Missing Light

4:45 in the mountains of Western PA.  Sun is setting casting beautiful long shadows showing promise of a nice little getaway to make a few pictures.  As soon as I hop in the car to find some trees to shoot, a storm blows in and ruins it all...  I found myself on a snowmobile trail, carrying my backpack of gear in the flat, grey, and dull light that I was left with.

Well I had told myself to make a photo so I did.  Mostly to try a new method of processing 4x5 myself, because the cost of doing so with the lab is too high...  It turned out well - the scene was pretty flat light-wise.  The processing test was pretty successful - almost as successful as my experience with 120 and 35mm.

Also - I am working with a new UV printer that I built for Platinum/Palladium and Van Dyke Brown prints.  That's all at my studio - so I will have to update more on that when I am there later this week.  The Van Dykes are pretty good - a little faded (I think 2 coats of sensitizer will do the trick), but after printing custom negatives I am pretty excited about being able to produce these for the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

Heres' the flat-light tree:

Ilford Delta 100 @ 100.  around 1/30 sec.  Ilfosol 3 1+9 for 6 mins.

Van Dyke Brown Print

Van Dyke Brown Print #1.
©Jason Snyder 2012

A scan of the first successful Van Dyke Brown Print I have done to date.  Hand printed on generic watercolor paper.

The negatives were not very contrasty in the first place, but I think that the could have been exposed a bit longer that the 23 minutes that I gave them.  Additionally, I did not have the Potassium Dichromate on hand for a contrasting agent - this likely would have helped.

Awaiting my Pictorico transparency film later this week so that I can try my hand at hand printing from larger digital negatives.  More to come.

Van Dyke Brown Prints

I recently have begun work on some Van Dyke Brown printing techniques.  For those of you who are unaware of what contact printing is all about, here is a little description.  Basically what a contact print is, is a print the size of the negative that is made by placing the negative on a sensitized paper (or other substrate), and exposed to the very thing that the sensitizer is - well - sensitive to -for a period of time yielding exposure on the substrate that reflects the density of the negative.  Van Dyke Brown printing is so named due to the deep, rich brown tone that the print yields (similar to Van Dyke's - brown...).  The sensitizer is made from readily available chemicals - Ferric Ammonium Citrate, Tartaric Acid, and Silver Nitrate.   The process was discovered (or was begun to be practiced) in the mid 1800's by a man by the name of Sir John Herschel, an English astronomer.  Is is a derivative of the argentotype, the first iron and silver process.

So basically I am making prints using negatives from 6x6 120 film and 4x5 black and white film to make prints of the negative image.  Also, in the digital, hybrid age, I can, as many do and have before me, print digital negatives (inkjet) and print contacts from there.  This allows ultimate control over the final result with the ability to make allowances for the contrast needed to achieve the final result that we look for.  It also allows for size control.

Why?  Why do this you may ask?  The final result - a UV exposed print with full control (including the ability to tone with noble metals - palladium, copper, gold) the print can yield stunning detail and incredible individuality - just the way that the original experience of making the photograph was to me.

Here is an example of a positive and negative to be used in future prints (with, for those of you who care, some details on how the process is carried out):

New Mexico Highway.
Positive version.

New Mexico Highway.
Digital Negative - ready to be printed and used for Van Dyke Brown print.

314 Pasta and Prime

Opening night at 314 Pasta and Prime in Oakmont, PA.

Tree Burning

Christmas Tree burning
Verona, PA.
January 13th, 2012

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Textures

I used a Hasselblad 1000f along with a cobbled together/reused/salvaged Kodak enlarging lens from a box in my basement to make this picture.  TriX 400 and D76 for those of you who care.  Recently have been enamored with the relationship between nature and humans.  Not in a 'we are destroying our environment' kind of way -- just really paying more attention and curious.

Instant film solarization

Extra work = more satisfaction

Every once in awhile I work for my local newspaper as a stringer.  Sometimes I get asked to shoot feature photos on people and events.  This is a scan of a photo I made while covering a story on a local boy named Robert Vaerewyck who rebuilt a pedestrian bridge along a busy street in West Deer, PA.  Here is a link to the story that they ran:  http://pittsburghlive.com/x/valleynewsdispatch/s_764560.html  It doesn't look like they even ran the digital photo that I took.  I don't think I remember the digital file so much, and I can't even really find it right now, but I can guarantee you that I am more fond of this version that any digital photo. I sometimes will bring other cameras along and shoot some for myself - this came from a roll that I shot in October 2011, but didn't process until recently:

Robert Vaerewyck.
Shot on Kodak TriX and processed in D76.

One more:

from the Verde Restaurant shoot - Velvia 4x5 + Pacemaker Speed Graphic.

Also, I am beginning work on a gallery project with the 4x5.  The theme is humans and environment - the notion that our presence and the very way in which we lead our lives, whether intended or not, leaves subtle impacts on our surroundings.

OK...  a couple more:

All of a sudden, I saw them standing on this rock in the middle of the stream, and I couldn't resist.  It's like they are on some small island or something.

it's that time of year

trees.  Allegheny National Cemetery.  Pgh, PA.

birds

Verde Restaurant

     I am thrilled to have been able to photograph Pittsburgh's newest Mexican restaurant - Verde - for architect Andrew Moss and restaurant owner Jeff Catalina.  I have worked with Andrew in the past, and am always looking forward to what new work he has done for me to shoot.  It was kind of killing two birds with one stone, as I came back a second day to shoot food for the restaurant's website and marketing.

tequila wall.

Verde Restaurant.

fish.

Chef LBEE.  Pacemaker Speed Graphic 4x5.  Fuji FP-3000B Film.  Scanned negative.