Visions Of Vocation

Silent Survivor

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2012-02-19T08:14:03-08:00

Life’s events have a way of interrupting the steady flow that we create for ourselves. It’s been quite some time since I have had an opportunity to simply grab a camera and run a roll of film through it, although I should at least to relieve stress. During this dry spell, I regularly look through my library and remember where I was and why I tripped the shutter. My work sends me from Hawaii to Washington DC, although I haven’t travelled as of late. This morning, I was looking through my military shots and found a few in particular that I remember well. No flashy colors. No airbrushed highlights or other photoshop effects. Just light striking the sensor.

‘Silent Survivor’ is a fragment of an airplane that survived the attack on Pearl Harbor. I was on Ford Island and spotted it laying in wait for restoration near the Pacific Aviation Museum. Most people photograph hibiscus flowers. the pounding surf, or the lush green mountains on the windward side of Oahu. I prefer to photograph history.

The Imperial Japanese Navy could have delivered a crushing blow and taken Oahu to stage further attacks on the United States mainland if it were not for four critical mistakes. The aircraft carriers were at sea at the time, so they were safe the morning of December 7, 1941. The Japanese fighters and bombers ignored the enormous fuel bunkers that were the lifeblood of the American fleet and they left the nearby dry dock untouched. The Japanese attacked early on a Sunday morning so most of the shipyard workers and sailors were not on station that day.

"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

Ancient Leading Edge

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2012-01-29T07:55:24-08:00

Back when America was pursuing the dream of placing a man on the moon, research and development was in full bloom. Engineers and program managers all over the country were continually reaching that next technological milestone. Radio communications, telemetry, life support, and computers were produced, tested, improved, and produced once again. A continuous cycle of learning that had the American public, and the world, on the edge of their seats. Kids everywhere dreamed of being an astronaut someday. Television glorified this space age dream. “Lost In Space”. “Star Trek”. “The Jetsons”? On July 20, 1969, my parents had me and my brother sitting in front of our state of our art twelve inch black and white television to watch Neil Armstrong step on the moon for the very first time.

While wandering around the Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport, I discovered the device that moved more than six million pounds of metal, fuel, and human being from sea level to the edge of outer space. The F-1 rocket engine in clusters of five had just one job, which it did well for about three minutes before falling into the sea. My imagination soared as I looked into the twelve foot bell of this powerful monster, now just a relic of American ingenuity, teamwork, and perseverance.

I long for those days to return. What heroes we were. What shall become of us now?

Photographed with a Nikkormat FTn on Kodak Plus-X film processed in Acufine. The lens was an f/1.4 50mm Auto-Nikkor. I rather enjoy the idea of history photographing history.

Crab Line

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2012-01-23T05:23:29-08:00

For such a simple critter, cancer magister, or the ubiquitous Dungeness crab, has quite an intricate body structure. Symmetrical. Articulated. Star of the silver screen as an angry alien or loyal friend to a beautiful mermaid. A perfect piece of biological engineering. They spend their time scurrying across the seabed feeding on drifting shreds of spilled shark kill or decaying fish that drift their way. Along with shrimp, they are kind of like the ‘Roomba’ of the sea.

This company of crustaceans were on parade in a fish vendor’s case at the Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. Soon be be a batch of crab cakes or the principle element of crab rangoon, they stand ready for tonight’s seafood buffet.

This group portrait was taken with a Mamiya C330 twin lens reflex camera loaded with Kodak Plus-X shot at par and developed in Acufine for 3 minutes.

Weather Deck

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2012-01-16T21:10:20-08:00

The Puget Sound in December can be a quiet and lonely place. It’s grey. It’s dark. It’s wet. But there is a strange romanticism found here. The deck lights reflect in long streaks on the deck plates or the clouds reflect in the random pools of water. I can almost see Humphrey Bogart embracing Lauren Bacall along the railing, perhaps in the fog.

I found this image on the Kingston ferry as I was crossing early on a Saturday morning to collect my son coming home from college ‘back east’ on the Empire Builder. I like the texture in the slats of the bench, the soft grey of the ferry deck and the distant railing running toward a vanishing point at the bow. No lovers strolling to enjoy the maritime scent. No one photographing their friends against the Cascade Mountain range. It’s quite a contrast from the summer tourist months.

Photographed with a Mamiya C330 twin lens reflex camera fitted with a 80mm f/2.8 lens. Shot at f/5.6 at 1/30 second on Kodak Plus-X film. Processed in Acufine for 3 1/4 minutes.

What Dogs Want

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-12-23T06:30:15-08:00

No matter how big or small dogs are, they all share a very important trait. Appetite. They all love to eat. They especially love to eat what their human companions are eating at the time.

Gizmo is no exception. No matter what it is, he’s willing to try. From meat scraps to broccoli or carrots or even roasted seaweed he’s a ready taker. Peanuts are a favorite, but if he could speak for himself I’m sure he’d say “I’ll have what he’s having.”

One of my few digital photographs captured with a Fuji Finepix S2 Pro and a 24-85mm Nikkor lens.

Peace Dividend

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-11-11T22:10:13-08:00

Fortunately, the attack on Pearl Harbor was not as devastating as it could have been. To begin with, the aircraft carriers were not in port that day. Secondly, the Japanese Navy was so fixated on sinking American battleships and cruisers that they completely overlooked the dry dock on the other side of the harbor. The sunken ships needed only be righted and towed across the harbor for repair instead of the mainland 2,400 miles away. The Japanese bombers never touched the massive fuel supplies stored farther inland, thus preserving a valuable resource that would be used against them later. Had they succeeded, we would have likely lost Hawaii while providing the Imperial Japanese army and navy a staging area for invading the west coast of the United States. The attack served only to ‘awaken a sleeping giant’ as Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto noted afterwards.

While I was wandering around the museum built out of the battleship USS Missouri, I came upon a rack of unused five inch shells slowly corroding on the dock. I could’t help but think just how many lives were saved because they were never used in combat. They were ready if the Navy needed them, but unused nonetheless.

Today, more than ever, deterrence has its purpose. I am thankful that America still holds the advantage rather than a power that does not value personal liberty as much as we do. Thank you veterans for being there when America and her allies needed you. The freedom that you bought with your blood is the real peace dividend.

Photographed on Fujichrome Provia 100 color slide film with a Konica Hexar Silver camera.

Tropical Neoclassical

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-11-08T19:11:16-08:00

Hawaii is full of surprises, and many of them are found in unusual places. I was sent by my employer to Hawaii and had the opportunity to spend the weekend there. One afternoon, I drove around the island of Oahu to visit Kaneohe and Kahuku on the north shore. The best shrimp that I have ever tasted is caught and prepared there. A rare treat indeed.

On the way back to Honolulu, I came across a most remarkable building on the grounds of a convalescent home near Hale’iwa. It appeared to have been the victim of some sort of disaster, but its neoclassical features juxtaposed against the palm trees reminded me of a scene from Papillon set in French Guiana or maybe some other abandoned European tropical colony. I had to stop and shoot a few frames.

The reddish cream colored columns lighted by the warm tones of the Hawaiian sun against the blue sky begged to be photographed, but the scene needed something more. After a bit our scouting, I found a palm tree to fill the empty space in the frame. I rather like the warm earthy tones of the building against the blue sky with the green of the palms. If there was a hammock nearby, I might have taken a moment for myself.

This is one of my few digital images. Shot with a Fuji Finepix S2 Pro camera mounted to a Nikon 24-85mm f/4.5 lens. The sensor ISO was set to 160. Shutter speed 1/250. Aperture was f/8.

Historical Perspective

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-10-29T16:21:33-07:00

Seattle is full of visual surprises. Near the Federal Building on Second Avenue stands a stone arch. At first glance, it appears to be just another monument to some famous building. Looking up from the interior side, modern skyscrapers stand juxtaposed behind this ancient arch to help put Seattle’s history into perspective.

Many modern buildings in North America stand on the ruins of once humble settlements that just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Seattle grew from a small gold rush community with rutted mud roads, bad plumbing, and a brothel on every street corner into a major point of entry and transportation hub in little more than a century. The Alaska Gold Rush, the Great Northern Railroad, and Washington’s timber industry propelled Seattle into a thriving metropolis. Later came Boeing, Starbucks, Microsoft, and other international corporations. How long before the next economy builds upon their ruins?

‘Historical Perspective’ was photographed on Arista EDU 400 film and developed in Acufine at par. The camera was a Nikon N80 fitted with a 24-85mm f/4.5 Nikon lens.

Iconic Landmarks

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-10-24T06:28:23-07:00

Like the Chrysler Building is New York City and the Golden Gate Bridge is San Francisco, the Space Needle is definitely Seattle. While walking around the downtown area, I spotted this image as I was starting across 5th Avenue. Rather than dig out the camera, set up the exposure and the shot, and risk getting run over while standing in the middle of the road, I calmly walked to the other side, set up the camera, waited for the signal to change, and took the shot while I had the traffic signal in my favor. Photography doesn’t have to be risky.

We really see two icons in one. The monorail tracks frame the Space Needle nicely. If the monorail itself came into the shot, it would have been too much. (I know -- I tried) I used a Nikon N80 loaded with Arista EDU 400 film and shot through a Nikkor 24-85mm f/4.5 lens. One of my favorite lenses by the way because it is so versatile. The developer was Acufine.

Great Northern Railway

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-10-10T15:59:12-07:00

Or it used to be, until this once mighty transportation giant was acquired by the Burlington Northern Railway in the ‘70s. Under James J. Hill, known as the ‘Empire Builder,' it was the principal railroad running from Chicago to Seattle over the Great Plains before passing through the Rocky and Cascade Mountain ranges. GNR just couldn’t compete with Burlington Northern’s intermodal transportation system.

Great Northern Relic

I found this caboose, sporting the Great Northern Railway logo, in Deer Lodge, Montana. It sits on display unlikely to ever ride the rails again. The irony of this image is that the once ubiquitous caboose is a relic itself having been replaced by modern electronics. I wonder if we will ever see vestiges of Microsoft or Boeing preserved in such a manner once they have succumbed to market pressures too onerous for them to overcome?

Photographed on Arista EDU 400 with a Nikon F100 camera mounted onto a 24-85mm f/4.5 Nikon AF lens.

Horeb

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-09-29T21:45:07-07:00

The Hebrews knew it as חֹרֵב. In Greek, χωρηβ. We know it today as Sinai. It is the mountain from where the Ten Commandments were given to the Israelites. The bush that burned without being consumed. It is the place where the preincarnate Christ spoke to Moses.

The steeple of Saint Luke’s Methodist Church overlooks the Olympic Peninsula from a hillside in Bremerton. The sun dropped below the horizon while illuminating a cloud lingering over the mountains. I couldn’t help but think of what the Israelites saw while Moses was in the presence of God.

Horeb

I used a Mamiya M645 fitted with a 70mm f/2.8 Mamiya Sekor lens. The image was recorded on Fujichrome Velvia 100 film. I forgot to record the exposure. I can’t imagine why.

Metropolitan in Monochrome

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-09-27T20:05:00-07:00

Trains. All kinds. All eras. For some reason I just love trains. Every other year I look forward to joining my family on the Empire Builder to ride from Seattle to the Dakotas in first class comfort. We ride the rails from the mountains to the prairies with absolutely no distractions aside from calls to the dining car and wine tasting across the landscape of eastern Montana.

The Washington Metro isn’t exactly a journey across the continental divide, but it is still the most efficient way to get around the District of Columbia. Every seven minutes a new train moves government employees, lobbyists, congressional staffers, and even Smithsonian museum security guards from the National Mall to the suburbs through the tunnels and stylish underground stations under our nation’s capitol.

I found this shot while standing over the pedestrian walkway at the Navy Memorial station. The long lines of the train set against the contoured concrete walls of the tunnel complement each other as they lead toward a vanishing point. One element remains stable while the other, the train itself, is constantly in motion. Traces of blur in the passing metro car remind me of the eternal motion that marks the pulse of our county’s most influential city.

Monochrome Metro

This image is permanently engraved into a strip of Arista EDU 400 film developed in Acufine at par. The camera was a Nikon FM2 mounted on a 50mm Nikkor f/1.8D lens.

Monuments in Monochrome

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-09-23T04:59:58-07:00

Stone and monochrome photography naturally go together. Even in color, the neutral tones and intricate texture of the stone found in Washington’s sculpture and building façades are usually constant. Monochrome film works well to underscore the detail.

I found this interesting perspective while visiting the Lincoln Memorial last month. This image brings out the details cut into one of the two neoclassical urns found at the top of the front steps. I used a #25 red filter to enhance the texture in the sculpture and intensify the contrast between the blue sky and the wispy clouds, which appear as vapor coming from the urn. The Washington Monument in the background reveals its location.

Washington and Lincoln

Photographed with a Nikon FM2 camera and a 50mm Nikkor lens. The film was Arista EDU film at ISO 400 and developed in Acufine

Sedentary Sightseers

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-09-10T06:55:00-07:00

When I visit Washington DC, most of my travels are on foot or by metro. A person could walk miles while seeing much of what our nation’s capitol has to offer. From the Library of Congress to Arlington National Cemetery, not to mention all of the galleries and monuments, this walk in this park offers plenty of exercise and certain doom for your footwear.

That’s where I saw something that I am sure has made plenty of ‘folding money’ for an innovative entrepreneur. People can now avoid the inconvenience of a good stroll in the park and hop on a Segue instead. Expending no more energy than standing, tourists watch the world slip under their feet as they weave their way through the pedestrian rabble led by guides who give driving lessons with the history lessons.

I caught this scene near the Navy Memorial. It reminded me of off-duty mall cops out for the weekend or a repentant motorcycle gang. “Born To Be Not-Quite-So Wild”.

