Robert Langham

Proofing finished on Shiprock Negs.

2013-06-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

Now to get them sleeved and sequenced and boxed.

Here's a little sample. Some of them are scenes never seen before from Shiprock. Others more common. Some right at parking areas and others had a good bit of climbing and walking.

From contact proofs.

The White Tower. 120 Angulon backed into the last corner of a little ledge. I didn't see the overhang in the upper right. The camera was so tight up against the cliff that I couldn't get holders in and out. Polarizer to cut the glare. Looks like the horizon line has dissolved and the shadow is just hanging. This was the further-ist spot for a climb into a place I had never been.

Southwest face. Off the road that crosses the South Dike about mid-morning. Yellow filter. 190 Wide-Field Ektar that I bought for 300 bucks at Kurt's Kamera Corral on Central Avenue in Albuquerque in about 1994. It still has the price tag in one corner of the lens board.

The Salt Cave. 120 Angulon. No filter. Tripod center column was hitting the ground. Had to dig a few pebbles out so it would be clear.

East face detail. 450 Nikkor. Looking at this one. Hard to know where to start and stop. The light on the face was open shadow, but the plains bounce light back up better in other places. Polarizer to cut reflections off the rock. Tough camera position and a little bit of a struggle to get up the talus slope.

Little neck group in evening light. 120 Angulon. Yellow filter. Long slog to get up, with rattlesnake. That's the main rock shadow all the way to the right. Clouds coming and going. We'll see. Might be too much. I was after the biggish neck with it's long shadow streaking out behind it, but would have to come later in the year. The Sun was too far to the Northwest.

Afternoon light from the hill grave site. 120 Angulon and also a 190 version. Have to be careful about shadows jumping ridges and distorting. Yellow filter. I was up here three times: scouting, dawn, dusk. Have to lay them all out together in sequence. I love this image.

Little neck shadow jumping a dike. 190 Wide Field Ektar, Yellow filter or none. Leaving the little shadow on the right side. Needs it. Had to really scramble to get this, then scramble again when I ran out of holders.

East face boulder field. 120 Angulon. One of my favorite rocks at Shiprock. Used to be quite a walk to get over to it, but now folks are driving all over the place and tracks come right up to it.

Little dots. To go with The Dot. I'd never seen these dots before and the camera position is on a loose fractured slope. Sporty to the extreme. 190 Ektar, no filter. May use a little negative retouching to firm up the main dot. And then never print it. From just off the ridge just below the Hermit's cave on the North shoulder. Looks like an easy walk up. It's not.

Shiprock has a sunlit side and a shadow side most times of the day and when the wind is blowing a windward side and a wind shadow. I tend to try and keep all that in mind. This day on the North shoulder there was a howling wind out of the West. Then it died to nothing. I hadn't shot a thing but noticed this wall and the little dots. I got down this loose slope off the ridge when the wind died, but was uncertain about getting back up. The slope only 60-80 yards...then a drop off. Lonesome place.

South dike detail. East side of the South Dike in the afternoon open shade. Polarizer. 450 Nikkor or the 12 inch Ektar. Tough to get good camera position on the talus slope.

East face boulder field. My favorite boulder again. 190 Ektar and a polarizer. This is a little darker than a print would be.

The Meteorite. West dike. 190 Ektar and a polarizer.

South Dike shadow. 450 Nikkor. Yellow filter.

Table Mesa. 450 Nikkor.

Morning light on the West Dike. 450 Nikkor and a blue filter. No wind and a beautiful morning. That dike shadow doesn't last long. I took the shadow photo, (6 from the top), from that dark-topped hill.

Table Mesa. 450 Nikkor during a dust storm. They blew through in sequence about 30 mins apart.

South Dike. 190 Ektar and blue filter.

