For the past ten years I've been assistant principal cello in an excellent professional orchestra that performs for nascent, and experienced conductors at an upstate NY college during the month of July. These conductors are there to improve every aspect of their approach to the conductor's art which is exceptionally demanding, and highly stressful. We are there to perform significant repertoire in a way that accurately mirrors what they, the conductors, are attempting to show through gesture. This month the repertoire includes Mozart-Jupiter Symphony, Beethoven-Symphony No. 8, Brahms-3rd Symphony, Mahler-5th Symphony, Ravel-Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2, Bartok-Concerto for Orchestra, Stravinsky-Rite of Spring, Berlioz-Symphoy Fantastique, a wonderful full string orchestra version of Shostakovitch-String Quartet No. 8, and a yet to be chosen contemporary work that will have a world premier at the end of the month. Sooooo.....I just haven't got time to make photographs, nor post here this month. I need to be able to play these pieces well, and be flexible enough to modify what one conductor chooses to do, with the next, and possibly different approach that may immediately follow.

I thank you who visit here regularly for doing so, but there will not be any new posts till sometime in August I expect. Ironically, my drive to and from Bard College is a gorgeous one, and I'd love to be able to stop and make photographs, but it just can't be done. So...please visit as often as you'd like to review past work, but nothing new will appear for a few weeks.

Bye for now!

These three photographs were made a little over a week ago when I first noticed how over-its-banks the Wallkill River had become from preternaturally heavy rains. But now the rains have continued, and I'm going to have to go check out how much higher the water may have risen out where these were taken (very near Montgomery, NY where our gallery is located). I'm not used to seeing tree trunks in water, and their lower hanging branches bobbing in the rapid flow, so there may be some more good stuff to photograph.

They are scans of 4x5 negatives made with the Shen Hao and my 250mm Fujinon lens that I love to use. But....that is one big honkin lens, and the Benro K-2 ball head just isn't doing the job of holding it very well, so I'm going to return to using the Bogen 410 geared head that is as rigid as a wingnut conspiracy theorist. I paid less than $100 for the Benro (only to then read that some consider it to be a GPS..and no, I do not refer to the satellite guidance thingie.) and it works very well with my other two medium format cameras, so I still feel it's an okay piece of kit, but if I win the lottery, I'm going to get me one whoop-di-doo Arca Swiss B-1 or B2 that'll hold a howitzer in a hurricane. But there's that pesky hurdle of first winning the lottery ....sigh!! (Must remember to buy ticket...must buy ticket...must buy ticket....!!!)

I have just officially saved myself about $120 at the very least. Why? Because I decided not to send my new-to-me Mamiya C330 to a camera repair shop to have the light seals replaced. Instead, I bought a repair kit on-line from ebay for about $10 including shipping, and did it myself. I did try this earlier using the self-adhesive soft half of a strip of Velcro without any success at all, so I'm really glad I found the right stuff to use this time.

The images below are from two different rolls of long expired HP5 (2002) that I used to check the results. Woohoo! success! There's no discernible photon penetration in places that shouldn't be penetrated by photons especially in the upper 'graph which was made in very bright and intense sunlight. And, happily, the film itself seemed to have done well despite its alleged terminal status.

When, for whatever reason, I can't actively be making a photograph in the field or the darkroom, I am constantly looking at photographs by any medium available. Of course, on-line is the most likely, and I've posted some favorite sites on a side bar. But I've stumbled onto a site that offers the visual equivalent of a nearly endless buffet of food. It's a buffet that allows indulgence without calories or guilt. A wallow if you will (or even if you won't).

I believe that looking at photographs as much as possible is an indispensable part of educating one's self in the medium. It nourishes the visual literacy that is necessary to distinguish worthy work from the trite and cliched, as well as what's just not going to ever be part of the aesthetic you embrace however well regarded it may be by others. I experience a palpable, and visceral thrill when I see photographs that resonate with my current sensibilities, and find myself startled when work I'd not thought I'd ever be likely to enjoy satisfies my viewing.

So here, in lieu of a photograph or two of my own, is the URL of the site I've discovered. I warn you that you will need a lot of time to explore it's many contributors, and I make no apology if such indulgence gets you in trouble with those who insist on availing themselves of your time. I wish you who visit this resource multiple eyegasms!

http://photography-now.net/listings/index.php?option=com_alphacontent&section=29&sort=5&Itemid=293&limit=50&limitstart=0

Last week's post mentioned the multitude of millionaires in New Jersey. Well, some of these folks were thoughtful enough to leave or sell their estates to the state or counties which have now become extraordinary parks for all to enjoy. Natirar (Raritan backward) is the name of an estate once owned by the king of Morocco. "The river and Peapack Brook run through it. The estate includes 22 buildings, many historic, six wells and three bridges, NJ Transit right-of-way and three streams, a pond, woodland. The 33,000 square-foot mansion itself, grand that it may be, is sedate and austere. Its history intrigues."* It is owned by the Somerset County Parks Commission which bought the place for 22 million dollars. "The mansion, two cottages, carriage house and greenhouse stand on 88 acres that the county plans to lease to Sir Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Airlines. The house will continue on as a retreat facility ­ albeit commercial, not philanthropic ­ with a full-service spa, conference center and restaurant that will be open to the public. The other 403 acres will be maintained as open space." *

The place is an absolutely gorgeous park. The two photographs below were made on May 15th while circumambulating the carriage path that is about a mile and a half or two in length. I schlepped the entire 4x5 kit (3 lenses, Shen Hao camera, 1 degree spot meter, darkcloth, tripod, film holders (10), filters, and loupe); the P67 might have done as well, but I love the big negatives. Thank goodness I don't have an 8x10 jones, or I'd be in traction.

