Welcome to this installment of my experiments in film photography, using vintage cameras. Today I'm sharing highlights from a roll of 35mm Lomography LomoChrome Metropolis I shot during the summer months with a Minolta Maxxum 50. The film has a very desaturated look, with muted colors. From my experience and from reading about it, I'd say it's best suited for urban/architectural subjects. I really like the way it captured this tunnel on the Montour Trail near Pittsburgh. I've photographed it before and love the chill tones of this version. I also tried it on one of my other oft-photographed ..read more

 Welcome to installment 92 of experiments in wet cyanotype. Today's excitement comes from my discovery of a patch of tall blue lettuce, Lactuca biennis. It's a native wild plant here in Pennsylvania, and as the name suggests, it's a biennial. In its second year it sends up a 6-10 foot tall flower stalk, with leaves descending in size as they rise, topped of with a set of small blue flowers. It has a history of being used medicinally, and is just plain cool to observe. I started with a print on a long panel of cotton sateen, using the standard cyanotype chemicals with just a touch of Solar ..read more

  It's time for more film soup goodness! This batch of photos is from a roll of Fuji film 200 in my Minolta Maxxum 50 camera, souped with lime juice, dried, and specially processed. (See my previous post for more details on how the process works.) Again with this roll, the effects are subtle-to-mid, enhancing but not substantially changing the imagery. It's a happy space for me. The Greer tunnel on the Montour trail is turning into a perennial favorite subject. The addition of the metal panels done during an extensive renovation just takes everything to the next level, in p ..read more

Time for another round of wet cyanotype goodness! I started with a large panel of cotton sateen and some peony leaves. Followed by a medium sized panel of cotton, with small woven details, and some fig leaves. Next up, some mineral paper prints using Virginia creeper leaves. And then some more peony leaves, also on mineral paper. For all of these I used a splash of Solarfast mixed with the cyanotype chemicals. Here they are after exposure but before rinsing. I love the effect provided by the woven circle details in this cloth. They are so pretty and interesting at this stage. Mo ..read more

I am celebrating the summer solstice once again in my favorite fashion, by unveiling a new set of pinhole camera images.  I make the pinhole cameras, such as they are, using a beer can and some black and white photo paper, with a single pinhole to admit light. I mounted these out in various locales around my place on the winter solstice in 2023, and have been letting them slowly expose until now. Each stripe in the sky represents the path of the sun on a particular day. Today I took them down and scanned the photos. I then inverted them to a negative image and did just a light bit of ..read more

More wet cyanotype goodness, this time with an assortment of oak leaves on mineral paper. I also made some prints using pokeweed leaves, Phytolacca americana, on mineral paper. I printed a large panel on cotton sateen using oak leaves, black locust leaves, and some of the ubiquitous Japanese knotweed. All of these were quick opportunistic arrangements, using leaves readily at hand. I used cyanotype solution with just a glug of Solarfast solar dye.   Here are the prints after exposure but before rinsing.  I can already tell at this stage that they are going to b ..read more

In my ongoing efforts to look at the world through an alternative lens, I've discovered film souping, and it's tremendous fun to play around with. Basically, after shooting a roll of 35mm film, you "soup" it by soaking it for several hours in a solution of water and an additional substance, generally common household stuff. You then allow it to dry out, thoroughly, and get it developed. You can't just send it off to a regular developer, as it will contaminate their chemicals, you need someone who specializes in film soup. I used Film Lab 135 and am very happy with the service and with all th ..read more

Another summer, another deep dive into the never-ending adventure of wet cyanotype printing!  I'm not the least bit tired or bored of doing it, and I doubt I will ever be. For me it's just the right blend of mastering a technique but with an element of unpredictability. For this batch I started with mineral paper and small leaves gathered around the garden. There's Chinese wild ginger, some ferns, and elm leaves. I'm using Jacquard cyanotype chemicals, with just a soupcon of Solarfast solar dye. The papers were covered with glass and left to bake and develop in the bright sun on a wa ..read more

I love making imagery, especially when it has the power to skew and alter the perception of reality. It's one of the reasons I enjoy working with cyanotype and wet cyanotype-- I can produce images that have a basis in actual objects, like leaves, but are altered by the process enough to invoke further study and contemplation. So it seems inevitable that I am jumping on the trend of experimenting with film photography. Although to be accurate, for me this is not so much trend jumping as it is a blast from the past that is enabled by the current easier accessibility of film and developing s ..read more

 I'm so excited! Two of my artquilts have just been picked up and are on their way to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, as part of the Art in Embassies Program. They were chosen, with the assistance of a curator, by incoming Ambassador Ann Marie Yastishock. I am grateful to the Ambassador for her selection of my work. I hope they bring her and her guests much pleasure as they hang on the walls of the Embassy. Selected were On the Verge:  On the Verge Materials: artist-painted and commercial silk and cotton fabric Techniques: wet process cyanotype/solar dye, patchwork, stitchi ..read more