I used a Lensbaby mounted on a Nikon FM2 and Neopan 400 shot at par, developed in Acufine.

What Was I Thinking ?

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-09-06T17:30:00-07:00

What does one say to a customer when, after shooting at a distant location, the photographer loads the film into the processing tank, gets the chemistry ready, starts to remove the cap on the tank to begin processing, but loses presence of mind and opens up the tank instead? Fortunately, I was my own customer and I put the top back on the tank quickly. I opened the tank in a well lit room but no one could shut the tank fast enough to prevent any damage.

Since I was all set up and had another tank ready, I decided to process the roll anyway to see what I would get. Would it be a black strip of plastic adorned with evenly spaced sprocket holes or would something printable emerge from the soup?

Spy

What really helped this frame, besides being deep inside the film spool in the tank, was that I shot the scene with a Lensbaby selective focus lens. My intent was to have the security camera in the same frame as the sign on the corner of the International Spy Museum in Washington DC, essentially labeling the camera for what is was. What I got was an obscured image overexposed on one side and slightly underexposed on the other. No other shot on that roll survived.

It’s ironic that the only frame to escape certain death by overexposure was the ‘Spy’. The image was exposed for 1/125 second on Neopan 400 monochrome film through a Lensbaby (version 1.0), set to f/8, mounted on a Nikon FM2 camera. The secondary exposure was unrecorded, but perhaps ‘panic’ describes it well enough.

Structural Diversity

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-09-05T21:02:52-07:00

While in Washington DC, I had the pleasure of stumbling upon the Canadian Embassy. Nestled next to the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, it was designed using a diverse range of structural contrasts. Latticed roofing covers classical Doric columns in the courtyard. A timeless symbol of classic architectural strength and beauty.

Structural Diversity

No where in the District of Columbia have I seen contrasts similar to that used in the Canadian Embassy.

This image was captured on Fuji Neopan 400 monochrome film loaded into a Nikon FM2 and shot through a standard 50mm Nikkor f/1.8 lens.

Four Bins

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-08-11T20:30:00-07:00

I’m not sure about this fascination that I have with grain bins. Perhaps it is the texture and rhythm in the corrugated walls and how the seams in the rings alternate from bottom to top. I like how the soft, warm highlights give a structured, yet relaxing texture against the warm blue hues in the summer sky.

Four Bins

I found this scene at Argyle, Minnesota just as the sun was leaving long shadows across the prairie. I especially enjoy how the direct sunlight contrasts with the shadow at the center of each structure. Together, with the vents in exactly the same position, they remind me of tin soldiers standing in a field to watch the setting sun.

Photographed on Fuji Velvia 100 chrome film loaded in a Mamiya M645 1000s camera fitted with a 70mm f/2.8 lens.

Dash 80

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-08-08T18:34:01-07:00

Tex Johnson flew a Boeing 367-80, also known as the “Dash 80”, over Lake Washington. Ordinarily this would not raise much concern, unless we understand how he flew it.

On August 7, 1955, he flew this jet through a three hundred sixty degree barrel roll during the Gold Cup hydroplane races in front of several airline executives and his boss Bill Allen. When asked why he did it, he simply responded "I was selling airplanes". He kept his job.

It’s sitting at the Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport if you ever care to see it.

Dash-80

Raw Power

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-08-08T05:23:18-07:00

The Daimler-Benz DB 605 inverted V-12 engine. At 1,475 horsepower, it was the powerplant of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Bf 110 fighters. I can almost hear the engine as it roars to life more than 60 years ago.

I captured it in monochrome in very low light. Anyone who had seen a classic aircraft engine would instantly recognize it. The highlights and the shadows in the engine body and drive shaft with the detail in the ignition wiring and duct work suggest its hidden power, now just an exhibit in a museum.

Shot with a Nikkormat FTn and a 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/5.6 at 1/60 second on Arista EDU 400 film. Developed in Acufine at par ISO.

Technology Preserved

Art Deco Preserved

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-08-02T05:43:52-07:00

I love art deco. It reminds me of classic movies, biplanes, the Chrysler Building, the architecture in Miami beach hotels, and even the Wizard of Oz. While on vacation, we stopped to visit the Montana State Prison Museum in Deer Lodge, Montana.

Besides the prison, there is a remarkable automobile museum there. Just about anything with wheels, a motor, and a seat is on display from the spartan ‘horseless carriages’ of the late 19th century to the muscle cars of the the ‘60s and ‘70s. On this trip, the only 35mm film I brought was monochrome, removing the distraction of color. Just one less decision to make I suppose.

Many people look at the cars, but few see the details. Maker’s badges on the radiator. Visors over the windshield; a popular feature in the ‘40s and ‘50s. Headlights. I can’t remember the car, but I found the soft metallic glow accented by the repeating lines and angles in the glass of a lowly headlight. In the final print, I was reminded of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in Dark Passage the golden age of radio.

Art deco in a small Montana town serving the noble purpose of preserving history.

Art Deco Luminance

50mm Therapy

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-07-15T08:00:00-07:00

There is nothing more cleansing than mounting a 50mm prime lens on a classic camera, loading it with monochrome film, and searching for tone, contrast, and structure. It also involves a bit of risk as there is no automation to compensate for a photographer’s shortcomings or situational circumstances.

A few years ago, I was in the National Mall at our nation’s capitol with a Konica Hexar and a few rolls of Kodak Tri-X. I shot at night with an estimated exposure of 1/30 second at f/2.0 on ISO 400 film. The results were quite pleasing. In the near future, I intend to repeat the exercise with a 40 year old Nikkormat and a 50mm lens. Without so much as autofocus, the images created with the Nikkormat will be all mine, warts and all.

Call it therapy for the creative mind.

Why I Shoot? For Myself Of Course.

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-06-27T20:50:22-07:00

With the increasing trend in copyright infringement, or just plain theft through the Internet, it’s hard to believe why anyone would try to make a living as a photographer.

Years ago, the profession was fairly straightforward. Someone with an eye, the talent, and the inclination would make a sizable investment in equipment, work as an apprentice for a photographer somewhere, find the connections to get in with the right crowd, and then try to sell their work to a particular market. Wedding and portrait photographers create the most revenue, but the job can be a bit of a bore. In addition, there are fickle clients, deadbeats, and the occasional Bridezilla and family to contend with.

General portrait photographers fare no better. Kids can become unruly or develop an uncooperative attitude. Parents may try to run the shoot, which makes the photographer wonder why the parents didn’t just photograph their kids in the first place. Couples can’t decide which proofs to print. Some customers want the negatives as well as the prints. So much for photographer’s intellectual property rights.

Freelance stock photography may be on its way out as a profession. As the cost of digital equipment decreases while technical quality improves, just about anyone with Photoshop on their PC can be a professional photographer. Those with looser ethical standards may just surf the ‘net and copy whatever image they want to suit their own purposes without a thought about license fees. Unless they are making big money from their ‘take’ they will likely never get caught passing the work of others as their own, especially if they can hide in a foreign country or change the images’s metadata to their liking.

I think that I did it the smart way. I first got a job, and later an education, then finally a career doing something lucrative that I enjoy. Photography is, and always has been, a hobby. I can shoot as often or as little as I choose. I can use whatever equipment is available and experiment with different optics and developers, or try different methods in the darkroom. I don’t have to worry about deadbeats. I don’t care about clients who wouldn’t know a work of art if it fell off the wall and hit them. I can shoot monochrome 35mm film one day and medium format color film the next. I have work hanging in a few small galleries that are happy to do so just to cover a bare wall. I even sell a few.

I have had access to some areas inaccessible to most photographers. I have shot flight operations on ships while I was in the Navy. I have photographed the interiors of churches where I was a member. I choose my own assignments without deadlines or production staff getting in the way. I love my job and the boss is a dream to work for.

Life is good.

Weave

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-06-11T16:54:14-07:00

The normal world looks so much different up close. The ordinary becomes extraordinary. The Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 lens helps a photographer get much closer to the subject than a normal lens can manage. This tack-sharp lens is one of my favorites.

I shot this image about two inches from the surface of a large fibrous mooring line holding a large vessel pier-side at the Bremerton Waterfront Marina. What caught my eye was the braided pattern in the cords and how the fibers geometrically interlocked with each other. Using selective focus and a shallow depth of field, the detail in the fibers come out only to soften toward the edges. The contrast and fine grain of the film bring out the texture in the rope that falls into the shadows along the bottom edge. I think of discipline and order holding fast despite the wear that comes from experience in a harsh marine environment. Strength and endurance. Texture and shadow.

Weave

Created with a Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 lens mounted on a Nikkormat FTn camera loaded with Ilford Pan F+ film rated at ISO 80. Developed in Acufine developer.

See What You Are Missing

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-06-07T06:36:05-07:00

Digital photographers have a lot going for them. They can see their results instantly. They can manipulate their images electronically to convey a feeling or an expression and tune it on the fly. They can share their work on the Internet within seconds of taking the photograph. There is one aspect of photography that they miss. Anticipation.

When I shoot a roll of film, I do what I can to control the image through selection of film, the speed that I rate it, the developer I use, and the time and temperature that the film sits in the soup. Sometimes, I get what I expect. Sometimes I am deeply disappointed. Many times, I am surprised and delighted at what comes off the negative. Texture. Contrast. Tonal range. Deep dark shadows with subtle details that I may not have seen when I squeezed the shutter. Best of all, I have to wait to see what happens. Sometimes an image that I thought was a waste of film when I took the exposure develops into something all together different.

The anticipation is delicious.

Iron Work

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-05-25T16:41:03-07:00

There are very few subjects that actually look good in direct sunlight. Concrete, especially when weathered or mossy, loses some of its texture in the midday sun. Overcast skies help bring out its character. Portraits? Forget it. Even if the sun didn’t bleach the color from a fair skinned subject it is hard to capture the depth in the eyes if they are squinting at the camera. Colorful carnivals or hot air balloons at mid day contrast well against a blue sky, especially on chrome film. Fuji Velvia 100 is my favorite for bringing out supersaturated color and contrast.

I photographed this scene at about 10:00 in the morning because I liked the way the sunlight brought out the fine detail and texture of the iron lamp post. I had to give it a bit of context, so I placed it on the right third of the frame set against a cloudless blue sky with the British Columbia parliament buildings softly out of focus in the background. What struck me was the texture and detail in the iron casting despite the harsh sunlight. The leaves and vines that travel up each side of the provincial crest come out of the shadows and give the lamp post dimension and space.

I used a 70mm f/2.8 lens mounted on a Mamiya 645 camera loaded with Konica Centuria Pro 400 color film. Straight “sunny 16” exposure was the rule.

Parliamentary Lamp Post

Victoria Victoria

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-05-24T19:27:45-07:00

Victoria British Columbia. Beautiful place to shoot. A most noticeable feature is the provincial parliament building near the harbor. It is one thing to see during the day, but quite another at night.

The building is lit by thousands of light bulbs outlining the contours of the arches, domes, and columns. I wish I brought my tripod.

Night Facade

Christ In The Cup

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-05-08T11:52:08-07:00

While in process of shooting an assignment, I will often expose a roll or two of film to check lighting, composition, depth of field, and how a subject renders on film. This time, I am looking for the right lighting and composition to capture the cross in the reflection of wine in the chalice used for Holy Communion at a local Lutheran church.

I don’t have the composition quite right, but the test exposures worked out well. Once natural lighting improves in the Pacific Northwest, I will continue my quest, but one of the test shots that I took is particularly striking. Do you agree?

Christ In The Cup

The image was captured on Ilford HP+ film with a Nikkormat FTn camera mounted with a Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 lens. Exposure was about f/5.6 at 1/125 second. The film was rated at ISO 800 and developed in Acufine (stock) for 6 1/2 minutes.

Pentax SP1000

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-04-05T19:23:16-07:00

The Pentax SP1000 was the first real camera that I ever owned, and will probably never forget. It took the better part of a year working on a paper route to earn enough money to buy the camera and a Takumar 50mm f/1.8 lens to go with it. The lens screwed on the body, which would sometimes come loose when I adjusted the focus. The film advance was smooth. The satin chrome and leatherette body was a joy to hold and the shutter was easy to fire. The shutter and film speeds were easy to set and read, and the film counter was as obvious as the gas gauge of an old Chevy pickup. I still remember looking into the lens to see sharply contrasting shades of amber from the coating, or Super Multi Coating as Pentax called it, reflected between the glass elements.

The SP1000 was a budget version of the famous Spotmatic and was perhaps the best consumer camera available for the price. The photographer had to push up a switch on the side of the pentaprism to activate the match-needle light meter and close the lens aperture to the indicated f-stop on the lens to set the exposure. The meter used the old 1.35 volt PX400 mercury oxide battery that lasted quite a while but died suddenly when it did. At least the meter was consistent all the way to the end.

It was plain by even yesterday’s standards, There was no self-timer or hot shoe, but I didn’t need those features. I couldn’t afford a flash anyway. The viewfinder was bright when the lens was wide open and the exposure was easy to set by centering the meter needle in the viewfinder. Had I known that its sister, the SP500, was the same camera without the ‘1000’ engraved on the shutter speed dial, I probably would have saved a few bucks and bought that one instead. It was reliable, durable, and took great pictures. I shot both color and monochrome, but mostly monochrome, and processed the film myself.

I no longer have that camera, but everyone remembers their first.

Soaking in Soup

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-03-29T11:09:20-07:00

Occasionally, time relative to monochrome development really doesn’t matter. When I read about stand and semi-stand development I was a bit skeptical, but film is cheap so I gave it a try. I picked up my Pentax Spotmatic F, loaded it with a Kodak Plus-X, and took to shooting. I heard that semi-stand development effects contrast and image texture in strange and wonderful ways and I was eager to see what I would find.