* from: http://www.njskylands.com/clnatirar.htm

People give the entire state of New Jersey a terrible time. It's as if it were simply destined to be the butt of jokes because some state had to be, and Jersey's number came up....I don't know. It doesn't help that it hasn't got a single city that's got the stature of it's Pennsylvania, or New York neighbors' greater cities; nor that it's decades of polluted air from the oil refineries in the northeastern part of the state are drive through souvenirs as one traverses the New Jersey Turnpike. But I recently learned (though I haven't checked that this is true) that NJ has more millionaires than any other state in the union. It also has some of the loveliest and most cultivated wealthy suburban and semi-rural areas I've ever visited. It has some pretty damn good universities too i.e. Princeton, and Rutgers, and one helluva popular Atlantic Ocean coastline.

The two photographs below are from a Morris County park called Willow Wood. It's an arboretum that is easy to walk through, and lush with a rich variety of plantings that offer wonderful flora that bloom and strut their stuff during the different months and seasons of the year. We will return to this pocket paradise again...and perhaps many times...to paint and photogarph it's vivid beauty.

I often marvel at the extraordinary still life photographs of flowers done so well by so many photographers. I, however, have almost never made an image of a flower or flowers either outdoors or in the studio with the notable exception of some flowering dogwood trees. But, here are a couple that I've posted to break the ice. The lower one was made at an arboretum here in Orange County. Making flower photographs there is like fishing in a well stocked pond...the subjects are abundant; the skill to capture them well is another matter. The upper 'graph was made at the little park in Craigville where I've made a number of images that I really like. As I may have written somewhere else on this blog, it's a memorial to a young boy who died of an incurable disease, and whose family belonged to the religious congregation that built the park. A lovely stream runs through it, and the place fosters a deep sense of peace that is a fitting commemoration of a young life too early extinguished. I never fail to find something that absorbs me there, and may also be worthy of a photograph. But most of all, I enjoy the sense of tranquility that permeates the trees, grass, and flowing water.

The photograph below was posted with a rant I should never have written late on a Friday night when I was too tired for my frontal lobe to have taken an active part in its composition. In other words, it was a pretty dumb thesis that seemed even dumber after a good night's sleep. It wasn't dumb because it was wildly wacko wrong, but because it needed a lot more words, and a lot deeper scholarship to make its' case. So...here's the pic that it went with without the blather. It's a bit abstract, but not too much so that you can't recognize what it is. I hope you like it.

This weekend was spectacular! It has been unseasonably warm...a strong taste of summer...and brilliantly sunlit, but the humidity didn't accompany the heat, so for me at least, it's been a real treat. On Saturday morning we drove over to Iona Marsh that lies just south of the Bear Mountain Bridge on the west bank of the Hudson River. Susan wanted to scout the area for painting subjects, and I had brought along both my MF and LF kits to make photographs.

It's interesting to me that marshes seem to change very little from season to season other than the presence or absence of ice which isn't even a factor when the marsh is in salty water. The water this far up the Hudson is, I am told, a bit briny although it's quite far from the sea, because salt water is conveyed in ever more diluted quantities by the tide.

Once again (as will often be the case now) this is a PS toned negative scan that attempts to replicate a real print that will be toned as described below. The camera was the P67 with 135mm lens, and a green filter.

Living where we do, spring gets sprung a bit later...maybe a week or two...than it does closer to NYC. The early vivid green of nascent leaves and swollen buds on a warm and sunbathed day is palpably thrilling. I found myself wandering near where our gallery is located (Montgomery, NY) and drove to several places I'd thought might yield promising camera fodder, and was happy to discover what you see here. These are negative scans that I've photoshopped to resemble the toning they'll get when prints are made. The toning will be a light bleaching in a dilute potassium ferricyanide and potassium bromide solution, and then a brief bath in thiocarbamide with sodium hydroxide controller followed by selenium 1:10 with generous washing between steps. For certain subjects, I think the warmth added by the toning is very welcome. (BTW, I was using the P67 with a 135mm lens for these which I've cropped to the more squarish presentation I prefer. )

The opening for our show was a lot of fun! As I've written elsewhere, the show itself was totally free of anxiety...the work was done; it was as good as it was going to get, and folks would either like it or not. But hoping people would attend, that there'd be enough wine and goodies, and even maybe (by the grace of the Flying Spaghetti Monster) some red dots would appear (as if the work were getting chicken pox! ;)...well, that's what one worries about. But all the concerns were quenched with a decent turnout, adequate treats, and...yes...some red dots for both Susan and me! (in fact, today, another of Susan's large paintings sold which is a really good thing to have happened given this miserable economy). And best of all, we were surprised and delighted to have some very special people show up...friends from both our real and virtual worlds (i.e. internet buddies), and family...my two sons, who traveled a great distance to be there. So...it's been worthwhile, and I'm pretty happy about it all.

Now, since these posts almost always involve an image or two, here's one that I've not scanned or printed before. It's from a week in 2004 that we spent visiting Susan's family in Florida (north Florida...not the south Florida snowbird roost that so many from our area have migrated to. Susan's a native of the area.) It's from a road that leads to and from the Kingsley Plantation (google it...it's quite a historical treasure). I was using my big ole honkin Toyo D monorail camera on a heavy tripod with the only lens I think I had at the time, a 210 Rodenstock Geronar. I'm posting it because it's a nice reminder of where we could have been this week. It's also fodder for toning in thiocarbamide and selenium which is my current exploration.

