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8/1/12

Ancient Sun

Beaming through aged tree...


2 comments:

  1. This picture is awesome, JR...I've looked at it several times over the last few days and the first thing that came to mind was "Kodalith", which if I remember right (I'm not checking lol) was the monochromatic film Kodak used to make. I took a photography class that at some point offered a chance to do the monochrome stuff but I don't remember having ever done it; I DO remember lots of regular BxW and color-slides being processed in my uncle's mostly abandoned darkroom in my grandparents's basement. It was notable for 1)enormous spiders, and 2) a men's-room door that my uncle once swore up and down came from a remodeling of Madison Square Garden. I'm sure about the spiders, and the door story may well have been true, but the most interesting thing about it is that my grandfather more than once made the request that if I wanted to dump out D-76 or Dektol or whatever other crud I was using, to please not dump into the basement cistern, since that went to the septic tank...instead, he directed me to take it into the backyard and pour it out behind the woodpile. I never did that; honestly I have no idea what I ever did with the used stuff. Luckily I wasn't too prolific, so I'm pretty sure there wasn't much of it around to dispose of anyway. :)

    Anyway, sir, I ramble because of the memories your picture evokes. I love it for that, and for the way it lets you look at it and notice hints of color here and there, until you look closely enough and say "of COURSE it's green...or is it?" Plus I love pretty much any picture that looks up at treetops; I crawled around the woods this afternoon and took a few of them myself. I don't think you can ever see enough treetops. As foregrounds or backgrounds (or, I guess, middle grounds, really) treetops cannot be beat.

    I'll shut up for now, except to thank you for posting this (and all of your work) and say that I hope things are as well as they can possibly be for you and yours, my friend.

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  2. It's interesting Mike you mention Kodalith because I created this effect using an app called Vignette for Android that has settings that create a similar effect. Photoshop also has a plug-in that replicates the effect but my summer has been so sidelined by family matters that I have yet to really learn even the bare basics of Photoshop but I did enhance the effects of the app in Photoshop.

    I also have memories of developing film at home in a darkroom my father helped me set up in the laundry/workshop/tool room attached to the house. I took a photography class at the Art Museum to learn how to do it and remember the rather quirky teacher who was the first "long hair hippie type" I knew that had a "legit" job in the sense he worked at the local museum full time. We had a large laundry drain tub and remember my father going through the same "do not dump those chemicals down the laundry basin into the septic tank" and had me haul it quite a distant from the house to dump it which ultimately killed the cactus in the spot. You brought back great memories for me also with your similar story.

    Thanks for commenting on this picture since it's another one of those I had doubts about since I'm in a new experimental stage. A period where I'm thinking "hmmmm...does this work or not?" while I'm playing with different effects and apps than I have in the past.

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