Bob Carlos Clarke - The Dark Summer

I have managed to pick up a second hand copy of Bob Carlos Clarke's The Dark Summer. It seems to becoming pretty hard to get hold of. I can't believe that it is 20 years since I went to his exhibition at the Royal Photographic Society in Bath. I always regretted not buying the book at the time and it seems really weird to buy it 20 years later!

The images are stunning and looking back on these images you can see how far this genre of photography has come in the last twenty years - much of it due to the BCC influences.

The images are deep and dark with definite Goth style overtones. What makes this book even more remarkable is that many of the images are either hand coloured or the result of multiple negative printing. Today, such images would be easily replicated using digital techniques and this book underlines BCC's skill as a traditional printer although he will be remembered for his skills as a photographer foremost.

Installing Windows Vista on a MacBook Pro

My current laptop has run out of horsepower. I put some more memory in it last year, but it is now up to it's limit - 512Mb. It is only of the small Sony Viaos (Sony TR1-MP). I guess it is coming up for 3 years old so it is no surprise that it is time to replace it.

I had a look around and really liked the look of the new Apple MacBook Pro. Of course, these are Intel based and it is relatively straightforward according to some colleagues that have done it.


It took me a while to track one down - I was after a 2.4GHz, 15.4" MacBook Pro. Eventually, I found on in the Apple store in Brent Cross shopping centre. It was interesting that everyone else seemed to be sold out except the Apple Store. The price was pretty much the same wherever you bought it.

It is indeed quite straightforward to set the MacBook up to dual boot. You need to download BootCamp from the Apple website (http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/). The software is Beta, but seems to work a treat. I used the latest version of the software - 1.3. The trick is to print out the instructions and follow them (http://images.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/pdf/Boot_Camp_Beta_Setup_Guide_v1.3.pdf). I was installing Vista Ultimate and the installation went without a hitch.

I have got everything working except the I-Sight camera. As part of the Boot Camp process, a set of Apple drivers are copied onto a DVDR and installed after Windows has been installed.

One of the cool things about Vista is being able to review the performance of the computer and its components. I am really impressed with the performance of the Mac Book (I have included the snippit from the performance monitor). It is way out performing my Toshiba M400 laptop that I use for work as well as my home desktop machine.

Pretty impressive for a laptop! And it is dual boot so now I can run Aperture too!

Tim Rudman - World of Lith printing

I have experimented with Lith printing and you will find examples on my website as well as some more detail information on the technical pages.

I admit that my initial interest was stimulated after reading Tim Rudman's "The Master Photographer's Lith Printing Courser" and I was excited to find this new book. The original book is a great handbook to Lith printing and is about all you need to get started (except papers and chemicals!).

This new book (published in 2006) contains some basic information to get you started, but is not a substitute in any way for the original text. Once past the first 30-40 pages of the instruction book, there are a series of example images from a number of guest photographer's portfolios together with technical notes. I find this really useful as it provides inspiration and explores the different styles and subject matter being used by a variety of photographers. I really liked the work from Margaret Ball, Cece Wheeler, Richar Clegg and Skip Smith.

The final part of the book is dedicated to using digital techniques to produce lith prints. I must admit that first time around, I skipped this section (as I have a habit of skipping anything that says "digital" in photography books). But having subsequently read it, I have to admit that I actually found it not only interesting, but useful!

All in all, a nice book. If you are looking to get start with Lith printing I would suggest starting with Tim Rudman's "Master Photographer's Lith Printing Course" and follow up with this book. ISBN: 978 1 902538457.

Sante D'Orazio - Private Life

Just bought this book while shopping in Edinburgh at the weekend. I really like Sante D'Orazio's work and this book is just fantastic. The layout and style of the presentation just suits the imagery so well - the book follows a sort of scrapbook style presentation and just has page after page of fantastic images. As you read through the pages, you feel as if you are reading Sante's private diary.

