Old and new by available light

Each year Photo Opp holds a themed exhibition with a juried show and four featured artists. This year the theme is ALT., and they picked me! My submissions have not been selected for the juried show before. For the last two years, I submitted three pieces from the stereo solargraphic project, which didn't fit the themes very well. I'm included this time because pinhole is considered an alternate method, but I wanted to take it a bit further alt and show pinhole stereocards with my seven handmade stereo viewers. They don't take up much room, so I can put lots out. I even went so far as to edit some of the early stuff from the Stereo Populist.

About the time the invitation came there was a conversation on the Negative Influence podcast lamenting how much of photography was on electronic screens. People used to sit and look at albums of prints.  Hmmm.  That sounds like books. I had experience with print-on-demand projects as soon as it was available in 2003. Then an operating system upgrade killed my educator discount license to pre-subscription Adobe Creative Cloud, so making books became a tedious exercise without a specific page layout program. Recently I found Scribus, an open-source program that's probably equivalent to a late-90s version of PageMaker, which is quite a capable tool. Exhibiting a pile of books seemed like an alt process. I even redid the earlier ones with hard covers and premium inks.

Sharp-eyed regular readers may have noticed in the last post and in the first photograph above that the blue striped chairs have been reupholstered. one day when Sarah dropped in about something else. They had a roll of very lush fabric they just happened to have left over. They put her in touch with their upholsterer. He even came and picked them up. It's really neat working with local craftspeople like this.

Just another sunbeam with the chairs in the background.

In a similar vein, I had learned the benefits of big fat frets and a straight neck from the renovation of my black solid-body Ventura guitar. The reason my hollowbody sunburst Ventura was hard to play was that it had very flat frets. Luthier Matt Hayes told me that, in the '60s, when this guitar was made, jazz players with a light right hand liked them so they could lower the action. I do not have a light right hand.

The pickups were chrome-covered humbuckers similar to the ones we replaced on the other Ventura, with the chrome worn off the bottom end. I suppose that looked pretty punk, but I didn't like it. After removing them, the cutouts in the body matched dog-eared P-90 pickups like those that would be on a very similar Epiphone Casino, popularized by the Beatles. Modern Seymour Duncan versions went into them. (Irrelevant note: The theme for the Fox Valley Photo Group this month is Bridges.)

The Fender Mini-Twin Tone was an impulse purchase at the counter at Heid Music, with the idea of marching in the streets leading protest songs. I installed strap buttons on it. Surprisingly beefy for a 1-watt amp with twin 3-inch speakers running off a 9-Volt battery. Haven't gotten up the nerve to take it down to Opera Square.

Some of this was driven by the most common feedback I got from my experience at the University open mics last year: "Could you turn your guitar down?" and "Do you ever play acoustic guitar?" Maybe the hollow body and the little amp would help with that? The Provost who organized these events got the job as Chancellor at my Alma Mater, Eau Claire, and no one has taken up the mantle. To stay motivated, I'm trying to work up a YouTube character or, leveraging my history degree, an educational performance: "Vietnam War protest singer covers the Little Red Songbook in the post-Ramones era."

After delivering the artwork to Photo Opp, we made an impulse decision to circumnavigate Lake Winnebago to visit Heritage Orchards and Polly's Pumpkin Patch. They include a diverse selection of pumpkins.

A very knobby green? blue? example.

Pale yellow.

Extremely warty.

They also have a petting zoo. Let's just say these animals are conditioned to expect a reward when someone approaches the fence.

While I adjusted the tripod and pointed the camera, there was a continuous discussion with the little horse as to whether the camera was food.

My favorite Manfrotto tripod suffered a fatal break of a leg extension and had to be demoted to iPad support duty (see above). I didn't like any of the combinations of features in the current Manfrotto offerings and had been admiring the SmallRig CT200 4-Section Lateral Center Column Aluminum Tripod/Monopod for a while. It was on the porch when we got home. This is obviously a life-changing experience. I have plans to do an extensive review, but just let me point out that extensible center column.

Getting close to things for pinhole photographs with very wide-angle cameras usually requires leaning the tripod onto the edge of a table or the piano keyboard, often involving easily disturbed arrangements. It's lots easier to set this thing on the floor and extend that arm toward the subject. It's a little tipsy at full extension, but my camera only weighs 90 grams.

That goes double for getting directly over a subject. That used to involve laying the tripod across a couple of chair backs (or pumpkins, see above).