My neighbor was having a few of her trees removed before they removed someone’s house on their own. I used a 180mm Takumar lens to reach into the branches where a tree surgeon was working. I could see high contrast and perhaps grainy limbs partially obscuring a human form.

Near my home, there is an old diesel engine slowly returning back to nature while resting on blocks by the side of the road and just begs to be photographed. I have studied it behind the lens often but I have never captured an image of it worthy of keeping. The 50mm f/1.8 Takumar lens allows a photographer to get very close to a subject so I finished the roll exploring the lines and shadows of this once powerful industrial machine.

Back in the lab, I mixed 100 parts water to 1 part Rodinal developer, poured it into the loaded developing tank, and let it sit in the sink for 30 minutes. After ten seconds of torsional agitation, I let it sit for another 30 minutes. I poured out the soup, rinsed the film in water, and then fixed and washed the film in the usual way.

Tree Surgeon shows detail in the trunk of the tree and in the lumberjack. The goggles give him an alien look, perhaps of a tree dweller, but definitely someone who is comfortable in his surroundings. He is curiously aware of the photographer but not distracted by the camera’s presence. The marvelous grain in the leaves and branches is accentuated by the soft unfocused shapes that vary subtly in tone but show the grain as distinct parts of a whole.

Tree Surgeon

The semi-stand technique gives the images of the old diesel engine depth and texture. The acutance of the film comes out in the springs and screw heads of ‘Industrial Mortality’ and reminds me of a charcoal drawing of an art deco fortress. The panel with its screw heads are the drawbridge and the springs are watchtowers. Monochrome gives the image a dark foreboding feel.

Industrial Mortality

‘Fracture’ is just that; a fractured machine stripped of its power. A large crack runs up the wall of the cylinder from the orifice in the foreground and is joined by smaller cracks that radiate throughout the structure. The acutance of the film gives these lines a hard edge and pulls out the pits in the rest of the metal. The little nest built in the hole shows just how long this machine has bee idle, and will likely remain that way for quite some time.

Fracture

Semi-stand development was a wonderful experiment. The results can be unpredictable, but this technique shows just how versatile older photographic formulations can be. Rodinal has been around for more than 100 years and, although Agfa has abandoned the product, still survives under the names R09 or Adonal. You can find them online at Freestyle Photographic Supplies.

Colorblind

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-03-13T19:00:15-07:00

One of the biggest problems when shooting film is deciding whether to load color or black and white film in the camera. This is really of no consequence with digital photography because the photographer doesn’t need to decide which one to use until post-production. When using nondestructive imaging software, one can compare the color image to the monochrome one and choose then. With film, the decision has already been made depending on which type of film is in the bag, and especially if the camera is already loaded.

On assignment, the film that I load has as much to do with my mood that day as it does with what I expect to see in the viewfinder. I have to decide if the light is better suited for color, or if monochrome is the better choice. Am I looking for the shape, texture, and contrast of a pencil sketch or impressive colors like a watercolor or oil painting? Do I always get it right? No. But when I know that monochrome film is in the camera I have to wear my ‘monochrome goggles’ too. My mind’s eye has to focus on shadow, mood, and composition rather than the nuance and symbolism of color to bring out what I see in the viewfinder.

When I shot “Colorblind”, found in the Capitol Region gallery, I first thought that the stone in the sculpture “Authority Of The Law” on the the Supreme Court House steps would play well with the red, white, and blue of the American flag in the background. What would that say to the viewer? Would it look cliche? I’m sure that every tourist with a camera who stood where I was standing had already shot it. I was also limited by what I had loaded in the camera that day; Kodak Plus-X. I nearly walked away when I realized that, when it comes to justice, America is supposed to be colorblind. I set a wide aperture, a short shutter speed, and shot the grey stone sculpture against the grey, white, and grey of the flag. I don’t think that it will make the pages of a DC tour book, but then I never intended it to.

“Equal Justice Under Law”

ColorBlind

Like a Nikon F For Grown-Ups

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-03-07T08:25:42-08:00

My favorite lug-around-town camera isn’t a pocket digital point and shoot, a Nikkormat, or even my Nikon F100. For sheer grab-shot enjoyment, I love the Mamiya M645 1000s. The negatives from this workhorse are huge compared to the 35mm format. Larger negatives mean tack-sharp prints with little or no noticeable grain. Unless a photographer invests in medium format digital equipment at the price of a new car, DX or FX digital formats can’t touch a 6x4.5cm negative for image quality.

The camera handles much like a large, heavy 35mm SLR with the metered prism, but I prefer the waist level finder. It’s lighter, fits in the bag better, and makes the camera easier to handle. It takes a bit more planning to use a medium format camera than digital or 35mm equipment requires, but the results are worth the effort. When I use the metered prism, I also use the hand grip with its built-in shutter release so holding the camera at eye level isn’t quite so awkward. Most of the time, taking a quick reading from a hand held meter and ‘shooting from the hip’ is simply faster. I can also see the aperture and shutter speed settings using the waist finder without looking away from the image.

In addition to the camera’s own focal plane shutter, the camera can use the 70mm lens with its integral leaf shutter. There are no limitations using an electronic flash with a leaf shutter as there are with focal plane shutters, so fill flash in bright daylight at fast shutter speeds is not an issue. Most of the time, I leave the lens locked in the focal plane mode and use it as a standard lens. It’s one stop slower than the Mamiya Sekor C 80mm f/1.9 lens, but the 70mm lens accepts all of the filters that fit the 150mm f/3.5 and the 55mm f/3.5 lenses that I carry in the same bag. I save the faster lens with its large diameter barrel for indoor portraits.

Should a photographer care about what make or model camera the pros use? Only if it keeps the photographer’s attention away from the camera and focused on the image. If a photographer takes too much time setting modes or thumbing through menus, it’s time to get an easier camera and use the brain for creativity instead of ‘switchology’.

Monumental Sunset

“Monumental Sunset” was taken with a Mamiya M645 1000s camera fitted with a Mamiya Sekor C 55mm f/2.8 lens on Fuji Velvia 100 film. Exposure data was not recorded.

Have You Been To Church Lately ?

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-02-06T15:35:53-08:00

A couple of years ago, Peace Lutheran Church in the Pacific northwest asked me to photograph their sanctuary for exhibit throughout the church building as part of a remodeling project. This gave me a chance to see the church from a whole new perspective.

The sanctuary of Peace Lutheran has tall translucent purple panels behind the altar that provides a majestic hue, but I didn’t think that it would translate well on chrome film because the rich color would be too saturated in the prints. I could filter it out post-production, but the color in the oak pews would suffer. On the other hand, Kodak TMax 100 monochrome film would mute the color while keeping the detail in the rich oak furnishings and give the prints a nostalgic quality.

I used low angles to photograph the altar and the cross behind it, an overhead perspective to photograph the pews and the organ, and a telephoto lens to compress the distance between the hymn board and the organ. In ‘Sanctuary - 28’, I used color to capture the incandescent light shining on a gold cross framed through the Advent wreathe, which contrasted well against the purple light that blanketed the sanctuary in daylight. ‘Sanctuary - 27’ brings out the cool violet hues of the stained glass. ‘Sanctuary - 21’ won a second place ribbon in the Kitsap County Fair in 2009. My personal favorite is ‘Sanctuary - 13’ with the organist’s spectacles resting on a church bulletin next to the calming structure of the organ keys.

Sanctuary - 13

Photographing the sanctuary of Peace Lutheran Church was a most rewarding assignment. The results are on permanent exhibit in the church and the church offices.

What's In A Name ?

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-01-29T09:11:00-08:00

Part of the artistic process that I enjoy most is placing a name on a print. It is also the hardest part. When I trip the shutter, I’m not thinking about names. In fact, I try not to think about much at all except composition, exposure, and what developer would be best to bring out what I see in the viewfinder and my imagination.

Once I have the print in hand, I have to decide on a title. Sometimes two or three prints are part of a series and I title them accordingly. In the Ancient Industry gallery, ‘Chiquero’, is named for the pens where bulls wait for their turn in the bullring. ‘Grisly Competition’ precedes ‘Vanquished’ in the timeline of a demolition derby competitor. I could imagine these cars as bulls, or even gladiators, journeying toward glory or a devastating defeat.

The print ‘Service Record’ in the Military gallery reflects the accolades bestowed upon the USS Parche, one of the most famous ships that most people have never heard of. The circumstances that led to the nine Presidential Unit Citations painted on her sail are still considered classified information by the federal government. The ship has since been scrapped, but her sail stands as testimony to the Silent Service, immortalized in front of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in downtown Bremerton.

In the Portrait gallery, there are a few images that aren’t really portraits in the traditional sense. ‘Old Friends’ reminds me of two friends, one strong and confident and the other not so much, with their heads resting against each other. I can almost see an arm from the larger mailbox wrapped around the ‘shoulder’ of the other. ‘Piano Practice’ is a portrait without a face, but the image speaks to those of us who have had piano lessons as a kid.

Sometimes the name comes easily, such as ‘Self Portrait’, which is a representation of your humble narrator in a setting that describes his passion. Sometimes, all I can think of is ‘Untitled’, but that is usually temporary.

Naming the print is not just half of the art, it’s half of the print.

Who Uses A Light Meter Anymore?

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-01-17T21:24:53-08:00

In these days of ‘professional’ cameras, you are unlikely to find a photographer who still uses a hand-held light meter. With through-the-lens metering, 3D matrix metering, and color intelligent meters built right into a camera, why would anyone want to carry a relic like a Gossen LunaPro around?

Modern digital cameras, and even some professional-grade 35 mm film cameras, are capable of calculating acceptable exposures for most scenes using algorithms developed by photographic experts and engineers, but no camera can know what a photographer sees in the mind’s eye at the moment of exposure. Will the highlights or the shadows be most important? Will the print be one of high contrast, or of subtle changes from the dark to light? These decisions should come from the photographer, not the camera. Digital cameras usually have a histogram feature, which measures the number of pure white pixels (255), pure black pixels (0), and those pixels in between (1-254), but they can’t ‘see’ where those pixels are. A photographer needs to look at the image and the histogram together to figure that out. By then, the moment has already passed and, if the exposure isn’t right, it doesn’t really matter anymore.

External light meters are a wonderful tool for the artistic photographer. Many can measure the incident light hitting a subject, which is important for slide film and digital sensors. They also measure the lighter and darker areas of a scene to determine the range, or contrast, between them. Film photographers use this information to determine not only the initial exposure, but also how much to develop the film to manipulate its tonal range and balance the detail in the highlights with the detail in the shadows. Ansel Adams invented the Zone System for this reason and an external light meter is essential to use it effectively. Some meters, like the Gossen LunaPro F, can even measure light from an electronic flash to calculate lighting ratios between the subject and its surroundings, which is useful in the studio.

Most photographers that I have met don’t use external light meters, but rely instead on the computers in their cameras. PhotoShop can do a lot, but a poorly exposed photograph is a poorly exposed photograph. If detail is lost in either the shadows or the highlights, it is simply lost and software cannot resurrect it.

A good light meter can help a photographer better understand light and eliminate the need for digital surgery. After all, without light there is no photograph.

Iron Horse Shoe

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2011-01-09T14:34:31-08:00

Some railroad traffic still exists in Kitsap County. Propane and nuclear weapons are usually on the manifest, but the influence of the railroad was much more prevalent when the timber industry was at its zenith in the early 20th century. Timber was shipped out of the Puget Sound through Port Townsend and much of it was brought there by rail. Sawmills all over western Washington moved resources in and product out to market by rail. The military used the railroad to supply the large gun emplacements that protected the Puget Sound from conquest by foreign navies. Large hull sections and propulsion parts were transported by rail to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to build and repair the ships of our great Navy.

Iron Horse Shoe was not captured in the Puget Sound however, but instead at the Baltimore and Ohio Railway Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. It belongs to a retired steam locomotive that rests quietly in the museum parking lot. What attracted my eye to the shot were the subtle black tones in the large cast iron wheel and the white arc along its rim. The highlights in the iron spokes blend into dark shadows to quietly suggest the mass and power of the locomotives that drove the industrial revolution. Innovation and greed powered prosperity and helped America find her place as a leader in the emerging industrial world. The steam locomotive epitomizes that power.

Shot with a Nikon 28-85mm f/3.5 AFD lens mounted on a Nikon F100 SLR loaded with Kodak Plus-X film set at ISO 125. It was processed in HC-110 developer, dilution B, for five minutes.

A Holiday Moment

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-12-31T07:29:30-08:00

A random shot into a crowd is usually just that . . . random. How many stories can a single shot capture?

A few holiday seasons ago, I captured this moment in time of my family. It was just a shot into the crowd, but it shows the dynamics of a typical family gathering. My mom is in conversation with my wife across the room. My son is either daydreaming or watching his uncle and aunt serenade the cookware. Perhaps he is really looking for a quiet corner to hide while my niece darts in to grab a cup of coffee. There is so much happening on so many ‘frequencies’ caught in a single instant. A natural collage.

Perhaps that’s why holidays are not vacations and vacations should not be planned on holidays.

But It Looks Like Snow

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-12-21T18:04:34-08:00

I read a post on Rosario Edwards’ website about sharing one’s creativity secrets.

Create. Share. Sustain.

After reading his blog post, I remembered a shot I took while roaming around the National Mall in Washington DC. I was carrying a Fuji S2 Pro digital SLR that day and I was packing an R72 filter. This piece of glass filters out most visible light leaving only near infrared light to hit the sensor.

I came across the Capitol building and wondered how strange it would look in infrared. It became a surreal winter scene in August.

