Another Darkroom Day.

Rock forms up on the big ledge near the climbers cave on the West face. This is a great place to spend the night or be on very early in the morning to get the shadow as the sun rises. I've been trapped in the cave when it turned into a waterfall in a big storm once. In the morning you have smooth shadowed light to work details around this area after the peak-on-the-plains display is over.


East Dike. Just above one of the most-used drinking and hang-out spots. Gotta watch your car when you are not in it. Indians stole my stuff while I was in sight once here. They saw me, and I watched them, just couldn't do anything about it and refused to shoot. I got their plate number but the Navajo police don't care about tourist crime.


Afternoon view over the East dike with a storm moving past.

Another day in the darkroom printing out photo paper before the water gets too hot. It's running 82. Feels warm in the air conditioned lab. Ran the hot side with the water heater off to take advantage of the tank of cool water.

Usually go: developer, stop, fix and hold in running water until I re-fix everything, tone and THEN wash. With these baby 11X14 prints I was able to set up the whole line: dev/stop/fix/fix/hypoclear/tone/wash. Made it a little shorter process time. Plenty of sink room.

Opened a 10 pack of Agfa Insignia #4 left over from last year. It was too fogged to use. Good plan to finish off the paper.

Picked and chose from old negatives. These are all Shiprock images that didn't make the cut for a nice show. Easy to print. Dramatic. Enough never-printed negs to make a whole extra show. Found a moonrise over Shiprock I didn't remember. Wish I had another 20 sheets of 20X24. Tempted to order from B&H but I'm right up against the end.

Setting up lights and copying wet prints on the drying screens using an old Nikon 105mm and my D300. Easy. I have been copying proofs. Using medium-high ISO and small file size. In person, they are very sharp.

In the darkroom.

Omega E


Framed Crow in Hand.


Lake road at GreenBriar Lake, just out of the fixer.

Sorting stuff to ebay and organizing.

Giving up on my little processor and chem I used to use for commercial jobs- a little Royalprint set-up.

Looking to hook up the big Zone VI 20X24 washer next to the bathroom in the back. Might make washing a little easier. Has to be waist high but on a king/hell stand. That thing weighs a ton when you get it full of water.

Just noticed that I have one big picture window up front that faces North. I never display anything in the windows because of the late Western Sun, but I could put a little something up on the North if I set it up right.

Sorting and stacking. Paper doesn't survive a year's worth of summer heat so I am trying to wrap up printing in the next couple of weeks. Can't print with tap water over 80 anyway.

Making some gorgeous prints. I love digital and you can certainly FIX things with electronic retouching, but there is nothing like the crystaline depths of a well-made silver print. I've made a serious effort to only photograph in light that totally supports the subject. Negs are generally easy to print and very dramatic.

While finishing up the Greenbriar stuff I am hitting a few other negs. Lower Yosemite Falls in a snowstorm. Yosemite Valley in the rain. More tomorrow. I made an extra print of the moonrise over some folks house out at Greenbriar. They know me. Going to offer them a print. They would be fools not to take it.

Got someone agonizing over a Crow/hand print right now via email. That print cures 137 different physical and mental aliments common to humans. They should jump but you never know.