It, of course, came with some accessories. An adapter for a very large camera, a cell phone holder – amusingly for such a heavy tripod (2kg, almost as much as your digital camera) – and a hex wrench, different from the one for all the other tripods. The very nice case has become a receptacle for all the tripod cases I also don't use.

An additional gift was a little bag in case you need to carry around a few pinhole cameras. Displayed here on Leigh Bardugo's conclusion of the Ninth House trilogy, which came in the same delivery.

It's kind of a tall tripod, but with that center column out like that, the legs become very easy to adjust to lower angles, and the arm makes it easy to get over things even on the ground.

We have had a good yield of hot peppers, which go through color transitions as they ripen. Initially, a desaturated green.

Orange transitioning to red.

Fully outfitted appropriate to their capsaicin content. Note the lower-angled tripod leg.

One of them fell off the vine (probably aided by a critter who later realized their mistake), so I used it to provide a little contrast to the last green tomatoes.

Morton has two .23mm pinholes, on the axis and 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film is a 220 format roll of Kodak Pro 400 MC, expired in 2001, developed in a C41 kit I mixed in March, now finally at its rated capacity, but it looks fine.

Photo Opp Loot Deep Dive

In a number of occurrences at Photo Opp, John Adams and I have had conversations concerning tripods. One was about a very sad event involving a headless set of legs from a vintage mid-century travel tripod John had found in contributions to Photo Opp, and an eBay prize I had acquired of a similar model, from which I had broken a leg section. The two could be married for one useful device. In a very humbling episode, I disassembled the two and then inserted the 3/8 inch screw from the legs into the 1/4 inch camera mount hole of the head instead of its base, and made sure I tightened it firmly, thereby completely ruining both parts when the jammed screw broke trying to undo it.

About a year later, John encountered a very nice example of one of these shiny devices at an estate sale and thought of me. When he gave it to me, I assured him it would be featured on Pinholica.

It's beautiful, but like its unfortunate predecessor, it's quite delicate. Designed to hold a lightweight folding camera for one exposure at a family gathering, I have been afraid to subject it to the rough and tumble of pinhole photography. 

I did, however, immediately think its glistening three-axis mount would make a really cool subject for close-up stereo photographs.

I will present them here as pairs set up for cross-eyed viewing, which is easy to learn. They are also displayed as red/blue anaglyphs, which require an appropriate pair of 3D glasses. Incidentally, I used Photoshop to make these anaglyphs since Anaglyph Workshop doesn't have enough sideways adjustment for these extreme close-ups. At this link is a PDF file with stereocards set up for a classic Holmes stereo viewer, which are also appropriate for parallel viewing (if you can make a picture out of those Magic 3D pictures, you can probably view these without the scope).

Despite the non-existence of extreme wide-angle in lensed stereo photography, I chose the 90-degree angle-of-view Badgersette to do cha-cha stereo, where one camera is moved between left and right exposures. The Unseen Library project was done with a regular stereo camera with a similar angle of view, and I have successfully done very close-up stereo with a 67-degree camera. The half-again-wider device should be fine.

The front of the joint from about 50mm away with a 10mm baseline between images.

From the other side. Look at how different these two images are. Can you believe your brain does this all the time without trying?

It seemed appropriate to show it with another object chosen for it's beauty, the Beauty Super II rangefinder from Photo Opp's rummage sale, also still innocent of film since I got it. Still pretty close up for stereo. The sideways adjustment on the quick release adaptor on the K&F tripod only travels 20mm, so I had to revert to using a ruler to keep the camera parallel while it was moved 30mm between exposures.

The maximum height of the new tripod is only 1.2 meters. I also have a tripod that extends to two meters, acquired at that same rummage sale, but it's only held a camera for two or three photographs. Using a stick to keep the camera parallel during the move and the ruler to get back to the normal 60mm baseline.

Another acquisition from the sale was a light stand and umbrella, which I also haven't made any use of photographically, but makes a great subject for stereo photography. This time sliding the tripod along a broom handle, also at a baseline of 60mm.

Expired film from the 20th century picked up from my association with Photo Opp has gotten well used. A five-roll pack of 220 format Kodak Pro 400 MC and the specially adapted Morton to use it in, with a roll of Ilford XP2 depicted on the iPad behind them. Back to sliding just the quick-release adaptor to its maximum 20mm.

