Spring Portraits

The first portraits from the park are being edited now - I don't think we could have been graced with better weather!  Who would have thought that we would have such color before April even arrives?  Here are a couple to share:

Stay tuned for announcements about the next mini sessions in the park - otherwise, if you just can't wait, email or call today to schedule yours!  

4x5 City Scenes

Have begun two new projects, including a 4x5 city scene project (sounds kinda boring when I put it that way).  Enamored with the city in which we live - the deep history, the beauty of the modernization of a historically very industrial city that finds a way to retain it's gritty feel - I decided to set out on a project that documents these qualities.  The 4x5 camera is the tool, and black and white film.  They will all be diptychs such as this one, and the frames will be kept as part of a natural way to present the images:

© Jason Snyder 2012

Soon there will a section on my website for these and others.  Waiting for some 4x5 Tri-x 320 to arrive next week.  Also, been processing the 4x5 bw using the taco method at home - probably not the most technically sound way to do it, but it gets me the results that I need.  Diafine is a great developer that gives consistent results for scanning.

Great weather has arrived for the first of the portrait special days - look for results from today's sessions later this weekend.

Thanks for checking in!

Food

Blueberries.
© Jason Snyder 2012

Springtime is around the corner

(L) 'El Timieo' or 'Timmy' picking up red peppers from a dock in the Strip District.
©Jason Snyder 2012

Strip District.
© Jason Snyder 2012

Spring

© Jason Snyder 2012

Prints in Platinum and Palladium

Over the past several weeks I've been experimenting with my new (homemade) UV printer.  It is basically a bank of UV light in the form of blacklight bulbs encased in a wooden box with a hinged lid.  This is the first successful Palladium print that has come from it.  For those who may be unfamiliar, this is a contact printing process whereby a paper (or other substrate) is sensitized and then the negative is placed over it and exposed to UV light.  This exposure allows the negative to allow varying amounts of light through, yielding a final positive print.  In this case the sensitizing agent is Ferric Oxalate mixed with Palladium and Platinum and Palladium (actually Potassium Chloroplatinite and Sodium Chloropalladite).  The photograph is deceivingly good, in the sense that the range really is not as nice as it seems.  In person the print has character and the relationships between the highlights and shadows are representative of the original negative density, but overall it is a little bit darker than this photograph leads on.  It measure 8"x10" on 10"x12" Arches Platine paper.  I'd say that I am close to working on the print that I want to deliver to the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts - I told myself that I would finally get to do that; I have owed them something for a couple of months now!

So onward to fine tuning the recipe and digital negative printing.  More to come on this later as I go...

Signs of Spring

©2012 Jason Snyder

©2012 Jason Snyder

©2012 Jason Snyder