Most of the photographs seem to date from the early and mid 1990's and it is the monochrome images that really grabbed me. The photographs of Kim Bassinger, Drew Barrymore, Naomi Campbell and Raquel Welch are simply stunning.

For me, it is one of those books that I wish I could have produced (if only I had the talent!).

To truly appreciate this book, you have to see beyond the pure technicalities of the photographs and just engage with the mood. I know some photographers are going to look at this book and say some of the images are blurred or not printed very well, but the atmosphere is just overwhelming. What strikes me most about Sante D'Orazio is the relationship that he must have established with the people that he shoots. Truly a magnificent book and one that I will cherish.

If you are looking for a copy of it, you will find it here on the UK Amazon site. I think there are a few different versions of this book around, some with different images on the cover. I have the paperback version published in 2006. ISBN: 978-3888149115.

Cyanotype experiments

Well, using the sun tanning lamp I tried some experiments a few weeks ago. I have finally found time to scan the results.

The objective of the experiments was to determine the amount of time required to reach maximum black (or rather in the case of Cyanotypes, blue) when exposed under a sun tan lamp. The contraption shown in one of my previous posts has allowed me to place the lamp at a consistent distance from the paper, so the experiments should be repeatable.

The first strip was exposed for 1, 2, 3 and 4 minutes. It was produced by shading parts of the paper just like exposing a test strip. The first strip shows that 1 minute is not enough and 2 minutes is too much. So I exposed a second strip to determine where between 1 and 2 minutes the correct exposure lies. The second strip is exposed in 15 seconds starting at 60 seconds. This time it is a bit more difficult to tell where the correct exposure lies, but it looks like it is around 90 seconds.

So now I know that 90 seconds is the least amount of time that it will take to produce maximum black (blue!) using the sun tan lamp. Now it is a case of producing negatives of the appropriate density to produce the required cyanotype.....

Bit more success with 5x4

Went to Osterley Park (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-osterleypark/) last Friday and shot some film just for fun. Shot 3 rolls of 35mm (one of them HIE) as well as some 5x4. All the 35mm films look good and of the 18 sheets of 5x4, there are only 4 blanks. Those that are exposed look pretty good. The 4 blanks were due to a "brainfart" with one darkslide (I took the darkslide out, turned it around, re-inserted it and then exposed the film!). The other darkslide was an unexposed one that got mixed up with the exposed sheets and I developed it just to be sure.

I will post some of the examples in the next few days once I get around to printing them.

Duh! Another large format setback. Or cockup!

Just went to develop the 5x4 sheets from last weekend and found that none of the sheet film holders were loaded with film!

What a doughnut! Just as well it was just personal work, but frustrating none the less. All that effort of getting out to the location, setting up the kit, taking all the notes...and all for nothing!

Argh! Never had this problem with 35mm! Or medium format! Well it was like this, I went out and shot all this film, but there was never any film in the camera!!

Oh well, let's just put it down to experience and move on.

Must find some time in the next couple of days to load up more of the test work that I did on cyanotypes.

Nikon lenses bounce!

Yep, it has been a while since I have dropped something!

Well, today was the day! Dropped a 105mm DAF while changing lenses in a local cemetery. Dropped it from about 3ft onto a concrete roadway and luckily it bounced. Most of the impact seemed to be taken on the side of the lens. No damage to the filter ring (otherwise, the filter would have shattered and it would have been a nightmare to get off). Otherwise, the lens seemed to survive. I used it for the rest of the session and, besides a couple of external scratches on the barrel, it worked a treat.

I guess this is partly why I use some much Nikon kit. :@)

Using a sun tan lamp as a UV source

Well after the last post, I twigged that I was thrashed around a bit and the best approach is going to be to take a more systematic approach to Cyanotype.