We're having our second show at the Wallkill River Gallery. The back of the show-card says:

"An exhibition of oil paintings and black and white photographs in the main galleries of the historic Patchett House, home of the Wallkill School and Gallery.

April 1-30, 2009

Reception on Saturday April 4th, from 5 - 8 PM"

Any of you who can make it to the show will enjoy seeing the Patchett House at the very least. It's a mid 19th century structure that has been beautifully restored. It's located at 232 Ward Street (17K) in Montgomery, New York. Hours are Tuesday through Sunday 9AM to 6PM
The webaddress is: www.wallkillriverschool.com

We'd love to see any of you who can drop by for the opening, or hear from you if you visit the show during April.

Sunday, the 15th of March, was a gorgeous and springlike day. I couldn't wait to get out of the house and exercise myself and the camera which I did with great pleasure. Before I hiked at Goose Pond Mountain State Park, I stopped at the bottom of the "hill" we live on to photograph these images at Walton Lake. The top image is of a fence that separates the public access part of the lake from someone's teensy little postage stamp plot of lake front. The bottom image is of two of the aluminum fishing boats that have wintered over rather badly topside up in the rain and snow. A couple of guys have some serious bailing to do!

Here are yet a couple more from my perambulations around the pond at Goose Pond Mountain State Park two weeks ago. I've titled them as "Winter Light" one and two, but they're really not images that should be titled beyond the imperatives of time and place. Were "winter light" to be a meaningful title, there would have to be less than one percent of the gazillion images that call themselves that to be significant.

They have yet to be printed. I am about to embark on a toning journey that may deepen the sense of mood and light, and these are grist for that exploration. We'll see.

Here are another three from yesterday (March 8th) at Goose Pond Mountain State Park. I've returned here over and over again for several years now, and I recognize in photographing it, the same mentality I seem to exhibit when I buy clothes. Blue, denim, khaki., blue, denim, khaki, white., blue, denim, khaki, white with stripes, black, black black...etc. etc. These negative scans may become prints eventually. They're 6x7 negatives that I've cropped to my nearly obsessively favored squares. They will almost certainly end up being toned with thiocarbamide and selenium, so what you see here isn't really what they'll look like. And...I've Photo Shopped them a good bit in the manner I will likely utilize when I'm printing them for real, so they're not really pure scans at all. Anyway...the joy is in the discovery and the execution, and the next best part is yet to come, i.e. the darkroom. I would abandon photography in a heartbeat if I had no recourse but a completely digital continuum. The irony is that digitizing film is my absolute first choice in previewing negatives...I've not made a contact sheet in years. But, after that, the "real" photographic process begins for me, and I get to retreat to my warm, and cozy darkroom. Will the weekend never come! ;-)

Today was a gorgeous respite from the last few wintry weeks. I can only hope that we've seen the last of ice and snow, but I'm hedging my bets on that...we'll see. My younger son was born on April 8th, two days after a monstrous blizzard of 14 inches or so of snow on April 6th 1982, so who knows. I'm going to hang up the shovel and drain the snow blower; I could be wrong! ;-)

After a reflective week following the portfolio review, I'm enthusiastic about my work...I feel empowered to make my own decisions, and utterly comfortable being dismissive of the bullshit that one reviewer had a hard time defining as "contemporary photography". Of the six people who evaluated my portfolio, most were very enthusiastic, one was exceptionally helpful, another was indifferent, and the rest spanned the gamut in between.

These two images were made on February 28th, and represent a direction I'm eager to continue pursuing. The chaos of nature is utterly hypnotic to me, and I hope to become yet more attune to the order that, nonetheless, resides therein.

Woo Hoo!....a happy occurrence!

Fraction Magazine, an on-line photography 'zine has included one of my photographs in the APUG (Analog Photography Users Group) group show. There were apparently 200 submissions, and 29 images were chosen. So...I'm happy about that, and grateful for the selection. Here's a link if you'd like to see what was chosen of mine, and the rest of the remarkable 'graphs that have been published.

www.fractionmag.com/

This is to be the third in a series for the portfolio review of similar views of the same scene in different iterations: early snow, fog, and winter snow. It amazes me that I've not printed this before. The negative is a really good one. The negative was made with the 4x5 Shen Hao and 250mm Fujinon lens.




Well, I decided I preferred this negative after all to the one from my previous post. It looks more like what I had in mind as a variation on the other 'graphs than the more vaginal first choice. And....don't go there!.... there aren't any issues in my life...just enjoy the pic hehe..... ;)

Well, believe it or not, this is a view from the exact same spot as the Beacon stream series that I posted on November 29th, and a springtime series of the same thing I posted in July of 2007. I guess this must be the place I find the most varied and inspiring, because I've never yet found another that has so much dynamic interest, and so many different moods in one very confined area. This will get printed on Friday evening I think, and is a good candidate for the review portfolio.

Here are another two from the negative files. These were never printed for reasons I can't exactly recall, but I think I was looking for pristine leaves, and these weren't. But I no longer care about perfect leafy greens, and so these will become prints today! It's also a good thing to look at them on a day which will not top the low 20s in temperature, and be reminded that spring will return eventually....yup...yessir....I think so....