I had four lenses with me, all fixed lenses. No zooms of course for the 5X7 Deardorff. Some quite old. I used all four. 120mm Super Angulon, 190 Wide Field Ektar, 12 inch Commercial Ektar, 450mm Nikkor. Would have hated to be without any one of them. Used a polarizer, yellow, orange, (once), blue and no filter. Worked out of an old F64 camera pack exclusively. No film holder problems. Gitzo tripod with carbon fiber legs but a big heavy #4 head for stability.

Grand Canyon Artist-in-Residence, 2014

2013-06-11T11:09:00.001-07:00

Chosen for a three-week slot on the South Rim. Working out the dates and the details. Very glad to get a slot. I've got a body of work in mind, just need to arrange somewhere for it to be shown afterwards.

Shiprock negatives.

2013-06-10T11:32:00.004-07:00

Eight days in the desert produces a lot of exposed film. I'm working through the boxes without hurrying or cutting corners. About 180 shots. I'm using Xtol 1:1 and 68 degree water. The film is HP5 and FP4.

I unloaded and reloaded film holders every evening and in the middle of the day. At night I waited until full dark after 9:30. When the sun was up, I had to have a session in the deepest shade I could find to park. I put my arms through the sleeves of my fleece North Face jacket to block out any armhole light leaks into the bag, hung a sleeping bag over the seats to block the light and put the dark cloth over the bag. No film light leak problems so far and I am about halfway through.

Daily dust storm.

The Salt Spot Cave.

Leaning slab under the White Tower.

The most runs I have made in a day is seven. The limiting factor is having to make ice to produce enough cool water. Tap water is running about 91 degrees.

All images iphone proofs.

Art time with a little longer blink.

2013-05-24T19:18:00.001-07:00

Trying to proof all my negatives so that I can die feeling complete. Knocked off a box today of sleeved, numbered and logged negatives that had never been proofed. It was from about 1978-80. 4X5 view camera work downtown mostly with a Sinar F.

iphone copies of the proofs. Always fun to see these old images for the first time in 30 years since I saw them on the ground glass of the camera. I still have the camera.

Working on still life.

2013-05-23T13:32:00.002-07:00

Has to move or be in in transition in some way, can't just be a collection of objects. I think of them as momentary still lifes. Using the 8X10 Deardorff, one soft box, silver card reflector and light dams to control the lighting. Remembering a few tricks I forgot or haven't used in a decade. Just getting going it seems. Freezing things takes overnight or longer and looks like most of them are going to take several "takes" so it's several days at the least. In art time that's just a blink.

Here's the process on one I am working on. It's harder on the props than you might think- I'm destroying/breaking things all the time or I'm working with something that won't last. Broke the cup, my wishbone and had a dice get away for a while.

First day try.

Close, but no cigar.

Couple days later:

Roughed out and shedding items.

This is about the end. Now I have to do it again.

New idea for still life.

2013-05-20T10:10:00.002-07:00

Amazing how new ideas just pop up in your mind. Not quite ready for the details but I'm interested in still life photographs.....but the still lifes have to be alive, moving, melting, burning, spinning, flowing, et. Photographing an assemblage of things and calling it art...well, isn't the assemblage art and the photo just a copy? I like a still life that photography has unique capabilities to capture. So I've been thinking. Came up with a new idea. Working out the details and have already learned several things. A lot of photography is just handling the details.

Natalie White at the ROX Gallery.

2013-05-16T11:40:00.002-07:00

Friend of Peter Beard, who has had a great life.

Camino

2013-05-01T06:29:00.002-07:00

Bill Bennet, and Aussie filmmaker and photographer is walking a 500 mile pilgrimage in Spain and blogging. Many photographs and an interesting experience. He's got a nice eye and a commentary to go with it. Worth the visit.

Hasselblad discontinues film camera

2013-04-30T11:58:00.001-07:00

Hasselblad with 50mm wide angle back in 1975 or so.

Sorry to see this end but perfectly understandable. I must have shot thousands of rolls of film, polaroid out of a polaroid back, et with mine. Dad bought my first one for me in 1972. Had one ever since. Now that film has gotten obsolete I shoot only sheet film in holders, hardly ever any rolls. Jackson took one to Canyon de Chelly last year.

