time away...

Last night I learned of The Poladroid via this post, and spent way too much time transforming my boring regular pictures into totally cool polaroid-like pictures. Then I joined the flickr group and saw how other people went even further messing up their pictures to look beaten and old and drawn on and coffee stained, and of course I had to go and find some coffee stains and wrinkles and such to play with as well.


Funny how much fun it is to take a perfectly clear photo and make it look like its spent days on the floor of a grungy diner. And the photos that really look best as "polaroids" are the throw away pictures, the snapshots that seem a bit awkward in their original pristine condition.


I have to admit, I have wanted a polaroid camera since my mom borrowed one for work when I was about five. They are like magic and its really so sad that they, along with the rest of the film world, are fading out of existence.

Shmap!

Sounds like some sort of science fiction laser gun - schmap! schmap! aha! But actually its a pretty neat travel/information guide online at schmap.com and they are using one of my photos for the Union Oyster House in Boston! Its somewhere down there, in that cluster of dots there. They used a lot of other photos too, but its fun to see my picture in an official atmosphere! And these look like really cool maps. Lots of info. Check it out!

An Icy Covering

My Images, right?

So this evening I was skimming my stats, and I noticed a lot of web referrals coming from a certain myspace page. Being the curious person I am, of course I followed the link to the page, where I was surprised to be greeted by one of my own photos! It was the background of the page, and actually looked rather neat. Since I was getting a lot of traffic from the site, I looked around on it to find where the link to my site was located, and after a while of not finding it realized that the image itself was coming from my site - ie, everyone who looked at this myspace page was using up bandwidth on my website.

Now, I am not one to go berzerk about my photos - I realize full well that by posting things on the internet I am letting them out into the world. Additionally, I am hardly in a position to be concerned about overloading my website's traffic limits. Still, when I saw my photo there and concluded what was happening, I felt somewhat miffed. And so I went and renamed the image.

And then I was immediately racked with guilt that I had ruined this girl's myspace page. So Gina from Altoona, if you care enough to find this again, please feel free to use this image:



Maybe just give me credit though. And realize that in the future, if you ask someone, they often will be flattered you liked their work. But taking images without asking is, technically - even online - stealing, and against the copyright rules.

Extreme Baking

About a week ago I developed a craving for chocolate cupcakes, particularly of a home made variety. There is something of a time lapse around here, so the baking didn't happen until last evening. I thought I would document the process with some lovely kitchen + homey photos to share here, but as it turned out - they came out fairly dull. So I messed around a bit, and came up with a series I like to call "Extreme Baking".

Allow me to illustrate...






Yum.

Autumn colors

My yard is somewhat overrun with squirrels, horrible little beasts! They managed to erase the entire bed of beans I planted, as well as the carrots, and tried their best with the cucumbers and tomatos, although the scarcity of the former, and my vigilance on the latter, thwarted the thieves a bit.


Being something of a color addict, I enjoy looking at tomatos. The red of a fresh, homegrown tomato seems to emanate summer light. They glow.


The apples aren't my own, but once I start photographing food I usually get a little carried away.

Finishing Touches

These are the final days! Of my college career, I mean. Probably, if I wasn't so horribly tired, this would be a bittersweet time. As it is, I just can't wait until the weekend, when the presentations are over and the final papers submitted, so I can just sleep. Maybe for a few days.

My squares have been quilted...



And bound in black...



The photographs were ironed on, usng "Wonder Under" (sounds like underwear, doesn't it?)...



And a cover was constructed...



(this is the front and back - I think it looks like a banner or flag and I want to make more).



Now the pages are sewn together and its all set up on a podium in the presentation room. I had some random pieced squares left over, and we stuck them in frames and hung them on the wall to complete the exhibit. They actually look really great like that and I think I will do more.

It feels so good to have this project completed. When I look at the finished product, its so small that I feel a bit odd about how much time and energy it took out of me. But looking through the book and seeing each tiny hand stitch and remembering all the thought and research I did to make it more than just fabric, I feel like I have actually accomplished something. Of course, now that the work is done I am free to get really nervous about the presentation.

The Darkroom Advice Column

Maybe I'll just rename this blog the "Darkroom Advice Column," as that seems to be about all I am coming up with lately. This little nugget is for everyone, not just those who may someday find themselves in a photo lab (you never know when it may happen!).

Life Advice from the Darkroom, #3:

Everything looks better under a red lamp.

Hardcore

I got to play with horrible chemicals for my latest darkroom experience. Nasty red crystals with the skull and crossbones all over the jar. Oolala! Actually it is basically bleach, painted onto several of the photos to enhance contrast, bring out the bright spots and make some interesting bleach spots.