It's a cautionary tale, too, for digital photographers that the files that get deleted are gone for good. I keep my film negatives forever (unless they're totally wrecked somehow, but that almost never happens), and when I revisit them perhaps years hence I find that some have become appealing to me as I've grown and evolved in photography. Were I to have tossed them, I'd have needlessly lost a record of past visual exploration that may just have needed time to mature, and be recognized.

I've signed up for a portfolio review at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, which is a wonderful institution through which I've had the privilege of attending workshops by the photographers Mark Klett, and Mark Citret a number of years ago. This review will demand no fewer than 20 photographs with 25 suggested as an even better portfolio size. There will be five reviewers I will get to select among twenty who will discuss my images with me. They, of course, will expect to see a "body of work" which means that the photographs need to be at least vaguely related by subject, or be a series that comprises a specific project. I emphatically do not think of myself as a "project" photographer, although I do think a thematic link among the pieces selected is a good idea.

In any case, I am combing my files to assemble a set of negatives to print again, or for the first time that will make a worthy body of work to offer the reviewers in addition to my current new photographs which I have very pointedly made with a thematic link in mind.

So, the image below is one of those combed from the negative files I've not printed thus far. It's from Goose Pond Mountain State Park where I have made countless negatives that far exceed the time I have available to print the bulk of them. But....I like this one cropped a bit as it is from a 4x5 neg that is wonderfully sharp and crystal clear. I have no idea at this point if it will make the cut of photographs I choose to present, but at the moment...I like it!

Here's another reminder of springtime to join the two photographs below. I am really, really sick of this cold, snowy stuff we're going through now, and need spiritual sustenance to hold out till the REAL! springtime rolls 'round in about four months. Yikes....is it going to take that long....sigh....

I am so sick of shoveling snow and breaking up ice and slipping and sliding around and trying to not fall down and dealing with winter around here in general that I'm posting these two pictures of summer and spring for no other reason than it makes me feel better! ;-)

This photograph is meaningful to me because it was taken at the farthest spot I trudged to in Goose Pond Mountain State Park yesterday. The snow was at least 10 inches deep and exhausting to hike through especially with the 4x5 kit on my shoulder (I don't have snow shoes...yet...). And then my spot meter refused to stop blinking and give me a reading. I suppose it was just too cold for it to work properly as the battery was okay (it worked normally when I got home). This is a "sunny f16" guesstimate exposure that worked out well.

I wish all of you who visit here a joyous holiday season, and a splendid new year.

Stopping in New Palz for lunch at the Gilded Otter, we noticed that the Wallkill River was waaay out of it's banks from the rain and sleet that has fallen in the last few days...far more than we thought. So we parked by the river where the bike trail continues and spent some time with the cameras despite the significant cold. We then drove up into the Gunks which were utterly beautiful with their icy coating on every twig and branch. It was too fantastic to even attempt serious photography, being more important to just take it all in without saying WOW too many times too loudly. However, the third photograph below was irresistible, and finished the roll of film for me.

This morning's sleepy trudge to the kitchen to pour some coffee was quickly changed to a brisk trot to get the P67 loaded with Delta 100, the 135mm lens secured to the body, the whole kit mounted on the 'pod, and myself out on the deck to record the gorgeous glitter of overnight sleet that stuck to everything. It didn't last long as the sun blasted the frozen bling back into liquid that cascaded into the already sodden dirt..but I didn't have to shovel anything ;-)

I had some time to spend in Beacon, New York recently, and since all of the galleries were closed (which I was eager to visit, and then disappointed to not be able to see), I found myself drawn to my favorite natural spot in that town...the falls. Here are a couple of images made with my new-t0-me Mamiya C330 and the 135mm lens I've had since the late 80's I think. I love square...(not that there's anything wrong with rectangles!).

Sunday (November 2nd) was crisp, and sunny, and irresistible for any kind of outdoor adventure. I arranged a much lighter and more limited 4x5 kit for a long walk at Goose Pond Mountain. It's remarkable how simple one's tools can be, especially in this era of megawhizbang autodigitastic cameras. I just took along 1 lens (210mm Nikkor), 5 film holders (10 sheets of film), my light meter, dark cloth and the 4x5 folded up on the tripod. More just wasn't needed.

These three photographs are negative scans, but will likely become prints in the near future. I feel as though I'm beginning to lose my ability to accurately guage these scans to really resemble what the prints will look like (the prints will be a great deal better), but they do offer a sense of what's present in the negative, and over time, will allow me to imagine how I may go about making prints that are more satisfying...a digital contact sheet.

This is a totally unmanipulated scan of a negative I made about five or six months ago. It was one of the first photographs I made using my then new-to-me Nikkor 210mm f5.6 lens on the 4x5. I very, very rarely photograph man made stuff, but this had a nice design, great texture, and just enough character to make it seem worthwhile. I'm still not sure it'll ever become a print, but if it grows on me, perhaps it will. BTW, for those who are from around here, it was taken of an outbuilding on the roadside by Museum Village. I'm not certain if it is a part of the actual site, but it's an antique building nonetheless.

Columbus Day weekend offered us an opportunity to visit Cape Cod, which I have missed a lot over the past ten years or so. I used to take my boys there for a week or two at the end of August, and we all fell in love with the place. So here I was back again after the long interval, and I got to do some serious photography at sites that stayed in my mind in a very visual way. We also went to a slew of galleries, and saw some wonderful work that was mostly painting. However one Cape photographer...Janet Woodcock...was the highlight of what we saw for me. Her work seems to have evolved from decades of really knowing this area deeply, and there's nothing else that quite allows that to happen in so special a way.

