Brought by the current.

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"Dawn at Dusk" 

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

Lots of work recently so I am waiting for the next weekend already to photograph the river. Meanwhile, Dawn and I took a break yesterday and did a walk along it where I snap this portrait of her.

Now, the reason why I share it is because it is really, really rare that she lets me point the camera at her, so when I do (or "am allowed to do") and I get a really good result, I like to share it.

Anyway, the river is getting really low despite the rains. I saw few kayakers the other day getting stock on it on how low it was, so few places I thought I have to reach by canoe, I am actually gonna "walk over the waters" (ha!) to get to them, as we were able to see yesterday. Pictures coming soon.

Ode to the Passing of Time

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Life

Your life was a beautiful life

Your life did transformed mine

and that is true.

And life as it comes it goes.

"Piluso's Song" by Fito Paez

Dedicated to Mercedes.

PS_Sometimes 15 years can be a lot, sometimes can be a little.

Give me light and I will tell you a story.

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"Untitled ( Tendick's Park Portafolio)"

Positive from a paper negative. Agfa Multicontrast Classic Paper.

Size_ 4 X 5 inches. Scanned and digitalized.

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

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"Untitled ( Tendick's Park Portafolio)"

Positive from a paper negative. Agfa Multicontrast Classic Paper.

Size_ 4 X 5 inches. Scanned and digitalized.

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

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"Untitled ( Tendick's Park Portafolio)"

Positive from a paper negative. Agfa Multicontrast Classic Paper.

Size_ 4 X 5 inches. Scanned and digitalized.

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

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"Untitled ( Tendick's Park Portafolio)"

Positive from a paper negative. Agfa Multicontrast Classic Paper.

Size_ 4 X 5 inches. Scanned and digitalized.

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

As you may know (and will notice) trees suck a lot of light, and in the case of paper negatives that somehow becomes an issue because of the contrast and its difficulty to achieve detail in dark areas. Also, the way paper captures certain colors more than others, as it is the case of blue, most likely you always will end with a plain sky, and that is one of the many reasons why I do not see this process being used by me on the future for some of the landscape projects I do have in mind. 

Without getting deep into, I share these samples of my "paper negative portfolio" which I dedicated to landscapes. As I mentioned before, despite that several things can be achieved through this process with really good results, I do not see myself photographing the Milwaukee River and its mills, project I have on my table, using this process but I will for sure use the pinhole because of the exposure times. Still, it has been nice to work this and be able to see how it works. I will be still be practicing and testing this and will share more samples along the way.

Getting there.

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"Countryside Fables: The Jackalope & The Hunter"

Positive from a paper negative. Agfa Multicontrast Classic paper.

Exposed 2' at f231. Developed 1' on diluted Kodak Dektol.

Afternoon. Cloudy but bright. Size_ 4 X 5 inches. Scanned and digitalized.

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012 

This was finally a good week. I was lucky to had some time here and there to do some pics, and the weather has been doing great lately. Still learning but seeing progress. I have told myself that by the end of the month I have to have a portfolio of 10-15 different pictures with which I have to be COMPLETELY satisfied technically (and aesthetically) speaking in order to move forward to do film negatives.

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"Jackalope's backstage"

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

So far the "exercises" have shown different things about paper negatives: how certain colors behave, how light and indirect light really helps or drive you nuts, etc, etc :). So far, I came to realize that when it comes to paper negatives, I really do prefer to use them for still life pictures instead of landscapes as I share some of the examples here, mostly because I have a little more of control over the final image.

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"Countryside Flavors"

Positive from a paper negative. Agfa Multicontrast Classic paper.

Exposed 2'30 at f231. Developed 1.15 on diluted Kodak Dektol.

Afternoon. Cloudy but bright. Size_ 4 X 5 inches. Scanned and digitalized.

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

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"Flavors backstage"

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

Still more to do but as the title of this post, I am getting there.

Live and Learn (Learn and Live)

Finally I got the right batteries for the light-meter, so yesterday before going to work I was able to run this quick "test" that gave me more confidence in terms of the exposure times managing with paper negatives.

I do not want to bore you with formulas, calculations and more, but I will share here 3 samples and like an Argentinian musician said once "who can be certain only knows to be wrong" (Gustavo Cordera). After using 3 different types of paper for negatives, I arrived to totally different results, but I proved that the light meter works fine ( a secondary picture was taken using a basic guide which indicated an exposure of 45").

I still have more testing to do, but hopefully soon I will be getting the hand of it. Looking at the results I am debating myself on what I really want to use this process, since there is a considerable lost of detail due to the contrast and the way the paper captures light compared to a normal film negative, which it can play on favor or against, specially when it comes to what I have on mind and the landscape photography. But will see, still trying and there is a road to go yet.

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ILFORD TEST

Positive from a paper negative. Ilford Multigrade RC IV.

Exposed 53" at f231. Developed 1' on diluted Kodak Dektol.

