JorjDotOrg - picture of the day

2012-01-30 Vague Recollection

From a photo walk through Durham Township a few weeks ago, this shot of the interior of the Durham Mill was taken with a Widelux F-V: a 35mm panoramic camera. Portra 800.

The extreme distortion at the edges is due to my mis-loading the film, an effect that I've since decided I like, and I keep reproducing. I'd really like to print this one on glass... perhaps after I've finished all of my other prints? Hmm.

2012-01-16 Comfortable

Today was the first meeting of the Philly Photobloggers of 2012. A full day of eating, hiking, exploring the old Durham Mill, and finally retiring to Kathleen's gracious hosting of dinner - with a warm fire waiting.

And this is that scene.

2011-12-05 Meta Workroom

Spent quite a lot of yesterday printing bigger than I've done before - getting up to the maximum sizes I can manage with my vacuum frame and light box. This is a 10x15 print on a half-sheet of Herschel, a wonderful handmade siderotype-friendly paper from Ruscombe Mill. It's far and away my favorite kallitype paper, and this palladium-toned kallitype shows it well. To get this kind of black density on other papers I have to use multiple coats and/or multiple hits.

I had expected to crop a shot of this and post just the print, but I decided I really liked the meta-print - the environment around the print in my dim room.

2011-11-20 Nesting

Walked outside today while my wife and son were raking leaves, and found this seemingly-happy bird nesting in one pile... good thing it left before I started shredding them!

In casein-land, I've got a pile of plastic on its way for backlights. When they get here, I expect to have at least one print to post (it's sitting on my window now waiting for a backlight). Progress made on one other print this weekend, but I ran out of time while dealing with other photo processing obligations. Ah well, there's always next weekend...

2011-11-05 Puddle Jumper

Fall fun on the baseball diamond!

Shot with an Olympus E-P3 and a Canon 135mm f/2.0L.

Tried printing some casein/glass today - the casein's old, many of my (digital, inkjet) negatives are ruined from the flooding in September. But I think I now know what too-old-casein prints and looks like!

2011-10-17 Fall Flowers

The farther we get in to fall, the more I dread the shortening days. I pine for spring again. Occasionally I see something like this that makes me think of spring, keeping fall my second-favorite season.

Printing update: I'm not sure why, but I haven't been motivated to pick up the casein-glass prints recently. I've been printing kallitypes over the last week, playing with Fabriano Artistico and multi-hit processing. So far, I can say that Herschel is a much, much nicer paper - but Fabriano Artistico works as well as Stonehenge.

2011-10-13 Joe

Originally shot on Delta 3200 in a Diacord G; developed in Microphen. This is a palladium-toned kallitype. I'm reasonably happy that it came out (yay, my chemistry survived the flooding) but not so thrilled with the density; this is my first kallitype on Fabriano Artistico HP 300 and I'm not sure if the paper or my technique lead to this thinner-than-usual print. I'm hoping to preshrink some FabArt and try a double-hit kallitype on it.

Regardless: as you might gather from the title, this is Joe of Abacus: a Chinese restaurant in Lansdale, PA. I think it's the best Chinese food available in the greater Philadelphia area. I've been eating at his establishment since about 1986. Joe reports they're in the middle of selling the business, and it clearly pains him greatly. If I understood rightly, he's getting ready to move back to China to take care of his father.

Joe reminds me of my great uncle, who was also named Joe: they share a terrible sense of humor and are of the same temperament.

2011-10-12 Occupation #1

I took a trip this evening to visit Occupy Philly. I had wondered why #OWS and its likes weren't getting more media attention. After being there in person, I think it's probably because of the lack of single focus in these demonstrations. They're not sensationalistic or violent and they refuse to be categorized as being against any one thing. If the media were going to do a piece on this, it would have to be longer than your average news blurb. I saw signs against everything you can imagine - with people mostly socializing, eating dinner, and otherwise figuring out how to live from tents outside City Hall.

I wish all of the people that have the time, energy and courage to be part of these events all the best. I hope they stick to their figurative guns and keep running this show until it becomes worthy of its own half hour of mainstream journalism.

2011-10-11 Travelers

YES YES YES it's FILM!

Shot with my Diacord G, Acros 100, DD-X.

And after replacing a dead hot water heater (probably a casualty of the flooding), I'm just about ready to re-open my dim room! It seems like forever since it was dry enough to use, and the humidity is finally down to 55%. I'm planning on some kallitypes in the next couple of days. Here's hoping things to according to plan...

2011-10-02 Steampunk Jake

Jake, plotting his overthrow of the steampunk world. MwaHAhahaha