A fallen log in the woods -
As November enters its last week the trees have gone bare and a cold wind scurries over the frost and pockets of snow... But I'm just starting to scan film images show early in the month, catching the colors of autumn. Here's a first out take - a little stand of aspen in the Allegan Forrest:
Preparations for the 2016 Signature Gallery are underway! The gallery will open Saturday, November 26 with the Artist Reception on Sunday, November 26 from noon to 5 PM. We are at the same great location as last year - 4602 West Main Street, Kalamazoo, MI 49006.
This year I will be fully participating in the gallery and will have a large selection of framed prints, matted prints and note cards.
Learn more about Signature at signature-artist.com
Here is a sample of some of the new pieces I'll be exhibiting at the gallery this year:
Taken in October, this was a grab shot while photographing some of the interesting tombstones in an old Connecticut graveyard. Tri-X 400 rated @ 1600, developed in HC110 Dil B, 20C for 16 minutes.
I spent some time last week "back east" and wandered up into the New England states for a while. A lot of cemetery details will be posted into the film photo a day blog over the next several weeks, but here are three old churches that I happened into during the trip.
This is the Brick Church in Clarendon, Vermont, a.k.a. Clarendon Congregational Church. My wife found one of her distant ancestors buried in the cemetery across the road:
The clock is just a painted ornament on the steeple. I wonder why 10:46 is the chosen time.
No idea what the church shown below is or was, but the distinctive snowflake pattern on it was eye catching. This blog describes it as a circa 1890 Queen Ann Church. It looks like someone is taking care of it these days as witnessed by the new shutters on the windows. The second photo below details the attractive bell motif in the windows shutters.
Lastly, First Church of Christ in Wethersfield Connecticut. Per Wikipedia the congregation was founded in 1635 and the building here was built in 1761. It seems to be an active congregation to this day and renovations to the building were in progress as we strolled by:
Contrast study at First Church:
A cat eagerly watching to see what comes next...
I shot this using a Ricoh Diacord L TLR, circa 1957. It a great camera and a I love the quality of the images that the Tessar design lens produces. This was shot wide open at f3.5 on Tri-X. (Developed in HC110 Dil B.) Unfortunately the Diacord's winding mechanism has gone wonky - sometimes spacing exposures far apart and sometimes barely leaving any room between them at all. I'm hoping that it will work itself out some how (wishful thinking probably...)
Early October and the Allegan Forest is still lush and green for the most part, though a few small Sassafras are starting to lighten.
Made with a Rocohflex Diacord L on Classic Pan 200, HC110 Dil B for 7.5 minutes.
A two pronged test here... first testing a Tamron 28-75 f2.8 zoom with film. Secondly, testing Ultrafinne Xtreme 400 in Microdol-X stock solution. I like the results on both accounts.
I couldn't find a starting time for UFX 400 in Microdol-X, so I used the time for HP5+ and added a minute, which worked out to UFX 400 rated @400 in Microdol-X stock 12minutes at 20C. I've been doing some informal comparisons between Ultrafine Xtreme 400, HP5+, Ilford Pan 400 and Kentmere 400. All are clearly distinct films but UFX 400 and HP5+ are generally very close in processing times, so I'm comfortable using the HP5+ times as a starting point for UFX 400 when developer times are not available.
In regards to the Tamron 28-75 f28 -full name: Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8 SP XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) - I wanted a better zoom for my Pentax film bodies, and the Tamron is one of the few current lenses that still works with the cam driven auto focus found in older Pentax film bodies. So far it has proven to be excelent with film. Its also been very good on the APS-C Pentax k3. I am hoping that it will also be serviable on the Pentax k1. Even if it isn't, its an excellent upgrade over the FA 28-105 f4-5.6 and FA 28-70 f4 that I had been using.