Here are five that I like among about thirty or so that I made with the 4x5 using the 210, and 250mm lenses. They were all taken at the National Seashore in the town of Eastham in the vicinity of the Salt Pond Visitor Center, and Coast Guard Beach.

At last I had a chance yesterday to take the camera (Shen-Hao, 210mm) out for a ride which resulted in this image. I wanted to visit this Wallkill River site in this season as I knew from a year ago what wonderful light engulfs this place. There'll be more to come soon!

For those of you who return here from time to time, I apologize for not having posted a photograph for a while. Real life has been way too intrusive on my time for photography, and the few negatives I've made and scanned haven't been worthy to exhibit. BUT...I have acquired a new camera body...a Mamiya C330...to replace my C220 that has been letting the dark leak out! Ironically, the C330 (which is a more sophisticated camera body than the 220) had major light seal problems that led me to figure out a way to replace them myself using slices of the fuzzy half of the pair of self-adhesive strips that comprise a Velcro kit. Had I been aware of what I now know, I could have repaired the 220 light seals myself. But, the 330 has a much more reliable film advance than the 220, and cocks the shutter at the same time the film is advanced, and kisses me on the lips and makes breakfast...so I'm not sorry I bought it (really inexpensively too...like $95 plus shipping...from a seller on ebay.) I am perpetually grateful for the advent of digital...it's made traditional equipment waaaaaaaay more affordable. For some kinds of work, digital is nearly miraculous, but for contemplative photography of the highest quality (and I mean far, far, better than the best digital) film absolutely rules. (It's fun to be able to say that on my own blog...I don't have to listen to the out-of-tune chorus of rebuttals that usually ensue from such an assertion.)

One highlight of our time in Florida was a day at Ginnie Springs. The springs, and there are many of them, are crystal clear and always 72 degrees F. throughout the year. Using newly acquired snorkeling gear, it was a real treat to dive in water that is so utterly transparent. When I'd had enough of the water, I took out the C220 and made these nesr the mouth of the spring. (I'm still so new to the area that I continue to be impressed by palm trees, and cypresses...)

It's been a while since I've posted here, but I've been far too busy with music work to even look at my cameras. When the cello gig finally came to a close, I left immediately for Florida to join my family who were there already. These 'graphs are from that trip...the first from the beach behind Marineland (the original oceanarium that's been completely remodeled as a dolphin study center, and a wonderful place to visit), and the other three from a stream we passed in North Carolina on our way home via the Blue Ridge Parkway and Smokey Mountain National Park. All were taken the C220 which makes an excellent travel kit. There will be more images to come as the film gets developed and scanned.

I needed to take a walk today (June 30th), so I strapped the Shen-Hao kit on my back and headed up the Goose Pond Mountain SP trail from LaRoe Road. I had seen this little woodland detail a while ago, so I knew what I was looking for. I made four exposures...two with the 210mm Nikkor, and one with the 250mm Fujinon. This is the latter, and though the difference between the two lenses is slight, I liked this somewhat tighter approach better. It's a great privilege to live so near such a gem of a state park, and I am always very happy to spend time there.

These two photographs are negative scans from a completed 120 roll of black and white film I've had sitting around since early spring that also has some winter images of Round Lake (the willow over the ice). I had very little expectation that anything I'd taken was going to be appealing, but now that the negs are scanned and I can visit them after such a long interval (April to June), I kinda like these two. The top one was made on a little wooden bridge on the trail (an erstwhile road) that runs the breadth of Goose Pond Mountain State Park. I used a 65mm lens on my C220 that I don't think is very sharp, but I like the slight softness of it nonetheless. I'm eager to make some actual prints to see if either of these work as well as I hope they do.

The gallery that represents my wife and me has moved to an historic new location. It's the Patchett House, built in the early 19th century, and occupied variously as a home, an inn, and...a funeral home...yikes! (yes, there'll be ghost tours in October at Halloween time!) Here's a link with a color picture of the building. http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3CT7
It is beautifully restored, and I took myself there yesterday afternoon (June 17th) to see what I could do with the interior photographically. I've never done much architectural work, and using the appropriate movements proved to be a challenge, but I'm fairly pleased with this staircase photograph. There's simply no way it could have been made without a view camera....digital, or film, getting this much depth of field wouldn't have been possible any other way. I actually went a bit beyond the limit of front fall and rear rise as there's a bit of darkening in the lower right hand corner....but it'll just be our secret...no one else will notice...okay?



This is a very big crop of a 4x5 negative that didn't interest me much except in this small area. The distortion is due to the ancient rolled glass. It's a view from one of the gallery rooms looking out to the rear of the building where there is an enormous copper beach tree that's probably a good deal older than the Patchett House itself. I think it is going to be considered for landmark status as well as the house which already is on the national register.

Here's another from the several negatives I made in early May. The one I posted earlier I was printing in the darkroom this evening (June 6th), and this is a different one that I've cropped square from it's original 4x5 size. I'm not certain how I like it yet, but if it grows on me, I'll perhaps print it later this weekend. It is originally a vertically oriented (portrait) negative, but I think there is too much in it that doesn't contribute to the image, so this crop is the result.

I was able to get out today with the 4x5 and ended up on Wisnewski Road in the black dirt region of Orange County. I've made some 'graphs here before, but today was particularly worthwhile, because the values were so absolute..... pure monochrome fodder. The dirt here really is black, and the entire area hasn't been developed by home builders because it's very soft, porous, and easily blown away. I have no idea why that deters a determined builder, but that's the story that the locals tell me, and I'm happy these fields remain agricultural whatever the reason. The plantings are young onions which are grown here in great quantities. They are sweet, juicy and absolutely delicious; they're totally worth the social isolation that follows eating them ;-) ! (BTW, the lens I used here is my Fujinon 250mm 6.3. As much as I love my 210 Nikkor, I use this lens a lot, and love it just as much.)