The solution was potassium ferricyanide (I know, cyanide. I like living dangerously) mixed with fixer solution. I made it relatively weak (less potassium ferricyanide and more fixer) and then applied it with a paintbrush.



I think that with this, I am finally done with the photography. I don't have quite as many as I would have liked, but instead of photography on every page, I have become excited about embroidering some words.

Now, I just have to get busy. Or keep busy. I just have to finish. Time is seriously running out!

Tools of the Trade

This is the only enlarger I use. There are actually much nicer ones available, especially since I always work alone, but I just like this one. We've come to an understanding.



Focus-ers. Do they have a real name? I just don't know!



Chemistry trays. Really no more to say, except that when they are not properly cleaned they get disgusting. I discovered this for myself in my own darkroom years ago, and someone else has been discovering it recently in the past couple weeks here at school. Yuck.



Now this little contraption and I do not have an understanding. We are hardly on speaking terms, actually, after its blatant refusal to cooperate a couple weeks ago. Last night we feigned a tentative tolerance of each other, but we both know the truth.

More Advice on Liquid Emulsion, or What I Learned in the Darkroom

I spent this evening in the darkroom, making another attempt at developing photos onto liquid emulsion coated fabric. After this evenings trials, I have just one little additional word of advice to anyone wishing to try this sort of thing: don't.

Let me explain...

Liquid emulsion is, by nature, liquid. Or rather, it is liquid after the bottle has soaked for a good hour in very hot water. Until then, it is a white gel that does not, despite valiant effort, spread. In any way. When this substance has liquefied, it must be kept warm, or it will re-gel and become very sticky in the process. The brilliant idea upon which my project is based is to develop photos onto fabric using this troublesome substance. Now, let's take a moment to look at the nature of fabric, especially as it relates to liquids. As we know, or hopefully you do because it seems to have conveniently slipped my mind, fabrics have a tendency to soak up liquids. This is an agreeable quality when, say, you're emerging from a nice hot shower. But when you want a thick coat of emulsion that will produce a strong and recognizable photographic image, this quality works distinctly against success.

I have tried several methods for applying the emulsion to the fabric (putting primer underneath was not one of them - I want the texture of the fabric to be prominent and do not want the additional stiffness of paint). All of them, in some degree, suffer due to the aforementioned characteristics of the materials. The fabric soaks up the emulsion and refuses to allow a dense, even coating. This is what I have tried so far...

• First, I stretched the fabric in an embroidery hoop and painted the emulsion on with a paint brush. That was probably a great method, but I had low contrast emulsion at the time so things went poorly.
  
• Second, I though perhaps lying the fabric on a screen and squeegeeing the emulsion across would result in a nice thick coat. It didn't.
  
• Next, I tried the paintbrush again, with moderate success using variable contrast emulsion, but was too impatient to let it dry and apply a second coat. Instead I tried to brush it on especially thick and ended up with clumps.
  
• Then I put the emulsion in a tray and tried soaking it up with the cloth. Worked fairly well, but with a bad ratio of failures to successes due to excessive blotchiness and a difficulty in determining the right side of the fabric from the wrong.
  
• Went back to the paintbrush and managed to contain myself long enough for the emulsion to atleast partially dry before painting more on. Judge the results for yourself...
  

I am relatively happy with these pictures. I was hoping this would be the end of the photo portion of the project, but probably I'll have to go back to the darkroom. It could be worse.

The Trials and Tribulations of Liquid Emulsion

After countless attempts, I have finally managed to get a recognizeable photo using liquid emulsion on fabric. For anyone out there who ever plans to try this, I think the real secrets are having high contrast photos (even with variable contrast emulsion), and laying the emulsion on thick, but evenly and without bumps. For the two photos below, I actually soaked the emulsion up into the fabric. I like the splotchy effect that resulted, but there were several others from this same batch where either nothing showed up at all or the splotches were overpowering.





I have to return to the darkroom and knock out a few more of these babies, hopefully within the next couple days. It's funny how when something is a necessity, even if it's something I would love doing normally, it becomes a chore. I adore the darkroom, but somehow with all the schedule restraints and other things going on, it has turned into another thing to check off the to-do list.

Photo session

So the most procrastinated, and most growing-in-importance-as-time-runs-out part of my degree project is the darn photos. Originally they were to be portraits of the characters in the funny neighborhood I call home. But that idea was displaced as the project formed itself, and the final plan is portraits of domestic and crafting tools. That's why the measuring tape was the subject of this week's photoshoot...




And yes, those are measuring cups and a pastry cutter waiting patiently in the wings.