Prints (and new glasses)

Woodbury, Connecticut

Back in my own darkroom this afternoon a couple days after the Penumbra Traditional (from film) workshop. Four Pt/Pd prints snapped with my iPhone as they sat in the second clearing bath, from my "Winter Woods" series shot over the last several months. I did these with an M-4/3s Panasonic GX7 and a variety of Panasonic and Olympus lenses. Digital negatives made with the procedure that I teach in my "digital platinum" workshops. 6.75x9 inch prints using a drop count of 10 ferric oxalate, 8 standard Pd, 2 standard Pt, plus 1 10% Tween20 on Hahnemühle Platinum Rag.

Also, this morning I picked up my new eyeglasses made to a very overdue new prescription. I had splurged and in addition to my bifocals, I ordered a pair of single vision "computer glasses" which hit best focus at something like two to three times reading distance. When I put the first humidified sheet of paper down at the coating station, I said to myself, wait, this is about two times reading distance! I changed to the computer glasses, and found that I could coat the sheet standing comfortably upright, instead of constantly bending over and craning my neck to see the faint pencil lines that mark the coating area. So, other people may have computer glasses, but...

Here I am with my new Darkroom Glasses.

Platinum, printing, and workshop

Twenty-five milliliters of freshly mixed platinum solution. I'm printing a new set of small Pt/Pd prints from a picture series made over the past couple months in forest parks and preserves here in Connecticut.

Also, I'll be teaching my "digital platinum" workshop this coming weekend at The Penumbra Foundation in NYC—I understand there are a couple places left.

Here are iPhone snaps of this morning's four prints in the clearing baths.

Steep Rock Spring

A new gallery at my web site, the third in a "Four Seasons" set of folios—pictures made at Steep Rock Preserve in Washington, CT. They are 7.3x11 inch platinum/palladium prints.

Here's a link to "Steep Rock Spring, 2018."

Town and Country

Steep Rock Preserve, Washington, Connecticut

More platinum/palladium prints shot with the Leica Monochrom camera I had on loan for a couple weeks recently. Mostly out in the woods and fields, but a couple of city subjects as well. The prints are 11-inches wide on 11x15 Hahnemühle Platinum Rag. Negatives made with my system on Fixxons film in an Epson 3880, coated with a mostly-palladium mixture, exposed in my vacuum frame and 20x24 fluorescent tube UV light source, developed in potassium oxalate. The two pictures of ferns were shot with my 50mm Noctilux, the others with my 35mm Summicron. These are probably the last of the MM-246 pictures that I'll print, at least for right now.

 Steep Rock Preserve, Washington, Connecticut

 White Memorial Conservation Center, Litchfield, Connecticut

 Steep Rock Preserve, Washington, Connecticut

Steep Rock Preserve, Washington, Connecticut

 NewYork, New York

New York, New York

More Prints in the Clearing Baths

Another set of platinum/palladium prints from shots made with the Leica M Monochrom T-246.

From a series of experiments using my 35+ year old Noctilux wide open at f/1, not because of especially low light, but to intentionally limit the focus to very shallow depth of field. (If you click on the image area of the pictures you'll get a slightly larger but more accurate tonal representation of the pictures,  though showing what a Pt/Pd print looks like in web files is pretty hopeless). These are 11" wide prints, Pt/Pd, on 11x15 Hahnemühle Platinum Rag.

The same lens used at f/5.6 for more normal-looking depth of field. Both of these were made in the Hidden Valley section of Steep Rock Preserve in Washington, Connecticut.

Back to the workhorse 35mm Summicron.

Preceding two from White Memorial Conservation Center in Litchfield, Connecticut.

Back to Steep Rock Preserve, this one from the original main section of the park.

Out of the woods and into town, a shot from Brewster, NY.

First Look

The past couple weeks I had a loaner Leica Monochrome (Typ 246) to work with in preparation for a planned workshop next fall at the Penumbra Foundation. The workshop will be called something like "Digital Platinum for Leica Photographers"—actual title and other details TBD. Aside from satisfying my curiosity (I've used film Leica cameras since 1967 but haven't used the digital models) the idea was to get a good look at how the single-channel files from the b&w-only Monochrom differ from typical Bayer-array RGB digital capture files, in terms of working them up to make digital negatives for Pt/Pd printing.

So here are the first two Pt/Pd prints I've tried, in-process shots while they're in the clearing baths. 11-inch wide prints on 11x15 Hahnemühle Platinum Rag. The first is from the White Memorial Conservation Center in northwestern Connecticut, the second from mid-town Manhattan.

Into the Woods

Litchfield, Connecticut

For the next several weeks I have a Leica M Monochrom camera on loan, curtesy of the Penumbra Foundation, where I'll be teaching a modified version of my "digital platinum" workshop in October, aimed specifically at owners of this camera. This past Sunday I took it to White Memorial Conservation Center in soft, deep, early morning light. The idea was to test the high resolution 24 MP monochrome sensor with highly detailed subject matter, along with some tonal range torture testing. Below is a phone snap of the camera with one of my 30+ year old M Leica lenses and even older TilTall tripod.

Street Advertising, 1/3

New York, New York

Whenever I spend time around mid-town Manhattan, I'm struck by the sheer quantity of street-level—sidewalk level?—advertising. Then, I notice the way all these mini-billboards, kiosk signs and storefront ads relate to everything else going on in the visual environment. So this post begins a small series of sidewalk advertising pictures made last weekend in New York while teaching a "Digital Platinum" workshop at the Penumbra Foundation.

UPDATE: New Web Galleries

I've just finished making some changes to the galleries page at my website, including two new galleries with the platinum/palladium prints I've made during the past week. I've shown snaps of the wet prints in the clearing baths in several posts here, but these are carefully made copy shots of the finished Pt/Pd prints. There are also some new front-page examples for some of the older galleries.

News: Upcoming Workshop

Along the Shepaug at Steep Rock, Washington, Connecticut

That's a copy shot of a 7x11" platinum/palladium print made earlier this week from an original digital capture, by way of a digital internegative.

I've just learned that there are still a couple places available for my "Digital Platinum" workshop at Penumbra Foundation in New York, ten days from now, April 28-29. Follow the link for details. Take the workshop and you'll learn how to make prints like this yourself from digital captures or film scans.

Last Lab Session for Now

The second half of the potential Burr Pond State Park folio. 9-inch Pt/Pd prints on 10x11 Hahnemühle Platinum Rag. Very late Autumn conditions with thin layers of ice on the pond, snow flurries in the air. Snaps show the prints in the clearing baths.

At It Again

More printing this morning.

These are from a different Connecticut Park, Burr Pond, made late last fall. I wanted a smaller, more delicate presentation for these than the Steep Rock folio series, so they are sized 9-inches wide on 10x11 Hahnemühle Platinum Rag, Pt/Pd using a 10% traditional platinum mix.

Printing this Morning

The other main candidates for a "Steep Rock, Winter" folio.