I finally got around to developing a roll of film I exposed on my way home from the AIPAD show in NYC in April. The sky was very active with a late afternoon cloud show, and I found a place to pull off the Palisades Parkway to investigate the Hudson and the the clouds. I liked this negative more than the others each of which were quite different because the sky was changing very rapidly. It's often easy to see what made the Hudson River School painters so inspired. It is an astonishingly beautiful scenic river with its mountainous banks and verdant forests.

I can't get through the spring without looking for a dogwood tree blooming in the forest somewhere. This year I found several in an easy to access location, and stopped on the way home from work on Friday (May 2nd) to make some photographs. The air was dead still and humid, and the light was rather dim, so this is a one second exposure between f22 and f32 on Delta 100 film. The nice thing about the 4x5 camera for a longish exposure is that the leaf shutter is all but vibrationless, and with no breeze either, this is one damn sharp negative.

This is posted in honor of my mother whose birthday is today (May 3rd). She would have been 99 years old. She loved the woods and flowers and would have liked this photograph I think.

This is a crop of a 4x5 black and white negative that included the far shore and more of the branches which were very nice. But I liked the purity of the silvery river enough to crop out the rest. I've become much more adventurous since learning to cut my own mats. I feel totally free to crop or not because I can formally present the image no matter where the edges end up. The river is the Wallkill that runs a very long distance through Orange County, NY.

From this past Saturday's early morning expedition to Hudson, this was the first thing I was attracted to, and it remains the only image I think is worthwhile from the time there. But being on that bridge before the sunrise over "Anthony's Nose" was worth every moment spent.





If you've seen the movie "Michael Clayton" then you've seen this place. He stops his car to walk up a hill where there are a couple of horses browsing...and then his car blows up! This is that hill, but there are no horses that graze there in reality. I took this because I liked the skeletal trees, juxtaposed with the skeletal trestle.

And another month has gone by without much photography, but in the last few days I've exposed 16 sheets of 4x5 film. Here are two from a marsh just south of the Bear Mountain Bridge. I've been using my new 210mm Nikkor lens, and the 250mm Fujinon as well. However, I have no idea which is which below, nor can I even remember if perhaps both were taken with the 250. The sun was strong; the mind was weak. No records were kept. Rats!

It's been a while (about a month or more) since I've exercised a camera, but Easter Monday was a day off from work that was beautiful if chilly. The photographs below were made in tiny Craigville at a small, memorial park. I have photographed here before, but not actually printed the negatives as I wanted to come back and use the 4x5 rather than the C220. The time I spent was very satisfying, and these two images were my favorites of the eight films I exposed.

Despite some pretty hideous weather on Saturday, our opening went very nicely. Susan, Devin and I sat all alone by our very own selves for the first 15 minutes or so thinking gloomy thoughts and staring at all the food and wine that was going to go to waste, when all of a sudden people began to arrive and the "party" really got going. I was too busy chatting with visitors to count heads, but it seemed to be well attended after all, and two of my photographs were purchased into the bargain. That was a nice feeling. Now I can start working on a new project, and begin the long process of building a new body of work. It can be arduous to be sure, but for me at least, it's better than golf! ;-)

Views of the exhibition announced below are now online at dalyvoss.com. Click on "exhibition images".

This is the card for our upcoming show. Susan's work is fantastic....my work is what it is...black and white photographs. It's keeping us both very, very busy for the next two weeks. I won't be posting any new work till the show is up. All are invited. We hope to have scans of all the work in the show by March 1st, so you can visit us then at dalyvoss.com. BTW, the Walkill River Gallery is in Montgomery, New York. It's a charming old, small town on the Walkill River in Orange County. There are a surprising number of good restaurants there, so if you come by you won't be at a loss for food and drink at the opening, or in the town.

February 13th brought a marvelous/awful ice storm to our region. Marvelous, in the spectacular beauty of ice embracing every twig and pebble...awful, in the treacherously slippery footing and road surface conditions that persisted throughout the day despite temperatures above freezing. In fact, as fog and mist and sleet and rain drenched these branches, the coating of ice only increased...go figure....I guess the trees were solidly frozen and were colder than the air. In any case, I had a happy time with the Shen Hao aimed out one of the rear windows of our house. Here's one of the six exposures I made with the 4x5.

I've been going through my negative file for stuff I've not printed at all for one reason or another. This is a square crop of a 4x5 negative I made last spring I think. No photographer can continue to exist without having made an image of this timeworn subject (written with tongue planted firmly against cheek). This is my first. It's an endearing and enduring subject despite its ubiquity. Perhaps I will make more in the future as lily pads are alluring. ;-)

I've not posted here for a while because I've been too busy "finishing" prints for exhibition to have had time to make new ones. The two 'graphs below are from a storm that was predicted to be a major one, but turned out to be a very beautiful, but low accumulation event. I was able to hijack a little time to make these from our deck. The lower one is from a venerable old character that has learned to weather the wind and weight of heavy snow. The upper is the same view as an earlier post. I will probably make many more very similar 'graphs, because there are infinite variations of light and circumstances that beg to be recorded. Both were made with the Shen-Hao 4x5 using the Fujinon 250mm lens. I love where I live!

