Can't Keep Up

Two more darkroom sessions in the past 3 days, I am having trouble keeping my blog up to date.

Two days ago I worked on 2 negatives, one a picture from my southwestern road trip a few years ago, a lonely road in rural Texas at dawn. I had printed this before and followed my print information sheet ideas. I used Kentmere Bromide paper and toned it with bleach/sepia/rebleach/gold. After the rebleach I wanted to get rid of the orange hue in the road, so I painted some developer on the road and it turned a steely blue/gray.

The other negative was from the same road trip, in the Guadalupe Mountain region, but I had never printed it before. The negative had nice contrast so I was hoping my first printed negative without the use of print sheets would not be too difficult. I think it turned out average, the tones don't harmonize completely, but it still looks interesting. I used the same toning procedure as the first print, and to get rid of the orange hue in the mountains I used brushed-on developer after the rebleach to bring back the cold blue/black hue.

Gaudalupe Mountains, Texas
Printed 2008

Sealy, Texas
Printed 2008

Back to Work

I'm starting to get a feel for printing again. Worked on 3 negatives yesterday, 2 of which turned out ok. The third one I had never printed before, so I was attempting to figure out a correct printing solution. The sky was too dark, and the foreground too flat, so I did not do too well. I probably won't go back to it, the image does not do much for me.

The previous two printing sessions I worked with Forte Polywarmtone paper (no longer available, but I still have an old box), but I remembered that gold toner combined with sepia comes out too heavy with warm tone paper. So I switched to Kentmere Grade 4 cold tone paper, which works very well with the bleach/sepia/rebleach method. Sometimes the gold toner is not even needed because after rebleaching the split tones can be startling and there is no need to go further in tonal change.

I did not get as good a result as hoped for with the rebleach method because the bleach was too fresh and strong, which blasted through the tonal changes too quickly. I made a mental note to use a more diluted bleach solution when working with the cold tone paper on the rebleach side of things. I like to have a strong bleach for the first immersion because the cold tone paper takes too long to pull back if the bleach is weak.

Will be going down to work again this afternoon. It is good to be excited again about making pictures.

Railyard, Winter
Printed 2008

Railyard, Winter Tree
Printed 2008

Momentum?

I'm not sure if 2 printing sessions in 3 days counts as momentum, but when no prints have been made in a number of passed months, 2 sessions seem like a good start.

I felt energetic, and worked 3 or 4 hours printing 2 negatives from 2006. I had print information sheets on hand so that I could remember how I had made them in the past. Both required an odd assemblage of dodging and burning, and I was impressed how I had not only figured these schemes out, but with my drawings of the negatives.

I also have not made a drawing in over a year, and I fear I no longer can transfer correct lines onto paper. Oh well, I will hopefully continue to work, enjoy myself, and try to relearn everything that has been lost.

Lake Pontchartrain

Printed 2008

Southern Illinois, 5 Trees

Printed 2008

Got the Feeling

Last week I finished painting the exterior of the house. It took me over 5 months to complete the project. A day or two after finishing I found myself with my afternoons free, so I went into the darkroom and developed 4 rolls of film.

A few days later I returned and did my first printing session in probably over a year. I chose one of the new negatives, but after one attempt I realized I was very rusty, having no feel for how to proceed with tricky techniques.

So I went to my archive of print information sheets, chose a negative which was not too difficult, and worked on it for a few hours. I ended up with 5 prints, and after washing I attempted some toning variations with sepia and gold. I chose a poor method, which was sepia/bleach/gold. Normally I have better success with bleach/sepia/rebleach/gold. I thought the prints turned out horribly wrong, but after drying one actually was ok, and it took on a different feel from the prints I made a couple of years ago with this negative, which unfortunately, I do not have any longer.

Road Ditch
Printed 2008

It feels good to work again with pictures. Soon I will work on the same negative, I can do better with it, I just need some practice.