Journal

3/1/08   Monument Valley was my destination the last two weeks of February or so I hoped. This was my fourth trip to this wonderful place and it was my first trip in winter. Weather was tough to say the least! Storm after storm came in and with snow, wind, rain and mud it was a tough trip. I stayed seven days and had weather that I could work in for only two days. The rest of the time was just too windy or total overcast and no Sun. On the few days that were good, the clouds and light were spectacular! I only brought one camera, my Canham 4x10. For color film I had Velvia 50 and for B&W I had Illford FP4.

I think the most amazing thing on the trip was seeing how really poor so many of the Navajo people are! Many homes and trailers had no electricity or running water. Many still live in Hogans, which are round mud huts that have been used for generations. It just amazes me that in this country we still have such injustice! It is sad and will probably always be a part of our culture.

I have selected 6 Images to post here. Actually only three Images, but each one in color and b&w. I will let you decide if you like the color shot or the b&w shot. My wife picked the color shots but I probably like the b&w a little better, although the Monument Valley red rock and deep blue skies are striking!

Left Mitten

Totem Pole and Yei Bi Chei

Mittens

2/12/08 I have returned from a nice 12 day trip to Death Valley. The weather was like it is every year, a few days of high winds, so setting up a Large Format camera was impossible. This year we actually had some nice clouds a couple days and overall the weather was beautiful. I brought my Canham 8x10 and 7x17 Large Format Cameras. I shot Illford FP-4 in the 7x17 and Illford  HP-5 in the 8x10. I ended up shooting 48 sheets of 8x10 film and 36 sheets of 7x17 film. Below are several Images from the trip. I really like the extra speed of HP-5  and plan on using it more. One thing I discovered was shooting 36 sheets of 7x17 required a great deal of time to develop. I can only develop two sheets at a time in a 2850 Jobo drum and that meant 18 batches of developing and several days of work. I plan on shooting no more than one box (25) of 7x17 in the future during a trip.

Overall the trip was great and I did get some nice shots! It looks like the wild flowers may be good this year. Death Valley has had some nice rains and the new green growth was very strong, end of February, first of March could be great.

I missed not having some color film loaded. 7x17 film is only available in B&W, but I plan on shooting some of the new Velvia 50 in my 8x10 and 4x10 in the future.

Next trip is Monument Valley and maybe Canyonlands in Utah. I will probably go light and shoot 4x10. I plan on some long hiking and the Canham 4x10 is the perfect setup.

Cook Bank, Rhyolite Ghost town - Canham 8x10 & Fuji "C" 300mm Lens

Badwater from Dantes View - Canham 7x17 & G-Claron 305mm Lens

Cook Bank Behind Building, Rhyolite - Canham 8x10 & Fuji "C" 450mm Lens

Devils Golf Course - Canham 7x17 & G-Claron 305mm Lens

Zabriskie Point Left - Canham 8x10 & Fuji "C" 450mm lens

20 Mule Team Road - Canham 7x17 & G-Claron 305mm Lens

11/21/07  My wife and I just returned from a great trip New York City. I shot my 6x17 Fotoman and used a Schneider 110XL lens. Below are several of the Images I shot during the 7 day trip.

10/31/07 Next week we head to New York City. One of my favorite places! A great place to visit for a Photographer. Last year the fall color in Central Park was spectacular! I spent several mornings and one full day in the park. It is a wonderful place to see and photograph. This year I am taking my 6x17 camera with color and B&W film. The plan is Central Park and City Scapes. We will see how it goes?

10/30/07 My two week trip to the Eastern Sierra was about normal. I started in Lone Pine and spent 4 days shooting the Alabama Hills. Not much in the cloud area and only one day with nice light. Shot both the 4x10 and 8x10 cameras. All film was Bergger 200 B&W. I finally finished using all my Bergger film. I have switched over to Ilford FP4 and HP5.

Canham 4x10, Bergger 200 Film, Fuji 250 CM-W

Canham 8x10, Bergger 200 Film, Nikkor 450M

My Wife and I and the Dog left Lone Pine and headed to Lee Vining. We stayed at the Mono Vista RV Park. A nice place and they now have WiFi so you can have Internet service in the Boonies! I worked Mono Lake and Bodie every other day and spent one full day up Lee Vining Canyon. The weather was really nice and in the 70's during the day, nights got down to the high 30's. As usual for this day and age I never saw another LF Photographer. Everyone shoots Digital! Kind of sad in a way. I had been waiting for an hour for the clouds to line up in Bodie and a guy came over to talk. He wondered what I was doing and when I told him I was waiting for the clouds to shift he asked if I knew I could just add clouds to my picture with Photoshop?  Here we are sitting in Bodie Ghost town on a beautiful morning and it made no sense to me to hurry up a shot so I could get back to my computer faster to ADJUST my Image?

Canham 8x10, Bergger 200 Film, Fuji 300 CM-W

Canham 4x10, Bergger 200 Film, Fuji 210 CM-W

Canham 8x10, Bergger 200 Film, Nikkor 450M

The water level at Mono Lake was lower than last year so there was much more beach than there has been in the past.

Canham 4x10, Bergger 200 Film, Schneider 110 XL

Canham 4x10, Bergger 200 Film, Fuji 210 CM-W

It was a nice trip and as always I will return. I loved shooting with my 8x10! The ground glass is such a joy to look at and easy for me to see! But I think I just have a Panoramic eye because I always seem to see everything as a Pano shot. I will probably start shooting more 4x10 and 7x17 just because it really works with my eye.

9/10/07 I am getting ready for my trip to the Eastern Sierra. I have decided to shoot the whole trip in B&W. I received my Ilford order for 4x10 film. So I have plenty of B&W film for my 4x10, 7x17 and 8x10. It is great that Ilford took the time to do a special order for all LF and ULF shooters. They cut 4x10, 5x12, 11x14, 7x17, 8x20 and several others. It looks like they may do a special run once a year to make sure we are all covered with film!

Thank you Ilford and all the dealers who worked hard to make it happen !!!!!!!

5/22/07  Yosemite was beautiful with temps in the 70's every day. It was not too crowded and the Dogwoods were in bloom, although I did not find a nice Dogwood shot. I shot 8x10 and 4x10 B&W. I can't say I had any great pictures but I did get some nice ones. As always Yosemite is a place of great beauty and a joy to visit. My best Images were "El Capitan" and "Yosemite Falls" shown below. The "Yosemite Falls" Image really shows how beautifully an 8x10 negative holds detail. The sandy bottom of the Merced river shows every little swirl and pebble under the water! The picture below shows my K.B. Canham 4x10 camera sitting at "Tunnel View". I have really grown fond of this camera. It is light, fast to setup and easy to backpack! Panorama shots in Yosemite are few and I used my 8x10 for most of the time.

4/3/07  I finally got my new Epson 3800 printer that had been on order. It is a 17" wide printer and allows me to print up to 16x20. It is Epson's newest printer and has much bigger ink cartridges (80ml) then the 2400. It also has both the photo and matte black inks installed and is a much faster, easier and cheaper setup to switch ink type. You can read about this printer at:

http://www.inkjetart.com/3800/index.html

I have printed several 16x20 prints and they are incredible! Very exciting to see this kind of quality. I printed three of the 16x20 prints that I have hanging in my home and compared the 3800 prints to the Cibachrome prints. The 3800 prints had better detail in the shadow areas and were overall much cleaner and sharper looking. Real Beauties!