There seem three key steps in producing a good Cyanotype:

1. Coating the paper evenly;


2. Getting the amount of exposure on the print to produce dMax (maximum black, or in the case of a Cyanotype, maximum blue);


3. Using a negative of sufficient density to be able to produce the right tone in the highlights (without blocking up).

Well, I seem to have 1 under control. But 2 was causing a significant problem. The sun produces a very variable amount of UV, particularly at this time in the UK. I decided to try a small sun tan lamp as a UV source. I found a relatively inexpensive Philips sun tan lamp intended for facial tanning. I managed to find one locally for around £50. You can even buy them on Amazon!

Next trick was work out how to expose the print evenly. This was fairly straightforward to sort by suspending the lamp across the top of a plastic storage box. The print was in the bottom of the storage box under a sheet of thick glass.

Thus, the lamp is suspended about 25cms above the print. Next step is to work out how long the print needs to be exposed for.......

Frustration

Sometimes, I forget how frustrating photography can be! Every time you try a new technique, it is like trying to walk again. At the moment, I am struggling to produce half decent cyanotypes.

I gave up trying to use the sun to expose the contact prints. At this time of the year in the UK, it is too unreliable and when present, very variable. Some of the cyanotypes I was producing via this method were taking over an hour to expose. The alternative? A small sun tan lamp, intended for just your face, but it produces loads of UV. I tried it with the lamp stood upright and the contact print placed on the floor about 12 inches in front of the lamp. I exposed it for 20 minutes, moving the lamp around to make sure that it "cooked" evenly. The resulting print (shown below) is OK, but not evenly exposed or exposed enough. [This print has a second probably which is due to washing marks on the image side of the print. You can see these in the top left corner. Good news is that I have managed to work out how to dry the prints flat.]

I tried a second print with the lamp suspended horizontally over the contact print (about 4 inches above). I exposed it for 40 minutes. The results? Massive over exposure and almost no image at all. Didn't even both washing it. It went straight in the bin.

Now, I know better than this. I should have kept all the variables the same and just changed one. Changing the distance of the lamp from the contact print AND the amount of exposure time was bound not to work. Stupid mistake.

When all else fails, go back to first principles.

OK, next step to create a method of exposing the contact print in a constant manner and produces some test strips at different timings.

Ideas for image series

OK, so having set up the idea of shooting a series of images, here's some potential ideas:

• Cyantoypes - having played around with these recently, this seems appealing. I really like some of the images in the Eddie Ephraum's book. It would be possible to mock up some of these images by shooting them on 35mm, scanning a print, and then making a large "digital" negative from the scan. This should speed the process up as well as making experimentation a bit easier.
• Infrared - in the past I have gone through periods of shooting Kodak HIE and developing it in HC110. I currently have stocks of both.
• Lith prints - again went through a period of doing a lot of lith printing. I have both paper and chemicals (Fototspeed LD20). I am particularly tempted to combine infrared film and then lith print it.
• Pinhole images - I have previously made pinhole cameras out of 35mm film canisters. I also have a purpose made 5x4 pinhole camera. Biggest problem here is being able to preview the image.
• I have been toying with the idea of doing some still life work - I was recently impressed with Bob Carlos Clarke's spoon photos. I hadn't seen these for a long time.
• Polaroid Type 55 - This produces 5x4 negatives as well as a positive. I have a couple of boxes (20 sheets each) that expired in May 2006 but should still be OK. They will need to be used fairly shortly if they are going to be of any use.

In terms of subject matter:

• Re-purposed Welsh Churches. There always seems to be an over abundance of these and they are now being put to all sorts of purposes - carpet shops, art galleries, museums etc.
• Still life - I am always amazed at what washes up on the beaches on our trips to North Wales. Maybe a still life made up of things washed up on a beach.
• Graveyards - Really intrigued by one of the local Victorian grave yards in London. I always find the buildings and tombstones (which are usually in a state of decay) interesting.
• Nudes - Inspired by the Eddie Ephraums/Allan Jenkins book.

So now, it is just a case of combining one of the techniques with one of the subjects.......