More photos to show

As promised, I have some more photos to show you guys. I hadn't been taking that many pictures until just

recently, but I did shoot a few rolls of film here and there during my absence.<p>

 

I took this first photo at the Mormon Rocks, near the same place that's in the pictures in my last topic. This

is Christopher, and you have no idea how miraculous it is that this kid is even here today. As some of you know,

my friend Tom passed away one year ago when he was hit by a car while riding his bike. Chris was with him at the

time, riding on the handlebars. Tom was killed nearly instantly, but miraculously Chris survived. He's 15 years

old now, and is alive and well today. We've become very close. I've become really close with Tom's family and

in a way, I kind of think of Chris as my little brother. I'm trying to be a good influence on him and I

encourage him whenever I have the chance. He's here for a reason. One day, this kid is going to do

something...maybe discover a new planet or a cure for a disease. Who knows. I still really miss Tom sometimes,

but I thank God every day that Chris is still here today and that I have the privilege to be his friend. <p>

 

I took his picture with my Minolta SRT-101, and Tri-X film. I liked how it turned out. He has a look of

confidence, which really fits his personality.<p>

 

<img src = "http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/gatewaycityca/ChristopherJan2011small.jpg"> <p>

 

And yup we do indeed have the same name! As you can imagine, that gets pretty funny sometimes especially if

we're both in the same room. I'll be over hanging out at their house and someone will ask for "Chris"....so I'll

come over but they'll say "no, the other Chris." Then sometimes he'll answer but they were looking for me.

("No, I mean the other Chris. big Chris."). Or sometimes people will say "oh hey, the Chrises are here." It gets confusing

and pretty funny. People sometimes ask us if it feels weird talking to someone with your same name.<p>

 

And here are some earlier pictures. I took this back around September. I took this with my Argus C3 (one of

them) and Arista Premium 100 film. VW bug's are pretty cool. I had been trying to get a picture of this one for

a while.<p>

 

<img src="http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/gatewaycityca/VWbugsmall.jpg"><p>

 

Around the same time, I was looking for some places to take landscape photos and I came across an old abandoned

pump house. I took some more pictures with the Argus C3 (I think it might have even been on the same roll of

film as the slug bug). Also, I experimented with something new. Earlier, I had read about solarizing prints.

So I decided to try it! <b>Here's a normal print of a pipe near the pump house...</b><p>

 

<img src="http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/gatewaycityca/Pipe2small.jpg"><p>

 

<b>And here's a solarized print.</b> What I did was turn on the lights in the room for about 1 or 2 seconds

while the print was still in the developing tray. I showed this to some of my friends and they said it looks

pretty creepy, like the cover of a horror novel :) <p>

 

<img src="http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/gatewaycityca/Pipe2solarizedsmall.jpg"><p>

 

And here's one more. Here's a normal print...<p>

 

<img src="http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/gatewaycityca/Pipesmall.jpg"><p>

 

And here's a solarized print...<p>

 

<img src="http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/gatewaycityca/Pipesolarizedsmall.jpg"><p>

 

I'll have some more pictures to post soon, once I get some stuff from Freestyle Photo so I can develop more prints.

<p>Glad to see you're experimenting with printing, too, Chris.<br>

I went through my Man Ray "phase" back in the early 90s and solarized tons of high-contrast portraits and still-life negs for the shear joy of seeing different results with varying degrees of flashing. <br>

There's a certain skill set needed to properly expose a partially developed print or negative and careful test strips and sheets and good record keeping will help you learn to make accurate assessments of which photos would give the best results. Stick with high contrast subjects with bold speration between light and dark areas.<br>

Sure, you could hit "solarize' in adobe, but it give horrible results, unless you build up layers, invert the image a couple of times back and forth, and such. it's just not the same... nothing beats all night in a funky darkroom with 60s and 70s Italian soundtracks on the hi-fi</p>

<p>Love the Bug! The "eyebrow" makes it!</p>

<p>Interesting stuff, <strong>Chris.</strong> The whole darkroom bag-of-tricks is in danger of being forgotten, I guess, though there are plenty of books on the subject floating around. As <strong>Gabor</strong> pointed out, an evening experimenting with various effects was a really enjoyable experience, far more tactile (and smellier) than Photoshop, though I was more of a Brubeck man, than "funky Italian'...That's one tidy V-Dub.</p>

<p>Keep up the nice work.</p>

<p>There is something about the smell of fixer, isn't there?</p>

Nice shots, Chris.

 

The one of 'little' Chris is cool.

<p>Great stuff Chris, and welcome back from me. My daughter has a '72 Bug, and I often sneak a drive when I can....makes you smile!<br>

Tony</p>

<p>Neat idea to play with solarizing, PS makes all of us forget the magic of the Darkroom. You've been convert there from the start Hurrah! I once did B6W postivies, and I also toned some pritns. so the possibilities are endless. I'm somehow not surprised that you've maintained a relationship to the tragic story related to Tom. It is healthy to feel close to those others.<br>

It is a bond that will never change and will continue to evolve. Glad to see you using the C4s and having fun with other classics.</p>

 

<p>Good Sabatier effect experiments, Chris. I had a VW just like that one. Lacking wrenching skills, and using a well worn copy of VW Repair for the Complete Idiot, it was the only car I could actually work on myself. </p>

hey thanks a lot for the great feedback guys. I'll have more to post very soon. In fact, I just got my order from Freestyle yesterday, and so I might be working in the darkroom for a little while tonight :)

 

Louis, I actually want to get a VW bug. I think they're so cool, and would be a lot of fun to drive, kind of like a go kart. I do come across bugs for sale every once in a while, but for some reason they sell for pretty high, or at least a lot more than what I would expect. Probably because they're like a collector's item now. Well, also because they're exempt from California smog check laws!