Other Artists at Work.

Not everyone works in two dimensional art.

Shiprock, West Face.

These are all digital files I shot while waiting on the light to change.  Pretty illuminating to look at them later on computer, bump up the contrast, spot out the birdlime, fuss around with the cropping.

None of them for exhibition, but for the work of it all.  I'll have a better eye puzzling out this wall next trip.

Part of a Shiprock series I shot one morning after sleeping up on a West face ledge.  Under a waterfall the night before.  Safe and dry and glad to be there.  Big lightning storm on the outside and howling rain.  Not a moment of discomfort, though the wind took my hat first thing before I got to cover.  As per usual at Shiprock, I expected a poltergeist to show, though none did.  That evening.

Canyon de Chelly.  Wall stripe sampling while Katie and I took the halfday tour.

Famous old spot I wanted to look at again.

Very complex and engrossing place.

Canyon de Chelly, Arizona.

Katie and I drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in 2010.  It wasn't really a working trip, just more like a trip to show her some of the country.  I took along my 5X7 but didn't unpack it much.  At Canyon de Chelly we stayed in the Thunderbird Lodge, ate at the cafeteria and took a truck tour.  One of the last afternoons at White House overlook I watched the last vendors pack up below and headed off  down the switchbacks with my camera pack.  I spent an hour and a half photographing back and forth in front of White House Ruin, all alone.  The North West wall was going into shadow and the illumination was pretty nice.

A little cropping off the bottom edge helped this a lot.  Needs a little top and sides to be a little freer.  This and a couple other places along the wall would yield to the 8X10, though the underfoot- solid cactus, makes finding a good spot a little tricky.

White House ruin.  450 telephoto.

Wall stripes I have photographed for years.  This is the wide angle view.  Have to perch on a really tilty boulder and do some pretty fancy tripod work to get to this viewpoint.

Great opportunity for a Katie trip.  You can hire jeep tour folks to take you wherever you want to go and wait.  About three days of that ought to get me good and tired of wall stripes in Canyon de Chelly and Muerto.  Choice of a couple of nice hotels.

O'Sullivan

T.H. O'Sullivan and the West.

Dark Cloth Rebuild.

Giving up on a barn at Marblehead during the National Matches at Camp Perry with Katie.

With it over my shoulder as a child in New Mexico on a Spring Break Trip in the late 70s with Ken Sigman.

After a barn roof in Clarksville early this Spring while doe-tagging with Dr. Sneed.

 Way back, in a previous century, long ago when I was a child at college at Sam Houston State in Huntsville, the photo/graphic department was moving a linotype machine out of a space that had been blacked out by a thick black curtain.  The linotype and the curtain looked like they had been there for years.  The curtain was torn down and headed for the trash.  I stepped in and began to rip it into darkcloths for anyone who wanted one.  I'm sure I passed out eight or ten big rectangles of thick, dusty black material.  Nancy and Vickie were handy with sewing machines and hemmed and lined them for several of us.  I had mine backed with white.  I even had an owl feather sewn in.  That was about 1974.

  I've used it exclusively all these years.  Wrapped up in it at Shiprock, packed it around Yosemite, in New Mexico at Canyon De Chelly.  Chris Johnson and I used it for cover at 8900 feet and 49 degree weather when we got stranded overnight going for the Diving Board at Yosemite.  I've taken naps on it, used it as a pillow, but mostly it's lived a career with my Deardorff, in and out of an old used case I bought in Houston or in the camera backpack.  Once in New Mexico my Deardorff survived a Gitzo tripod faceplant down a long slope because it was swaddled in the darkcloth. 

Climber's Cave, Shiprock, this year.

After the Black Giant, Shiprock, this year.

Lake Erie, 2011.

Last year or so it's really gotten rough around the edges.  Even has a hole or two through the middle.  It doesn't have an easy life.  Katie has a little Philipino woman who is a wonder with a sewing machine so today I turned it over to her to repair and rebuild.  Adding a black layer, re-hemming the edge.  I've got a perfect Calumet darkcloth thats never seen a negative made, but I prefer the old one.  Hope it comes through in an incarnation that I like.  It's certainly been a reliable companion.

Update:  30 bucks.  And boy did she do a great job!  Now off to Shiprock in the morning.

Stars with cams.

Too good to pass up!

1971 Hasselblad

When I was just in junior college, with no clue what I might want to do or how to do it, I bumped into photography. A friend of mine from a year ahead said I would love journalism. I did, but when I took a little photo class from Charles Sowders over in the Pirtle Technology center I was hooked. ust have been the spring of 1971. Sometime that fall my parents sprang for a new Hasselblad 500C with a normal lens and one back. I think I still have it, though I've owned a couple so this might just be a close relative. 41 years of square format. Hard to imagine.
Never gets used these days. I keep film around. The polaroid back still has some pack film in it. Extra backs and lenses. Every now and then I shop around on Ebay though there is no reason to add anything to the Domke bag it lives in. Guess I should get rid of it. Shooting film these days I want to use bigger film so it's all 5X7. Sure had a lot of fun and made some money with my sweet little 500CM.

Something you don't see everyday. Video of Shiprock.

Usually photographers keep this kind of thing

a little secret. Tour of some of my favorite places at Shiprock while I am photographing. Let's see how long it takes before I see another photo of The Dot.

Darkroom days.

Working before the water temp gets out of range. Had to turn on the air conditioning today to keep it fresh. April 1st.

Printing new negatives and trying to dip back into the files to pick up oldies now and then. They all are headed for different projects.

No problem negatives. If I catch myself doing too much it means I am overdoing it. They are easy prints.

A little Hasselblad negative of Ali when she was 11 or so.

The Dot on the SouthWest side of Shiprock.

The Isbells pistol range in the roadside near the lake. Probably 1990.

Wall stripes below the White House overlook at Canyon de Chelly, 2010.

County Road at night, 1998.

Rose field last month near Tyler.

County Road and water stain, 2008. Near the lake.

Box Turtle and candle. For the Blackfork Bestiary.

East Dike snaking in from a nice piece of light at Shiprock last month.

The Blackfork Book of Magic. Probably 1996.

Shiprock Shadow and the Pulpit, last month.

Rock Cairn, Climber's Cave at Shiprock last month.

All nice big prints on 20X24 Ilford Multigrade Warmtone.

Spring Fleaquinox

Jupiter and Venus are in the West at dusk with Marz in the East. Blooms have come and gone. About a week ago I killed the first flea of the year off the cat. Fleacombing. Haven't seen one since November, 11. Last year was so dry and hot that the fleas and ticks took a real beating, though I had to quit taking Lucy on deercam runs by June because of deerticks. I hardly notice them since I usually wear rubber boots but she would come back with 10 or more climbing around her little Jack Russellness.
Fleacomb keeps the cat relatively flea-free, though I can tell when she's been outside near a hatch. You'll kill ten, then three, then one, then none for a while, then she will hit another hatch. I would never presume that I get them all but I certainly know the hot spots on a cat and can make them scarce.
Anyway, let the flea games begin!

After the icehouse shadow again.

But might have to wait until next year.

The sun has gone North. Looks like January is the best time.

Workshop at the Museum in two days! March 24th.

40 bucks to hear everything I know, plus a little bit more. Tyler Museum or Art: 903 595 5715.