Surreal Capitol

One Of A Kind

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-12-14T20:15:20-08:00

It is literally one of a kind, unfortunately. I sold it at my last show in Silverdale. It is the silhouette of an old sawmill near where I live. Monochrome. I captured it a few years ago with a Nikon FM2n and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens. I lost the negative and I only printed it once. I can’t even show it in this post.

The customer thought that it looked like an electric chair, so that is what I named the print. She owns the only copy. The original. You can see it at the Two Bits Barbershop in Old Town SIlverdale. Ask for Jennifer. Tell her Tim sent you.

While you are there, I’m sure that she could help you “get your ears lowered”.

Selective Focus

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-12-08T06:26:28-08:00

The family dog is a popular subject, probably because they are always available for a shoot and just so darned cute. Dogs are the perfect model because they need no makeup and little coaching while working for peanuts, or cheese, or even a piece of salmon.

After mounting a Lensbaby lens on a Nikon FM2, I discovered Gizmo carefully watching one of us eating a chip, or a sandwich, or something else that he knows he would like. The Lensbaby is a bit unpredictable but that is why I like it. There is no auto-exposure. There is no auto focus. The only way to focus the lens is to move the flexible lens barrel until the ‘sweet spot’ is focused in the viewfinder. Sometimes the final image comes as expected, sometimes not.

In this portrait, I focused on Gizmo’s eyes leaving the rest of the image to chance. The Lensbaby uses discs that change the aperture from f/2.8 with no disc to f/16, which is the disc with the smallest opening. Changing the discs changes the depth of field, or the range of distances that come into focus on the film plane. For this shot, I didn’t use an aperture disc so most of the image is out of focus except for his eyes. The result is a portrait that clearly suggests ‘dog’, but draws the viewer to those big Shih Tzu eyes. Sparkling catchlights add dimension to his face.

Adorable.

Why Me?

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-12-05T07:01:00-08:00

After several innings, this spectator had enough. She came because her parents made her come. She was cold. As far as she was concerned, the game was slow, dirty, and BORING.

The eyes say it all. Why am I here? Why is no one here to play with me? Where is the playground? We have to be out here three more times this week and all day Saturday and whining about it is useless. Her expression is that of any little girl dragged to her brother’s baseball game against her will. Her face pleads to the viewer, “Help me! Please!”

The original image was digital; one of the few that I have published on this website. It was shot with a Fuji Finepix S2Pro at ISO 800 through a Nikon AF Nikkor 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5D lens. Post production, I turned up the shadows a bit to give the image a ‘high dynamic range’ look. The result? A photograph that looks a bit like a hand-tinted monochrome print or pen-and-ink illustration.

The lightened shadows, sharpened contrast, and cooler hues in the image helps her ask the audience, “Why me?”

Attitude

Silverdale Art Walk Event

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-11-26T16:12:11-08:00

The Silverdale Art Walk will host an artists’ reception December 11, 2010 from 6:00 - 8:00 pm throughout Old Town Silverdale. There will be twelve venues hosting local artists at the event. My work will be on display at the offices of Edward Jones Financial Services, 3255 Northwest Lowell Street, Silverdale and will remain until the end of December.

Please join us.

Catamaran Ferry

Mission Complete

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-11-21T22:16:03-08:00

After weeks of posing, processing, printing, and publishing, I completed the self-assignment for my son’s high school senior portrait. I had never attempted a job like that before but the results were worth the effort.

Before I could put this assignment to bed however, the school requested other portraits or snapshots of prospective graduates for the yearbook. After finding a few that I already had in my library, I discovered on a bookshelf another portrait of the boy. I remember the day well.

While my wife and I were shopping for ceramics in Vietri sul Mare, a small seaside town just east of Sorrento, Italy, our three-year-old son was captivated by the water running from a fountain in the piazza. I tried to pull him away, but his curiosity continued to draw him to it. I would coax him back, but as soon as my attention shifted elsewhere he was playing in the fountain again. Seeing the opportunity, I pulled out my Olympus OM-4T and shot several frames of him spellbound by joy and wonder as the water cascaded around his fingers.

I lost the negative years ago, but I was able to scan the print. This image will be in his high school yearbook this year, but the day will live forever in my heart. It is easy to see why.

Glee !

Welcome Reception

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-11-13T18:10:39-08:00

Yesterday, I experienced the great pleasure of opening at a new venue in Old Town Silverdale. This area of the Kitsap peninsula has become popular with a number of local artists. The exhibit was hosted at the offices of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

We had several art aficionados come to enjoy the exhibits, warm conversation, some nosh, and a sip of wine or two. This was my first opportunity to show some work that I had done last summer in the prairies of northwestern Minnesota. I studied grain elevators in monochrome using deep red filtration and high acutance developer to bring out the blue sky in dark tones contrasted by dramatic cloud forms. The slight overexposure and decreased development brought out the subtle textures in the surface of the structures to resemble lithograph prints. The photograph “Monarch Elevator Company” didn’t last an hour after the reception began. In “Prairie Skyscraper”, the contrast of the dark sky against the texture of the concrete terminal is better than I envisioned when I tripped the shutter.

Monarch Elevator Company

Other artists at the event sold watercolor prints, oils on canvas, and several pieces of fine art jewelry. I sold a number of 5x7 sampler prints as well. After years of ‘recession receptions’ within the local art community, last night was a ray of hope and promise.

My next venue is a closely held secret of the Silverdale Art Walk committee, but December 11 will begin my next exhibit. I need to restock my samplers, but I have plenty of full size prints ready for display.

The Golden Age of Industry

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-11-11T09:15:00-08:00

Some of us remember when most of what we used was made in Cleveland, or Chicago, or Baltimore. Today, we are more likely to buy items made in Korea, or Japan, or China. How long has it been since repair shops restored broken appliances before we began to merely replace them? Even the computer that I use to maintain this website will likely fall into obsolescence before it needs repair. Being an Apple user, I expect to delay my computer’s death by technology, but sooner or later it too will become part of the recyclable waste stream.

My Ancient Industry gallery features images that celebrate America’s golden age of industry, and some that lament its passing. The flowing curves in the body of an antique fire engine restored and preserved in a museum. The soulful gaze of a headlight on an old truck, now a forgotten carcass rusting into oblivion. Contrasty shadows formed around the machined parts of an abandoned saw mill. Practical art fashioned by skilled engineers and craftsmen. These are reminders of our past when American ingenuity created what we saw everyday and exported around the world. Kings of industry no longer; consumers are we now.

I wonder if the digital cameras of today will be as useful as my film cameras forty years from now?

Context, Context, Context

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-11-04T20:49:30-07:00

Puns, reputed to be the lowest form or humor, are still a lot of fun. Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now. Don't join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects! Terrible, but funny. After watching a few minutes of the Comedy Channel, it appears that our culture has lowered the bar even further, but that is a matter of opinion.

While on vacation last summer, we stopped at the Old Montana Prison Museum in Deer Lodge. After lunch, I saw an image that I just couldn’t resist.

Is it a visual pun, or simple irony?

Context

Perfection Is Not The Goal

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-10-23T08:08:35-07:00

Too often, we try to attain perfection.

With all of the automation available in cameras these days, you would think that photographers demanded perfection in everything they do. But when is perfection not the goal? Perhaps perfection doesn’t matter if the photograph expresses how we felt at the moment the shutter was tripped even if it wasn’t what we saw through the lens?

A few years ago, I took a Nikon N90s camera and several rolls of monochrome film on Christmas vacation. We rode the train to Minnesota and I imagined enormous potential in the winter landscapes that would come along the way. At a station stop in Montana, I saw ice and snow encrusted around the wheels of a sleeper car. The heat from the brakes melted some of the ice, which then froze around a wheel hub in the cold winter air. A starburst pattern formed in the ice as the train pulled into the station. This was the photograph that I thought I saw.

When I processed the film, I loaded it on the processing reel improperly and the layers of film came in contact and stuck together during development. This mistake all but ruined most of the roll, except for this frame. There were defects in the negative caused by the disaster, but the imperfections added texture and contrast to the final image and it remains one of my favorite photographs. I don’t think that it would have been nearly as interesting if it had been ‘perfectly’ developed.

‘Winter Rails’ won second place at the 2008 Kitsap County Fair in the monochrome travel category, advanced division.

Makeshift Studio

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-10-13T06:25:50-07:00

The weather is a fickle partner in the portrait business, especially in Washington. There could be a soft pall of fog one moment and bright sunshine the next. When Nick and I went to Fort Flagler to have a go at it, rain was coming and going, but less so as the morning wore on. Still, there was a heavy overcast which is perfect for outdoor portraits. Once we arrived however, the clouds rose and then dissipated. The result? Harsh shadows and light that had my model squinting.

With nothing more than an open garage, an old cotton tarp, and some bungee cords, I set up a studio of sorts. With a dining room chair and kitchen stool to help position my models, I used a 180mm f/4.5 lens mounted on a Mamiya C330 TLR camera and a Vivitar 283 flash fitted with a Sto-Fen diffuser to shoot not only Nick, but also your humble narrator. My brick and mortar gallery has been asking for my self portrait for months, so I finally obliged.

I used Ilford Pan F+ and Fuji Neopan Acros 100 films, both processed in Rodinal developer (1+50) for 11 minutes.

Senior Portrait

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-10-07T15:04:45-07:00

My hardest self-assignment yet - Portraits.

I don’t mean the opportunistic kind when someone fits well in a scene, but staged, posed, and artificially lit portraits. My son asked me to shoot his senior portrait this year and I agreed.

It takes work to find the right location (I have no studio), the right format (6x4.5 or 6x6), the right film (monochrome or color) and the right wardrobe. Since I rarely use artificial lighting, we went out to shoot a few test frames and find out how well my 30 year old Vivitar 283 flash could handle the task. I used Chinese Shanghai GP3 film in a Mamiya C220 twin lens reflex camera and the results were good. It was time to choose a location and start shooting.

Fortunately, I’m not tied to any particular day or time and I have latitude on the location. We chose Fort Flagler on the Olympic Peninsula and scheduled the shoot on a Saturday. Being an abandoned gun emplacement on the shores of Puget Sound, there are lots of dark iron railings and marbled grey concrete structures for props and background. The mass and structure of the concrete bunkers and natural lighting that varies from near total darkness to bright daylight gave us lots of options.

I learned a bit about commercial grade portraiture. Everything I learned wasn’t about what worked, but what didn’t.

* First mistake. Don’t shoot in direct sunlight. The flash will fill the shadows, but the bright light makes your subject squint.

* Second mistake. Make sure that your subject does not wear a white or very light shirt. It’s hard to tell where the shirt ends and the neck begins. It also creates distracting highlights if direct sunlight hits it.

* Third mistake. Check the focus carefully before EVERY shot. I had two really good poses in great light, but I would have liked them better if my model was in focus instead of the background.

* Fourth mistake. Watch the framing. When using a camera where the viewing lens is above the objective lens, make sure that there is enough room around your subject. I spoiled a couple of good shots because I was shooting close to the subject and forgot to adjust for parallax. Head shots should include the WHOLE head, not just the lower 90%.

* Fifth mistake. Glasses. Stupid glasses! They almost always create specular highlights on the lenses from reflected fill flash. Have your subject take them off or remove the lenses if they want to wear them. I suppose that reflections could be minimized in a studio environment or removed post-production in the darkroom or computer, but they are irritating nonetheless.

Time to schedule Session Three. Great looking kid, but the photographer needs improvement. Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment. Film is cheap and so is the photographer, so I’ll keep trying until we get it right.

Automation Is A Mixed Blessing

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-09-25T21:05:00-07:00

While attending the fair in Puyallup a few weeks ago, I used my Nikon F100 camera so that I didn’t have to worry about managing exposure and focus settings or load the film by hand while life proceeded on without me. The F100 is famous for its highly accurate exposure and autofocus systems. It’s so fast that I don’t have to think about it. I spent four rolls of film that day and got some great shots. A few of them made it to my gallery.

Some photographers complain that automation disturbs the creative process because the ‘cookie cutter’ settings of the camera assume too much about depth of field, exposure balance, and center of focus decisions. For those artists, all they need to do is disable the automation and use their own judgment, but there are consequences. Switching between automated photography and 'rolling your own' can be hazardous to your images.

For some portrait work that I will soon attempt, I wanted to familiarize myself once again with the process of balancing available light with electronic fill flash. I used a Mamiya C220 camera, a Vivitar 283 electronic flash, and a Gossen LunaPro F light meter which was useful to find acceptable flash and camera settings. Light reflected from the different elements of the scene must be ‘metered out’ to balance the exposure without blowing out the highlights or darkening the shadows. Electronic flash helps achieve that balance.

The Mamiya C220 twin lens reflex is a completely manual camera. Turning a crank advances the film. The shutter must be manually cocked before each shot. The lens aperture, shutter speed, and focus must be set by hand. The C220 is as far away from fully automated modern digital equipment as a Ford Model T is from a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. Manual adjustments in photography are part of the art, but sometimes my experience with automated equipment makes me a bit complacent.

It didn't occur to me until after the first roll had passed through the camera that even when the exposure is correctly set for ambient light in the background, the flash insists that I use its lens aperture suggestions to get the exposure right in the foreground. In the prints, the subject looked as if he were standing in front of a nuclear blast at close range only milliseconds before incinerating the pleasantly exposed landscape in the background. If that were not enough, I wasn't watching the focus closely because I became accustomed to the Nikon F100 automatically focusing the lens for me. That old Mamiya has no idea how far away the subject is unless I tell it. At the end of the day, I had whole roll of grossly overexposed and unfocused portraits. Fortunately, I woke up before I shot the second roll so all was not lost.