Jackson last year with the 50mm I shot the photo above with....37 years before!

Classic, flexible and wonderful camera. I'm sure I will use mine a little more.

Mont St Michele, afternoon shadow: Video.

2013-04-20T15:14:00.001-07:00

With the firm belief that it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission: Over the wall and off into the construction scaffolding. Great afternoon to watch the shadow run all the way out.

No hardhat.

View from up on the wall.

Was able to find a spot out of the wind. Nobody noticed me as far as I could tell. Scaffolding quite secure.

They were doing reconstruction/conservation on this area. Scaffolding all the way to the mud below. Very impressive.

Much construction/repair going on while the new bridge was being built. Probably trying to get it all done this year.

Shiprock names.

2013-04-01T06:32:00.000-07:00

I've been wandering around Shiprock since the early 70s....last century. 2014, (if we live), will make 40 years of wandering in the desert. Since then I have named various points and areas and used them and heard them used by others. I think "Molly's Nipple" was about the first and the "Bone Shrine" the latest. (It's a shrine. With bones. Found last year.) There is the Dance Floor, the Meteorite, the Climber's Cave, Climber's Cave Ledge, the Black Giant, the White Tower, the Pulpit, the Dot, the Wing, the Big Hawaiian, the North Buttress, East, West and South Dikes, (more description than names) I wonder what names others use? For instance, the North Buttress is called the Tugboat in some climbers descriptions. Gotta be some.

The Black Giant, a dark volcanic intrusion over the South Dike.

Deardorff in the Climber's Cave pointed at a little anasazi rockwork.

The Pulpit with evening shadow.

Deardorff pointed at the Dot.

Climber's Cave ledge.

Climber's Cave Ledge.

On the Pulpit.

Raven on the West Dike.

Unsolved problem. Never managed to find a light or a viewpoint for these guys at the end of the West Dike.

Shiprock Sundial.

2013-03-30T07:11:00.000-07:00

The most compelling thing about Shiprock is the solitude of the experience of being there. One can be alone in a room but to be alone in a huge empty space with light and air is quite another experience. Beyond that, its a visual feast. Canyon de Chelly is like being inside a sculpture, Shiprock IS a sculpture.

It's also a heck of a sundial, and I've structured most of the many days I have spent there around being in position for the early and late shadows forming up and making a run to the rock or to the horizon.

A little platinum contact of the afternoon shadow from the pulpit.

Morning shadow over off the West Dike.

Late evening shadow about to jump into the atmosphere as the powerplant fires up. Pulpit in foreground.

Afternoon shadow with Pulpit in foreground.

Molly's Nipple and the East Dike in the afternoon.

East Dike from the North Buttress.

East Dike.

Afternoon shadow from the North Buttress.

North Buttress view.

The Wing and afternoon shadow.

Road, shadow.

Road and shadow #2.

West Dike and Morning shadow.

Morning Shadow, 1996

Morning shadow, 2012

Morning shadow and West Dike.

Morning Shadow from Climber's Cave Ledge.

Large Format Print Exchange Printing.

2013-03-29T07:02:00.000-07:00

10 prints of one negative for a print exchange at the Large Format Forum. I finished off my France Negatives to look at them but instead picked a newish image, (last fall), from Shiprock.

I've seen this scene several times. You have to sleep up there to witness it, as it happens first thing in the morning. I was up early and saw the shadow coming and going on the far mountain range. It just flashed like this twice for about 10 seconds but I was set up and ready with the slide pulled.

Easy to print negative with very little spotting- that's part of the key when doing an edition. Some of my prints take a tremendous amount of spotting....which would be multiplied X10. Exposure for an 11X14 paper image was 30 seconds with a ten second burn of the sky. I printed it pretty soft but it has good blacks and a nice range of tones. Now I have to flatten them, do the other work and get them in the mail. Can't wait to see what 10 prints I get back.