A few weeks ago our family set out on an afternoon trip to a nearby town. We stopped at a lovely little park on the way. While there, my 11 yr old step-son had just hopped across this little fall to what is the very large rock to the right. He was larking about when he slipped and fell into the stream. Startled as all get out, he scrambled up on the rock again and hopped back to 'shore'. Soaked nearly to his waist, we had to come home for him to change. The upside to all this is that he managed to spare the Nintendo game that he was carrying from going in the drink. It finally all ended well when he went to a friend's house, and Susan and I headed out for our original destination.

This past Monday, December 10th, we had a small scale ice storm. The ice melted from the roads and driveway, but the persistent fog froze on every tree limb and twig. This is, again, taken from our back deck. It's a crop from a 4x5 negative that seemed to retain the essentials while eliminating the busyness of what was there. I also like the dominant gray. (There is a bare minimum of PS here....just some sharpening, although the negative is tack sharp, and a very small levels adjustment.)

These are 'end of the roll' photographs I thought were worthy of making. The light in our front room (which is given over entirely to music and art) is gorgeous in the mid to late afternoon almost all year long, and the curtains and plants look wonderful in that light. So here, at the end of a roll from the P67, are a couple of what I think are real goodies.

I've been thinking about what I'd like to include in a show that's coming up in March, so I've been rummaging around in my negative files and found this from 2004. There's another image from that day that I've printed and enjoyed during the intervening years, but this is one I think I'll look at some more, and maybe print as a companion piece (they were taken on the same day at the same place.) BTW, I was very new to large format, and this is one of the better photographs I made at the time. (210 Rodenstock Geronar on an OmegaView 4x5)

A snowy morning was all the excuse I needed to ditch work, and go to the wetland to see what was worth burning some film on. It was a good time to make the attempt as the snow had not stuck to the roads and thus the little, paved parking area was easily negotiable. I decided to use the P67 even though I'd rather have brought the 4x5, since it's much more weather resistant than the LF machine (no bellows to get wet for instance), and has excellent lenses. So here are two I made this morning (November 19th) with the 200mm lens.

We woke up this Saturday morning (November 10th) to a light coating of snow. There are still a good many brilliant yellow, orange, and red leaves clinging to the last gasps of autumn, and they were heavy with the wet white stuff. These photographs were made on our deck. I used the Shen-Hao with a 250mm Fujinon lens and Kodak Tri-X 320 film.

At the end of my visit to the wetland last week, a cold front came sweeping across the sky, the leading edge of which you see below. I had no time to change lenses, fuss with filters or do anything at all including re-metering the swiftly changing light. Happily, the film had enough latitude to work with the settings that were in place as this front blasted through. In just a few minutes the light had gone from golden and warm to gray and bleak, the wind picked up, and I was chilled to the core. Nonetheless, in about 10 minutes or so, it completely passed over, and the entire scene became bathed in pink and orange light that was actually thrilling to be enveloped by. It was a memorable afternoon.

On Saturday, the 27th, the driving rain finally came to an end, the sun appeared, and the late afternoon became quite beautiful. I went to Goose Pond Mountain Wetland, put on waders, and slogged into the pond you see below. The sun was strong, and the light was golden in a way that black and white cannot, of course, convey. But, the 'values' were very pronounced and I enjoyed making these photographs. (I used the C220 with the 80mm lens.)

On Saturday, October 20th, our family enjoyed a ride to the top of Bear Mountain, and then an extended excursion below to the Iona island marshes which are very beautiful if you like marshes. These two photographs were made there and then, but I'll be back many more times for further explorations of the light and textures of this place.

Our family excursion continued north to Beacon where I visited the Fishkill Creek falls and made this image. Every time I visit this place, the water level is different, the currents are different, and, of course the light is different. It's also a place to which I will return many times.

Yesterday morning (Saturday, October 7th) was muggy and warm with pervasive fog and mist. I was again hoping for something terrific on the Hudson at the Bear Mountain Bridge, but it was so foggy there was nothing to see. Returning by Bear Mountain State Park, I was able to see that Hessian Lake looked interesting, so I parked and schlepped the Shen-Hao (a 4x5 field camera) and attendant gear there and found the images below. It has been a while since I've used this camera because it can be very cumbersome to carry, but I really enjoyed using it this time. I only have two lenses mounted for it at the moment which are a Schneider 150mm G Claron, and a 250 mm Fujinon. These were made with the 150mm. As usual, everyone who walks by stares at the thing and will typically ask if it's "one of those really old fashioned cameras", to which I reply that it is. They are a bit perplexed that anyone would use such a device. At least I don't tell them it's a Hassleblad.

Early this morning (Sunday, 9/23) I took myself to the Bear Mountain Bridge area hoping for the wonderful mist and cloud that had typified the river view for the last 5 or 6 days that I witnessed on my way to work. But, the air was too dry for that. What's here is what there was, which still ain't too shabby.

While I was at mid span, a group of 10 or 12 runners approached me on the narrow pedestrian way. They were all West Point cadets (mostly men, but also two women). I said "Good Morning" as they jogged past me, and each of them replied with: "Good Morning, SIR!". What a classy group of kids they are. It's nice to see one's tax dollars spent so wisely for a change. They are every inch Gentlemen and Ladies, as well as, no doubt, excellent soldiers.

Here are two more photographs from Goose Pond Mountain State Park. I've photographed the trees several times before, but the foreground goldenrod was new, and I thought it worthy of an new and independent image. The other photograph includes a small portion of the often pictured pond below, but, again, the goldenrod added a new dimension I wanted to record.