The Badgersette has two hand-drilled .23mm pinholes on the axis and 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film was Kentmere 400, semi-stand developed in Rodinal 1:100. The tripod with the sliding quick-release adaptor is from K&F Concepts.

Augustine rambling

In the past, I mostly used ISO 100 film, mainly because at ISO 400, I was afraid of sunny-day exposures faster than my poor human hands could manage, leading to overwhelmingly dense negatives. After choosing the faster films in workshops to allow interiors and gloomy-day exposures, I've become less concerned, and kind of seduced by the shorter exposures. My use of semi-stand development, which suppresses overexposed highlights, probably has something to do with it. I recently read a blog post that claimed you could measure with any ISO you wanted with semi-stand development and get a usable negative. 

I found a roll of Kentmere 100 in a bag, left over from those days of slower film, which wasn't getting any younger. It went into the Diversity 30, which had some adjustments made after its last outing that need checking. Summer sunshine was a reliable bet with the slow film.

The camera sat on the tripod under the kitchen table for a while. After our new dishwasher was installed, I turned it in that direction and made an exposure. Yes, I know if you hang a towel on the dishwasher handle, it will drag on the floor every time the door is opened.

Modern standards for city water include storing a large supply above the level of any flood possibility. Oshkosh's century-old "clear wells" are underground, right next to and lower than Lake Winnebago. A new project has begun to construct new ones safely above ground. Sure would rather have that than a triumphal arch or a ballroom,

When everyone else got their new sidewalk done, ours was temporarily paved with asphalt since the maybe-it-has-some-lead-in-it water line to the house, which still needed replacement, was too near it and would have to be torn up again. They didn't tear it up to do the pipe, but left a large divot in it. One year after they removed the street, we might be seeing an end to it.

Illustrated here are two reasons why I haven't done a blog post in a month. The recent translation of the Odyssey, which I've discovered I only knew from a young adult adaptation, and one of a new series of books by some guy on the internet who's in an IRL gallery show in a couple of months.

How about a little new architecture in Oshkosh? The Mill on Main, a "distinguished residential community gracefully positioned along the Fox River," includes this white arbor on a concrete pad with nowhere to plant anything to grow on it.

A corner of the renovated Miles Kimball building.

The entrance to the new downtown hospital with its height clearly marked in case someone drives a particularly tall vehicle onto the sidewalk.

After decades of looking like a ruin, the east side of the 600 block of North Main Street is now filled with The Corridor, an apartment complex whose website includes an FAQ page headlined "The key to understanding affordable housing." It includes a similar arbor as the posh development on the Fox, but at least there's somewhere to plant something to grow on it on one side.

After an excavator crew removed the asphalt, swinging the machine within inches of the magnolia and driving over its roots, one lone, very precise workman came and built the forms. After another near-miss with an excavator for the gravel layer, a large crew arrived and poured the walk, finally respecting our request to stay away from the tree.

Cherry tomatoes and purple basil from the garden.

The resulting caprese salad.

A few days later, they came and filled in and seeded the edges and the holes impressed into the lawn by the excavator and cement truck. Is this finally the end?

The Diversity 30 has two .23mm hand-drilled pinholes, on the axis and 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film is Kentmere 100 semistand developed in Rodinal at 1:100.

Manic Expression Writ Large

Every time I get something out of the freezer, a box of 220 format film with four rolls left, is facing me. I loaded specially light-proofed Morton again without any plan. The camera sat for several days. I went to the Farmer's Market early, and on my way home, determined to pick up the camera and go back. Once begun, it turned into a sort of episode of Manic Expression, but with generously sized negatives.

The eggs from Heim Farms are a variety of colors in each dozen, so it's always a treat to get one out of the refrigerator. Some are almost as blue as their booth.

 

A few years ago, a young man from Pickett Farms recognized me, from having seen me go past his fields during my pandemic fit of bicycling, and freely conversed about the vegetables. Some weeks, though, it seemed he didn't know me. It was months before I saw the twins together.

The regular busking accordionist told me he was from Munich. He was the subject of one of my favorite long exposure transformations from an early classic episode of manic expression.

A violinist saving for a trip to Costa Rica. I've been trying to utilize the camera on a lowered tripod, which is really handy in a crowded environment like the Farmers' Market.

All politics is local. Selling low-cost brats with mustard and sauer kraut in front of the precinct maps at the Democratic Party.

A solo shredder playing a fingertap riff. 