Same shot from about 1995.

A gorgeous morning. Just the second time I had been up there.

I love this scene but you have to spend the night up there to be ready for it. Pretty sporty. One night I got in position just as a storm rolled in. The wind took my hat and nearly got me. I managed to get around the corner and into the only shelter on Shiprock- the climber's cave. Safe and dry back there....then the lip of the cave- fairly large, turned into a waterfall with me behind it. I watched the lighting flash through the roaring water...but finally rolled out my sleeping bag cover and went to sleep.

Everything that happens..happens for the first time, the last time and the only time.

Mont St Michele, North Shore Video.

2013-03-23T14:40:00.003-07:00

Just a couple minutes of video shot by Katie on the North Shore. Still working on negatives.

Eiffel Tower.

2013-03-23T08:14:00.001-07:00

View from the top. There are several levels to stop on, including a fancy restaurant level.

First place we visited after we got checked into hotel in Paris. There on a breezy cool night right at dusk. They light the thing up. Took an hour to get tickets and get up. When we came off we walked down the staircase. 20 minutes. It's quite an assembly.

Each leg has an elevator. I think they are run by water power, judging by the machinery we saw.

Rosie, le riveter had been busy.

First lowest big section is a restaurant. The next segment up is an observation deck. You can ride the elevator to the very top.

Photographing around the rock.

2013-03-22T06:15:00.001-07:00

North shore, Mont St Michele.

Beachcombing between shots.

In the cloister up on top of Mont St Michele.

On the plaza in front of the abbye. 9 euro tour. Opens at 9:30. Need to be there at about 7:00.

I am in the shade of the mont.

Photographing tourists.

Spent a lot of time trying to set up a fairly extreme photo, then called it off.

I got it sorted out but it just wasn't...beyond a skillful photo.

In the cathedral shooting the bell rope. Very nice.

Hanging out in construction zone to watch the afternoon shadow cross the mud flat.

On this afternoon I got to watch the shadow run all the way to the horizon.

This view lasted about six seconds on a cloudy afternoon with a cloud bank behind me. It came and went four times over about a hour or so and then went dark.

Black hole down in the abby.

Street walking in the evening.

In front of our little hotel, the Mouton Blanc.

North Shore on the Chapelle St Aubert.

View from a very tough scramble.

Got impressionistic early in the morning over the high tide. I saw seals out near the point.

Chatting up the locals with a little Tarzan-level French in the cloister.

Le Blizzard.

Katie has gotten very handy with her iphone. She must have read my book: The Blackfork Guide, on blurb.com.

Flying with Sheet Film.

2013-03-21T13:56:00.001-07:00

I had the TSA regs, but only Tarzan-level French. I never got the film scanned by the US/TSA, (they were willing to swab it for explosives and be done), but three times by the French. We will see how it held up. Should be fine. Almost everyone was curious about my 5X7 Deardorff folded up in the Zone VI case. They have boring jobs and never see a terrorist so they have to make do with whatever comes along.

Never loaded up my F64 pack. Just used the little Zone VI. Tight, but it held everything. Weather was a little sporty for a couple of days. Glad to have the gore-tex coat over my jacket. Army heavy long underwear under those jeans. 30 year old pair of cheap rubber boots. I was not the snappy dresser.

Mont Saint Michele, North shore. Somehow lost the front cap for the 120 Angulon this morning.

Chasing the shadow of the spire.

Construction scaffold perch. I just waited for a moment when nobody was around and went over. Great place to shoot from. Very windy right around the corner. You get that a lot at MStM.

Was up on this spot two afternoons in a row. One afternoon just gave me 10 second glimpses. The other afternoon I got to watch the shadow go all the way to the horizon.

Morning shadow on the rising tide. Tough trail...an no trail, to get to this perch, but pretty good once I made it.

Up on the church plaza. Japanese girls and the Deardorff.

