Summer Travels

Wamsutter Motel, Wamsutter, WY.

We returned from our 3 week road trip last week. Although it is always great to travel and to get away from daily life, it is nice to come home. It would be lovely to have another month off to do nothing but process film and scan negs, but unfortunately that won't be happening. It was really nice to have a digital camera on this trip (Roseann's birthday gift from me) as we were able to post images on facebook so friends could see what we were up to. So if you are connected to us on facebook go check em out.

If you ever check out images over at Rah you might know I have a thing for off the beaten path motels. I have to say the Wamsutter Motel pictured above was one of those experiences where you expect axe murderers to knock on your door in the middle of the night. When stopping at non-chain motels you run the risk of having two experiences; A night at a cute quirky old motor lodge or a scary piece of shit motel. This one leaned way towards the latter which probably had something to do with it being in the middle of nowhere! Luckily we both survived and I'm happy with the image (taken with our new digital camera!).

Woodstock, NY

I just spent the last two days in a workshop with Linda Connor at the Center for Photography at Woodstock. It was a very nice experience and it was also nice to finally see the Center at Woodstock and how they do things. I always enjoy comparing Newspace to other centers around the country, especially one that has been in existence for over 30 years.

Linda has been teaching and photographing for longer than I have been alive, so she knows a few things. She gave all of us a lot of great insight on photography and our work as individuals. I don't think I've had such a great critique of my work since college.

Last night I hiked up to some old ruins with a fellow participant in the workshop. We headed out after Linda's fabulous slide lecture around 10:30. The hike was about 45 minutes up an old road. About 10 minutes into the hike we heard something quite large rustling in the bushes about 15 feet from us off the road. It was a full moon so we were walking up the road without a flashlight so we were not able to investigate. Not that I wanted to though. There are a lot of black bear in this area so it definitely got my heart pumping a bit. Once we got up there we encountered a porcupine which promptly went its own way. I'd never seen one before! We were up there shooting for about an hour and I have to say it was pretty spooky. We kept hearing a lot of strange noises like pipes banging and footsteps. A pretty cool place with an interesting history. Next time I will go up there in the daytime though.

Off to Asheville, NC for a few days with some old friends.

Town & Country: Oregon at 150

Pretty excited to have four pieces in this group show at Froelick Gallery for the month of June. It opens next Thursday so if you are out and about for first thursday stop by and check it out.

Blogs are like assholes...

Everyone has one!

Light Leak Magazine

I have a nice little interview in this cool magazine.

Man I need this!

Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

The Darkroom

Great link: http://www.richardnicholson.com/darkroom/

I never thought I would give up darkroom printing. But it happened last year. I still shoot film and process it myself, but after that I scan it and print it digitally (I do still make contact sheets in the darkroom though). This all came about when I tried out an epson v750 scanner, affordable to someone like myself with great results! Also once epson came out with the k3 ink set and the advanced B&W print driver that was a big leap for digital B&W printing. Before if you wanted to print on a glossy paper you had to use troublesome complicated ink sets to avoid the bronzing effect. Now that it is much easier to print on glossy papers there are a lot more available on the market too. I love the Hahnemuhle photo rag pearl..........a truly beautiful paper! Looking at the images in the link makes me bummed about the disappearance of the darkroom. I am still happy though since I do straddle both worlds a bit, plus I am in a darkroom everyday I'm at work so I still feel connected to it and get to smell the oh so lovely chemical smell too.