8.00 AM. Size_ 4 X 5 inches. Scanned and digitalized.

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

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AGFA TEST

Positive from a paper negative. Agfa Multicontrast Classic paper.

Exposed 53" at f231. Had to move the camera forward a feet (long story)

Developed 1' on diluted Kodak Dektol.

8.05 AM. Size_ 4 X 5 inches. Scanned and digitalized.

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

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KODAK TEST

Positive from a paper negative. Kodak Professional Polyfiber.

(paper donated to me with "dubious" storage conditions)

Exposed 53" at f231. Developed 1' on diluted Kodak Dektol.

8.10 AM. Size_ 4 X 5 inches. Scanned and digitalized.

Contrast, curves and levels had to be adjusted.

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

Light & Finger Painting

More experiments burning some really expired Polaroid film sheets (2004).

I was going to include the original paper prints but I thought more interesting the chemistry effect created over the negatives themselves. The pictures below are of my "super new bike" which I rescued from the abandonment at a flea market and the other one is of one of my favorite places here, the Port Washington lighthouse from 1860, which  I had painted a while ago.

Pinhole Camera, f231/ 12 seconds. 70 grados F.

Polaroid Film Type 72 B & W Polapan 400

Expired (really expired, 2004) , 4 x 5 inches

Natural light © Flavio Martín Morante_2012

Polaroid negative converted to positive.

Chemicals moved and removed by finger 

(using gloves, otherwise there wouldn´t be more fingers)

Adjusted levels, curves and contrast on Photoshop.

Pinhole Camera, f231/ 4 seconds. 70 grados F.

Polaroid Film Type 72 B & W Polapan 400

Expired (really expired, 2004) , 4 x 5 inches

Natural light © Flavio Martín Morante_2012

Polaroid negative converted to positive.

Chemicals moved and removed by finger 

(using gloves, otherwise there wouldn´t be more fingers)

Adjusted levels, curves and contrast on Photoshop.

Keep Walking (First Week)

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"First Week" © Flavio Martín Morante_2012

There is some of the work from this week after some failed and successful attempts. The bad weather finally gave a break and I was able to do some work :). It has been a painful learning curve but I think things are going well. Still a lot to try and a lot to error, but just gotta keep walking.

Below are some fresh samples of what I have done this week. These are some of the ones I did like which were made here around the house. I want to get this whole process really learned, before I adventure myself out there. Still a lot more of work to do but still sharing some of the progress of this first week into "Talbot's domains".

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"Untitled" (The House Arena)

Positive from a paper negative. Ilford Multigrade RC IV.

Exposed 3'15" at f231. Developed 1' on diluted Kodak Dektol.

Size_ 4 X 5 inches. Scanned and digitalized.

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

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"Free Stone"

Positive from a paper negative. Ilford Multigrade RC IV.

Exposed 2'45" at f231. Developed 1' on diluted Kodak Dektol.

Size_ 4 X 5 inches. Scanned and digitalized.

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

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"American Gothic" (A Salute to Grant Wood)

Positive from a paper negative. Ilford Multigrade RC IV.

Exposed 2'30" at f231. Developed 1' on diluted Kodak Dektol.

Size_ 4 X 5 inches. Scanned and digitalized.

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

There is always a first time.

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"First Paper Negative" © Flavio Martín Morante_2012

What can be seen above is my first paper negative fresh out of the darkroom. After several months studying by myself about W. H. F Talbot and calotype, pinhole photography and mathematics, etc, etc, I was able today to produce this first paper negative which the mix of feelings that it did generated its production I can only compare it to my first time printing a picture back on 1999. All the magic, the wonder, the excitement that photography gives me, came back, yes it did came back after some years trying to find the "perfect medium to oneself". This is just a starting point, I still have a lot to work out technically speaking in order to be able to use this whole technique/process for a few projects I have in mind, but, you gotta start somewhere.

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"One, Two, Three, Four, Five..." © Flavio Martín Morante_2012

To take this picture (see at the end of this post) took me almost an hour, with four attempts and four different timings and measuring, but after the right light meter reading and the correct math formula, I got it with an exposure of 5' 30". Pinhole photography is a whole new world to me, since its the first time I photograph without a lens, so to go back almost 500 years (on the pinhole) and 160 years (on the calotype) does not come easy, but I like complicated things :)

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© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

So, the image above is what I stood in front today for a nice long while trying to make sure that every reading and calculation was right before making the picture. And below is the result, which is a digitalized positive of the paper negative. I am hoping to create many negatives and perfect the exposures times before jumping into making prints from them. Still, the scanned and inverted sample gives a nice idea of what it would look like, despite that the actual resulting print would be able to do better justice to the tones and contrasts of the final image.

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"My First Calotype (Negative)" © Flavio Martín Morante_2012

Paper negative. Ilford Multigrade RC IV.

Exposed 5'30" at f231. 

Developed 1'30" on Kodak Dektol.

Size_ 4 X 5 inches.

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"My First Calotype (Positive)" © Flavio Martín Morante_2012

Scanned and digitalized paper negative.

More images coming soon.