No problems with the camera. It ran great and carried OK. Mont Saint Michele is a tiny place, fairly vertical but flat around the bottom. You can walk around it in about 20 minutes in a pair of rubber boots. Gets a little muddy in a couple of spots.

Gave away many Texas Commemorative Quarters to kids like this. Folks don't see these cameras very often. I didn't have any special access, just the normal tourist spots. I'm on the 9 Euro abbye tour here.

Just missed this one by about 30 minutes. Needed a little more shadow. The place is like a sundial and the shadow rolls around it in the winter. This is about 11:00. That's the river going out to sea on the left.

These are just iphone records of some shots I made, converted into black and white on the computer. My camera lens, (120 Super Angulon on a 5X7), is a little wider. Plus my 5X7 images are absolutely level.

The place is a rockwork miracle.

Watching the shadow go all the way to the horizon on this afternoon.

Just brief glimpses this afternoon.

Pilgrim, Shrine of St Aubrey.

Quite a brisk morning out.

Morning shadow was always a little impressionistic. Tide was in every morning I was there, so it was shadow on water. Plus some fog.

Man-in-the-rock, MStM.

Packing for a few days out.

2013-03-06T00:18:00.003-08:00

5X7 in an old Zone VI bag. Was going to just use this for carry-on on the airplane but thinking about working out of it now.

Flying to France for a few days next week. Ought to be a fun trip. Packing the 5X7 and tripod. Other cameras, facebooking, blogging, probably going to be minimal, though I ought to return with plenty of video and stills for future blogging. Except for having to funnel everything through the restrictions of airline travel over the Atlantic I'm just treating this as a trip to the rosefields near town.

Got the TSAs own regulations printed out. We'll see if that helps. They see sheet film less than they see guns. Sheet film comes in boxes and is actually mentioned in their regulations as acceptable for hand checking, but the reports are that they don't know their own regulations until you produce them.

Rubber boots. Tripod. The big camera backpack. 10 holders. Spare meter. Spare ground glass. Probably go too much stuff as usual.

Going to miss some of the bloom. Lucy and I made a run to the rose fields this afternoon. The weather has been so warmish that the blooms aren't at peak but the leaves beginning to pop open.

My old crippled pear tree.

Off the top of the truck in some chest-high weeds.

Final pack in the morning.

Front gate to Mont St Michele, 1935.

2013-02-28T09:36:00.003-08:00

They were bringing tourists in a high tide in a skiff. The guy standing in the boat has a dog under his arm. The lady at the top of the stairs has an armload of firewood. This scene still exists today and, God willing, Katie and I will walk through here in about 10 days.

I"ll have this photo with me. Might leave it at the tourist office which is just inside the gate, though to tell you the truth, it's such a beautiful photo, (bought off ebay), that I hate to give it up.

Taking 5X7 into Normandy.

Ansel Adams printing Moonrise, Hernandez.

2013-02-18T03:33:00.002-08:00

Mostly talking about it, but always interesting to see.

Here's another very interesting piece of film: Ansel, Virginia Best, Cedrick Wright and others climbing to the Diving Board via Grizzly Peak gully. I can't believe they pulled it off in the snow. I've been up this route in better weather with Chris Johnson. We didn't make it, ran long on time, hadn't planned to be out overnight, the fog closed in, it got dark and we endured a very cold sleepless night at about 8000 feet in the Sierras in early June. We did make it two other trips, up past Nevada Fall and taking the easier route around the back of Liberty Cap. Tricky routefinding. We spent the night both times. Hope to visit at least once more and take Katie up.

Late afternoon with the shadow of North Dome on the face.

Ansel in Yosemite, 1974.

Dawn.

Ansel was only up there twice, this trip and once before.

History

2013-02-15T19:40:00.002-08:00

This must be about 1987. Struggling through a really difficult time in my life and not being able to make any headway or see a way out. Somehow I had bought myself a 120mm Fuji wide angle for the 5X7, (later destroyed by a poltergeist at Shiprock and then the pieces of it stolen by indians), and it fit my vision perfectly for that format. Going through these old negs every once in a while I find one that looks like it works. I'm sure I won't ever print these, but they are nice pieces of seeing.