I'm sure glad that film is cheap.

Gladiators

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-09-20T21:12:52-07:00

Demolition Derby. These days, they are called destruction derbies but the result is the same; a confrontation between mechanical gladiators. Their colosseum is a dirt track at the fairgrounds. What about the cars’ point of view? What if they had a soul?

The treasured family automobile takes us places. It drives us to work. It drives us to the market. It carried us away on family vacations. Since machinery cannot heal, they eventually become raw material for yet another generation of transportation. Some of them don’t leave quietly, but go out with spirit. They don’t go without a fight.

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to watch the last destruction derby of the season, courtesy of the KDDA. It had rained throughout the day and into the evening. It was the last ‘hurrah’ for automobiles that once beckoned buyers into car dealers’ showrooms. Gleaming chrome. Glossy paint. The low, quiet rumble from a powerful V-8 engine nestled under the hood of a once shiny new automobile. They drove our kids to school and to baseball games. Teenagers brought their first date to the high school homecoming game or the movies in cars like these. The family sedan carried us where we needed to go. They even delivered pizza to hungry football fans on a Sunday afternoon to earn a couple of extra bucks.

In the end, they become just so much sheet metal wrapped around a motor. Perhaps the destruction derby gives them a last chance at youth, to flex their muscle once more before being crushed and hauled to the smelter.

Fight the good fight brave Chevrolet.

Grisly Competition

A Challenge For Monochrome

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-09-13T13:59:21-07:00

Most photographs that I have seen of a summer carnival have been shot in full, living color. The bright lights in motion on the rides of the midway and the garish banners on the game kiosks and food booths attract the eye of the young, the naive, and the hungry. Colorful flags and spinning machines of perpetual motion fly against a clear and bright blue sky. There’s a lot of information for the eye to process in a photograph with so much color and motion. WIth all of those elements competing for the viewer’s eye, simplifying the subject can be difficult.

Monochrome isn’t really suited to communicate the colorful carnival atmosphere, but it does capture the character. I took my Nikon F100, a 28-85mm Nikkor lens, and a few rolls of TMAX 400 film with me to the Western Washington Fair in Puyallup, Washington. I left the color film at home this time to avoid the distraction of shuffling bodies and lenses while moments of photographic opportunity slip by. Would shooting digitally and deciding on color or monochrome images post-production be easier? Perhaps, but ‘easy’ is not the reason why some of us stay with film.

Spin and Aloft in the Observations gallery show the motion of the rides at the fair. If But For A Moment, Ferris Wheel Rider, and Anticipation in the Portrait gallery capture the emotions that follow. There was action, excitement, and the sound of money rushing from my wallet. The thrill of flying through space and brushing our hair against the clouds was worth every penny of the overpriced day we spent on the midway.

But That's Just The Beginning

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-09-08T19:37:32-07:00

It’s a hassle to load film into a bulk film loader in total darkness, in my bathroom, at night, and praying that my kids don’t turn on the lights and ruin the whole roll. I go to Costco and ask for as many spent 35mm film cassettes as they can spare. It takes time to load a one-hundred foot roll of film into at least 18 film cassettes and then trim the end of each roll to allow for the camera take-up spool.

Then there is the camera itself. Finding button cell batteries to power a forty year old light meter is getting harder these days. I load the film into the camera, set the film speed, find the right subject, focus the lens, check the light meter reading, set the aperture, and then the shutter speed. How should I compose the shot? How much depth of field do I want? Do I risk camera shake by choosing a slow shutter speed? Is the light coming from the right direction? How about lens flare? Do I meter for the shadows or the highlights? The meter is useless at night so I just guess at the exposure settings. No 3D matrix metering for me.

But that’s just the beginning.

After the film is exposed, I wind it onto a stainless steel developing reel in a light-tight cloth changing bag, taking care not to kink the film and damage it. Into the processing tank it goes. There is the developer, the stop bath, the fixer, and the hypo clearing agent to mix and keep at just the right temperature. Is the right time set on the timer? Is the developer mixed to the right dilution? After it’s mixed, it’s hard to tell.

Pour the soup into the tank and agitate it with slow, deliberate inversions for 10 seconds every minute for 6 to 20 minutes. Stop bath. Fix for 8 minutes, wash, and then hang the film to dry. An hour has passed.

. . . but that’s just the beginning.

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Gizmo

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-09-04T07:37:06-07:00

Dogs have personality. Some are easy going affable types. Some are high strung and high maintenance. Ours is a “mommy’s dog”. Being a rescue critter, he has issues. For the first few months that we had him, he thought my arm needed more scars. He was scared, anxious, and likely abused by his former owners. We did our best to calm and discipline him as he became part of our ‘pack’. His portraits say it all. He still has a problem with FedEx and UPS drivers. All snarls and teeth, he hides behind his “mom” during the performance. I don’t think we will ever break him of that.

My portrait gallery shows a few of his moments. My favorite is captured in this monochrome print. I used Kodak Plus-X shot with a 50mm f/1.8 lens mounted on a Nikkormat FTn and developed in HC-110 (dilution B) developer.

‘Smile!’

Blocked!

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-08-28T22:53:50-07:00

What does it take to create a great photograph? Is it the subject? Is it the media? How about the theme? I wish I knew.

I have many friends who tell me how wonderful my photographs are, but very few strangers. I have sold a few pieces, but little more than that. At my class reunion last June, a former classmate told me that he liked what he saw on my website. He sought me out just to say so. Despite this, I feel that I have hit a creative slump that I just can't seem to overcome.

One obstacle is equipment. Apart from a daylight film processing tank and a film scanner, I don't have access to the facilities that other fine art photographers use. Enlargers, different types and grades of paper, different chemistry, and other tools that can change a boring photograph into something special and unique. Even if I had the equipment, I don't have the space.

Another obstacle is subject matter. Kitsap County is next to a temperate rain forest. There are lots of indigenous flora and fauna. I see many photographs of eagles and bears and birds shot by local photographers, so I feel that anything I could produce would just look cliché, like a cheap copy of what has already been done. Bremerton has a rich industrial heritage. Submarines. Aircraft carriers. Artillery batteries. I think that I have covered most of those already.

I suppose the moment of sudden realization came after the last Kitsap County Fair. Out of four entries, I received three honorable mentions and a second place ribbon. I don't mean to appear ungrateful, but I expected more than that. Perhaps it was my own arrogance, but I did better in prior years and this year I thought that my entries were quite good, and even better than in prior years.

Perhaps it is a weakness of mine that I don't use Photoshop. I don't cut and paste parts of an image to create another. Apart from removing specks of dust or changing the color balance a bit, I don't manipulate the final image. I might dodge or burn-in portions of a print, but what I see in the viewfinder is what I expect to see in the final print. Judging by what I saw in the winner's circle this year, this may no longer be enough.

No matter, I'll keep soldiering on. I have lots of film. I have patience. Maybe I'm just my own worst enemy, but all I need is inspiration to catch my imagination so I can feel fulfillment with the final print again.

I'm sure glad that I have a day job.

Murphy Strikes Again

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-08-28T08:43:48-07:00

It happens to every photographer, at least once.

I was on travel last week, for my day job of course, but I chose not to bring a camera this time. Being a film photographer, I ask TSA to check my film by hand at the airport security checkpoint lest they run it through their ‘safe’ x-ray scanners. It may very well be that film less sensitive than 800 ISO won’t be damaged by their equipment, but x-ray radiation is cumulative and each pass increases the chance of damage to the film. Since I usually carry ISO 100 film, all it takes is three scans and I just hit the limit. My trip was only two days of meetings, so to save a bit of time and hassle I left the camera at home.

According to Murphy, the chance discovering a great photograph is inversely proportional to the availability of a camera. While I was waiting for my flight at SeaTac airport, the sunrise bathed nearby Mount Rainier in hues of purple and orange light set against a cloudless sky. I had a window seat on my flight to Reagan-National Airport in Washington DC. While the plane was on final approach, the Capitol Building was framed perfectly between the wing-mounted engine and the fuselage set against the DC skyline. The meetings ended a half-day early, so I had the opportunity to find a metro station and spend some time in the Capitol Region. Would I have captured another award winning image? Perhaps not, but without a camera the answer was definitely “No!”

On this trip, I could have easily shot at least a few rolls of film without even looking for a shot. I guess a loaded camera is essential, no matter how short the trip.

A Day At The Ball Game

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-08-21T12:33:38-07:00

A day at a major league baseball game is like a mini vacation.

I’m not much of a football fan. I could never see the point, but I do like a good game of baseball. The Kitsap Bluejackets are nearby and they play a good game, but they just can’t provide the same atmosphere of a major league baseball game. The architecture of the stadium with its long iron beams and the sixty foot scoreboard. “Peanuts! Popcorn! Crackerjacks! Ice cold beer!” You can even hear the trains passing by Safeco Field during the game, which brings many of us back in time to the early days. Nothing beats a day at the game, no matter how the home team is playing that day. My Oh My!

I will never get the kind of access that professional sports photojournalists get on the field, but there are plenty of photo ops in the stands. I snapped a few shots at a Mariner’s home game against the Kansas City Royals a while ago. The Royals got spanked, which was an added bonus to the evening.

No worries Bluejackets. I’ll keep my season tickets at Lobe Field, and the great seats that go along with them, but a day with the Mariners is worth the $100 expense once in a while.

Sad, But True

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-08-18T16:36:35-07:00

Bargains abound for film cameras these days. On eBay, a Canon AE-1 SLR sold for $6.50 while a classic Canon FTb, with a lens, didn’t get a single bid on its $59 starting price. An EOS-1N, once Canon’s flagship 35mm professional camera, sold for a paltry $77. Nikons fare no better. A Nikon FM was had for $50, an N90s for $80, and an N80 body, with the MB-16 battery holder, sold for just $50. For those of us still using film it’s a buyer’s market but at the same time, sad. These precision machines once sold for hundreds of dollars, even on the used market. Computer controlled shutters, 3D matrix metering systems, and lightning-fast autofocus lenses are marvels of modern engineering. These features are also found on digital cameras so what’s the difference? It’s the type of ‘film’ behind the shutter, of course.

The digital revolution also brought unexpected consequences, even for those of us still in the analog world. The Nikon Pronea S SLR was a Nikon flop because it used the controversial APS film format. Known as the Advanced Photo System, its “advanced” features led to its demise. The APS film cartridge could only be processed professionally using specialized equipment and the developed film cartridges were difficult to store and catalog. The size of the negative was smaller than that of 35mm film, which became obvious when the image was enlarged. There was no traditional monochrome film in the APS format, although black and white film using C-41 color dye technology was available. To Nikon’s credit, the Pronea featured Nikon’s magnificent balanced 3D matrix light meter. I bought one on eBay for $15 for that reason alone. I use it as my primary light meter when I shoot with my meter-less Mamiya C330 and M645 medium format cameras. Since the matrix light meter considers distance and image contrast as well as available light in the exposure calculation, I get perfect images every time.

I’m sure that most digital equipment will meet the same fate as their film ancestors after memory cards, lenses, and other digital camera features show a magnitude of improvement. The Fuji Finepix S2 Pro that I occasionally use today once sold for more than $3,000. You can get one now in good condition for about $200.

It won’t be long before even that will be asking too much.

County Fair

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-08-14T07:09:28-07:00

It’s that time of year when I enter one of the largest art exhibitions in Kitsap County. This is competition at its finest. It is also a bit stressful since I am never sure what the judges are looking for from year to year.

In the past, I have had the best response from baseball or Americana themed images. This year, I’m will be entering a portrait that everyone who I know likes, but I think is technically flawed. Pensive Bear is an animal photo, but I put it in the Portrait gallery because it looks more like a portrait than a nature shot. My other entries include Aware and Red, White, Blue, found in the Capitol Region gallery, and Silverdale Pier found in the Observations gallery. There is usually stiff competition in the Advanced division, but I think I am up to the challenge.

If you are in the Kitsap region between August 25 - 29, come to the fair and take a look. There are some great artists in the area and this is a chance to see their work.

Prairie Skies and Red #29

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-08-08T17:54:42-07:00

I grew up on the prairies of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and North Dakota. Each summer, my family would drive to Alberta or Ontario on vacations to see relatives or go camping. Outside of the city, the tallest buildings were grain elevators spaced about ten miles apart from each other along the railroad lines and appeared to be tied together with the telephone lines passing from pole to pole. These icons of the prairie stand in solitude winter and summer, storing the harvest until the commodity markets were just right. Tractors and equipment harvested the grain, the trucks hauled it in, and the elevator would weigh it, store it, and load it into railroad hopper cars.

Traditional grain elevators are becoming extinct since concrete grain terminals have emerged. It won’t be long until they are all torn down or collapse from neglect. They have been around for more than a century standing like signposts for ‘POOL’, ‘PIONEER’,’ UGG’, and a number of independent brokers. America named its towns after water towers and Canada named her towns after grain elevators, or so it seems.

I began to process the monochrome film that I shot in rural Minnesota last month. I experimented with a variety of film-developer combinations and filtration. Most of the film was shot with a red #29 filter, which is slightly darker than the #25. The beauty of using red filters with monochrome film is that they bring out very dark and dramatic skies but leave the tonality of clouds. That is, they filter out the blue wavelengths of light to darken the sky and enhance the billowing or feathery clouds. Red filtration also draws out the texture of the metal siding on buildings to appear more like engraved lithographs than photographs.