One of the Art in the Alley Festivals was occurring behind Main Street. I had seen this young woman with noticeable makeup and dress earlier before I had gone back with the camera. She agreed to be photographed and asked how to pose. I said to be just as she was. "I'll just go back to my journal then."

The band in the morning performed what sounded like very political, very rapid rap.

A couple selling Socially Suspicious t-shirts. It's cropped off, but I'm pretty sure that's the slogan. Google equates the phrase to paranoia, but, grudgingly, several bullet points down, admits it could refer to the less judgemental social or neurodivergence. Is it just me, or do those electrical meters read 5555 vertically?

Another expressively dressed artist. We talked about my attempt to photograph people more often. She invited me to photograph at her music venue in Whitewater. "There's lots of interesting people there."

This potter and I discussed the speed the wheel should be rotating for the long exposure, but it really doesn't matter since it's all radially symmetric and except for his hands, it could be still.

I was aware of their presence at previous Art in the Alley events, but I didn't know that Punk Rock Saves Lives was a charity promoting blood marrow donations. I'm not sure it was with dismay or relief when I read the agreement that said I was two decades too old for the program. Another conversation about where to look. I was recently in a book discussion about Richard Avedon's interaction with subjects, standing next to a view camera. I realized I was doing the same thing. They gave me a sticker, and I gave them my card. She teaches in the biology department at the University and had heard about my involvement with supporting ed tech there. (More likely someone complaining about budget cuts since then.) 

The only other person within two decades of my age. He started painting in 2007 and just got hooked.

An opportunity and encouragement for everyone to make art. We agreed I was already doing that.

After lunch, I visited the Peaceful Patriots weekly event, this time held in Hiker's Park, a more bucolic background than Opera Square, but maybe more traffic. Former colleague Al Lareau expressed the week's theme of voting rights.

This activist has appeared with her peace sign in some of my posts concerning the protest events of the last year. She got it when she was ten years old. I never noticed until I was spotting dust on this photograph that it has clock hands.

The show continued into the afternoon in the Art Alley. The second band was just two pieces, with a transportable-looking pedal board and a cool retro guitar.

The sound guys, with only six of their sixteen channels in use. The bands sounded good. My dream is to play with something like this where they just turned up the vocal mic instead of asking me to turn my guitar down.

There was some boppin' in the crowd.

I ran out of steam with four frames left. 

This month for the Fox Valley Photography Group, Giles La Rock 3D-printed bodycaps for their digital camera for anyone who signed up, and I drilled the appropriate pinholes. 

The plan for the meeting was to all go out and take pictures with the bodycaps. I had decided ahead of time I was going to handhold the Nikon D750 no matter what the exposure.

I'm always attracted to the sunbeams streaming through the library windows. I set the film camera up in my shadow in one of those beams and tried to photograph it with the digital camera on my knee while the exposure occurred.

I made five digital pictures during the two-minute exposure.  This is the closest I got.

Back to film. The lift bridge over the lock channel is just outside the door. The camera could go in the shadow of the street lamp to get the backlit structure without the setting sun overwhelming the scene.

A classic vintage automobile in front of a historic building at sundown is always worthy of a frame of film.

The angle of view of the D750 with the body cap is 41 degrees compared to the film camera's 90. The Mustang from almost across the street with the DSLR. I learned the best way to compose was to hold it up to my face like I was using the viewfinder, although I couldn't see anything through it. The narrow angle was hard to get used to.

A sunset landscape attempt with the Nikon.

Digitally recorded stairs down to the parking lot

These outside pictures were handheld for half a second at ISO 6400. Unlike my practice with film, it took five or so frames to capture what I wanted. I'm thinking of taping some sighting triangles to the Nikon to see if that works the way it does on my other cameras.

One frame of film left. Bobbi Hague, Giles La Rock, Mike Vanevenhoven and me, the Fox Valley Photography Group Pinhole Collective. A kind of painterly Dutch Renaissance portrait, but woefully underexposed and digitally manipulated. I just wanted to be transparent about that. 

The body caps for the others are in the mail. Looking forward to seeing what's done with them next month.

Morton has hand-drilled .23mm pinholes, on the axis and 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film is Kodak Pro 400 MC, expired in November 2000, developed in a Cinestill Powder C-41 kit.

The Nikon D750 Bodycap has a .27mm hand-drilled pinhole 46mm from a 24x36mm sensor.