Little Sandy Hunting Club boathouse.

Deserted driveway.

iphone images of the proofs while I was sleeving and refiling the negatives. Got that old central composition going. Just in the cold darkroom for about an hour and a half to finish off this box. Whole box of negatives is now proofed and...on to one of the next 30 or 40 boxes.

More Plowing through files of negatives.

2013-02-08T19:04:00.000-08:00

It gets a little weird at times when you have completely forgotten, (until you see the image) about making the shots. I did notice that by this box I had bought a wide-angle lens for my 5X7. It was a Fuji 120mm later killed by a poltergeist at Shiprock and replaced with a 120 Super Angulon. Sure made a difference in the shooting.

Holly at the lake under some penetrating afternoon light. Just an iphone copy of the wet proof. I love the wandering shadows and the cow-cropped branches on the bottom. These trees died two years ago. They are standing ruins now. This was 15 years back, at least.

Zeorlin gave me a sunflower. I remember walking into the studio and the whole place smelling peppery.

Hay bales and clouds.

Swann Furniture sign stashed in the old brothel building downtown.

Upstairs bedroom, or workroom in the old brothel building.

There is, (not shown), a deep-river bottom negative of an old concrete bridge support standing in the middle or the Sabine or Neches. Six of them, pairs of three slight variances in view. Looks like a tombstone. Love to go back and see it in overcast light. Have to look that one up in the log book and see exactly where it is. I hadn't thought about it since I took it.

Never proofed any of these negatives. I haven't scratched the surface on the proofing to be done.

Proofing day.

2013-01-27T18:19:00.001-08:00

Just starting to plow through old negative boxes. Got one open next to the enlarger but it's slow going. Printed off the end of a box of paper this afternoon while proofing film from the last two weekends up at Clarksville.

Looks like the first look at something is usually the best. Went back to several subjects and made worse photos the second time. Hmmmm.

Owl neg going to make a nice print.

Just four 8X10 negs but might have something to try as a platinum contact, if I can get coating smooth enough.

Tried stacking a polarizer and a green filter two times. Both sets of negatives are underexposed by about a stop and a half, though I metered through them. Have to check that versus metering the subject and then adding the filter factor, see what the difference might be. Otherwise, just add more exposure. No problems with either filter used by itself.

Just keep on. Live and learn, then die and forget it all.

Shooting and shooting.

2013-01-22T11:02:00.001-08:00

Picked up a truck-killed Great Horned Owl on the way up to Clarksville last weekend. She was on the side of the road in the Sulpher River bottom. Horned owls very common but you hear them more than see them. Intact. Probably dead of a broken neck. (Driving up for some late-season management-tag shooting with rifle. This is probably the shot.

First looks can be the best, but you never know. On 5X7 Ilford HP5.

He lasted the weekend so I reshot him with 5X7 and 8X10 this weekend.

Moved him and shot him in the sun. Pretty contrasty but I wanted to see the shadow.

And the next morning in the shade. I'm always trying to find the best light to shoot in.

Now she's had a Christian funeral. Birds like this tacked up will last through the Spring and into the Summer, though they start looking a bit worn.

8X10 standing by. It travels folded up in that box with a few holders and accessories.

8X10 set up in the sun in the afternoon light. That's the West wall of the barn and sun position is cranked over because of the time of year.

Owl up in the loft. Left behind up there in the dry and cold. She'll dessicate. Gorgeous, adult, probably female Great Horned Owl. RIP.

Off to shoot in Clarksville....

2013-01-18T20:33:00.001-08:00

Up to Clarksville area for a little hunting this weekend, but taking Digital Nikon and three old pistols to shoot a calendar page or two, the Deardorff 5X7 to shoot, the Deardorff 8X10 to shoot and the Hasselblad. All for specific different shots.

8X10

5X7

Hope to zap a doetag or two while I am there.