The results are in the Rural gallery. Bright clouds contrast the geometric elevators and ribbed grain bins against the sky. I used Fuji Acros monochrome film shot at ISO 100 and developed in Edwal FG-7 at 1:15 dilution for 9 minutes. Edwal recommends agitation every 30 seconds for 5 seconds, but after looking at the negatives I would rather process Acros for about 11 minutes and agitate the tank once every minute for 10 seconds. The negatives were so thin that they were nearly unprintable and I was surprised to see how well the images looked. They bring out the kind of texture that gives monochrome film its character. I also shot Plus-X at ISO 80 and processed it in FG-7 for 8 minutes which was about right. The negatives were denser and provided a bit less contrast. The Versatile 435 tractor images are good examples.

Industrial Prairie

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-07-19T07:30:38-07:00

When one thinks of Minnesota or North Dakota, industry usually isn’t the first thought. All you can see over western North Dakota are canyons, rolling hills, and the occasional oil donkey rising and falling as it pumps ‘black gold’ from the Bakken oil fields. Farms and field spread over the flat prairie of eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. Quiet county roads carry only a few cars or farm machinery from town to town and field to field. Grain elevators are usually the only buildings higher than an equipment storage shed. City dwellers don’t think ‘industrial’ when they see the prairies. At first glance it looks flat, empty, and very rural.

Running a farm is an industrial operation. Modern tractors are capable of dragging heavy machinery through dense topsoil in swaths thirty feet wide and two feet deep. Combine harvesters cut through thousands of acres of ripened crop and separate the stalks and other foreign material from the grain. Full size semi-tractor trucks haul tons of grain from the fields to terminals where it is loaded into railroad hopper cars for transport to food processing centers or seaports for shipment overseas. The agriculture industry in this region produces soybeans, sugar beets, barley, oats, wheat, potatoes, and corn. All of this must happen during the short growing season before brutally cold winters and blizzards encapsulate the landscape.

The risk is high but the rewards are great. No one can control the weather, pest infestations, market fluctuations, or labor disputes. Different crops require different equipment, moisture and temperature levels, soil quality, and production timing. Agricultural businesses experience production delays from regional flooding, crop disease, drought, excess rainfall, wildfire, and equipment failure. Market price fluctuations make forecasting difficult. Farmers must be skilled businessmen to produce food on large economies of scale. They need to understand the commodity markets and their own production and storage capacities. They have the experience and skill of any industrial plant manager to assure that equipment is properly maintained, capital resources are efficiently utilized, suppliers understand their requirements, and the labor force is trained and ready in sufficient numbers to complete their work on time and on budget from planting to harvest. Farmers need to produce the right mix of crops to reduce their losses should the weather be too cold, too hot, too wet, or too dry, yet provide the greatest yield for the lowest cost to maximize their profit. If commodity prices are too low, they need to sell enough product to satisfy their creditors while storing the rest at the proper moisture and temperature levels until demand improves and commodity prices increase.

Being a film photographer, I need time to harvest my crop, but I brought a digital Fuji Finepix S2 Pro SLR along for those subjects of opportunity. ‘Harvest Ready’ is an image of a Versatile 435 articulated tractor highlighting its two critical features: power and traction. It stands as tall as a two story building and can pull anything from a large cultivator to a sugar beet harvester through knee-deep mud in all kinds of weather. It is a symbol of power and capability. A machine with attitude.

More from my Industrial Prairie assignment will come as I unlock the latent images from exposed film.

Nikons and Nikkormats

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-06-25T06:26:41-07:00

In this age of automation and instant digital gratification, it is hard to imagine anyone still using a purely mechanical camera, unless they have been lured into the Holga niche. Even among film aficionados, most ‘analog’ cameras use autoexposure or autofocus to help the photographer. There are a few of us who still prefer manual methods.

The Nikon F put Nikon on the map. Back in 1959 this camera was a less expensive alternative to the high precision German cameras, which were the ‘gold standard’ of the day. The Nikon featured interchangeable lenses, focusing screens, viewfinders, and even film backs. It did not have a built in light meter, but back in the 50’s most photographers distrusted integral light meters and preferred the more accurate dedicated light meters. The Nikons and Nikkormats later featured more accurate integral light meters and photographers began to appreciate their convenience.

The Nikon F was built like a brick and able to take the usual knocks and drops of professional photojournalism. The Nikkormat series cameras were the ‘poor man’s’ Nikon. They didn’t have all of the features of the Nikon F, but they did use the same interchangeable lenses and were often backup cameras for the working pro. Along with the build quality of a professional camera, it’s the optics that matter. For years, Nikons have been THE cameras to which others were judged.

It’s wonderful that these legendary machines have become so affordable since the rise in popularity of digital photography, but also sad that they are so ‘last century’. The images they produce are as excellent as they have always been, which brings me back to a time when photographers had to instinctively know the optimal combination of lens aperture, shutter speed, and focus for the film they were using, and a bit of luck helped.

‘Pre-Game’, found in the Baseball Gallery, won First Place, Best of Category, and Judge’s Choice at the Kitsap County Fair in 2008. It was shot with a Nikkormat FTn mounted with a 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor-P lens on Fomapan 200 film.

Go Nikon!

Government Issue

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-06-12T06:50:20-07:00

The Puget Sound was once vulnerable to invasion by sea. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, the timber industry was burgeoning and the Navy had a shipyard established in the deep water seaway protected by mountains and rugged rainforest on all sides. It was a tempting prize for an ambitious conquering nation to blockade the Sound and keep the Navy bottlenecked within. The United States understood this vulnerability, so in 1896 Congress authorized the Secretary of War to fortify and build a complex of artillery emplacements to repel potential attacks of the Puget Sound from the Pacific Ocean.

Fort Flagler, Fort Casey, and Fort Worden were built in a triangle formation to protect Admiralty Inlet. Armed with 10 and 12 inch guns mounted on “disappearing” carriages, these bastions of freedom stood watch over the Straits of San Juan ready for an invasion that would never come. Made obsolete prior to World War II by improved military technologies, these bases were closed in the 1950’s and the land was returned to the State of Washington. They later became state parks that preserve an important part of our nation’s history. They are wonderful to photograph.

I recently visited Fort Flagler on the Olympic Peninsula, located just south of Port Townsend. The concrete bunkers that protected the gun batteries and the military hardware that remain at the site have form and texture that photograph well in monochrome. Ammunition storage bunkers and munitions elevators also remain, hidden deep inside underground chambers protected by these concrete structures.

Random cracks in the thick concrete sections show the power of the Pacific Northwest climate working against man’s best engineering efforts. Monochrome images communicate the form and texture of the iron guns and concrete structures without the distraction of color. The gun mounts that remain are quiet, yet their presence is a powerful reminder of our desire to remain a free nation.

The images of Fort Flagler in the Military and Ancient Industry galleries were shot with a Nikon FM2n camera and 24mm f/2.8 and 50mm f/1.8 Nikkor lenses. I used TMax 400 film exposed at ISO 200 and developed in Microdol-X developer, stock dilution, for 10-1/2 minutes at 20 degrees C.

So What Is Fine Art Anyway?

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-05-31T14:10:10-07:00

Before I knew exactly what the term meant, I was always uncomfortable referring to my work as ‘fine art’. I always thought it was arrogant to believe that photographs produced by a rank amateur, such as myself, could be referred to as ‘fine’ anything. The mere mention of ‘fine art’ to me conjures a mental image of George Bellows or John Singer Sargent paintings hung in posh metropolitan art galleries.

The definition of fine art varies as much as the person asking the question. It generally refers to works produced by the artist’s own hand as opposed to copies reproduced by a machine, like a magazine or a sales brochure. Does that mean that your vacation snapshots qualify as ‘fine art’? Of course it does. Fine art merely indicates how the print was made, but not necessarily its artistic quality. The term is frequently used as a marketing tool because it sells art.

There are a few highly acclaimed photographers in the art world. Ansel Adams, Arthur Stieglitz, and Dorothea Lange have certainly made their mark as photographers and artists, but what is a true measure of success? Is it the artist’s ability to immortalize subjects from a bygone age? Is it technical brilliance? Perhaps the size of the prints that an artist has sold or the reputation of the galleries where they exhibit their work. In Internet circles, the aesthetic value of a photograph could be measured by the number of comments it draws on Flickr or Facebook. Are these artists just experiencing their 15 minutes of fame or will their images become recognizable icons of their generation enjoyed by audiences decades, or even centuries later?

Artists who rely on their work to earn a living are at a serious disadvantage over those of us who have a day job. For the professional artist, there are deadlines, fickle clients, deadbeats, unscrupulous agents, and the persistent threat of copyright infringement or outright theft. For those of us who simply enjoy creating photographs, we have the luxury of time and total freedom from market forces. We blithely snap away at subjects that we want to photograph while experimenting with different image developing processes and techniques in our free time. We don’t have to sell art to eat, but selling a print feeds our ego.

Making a respectable living producing ‘fine art’ may be one measure of success, but enjoying what you do and winning a contest or two along the way is another. If you are proud to sign your name to an image, you can claim to be a ‘fine art’ photographer. How successful you are is up to your audience.

Green Photography

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-05-14T21:30:16-07:00

Traditional photography, now referred to as analog, uses chemical solutions to change the latent image on film into a printable negative. Hydroquinone is the main active ingredient in black and white film developers. Acetic acid is in stop bath. The ammonium thiosulphate in fixer stabilizes the developed image while washing away excess silver compounds left on the less exposed areas of the film. With all of this chemistry entering our waste water systems, how can traditional chemical photography be considered ‘green’?

In very dilute solutions, the hydroquinone in developer decomposes in minutes. The acetic acid in stop bath is of the same kind found in orange juice or vinegar, just more concentrated. The ammonium thiosulphate and silver compounds in exhausted fixer are a different matter. With use, the silver concentration in fixer increases to the point where the fixer becomes exhausted. The silver can be recovered, refined, and reused. The ammonia thiosulphate is treated in waste water plants to remove excess nitrogen and prevent excessive algae growth in rivers and streams. If ‘analog’ photographers work responsibly, all of these chemicals can be treated and neutralized. Commercial processor technology uses color chemistry to its maximum potential. Modern hazardous waste processing later renders it environmentally safe.

Before digital photography, people kept their cameras longer than they do now. For example, a photographer who bought a Nikon FTn would use the camera for years while building an investment of lenses. New camera models were introduced every five to eight years instead of every year or two as digital cameras are today. Photographers would ‘upgrade’ to a new camera body from time to time, but they usually kept their lenses and older bodies until they wore out. Back then, any Nikon lens worked on any Nikon body. Today, photographers need to watch which lenses work with certain cameras. A Nikkor-P 105 mm f/2.5 lens built in 1968 will not function on a Nikon D200 camera. In fact, older lenses used on newer digital cameras can permanently damage them.

I can’t use my Nikkor-P 105 mm lens on my Fuji S2 Pro digital SLR, but I can use my Nikon AF-D lenses on my Nikon F. Now that’s green!

Pre-Photoshop Surrealism

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-05-05T16:37:02-07:00

There are times when an artist has to try something a little different to jar the creativity within. Edward Hopper did this often by moving between etching, painting, and sketching. He would paint portraits, landscapes, railroad scenes, restaurant interiors, houses, and even sunlight striking the interior wall in a house using pencil, pen, watercolor, and oil paint.

I am certainly no Ed Hopper, but I am finding that my narrow focus on military subjects, particularly Navy ones, is starting to feel a bit ordinary. Living in a Navy fleet concentration area, there are many military and industrial subjects to photograph, so I try to capture them in a different way.

Many digital photographers are well acquainted with software, like Adobe Photoshop, to manipulate image color, hue, sharpness, and exposure to some degree, but it can also radically change the image until it bears no resemblance to the original photograph. Artistically there is nothing wrong with this, but to me “re-photographing” digital images in this manner is more akin to the montages that I made in kindergarten with white glue and pictures cut from old Sears or Eaton’s catalogs.

I retired the Monochrome and Infrared galleries today and, in their place, created the Natural FX gallery. This is where I can place strange or unusual photographs that I made in a more traditional way. A couple of weeks ago, I took my 35 mm pinhole camera out of the closet, loaded it with a roll of Fuji Velvia 100 slide film, grabbed my tripod and light meter, and trekked out to the Bremerton waterfront.

Photographs made with a pinhole camera have a soft, ethereal quality that is hard to match with a standard lens. The camera, a teakwood box in this case, has been fitted with a thin piece of brass bored with a very small hole where the lens should be. I’m not sure of its size, but the hole is about one-hundredth of an inch in diameter. In 35 mm terms, that would be an aperture of about f/138. In broad daylight, an exposure on 100 ISO film takes about three or four seconds, hence the need for a sturdy tripod.

You never know what you will get with a pinhole camera. Sometimes it is hard to keep the camera stable on the tripod during the very manual exposure. The shutter is my fingertip. Inadvertent double exposures are common. Sometimes if the light is low, there is a significant shift away from the expected “normal” in color or hue of the finished image. Sometimes this failure of the Reciprocity Law leaves only a dark space on the film where an image should be. Exposure variations can create either unexpected beauty or an imperceptible blur. Variability can give a ‘normal’ composition a pleasing surreal quality, or just junk.

Additionally in this gallery, I placed images that I shot using a digital SLR with an R72 filter over the lens. The R72 filter blocks most visible light below the 720 nanometer wavelength and allows more near-infrared (NIR) and infrared (IR) light to strike the camera’s image sensor. This gives us a chance to see the unseen. Foliage glows brightly while concrete and steel, which reflect less infrared light, assume darker tones. The photographer can adjust the color palette of the image post-production for a general cold indigo, warm blue-green, or copper patina appearance. In any case, the image looks very different from those created by the ‘white’ visible light that our eyes see.

I’m not sure what I will try next. Whatever it may be, I’m sure that I can do it without technology getting in the way or making decisions for me.

