2010 | Sunset Cliffs, San Diego County, California
My presence doesn’t make things like this happen, but if I am present, I can ask my camera do its work.
160 | Everyday Events
2012 | Ocean Beach, San Diego County
159 | Lost and Found
1977 | New York City
Here’s a rough iPhone copy of a little 5x7 vintage print. I don’t know if the negative will turn up.
In the mean time, it reminds me of the time Professor Franceschetti shared with me that for him, New York was a European city.
158 | Hometown Update
2015 | Fairfax, California
I grew up in this town in the 1950’s. It still looks good, maybe smaller.
157 | Long Lost
2003 | Salt Creek Drainage, Death Valley
This year, I had set my view camera down for good and took a pleasure trip to Death Valley with spouse and friends. Wandering around with a light camera and without a plan loosened up my eye and spirit. Then this and many other rolls of film sat in the refrigerator, then the freezer, then at room temperature, between several moves and good intentions to process them, until just last year when I turned them over to a good lab to work them up for me. I had always been successful with heavy exposure and very soft development, but I did not spec ‘Pull Two Stops’ in my order. So pulling only one stop, plus the characteristic behavior of exposed film to spontaneously keep on exposing when in long storage, gave me negatives like these.
I say it’s a good thing they were taken in the desert.
156 | Digging In
1989 | Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, San Diego County
Field trips with my large-format class were always true adventures; the unfamiliar gear brought out necessarily deliberate approaches among the students. I remember their enthusiasm and curiosity were bright and quick, and then the rest of the day was consumed in efforts to keep that first attraction in mind and get it Into the heavy, slow, at first apparently unresponsive camera.
155 | Catching Up
1999 & 2001 | Smoke Tree Wash, Anza-Borrego, and Three From Port Orford, Oregon
Here are some 4x5 negatives I never proofed; they were on the To Do pile when I decommissioned my darkroom ten years ago. My friend Eli is helping me get my archive “up to date” so we spread these on a light box, shot them with my phone, AirDropped them to my web machine, inverted the tonal curve, and Bob’s your uncle!
And…now they are bigger than a contact print.
154 | Muddy Hollow
1986 | Point Reyes National Seashore
153 | Document Retrieval
1975 | Laguna Beach
It’s been hard to keep track of all my work, even from a year when I was busy with other things, not getting outdoors as much. I am fortunate to have a friend like Bob, who kept the work prints I mailed him over the years. This is the only extant print from a long-unfound negative.
By then, I had learned from more vigorous photographers to share my work by sending out a small print as a postcard. I could just put a dime on it and stay in touch, and at the very least, my picture would be exhibited on another photographer’s refrigerator and likely be seen by at least two others in our guild.
152 | Panoramic Overlook
1995 | Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
My son and I climbed up to this spot to see if it was true to its name. But for my picture, I didn’t have to look very far.