This is from the wonderful Orange County Arboretum. Susan and I spent Sunday morning there...she painting, and I photographing. We both favored this little pond that has nothing to do with the marvelous formal gardens there, but seemed just right for the moment and our sensibilities.

Back in May of this year I visited Round Lake on a foggy morning and posted two photographs from that session with the camera. Here's another that I've just gotten around to scanning.

This past Sunday (September 9th '07) was hot, humid and utterly unwelcoming for outdoor adventures. Nonetheless, I took the C220 for a walk at Goose Pond Mountain SP and found these photographs. The wildflowers were so intense and amazing I actually wished I were shooting color film, but I'm happy with what I have nonetheless. I met some nice people there as well, one of whom had actually been born in the house that the park ranger now resides in. It was fascinating to hear his account of the history of this place. He regrets with some bitterness the way New York State took over the land by imposing eminent domain, but glad developers didn't turn it into one more hideous mall had the landowners sold it off privately. I was happy that I could walk the many acres of parkland and not be trespassing on anyone's private property.

These two photographs were made the same early morning within a few yards of each other. It was a beautiful day with crisp air and warm sun. There was frost on the grass, and nascent flowers on the trees. They were taken at the 'Goose Pond' which is a shallow body of water bordered by a jog/walk/bike path of about a mile and a half in circumference in the village of Monroe near where I live.

Yesterday, September 2nd, I accompanied my wife to a new location where she wanted to paint. The place is an historic 1769 farm called Hill-Hold in Orange County (NY). I wandered around the out-buildings and found these three images as well as others I've not yet scanned. They were all taken with the Mamiya C220 and 135mm lens. Despite being sorely tempted to sell the cat to get a Hasselblad so I can really indulge my current square format obsession, on balance the cat is nice enough to keep, isn't worth that much ;-), and the TLR is really doing the job!

This past Sunday, August 19th I went to Phillies Bridge Farm and made these images which I like. It's a nice place to roam around in (it's a cooperative farm), and there are numerous picture possibilities.

On a foggy early morning at the end of July I returned to Round Lake hoping to make a worthwhile photograph. The air was still, and the fog was dense over the water. There was a distant boat (barely visible in the second 'graph in the upper left hand corner) cradling a couple of no doubt sleepy fishermen, but nothing else stirred even slightly. Making these two images was one of those pleasures that fisherman and photographers find the most gratifying. After patiently waiting, there's a 'bite' on the line.... and on the imagination.

This photograph is from the same roll as those immediately below, but it's set apart because it is has a distinct resonance for me. It represents an aspect of summer I cannot begin to define...something from my youth during which I distinctly remember experiencing certain moods when stimulated by certain visual environments. This one triggers those feelings. It's a very special place.

The three images below are of the Fishkill River in Beacon, New York. As rivers go this one is just too small for the word 'river' to make much sense, so I choose to call it a stream which may just be what 'kill' means in Dutch. They were made with my Mamiya C220 with a 135mm lens. That camera was the first medium format machine I acquired way back in the 1980's when they were still being made. I've not used it much since getting my Pentax 67 kit, and more recently a couple of 4x5 large format kits, but I really like the square format of the Mamiya and the the whole array is very light and compact...even with the prism finder which is a terrific improvement over the waist level finder. If I win the lottery, I'll get a Hassie, but that's as likely as my getting 20 years younger!

I see that I haven't posted here since March 13th. I think the reason is that I haven't been motivated to print the photographs I've been making and scan them, because I've been too ambivalent about their worthiness. Does this happen to most photographers or other folks making utterly impractical 'art' from time to time? I suspect it does, because I've discovered, to my great disappointment, that in the broadest of terms, I'm not unique.....;) So, in the manner of soooo many website owners, I'll just state that more wonderfulness is 'coming soon' and try to get a good night's sleep. (winking furiously.....ow!)

Here are a few photographs of a local area I really enjoy visiting. I've made many images at this wetland, but I've been selective about the ones I think are 'keepers'. Though others have often used the phrase, I think of these as embodying "a sense of place". They were all made with a Shen-Hao 4x5 camera and 150mm Schneider G-Claron lens.

I've had mixed feelings about this as an 11x14 print thinking it might be better smaller (too strongly graphic perhaps), but I've now decided that I like it that large. It was made from a 4x5 negative in a Shen-Hao camera. I think the lens was a 250mm Fujinon, but I'm not certain.

I've finally gotten around to printing this. It was taken in November of last year with the P67 and 135mm lens. It's been printed on the last of my Ilford Warmtone 8x10 FB paper. As an 8x10 (though it may someday be printed larger) it's a little gem. That day was a very successful outing that resulted in several 'keepers'.

Common visions....similar 'graphs.

I was looking through my new copy of John Sexton's excellent book Recollections, and noticed that Plate 32 looked a lot like a 'graph I made on Schunnemunk mountain a number of years ago. Well, of course, I'm not comparing my work to Mr. Sexton's in any other way than to have noticed there's a similar subject arranged similarly to his, but I thought that was pretty cool.

Starting out.

This is my first journal/blog/online gallery. I'll be curious about how conscientious I can be about keeping it current. Hmmmm.....we'll see!!

*Any person utilizing any or all of the photographic material covered by this site's copyright statement for the purpose of commercial gain or profit expressly agrees that the use of said photographic material without my written permission constitutes an economic injury against me having a value of $2,500.00 for each instance that such material is accessed.