Like a Kid in a Candy Store

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-05-02T20:52:57-07:00

Yesterday, the Puget Sound Photographic Collectors Society (PSPCS) held its annual Photographic Show and Swap Meet in Puyallup, Washington. I look forward to this event all year long. Vendors and private collectors gather to buy, sell, and trade their photographic wares that range from century-old box cameras to modern professional grade digital equipment. It’s like eBay, except buyers get to look at the merchandise before money changes hands, there are no last second bidding wars, and no haggling over ‘postage and handling’. If you’re lucky, you can even win a door prize!

I wasn’t in the building five minutes when I came across a table sporting a pair of Mamiya twin lens reflex cameras. I asked how much the seller was asking for one of them, a well maintained C220f, like I was even interested. I already own a C330 and a model C330f. What on earth would I do with a third body? The camera included an 80mm f/2.8 blue dot lens and a strap. I would need to produce $90 cash to walk away with it.

Up to this point, I had never used either the C220f or the C330s. I performed the usual superficial inspection. Wind the film crank. Look in the viewfinder for cracks and the kind of gunk that can accumulate over a few decades. Cock and trip the shutter. Check out the shutter speeds, especially the slower ones. Open the camera back. Look for damage or corrosion. Check out the condition of the light seals.

But where was the door latch? The usual chrome button-shaped film door catch release wasn’t there! I pulled every knob and moved every slide and protrusion that I could find to release the film door but I just couldn’t open it. The seller was equally baffled. Most Mamiya C series TLRs have an obvious round silver catch on the top edge of the film door, which was conspicuously absent in these two models. Since the vendor was also selling a C330s with a similar film door design, I thought that I could find some leverage with technical information should I decide to take the camera home. With the seller’s permission, I took the camera from vendor to vendor looking for someone with expertise in the Mamiya C220f.

I asked four of them, including someone who looked like George Eastman himself if he were alive today, but no one could pull the sword from the stone. The fifth man was the one I was looking for. After a bit of fiddling, he discovered that by moving a spring loaded slider on the left side of the body next to the film door while depressing the film take-up spool axel knob, the film door would pop open with ease. (He later confessed that he was a camera repairman with over 20 years experience and couldn’t bear the humiliation if word got out that he couldn’t open the film door of a 35 year old camera!)

I approached the original vendor and, armed with confidence and my newfound knowledge of Mamiya TLR film doors, offered her $80 firm. Her best price was $90, but knowing that unless her next customer was profoundly familiar with Mamiya C series cameras, she would be stuck with two unsalable items. A deal was struck, and I am now the proud owner of a THIRD Mamiya TLR body and a second 80mm lens. The lens alone was worth the price!

Since my mission that day was to find 46 mm filters for my two other Mamiya TLRs, I bought a roll of Agfa Isopan ISS 200 black and white film that expired during the Johnson Administration and a roll of Kodacolor 120 film that I simply MUST expose and process. The color shift from film that is more than 30 years outdated will be a spectacle to behold, or an utter failure. I’ll have to shoot it and see for myself. While digging through bins of used filters of all colors and sizes, I bought a lens wrench, a couple of 620 film spools, and a 58mm #29 red filter for my Mamiya M645 150mm portrait lens. You never know when you will shoot a portrait of someone riddled with acne. Besides, a filter THAT red will render clear daylight skies on monochrome film practically black, which will bring out any cumulus clouds rather nicely. This filter also fits my Mamiya M645 55mm wide angle lens so I’ll have to experiment a bit, Puget Sound weather permitting.

As I was about to walk out the door, I found myself in front of a table full of Agfa Isolette viewfinder cameras. If you want the full specifications of this camera, complete with the universe of reviews written by rank amateurs, then I leave you to the Internet to continue your quest. All I can say is that the shutter appeared to open and close at 1/25, 1/50, and 1/200 second as best that my calibrated eyeballs could surmise, and the lens was still transparent. At $15, the worst that could happen was that I would have a non-functional conversation piece on my desk at my day job. This little relic of the ’50s also takes 120 format film, which saves me the step of re-rolling 120 film onto a 620 spool should I have purchased the Kodak Brownie sitting on the next table.

For less than $100, I walked out of the swap meet with a Mamiya twin lens reflex camera, a great lens, a 46mm orange filter, a 52mm R72 infrared filter for my Fuji S2 Pro digital camera, three rolls of practically worthless film, and a piece of German photographic history. I shot a roll of Ultrafine 100 Plus through my ‘new’ Mamiya C220f today and the negatives appear very printable. The film advance works as it should and the body is light-tight. I shot Fujicolor 160C film through the Agfa Isolette, so the results will be a few days forthcoming after I get it back from the processor.

All in all, a good day for someone who just can’t seem to make the great leap into the 21st century, photographically speaking. You just don’t get that kind of fun buying the latest digital gadget from a box store.

High Quality, Low Cost Digital Cameras

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-04-28T19:37:48-07:00

Every week, I see advertisements for the latest in digital photographic equipment that varies from inexpensive low quality mini-cameras to high-end professional grade instruments. Leaving the low quality cameras on the discount store shelf is a no-brainer, unless you want something you can leave in the glove box of your car to document your next accident. If you want high quality photographs, your options are to risk rapid obsolescence by buying today’s latest digital technology, or buy a professional quality film camera from eBay or perhaps a garage sale or local pawn shop. So what does an “old school” film camera have to do with high quality digital photography? Besides the obvious costs involved, more than you might think.

Not even a decade ago, photographs in magazines and exhibitions were created from photographic film exposed in cameras that have changed little in principle for a century. A photograph made with a forty year old Nikkormat or 10 year old Nikon F100 was of better quality than a digital photograph shot through the same lens. Digital imaging technology has improved much since then, but you can still get high quality digital photographs from a film camera if you let the processor scan and digitize the negatives and slides for you when the film is processed. It doesn’t cost much for the casual photographer to get high quality digital images from film. If your volume is low, the cost of the latest digital SLR camera with its dedicated lens is far more than an older film camera using the same optics. If you shoot lots of film, like some folks I know, a quality film scanner can be had for less than $1000.

For less than half the cost of a refurbished $1,300 Nikon D300 body, you can get a professional quality Nikon F100 in excellent condition with a 28-35mm Nikon autofocus lens that produces images, when scanned, rival those from any digital camera. If you prefer a mechanical camera like a Nikon FM2, a Minolta SRT 102, or a Canon AE-1, the cost is even less. In case you didn’t know, a Nikon lens produced in 1975 will fit the Nikon F100, albeit without autofocus. For the price of a few memory cards, you can get a superb Nikon autofocus or a Canon FD zoom lens. There are thousands of them on the market and most are available for a song. Lenses from other manufacturers, like Pentax or Minolta, cost even less.

As a bonus, the photographer also gets low-cost, incorruptible image backups with the negatives and compact discs full of digitized photographs. No corrupt memory cards. No lost image libraries. No missed shots because of dead batteries or faulty electronics, and no confusing menus or settings to fiddle with while awe-inspiring photo-ops slip away.

Besides, good photographers can create outstanding images with any camera, even if it is just a light-tight box with a pinhole for a lens.

(This image was created with a 35 mm pinhole camera and TMax 100 film)

High Dilution Development

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-04-18T22:18:39-07:00

I found a post on the APUG website suggesting that Rodinal developer could be diluted far beyond its design limitation to produce images with interesting tonal and textural qualities. I use Rodinal 1:25 for fine grain film, like Plus-X and Maco 100 Plus, to produce monochrome prints with high acutance and just a touch of grain, but after reading about diluting it to 1 part concentrate and 100 parts water, I just had to try it.

To create the solution with as little variability as possible, I mixed 10ml of Rodinal concentrate with 500 ml water to create a 1:50 solution. After removing 250 ml of that solution, I replaced it with 250 ml of water for the final 1:100 solution. I let the film sit in the ‘soup’ for half an hour, agitated the tank slowly three times in a ten-second interval, and then let it sit for another half hour. To stop development, I emptied the tank and then filled it with water and let it rest for another 5 minutes. This lets whatever developer is left to work on the shadow areas whereas stop bath would have stopped development in its tracks. I fixed and washed the negatives in the usual way.

Many of the images were lost to poor composition, but the ones I kept were rather extraordinary. I photographed an old diesel engine that I found sitting on a lot and rusting into oblivion. The combination of grain and high contrast gives the images a gritty, industrial feel and exaggerates the lines in the machine, especially on the exposed valve springs. I just ‘feels’ ancient.

I also found some arborists removing a dying tree and photographed them. The camera was a Pentax Spotmatic F. The lens that I used to photograph the engine was a Takumar 50mm f/1.8 and, for the arborists, a Takumar 135mm f/3.5.

I wouldn’t recommend high dilution development for that once in a lifetime shot, but I was rather pleased with the texture and tonality that I got from the experiment. You will find ‘Where’s Waldo’ and ‘Arborist’ in the ‘Portrait’ gallery and ‘Industrial Mortality’ and ‘Potential Energy’ in the ‘Ancient Industry’ gallery.

Great fun on a Saturday afternoon!

Submarines

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-04-11T17:22:04-07:00

The hardest part about shooting submarines is finding them. The Navy likes it that way, but it is frustrating for a photographer with a penchant for photographing military subjects, especially those located in his own back yard.

I live just a few miles from the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the submarine base at Bangor, Washington. My day job has a bit to do with supporting their mission but I still can’t get near a sub with a camera without running afoul of Navy security officers. The best I can do is use my imagination while lingering around naval museums and, of course, the mothball fleet.

When I took my Minolta SRT-200 for a walk around the Bremerton waterfront, I came across the salvage remains of the decommissioned Sturgeon-class submarine USS Parche (SSN-683) erected as a monument in front of the shipyard gate. “Secret Savior” places the leading edge of this ship’s sail against the mid day sun. I could feel the majesty of this leviathan breaching the surface of the ocean as I framed the image in the viewfinder. “Service Record” is my favorite of the two. It displays the service history of the Parche using symbology well known to submariners. I rather like the highlights of the dive planes and raised access plates against the dark structure. The grain of Plus-X film processed in Rodinal developer provides a cold and industrial nuance to the image. Also in this gallery are photographs of the World War II veteran USS Bowfin, which is permanently docked at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. I gave these photographs the look of color prints from the 1950s. It was the only way I could salvage them from a lousy exposure.

You can see these images in my ‘Military’ gallery. Until I can get access to the submarine mothball docks or stumble onto a ‘boomer’ passing under the Hood Canal bridge, I have to rely on what I can find within public view at the shipyard, the Naval Undersea Museum at Keyport, or whatever else I can find locally.

Canon AE-1

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-04-09T20:22:49-07:00

When the world began chasing after digital photography, most film cameras were left behind, doomed to abandonment in closets and camera bags by their owners, never to be appreciated again. When digital ‘point-and-shoots’ and cheap single lens reflex cameras fell within easy reach of the average consumer, the venerable SLR film camera, once revered by advanced amateurs and professionals alike, became like so much baggage. eBay was, and still is, flush with them. As with any market where supply exceeds demand, the prices of these magnificent machines had no where to go but down. Once coveted precision photographic tools were to be had for a song. Enter the bottom feeders.

For anyone who has followed this blog or even read my home page, you know that I am committed to preserving 35 mm and medium format film photography. Digital imaging is what I do AFTER I process the film for the sake of this website. I have a rather broad collection of 35 mm cameras and I often enjoy taking them out for a stroll. A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of running some Fujichrome Velvia through one of my favorites, the Canon AE-1. This camera was a technological breakthrough in 1976 when electronics assumed control of the focal plane shutter in a quality camera built for the consumer market. Deciding on the proper exposure was still a matter of the photographer’s judgment, but now electronics controlled the exposure. Canon was one of the first manufacturers to use flexible circuit boards and microchips tightly wrapped in the camera body. These wonderful machines continue to capture great photographs long after the advent of mainstream digital cameras. To discover more about the Canon AE-1, or any of her sisters, visit the Canon F-A-T section of the Photography in Malaysia website.

I wonder if my Fuji Finepix S2 Pro will be as relevant in 2044 as my Canon AE-1 is today, 34 years after its introduction?

So Just How Hard Could It Be?

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-04-05T06:00:57-07:00

So just how hard could it be to build a web gallery? You see them all over the web and they vary in quality. I was pushed into building a website about a year and a half ago at the request of the owner of one of my venues, the Global Bean Coffee Company.

There was a bit of a learning curve. I had to find a web hosting service and learn how to set up the site and the domain. Then there was the web publishing software to find, set up, and learn to use. It’s not quite as easy as falling out of bed, but it becomes intuitive after some practice.

There are many web hosts available and it wasn’t hard to find a reputable one. There are scam artists I’m sure, but a bit of research should ferret out the good ones. The software needed to build the site was a different issue. I looked at several, but decided on RapidWeaver offered by Realmac Software. The iWeb software that comes with OS X just wasn’t sophisticated enough. You can also download a free version of RapidWeaver. It does everything the licensed version does, but you can only build three web pages which isn’t very useful unless all you need is a homepage and two gallery pages.

To begin with, RapidWeaver is built for the Apple MacIntosh, which is the platform that I use for the native graphics features in OS X. RapidWeaver is supported by a wide range of theme developers from all over the world. A theme establishes the look and feel of a website. Some are rather plain, but functional. Others are highly customizable, such as the one that I used for this website. I used the PageMix theme from MultiThemes, an Italian developer. They offer themes at quite a reasonable price for what you get. They even have a few simple themes available at no cost that help the neophyte learn how they work.

Themes are very helpful, but there are also plug-ins built for RapidWeaver that simplify building web pages. Your Head Software offers a number of plug-ins. My home page was built using the Stacks plug-in and the gallery pages were made with the Collage plug-in. The Method and Resume pages were both built with the Accordion plug-in. All of these plug-ins came from Your Head. For months, I used the RapidAlbum photo gallery plug-in, which is free from Mackie Software. I have never required support from the third party developers, but I needed a bit of help from RealMac once and they were better than any company I have ever dealt with.

There is FaceBook and Flickr, but why not try to be more independent? Even if I am the only one who visits the site, at least I know who created it and the domain name is mine to keep as long as I keep it registered.

HDR and The Zone System

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-03-14T13:10:01-07:00

I set up a new gallery today just for monochrome photographs. Monochrome, otherwise known as ‘black and white’, is my favorite medium because it uses shape and texture to form an image rather than color. Monochrome conveys a feeling of nostalgia or timelessness and communicates mood with form and texture. It is also easier for the ‘analog’ photographer to control image contrast and tonal width using exposure, chemistry temperature, and development time.

While at the Silverdale Art Walk last Friday, a photographer who works with digital processes visited my venue. He explained high dynamic range (HDR) imaging to me. This process involves taking a series of digital photographs using successively low to high exposure values. I assume that those exposures are 1/3 to a full stop apart from each other. Using Adobe Photoshop, the RAW format images are blended together so that the lowest exposure values can be printed closer to the highest exposure values to minimize darkened shadows or blown-out highlights, thereby controlling contrast. This requires expensive high-end digital equipment, computers, and imaging software to create the final print.

The Zone System, developed by Ansel Adams, produces a similar effect. Density values on developed film range from Zone I, or pure black on the finished print, to Zone X which is pure white. Zone V is middle grey. Each zone is different from the next by one exposure value, or f-stop. By exposing the shadows at about Zone V and decreasing development time, a photographer can do essentially the same thing. The increased exposure brings out the details normally hidden in the shadows while the reduced development prevents details in the highlights from blowing out into Zone X, or pure white in the final print. Although this process was developed for sheet film, a photographer can make a series of exposures at various exposure values on roll film and choose the best image from the scan or contact sheet. Each film formulation is different so it takes a bit of experimentation to find the right exposure/development combination for a particular film. Modern film quality is consistent, so one roll of Plus-X film will behave like another roll of Plus-X film under the same exposure and development combination.

Although I have never used the HDR method, I can practice the Zone System with a film camera, a daylight processing tank, standard chemistry, a Nikon scanner, and my Macbook Pro. Best of all, I don’t have to worry about my hard earned money fading into obsolescence when the next digital innovation hits the market.

Not better, just different. I do wonder just how long a digital image will last over time, however.

Silverdale Art Walk

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-02-27T06:15:42-08:00

I rather like the Silverdale Art Walk. Local merchants in the Old Town Silverdale area jury the work of local artists to display in their establishments. There are hors d'oeuvres and sometimes even wine tasting. It gives local unknowns, like yours truly, a chance to show their work to a broad audience while the sponsoring merchants promote their businesses. There are painters, sculptors, photographers, sketchers, and multi-media artists scatters throughout the area. It’s one of my favorite venues.

My work will be exhibited at Monica’s Waterfront Bakery & Café near the waterfront park. I shot a number of images while I was in the DC area last year so I will have a few of those on display along with some of my other favorites. Some are monochrome and some are color. Some will be framed and some will be simply matted. I will also have a number of my ‘minis’ available for sale.

The show is on Friday, March 12, beginning at 6:00 pm. If you can make it, please come. You may find pleasant surprises that are not on my website. At the other venues you will certainly see art that has nothing to do with photography.

Why The Bother?

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-02-13T21:33:11-08:00

It seems that most photography that I see on the web or displayed in local exhibits began as a digital image. If you see a photograph on the web it has to be digital, but some do not start that way. I see many people with digital cameras taking pictures and publishing them on a website somewhere, like Flickr, Picasa, or Facebook. The photographs that you see on this website are also digital images, but most of them came from scanned ‘analog’ slides or negatives.

Firing the shutter on a camera is just the first step. If you are a digital photographer, the images still need to be downloaded into a computer and then manipulated somehow with Photoshop or similar software. The result can be surreal dreamlike images, false colors, absurd composites, mosaics, or other fragments of the photographer’s imagination. Sometimes digital images are only cleaned up a bit. The color is adjusted or the edges sharpened. These manipulations can culminate into a work of art, but somehow I think a photograph that begins as a digital image is a derivative of photography that I would rather not explore, at least not yet.

I shoot slides or monochrome print film most of the time. Occasionally I’ll shoot color print film, but I prefer the saturated reds, blues, and yellows of chromes, also known as slide film. Chromes are predicable. As long as the film is fresh, Velvia 100 from one batch looks very much like Velvia 100 from another batch. Monochrome film on the other hand, holds a special fascination for me.

Forrest Gump could have said that monochrome photographs are like a box of chocolates. You never know just what you’ll get. A lot depends on the film and developer combinations. Some of it depends on the temperature of the developer, how the film is exposed, or the length of time that the film is in the ‘soup’. Medium format film, of the 120 or 220 types, gives better definition and finer grain than 35mm negatives can on the same emulsion, but often the characteristic grain of 35mm film contributes to the texture and quality of the resulting photograph and the statement that the photographer is trying to make.

Digital? It is very predictable. It is static. It begs to be manipulated post-production. Digital photography is a legitimate art form, but it is not what I consider authentic. I need a certain level of random variability to make photography exciting. It is one thing to get instant gratification seconds after an image is shot, but it is quite another to savor the anticipation of what I think I have captured on film compared to the photograph that is really on the negative. In one instance, I kinked and damaged a roll of 35mm Fomapan 100 because I had a hard time winding it on the processing reel when I processed it. To make matters worse, the film had doubled up on the reel and the emulsion surfaces of the film contacted each other and stuck together during development, leaving only a few printable frames. Winter Rails was on that roll. It remains one of my favorite prints.

That’s why I bother.

Aircraft Carrier

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-02-08T10:37:06-08:00

You may notice several photographs of ships and aircraft carriers in the ‘Military’ gallery. Bremerton hosts part of the Navy’s ‘mothball fleet’, also known as the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. It is home to the aircraft carriers USS Ranger (CV 61), USS Independence (CV 62), USS Constellation (CV 64) and, most recently, USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63). These ships have been decommissioned until they are needed again, dismantled for parts, or scrapped. Some ships are fortunate enough be at least aesthetically restored to become floating museums, like the USS Turner Joy in Bremerton or the USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor.

Over the years I have served on three of these majestic warships, the exception being the Hawk, which are moored only a few miles from my home. The light changes often in the Pacific Northwest. It can be raining one moment and sunny the next. The color and quality of this light striking the hulls of these magnificent vessels keeps bringing me back. Each time I visit, I imagine myself back on the 04 level as a ‘shooter watching aircraft streak away as they are catapulted into the dark night sky. I also remember a tragic early morning fire in November 1983 as one of Ranger’s main machinery rooms exploded into violent chaos. That morning was the first time that I had ever seen the interior of a ship’s main space, or what I could see of it. Filled with thick black smoke and backlit by the dull orange glow of burning fuel, the canvas jacket of a two and a half inch fire hose was my hand rail. I followed it down into the belly of a ship in agony to swing a brass fire nozzle at a raging fiery beast.

Color slides bring out the hues of grey and blue reflected on the water against the lights on the pier or the colors of the sun settling over Sinclair Inlet. In ‘Modern Maidenhead’, rain wears paint into long blue-grey streaks down the faded grey hull of Indy. ‘Connie’ contrasts a faded grey anchor with rusty highlights nestled into the contour of her bow against the equally worn hull of the Ranger. The red hues of the rusty anchor would have been lost in a monochrome image. Likewise, the red band of an oil boom stretched against Indy’s bow in ‘Tip of The Spear’ would have been nearly invisible in black and white.

Monochrome prints bring out the curvaceous lines that come together at the bow of a ship or the menacing rows of hooks in the concertina wire that deter unwelcome entry to the pier. The curve of an oil boom pushing against the bow of Indy gives angular contrast to the curve of the bow reflected against the water. Grey tones provide structure to an image that is less obvious in a color image. The radar domes, the square and angular protrusions that transition the Hawk’s wide flight deck to the slender curve of its hull at the water line, and the chains and power lines that traverse the ships and pier give ‘Islands’ an obvious industrial feel.

Industrial Baltimore

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-02-04T21:34:46-08:00

One of my favorite places to shoot is Baltimore. Although access to this marvelous city is not so easy since I returned home, I learned much about Baltimore’s contributions to industry, and ultimately our quality of life. In addition to the legendary advancements in transportation, railroads in particular, the first practical refrigerator was invented in Baltimore. ‘Off the rack’ clothing was developed by Joseph Banks in Baltimore. Edgar Allen Poe lived and died in Baltimore. Paint. Skin cream. Neon lights. Industries involving canning, printing, metalworking, cargo-handling, ship-building, transportation, food processing, baking, machine tooling, banking, pharmaceuticals, and public utilities if not invented in Baltimore were perfected or industrialized there. It is truly a fascinating place for an engineer or someone old enough to ‘remember the day when . . . ’

With the exception of a few photographs shot with Fuji’s Velvia 100, I used monochrome film throughout my adventure. I tend to favor railroad subjects, but I also enjoyed wandering through industrial museums, historic sites like Fort McHenry, and famous landmarks like the Bromo Seltzer Tower and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Monochrome gives images of our history an ethereal quality. Velvia film is warm enough to give the color images a warm and familiar feel. Perhaps it is because gas or incandescent lighting was popular way back when.

Part of the experience of using film is seeing what happens next after it is processed. How did the grain in the negative contribute to the texture of the print? Was the depth of field too deep or too shallow? How did the colors in the viewfinder translate into the monochrome tones that I saw in my mind’s eye? Did the HC-110 developer work better than the Edwal FG7? Did the Rodinal developer bring out just enough grain and acutance in the negative without too much contrast?

All part of the adventure.

East Coast Adventure

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-01-27T17:06:12-08:00

I finished processing the last of the film that I shot since August. I shot full programmed automatic on a few which worked, but did not work on others. Cameras are easily fooled. I trusted my judgment on full manual with good results. Most of the ‘keepers’ can be found in the ‘Military’, ‘Railroad’, and ‘Capitol Region’ galleries, but there are others in ‘Ancient Industry’ and ‘Portrait’.

I had a great deal of satisfaction touring the cradle of our nation while I was away on my ‘day job’. I wish that I could print those shots that were ruined by technical guffaws, but such is ‘analog’ photography.

Railroads

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-01-22T06:22:13-08:00

The Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad Museum is an amazing place for anyone who loves railroads and railroad memorabilia. From the earliest demonstration locomotive to the great steaming giants, the B&O museum begins with the very spot where the first mile and a half of commercial railroad was built.

I shot a lot of monochrome there because that is how to shoot the Age of Steam. The 20th Century Limited. The Capitol Limited. The Empire Builder. That was the way to travel in style back in ‘the day’. People used to dress up to travel on the rails. Champagne. Smoking cars. You don’t just get to your destination. You arrive.

Today we are reduced to long lines and security checkpoints. Blue jeans full of holes. Tattooed teenagers and young adults also full of holes. United. Continental. Delta. Get in line. Get on the plane. Sit in a space no larger than a typical office chair, but without the leg room. Get off the plane. Stand in line to watch the parade of luggage, praying that yours will be there. So much for the romance of travel.

Take a look in the Railroad gallery. More will be coming.

Washington DC

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-01-18T09:08:41-08:00

After processing the many rolls of film that have accumulated over the last several months, it became obvious that I would need to create at least one new gallery. Late last year, my day job required that I spend much of 2009 in the Washington DC area. I worked in Annapolis, but I did have time on the weekends to explore the region where our nation grew its roots. Processing film in a hotel room is impractical at best and my scanners wouldn’t fit in my carry-on luggage so I left my darkroom at home. I simply mailed the exposed film back to my understanding wife to throw in the freezer until I could get to it.

Most tourists visiting our nation’s capitol photograph the many museums and monuments and I was no exception. For the night shots, I used both color and monochrome. For shooting structures, I use monochrome film to highlight the tones and lines of the masonry. Color film was best for capturing the red, white, and blue colors that symbolize the United States.

It’s good exercise to walk around DC and Baltimore lugging around a Domke bag full with a Mamiya M645, three lenses, film, and the usual accessories. It keeps my massage therapist in business anyway.

I still have several rolls of film to work through, so more galleries may pop up. It is a work in progress.

Trabant

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-01-14T22:24:02-08:00

I happened upon a Trabant convention at the International Spy Museum in our nation’s capitol. This vestige of communist industrialism has become a cult favorite among immigrants of the former East Germany. Two cylinders. Four passengers. Freedom for the oppressed. Babe magnet. Certainly a curiosity, especially in Washington DC.

The owners of these little wonders are a passionate lot. One of them drove his communist conveyance all the way from Indiana to the convention. When I asked him how he found parts to restore his car, he said that he has a cousin in the former East Germany who was more than willing to help out. I wonder how he could handle a road emergency without carrying a trailer full of spark plugs, belts, hoses, and other hardware? Then again, the engine has only 7 moving parts so that may be a moot point.

Even though the Trabant is capable of highway speeds, I don’t think it would be much of a match for a modern SUV vying for its physical space at that speed.

Aberdeen Proving Ground

tim@visionsofvocation.com — 2010-01-10T15:49:36-08:00

I spent five months on the east coast of the United States last year, and I have finally started to process the film that I have had to keep in the freezer. I am pleased with a few frames that I took at the Army Ordnance Museum at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. You can find “Grim Messenger”,” Leopard Skin”, and ”Study In Grey” in the military gallery. More to come as time permits.