Portals

KenS

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Bigwindow3 .jpg


This is one of the images from my 'Portal' series as non-silver prints that I presented in my final senior studio course for my part-time BFA (finished in 2013.. at the ripe old age of 73). Some nearby wooden 100+ year-old farm buildings that became my subjects of interest while still in use.... but not quite near the end of their lifespan. Their well weathered exteriors, having lost their paint (if they ever had any)... have become somewhat deteriorated.. but many of these buildings still contain the old discarded and unused objects that never made it to the dump when no longer of use. I photographed the doors and windows that allow 'physical' access... and natural light. Films used were FP4 and Tmax100 processed in Pyrocat-HD in BTZS tubes. Camera was Linhof monorail with 240mm Rodenstock Sironar.
 
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Looks very nice Ken even at this small size, I like the graphical lines and textures

Regards
Martin
 
I could pull up the 'original' scan but it IS pretty large. I could forward to your e-mail the TIFF file (1+ Gb) that I had to downsize in order to meet the requirements for posting... :cool:.

I'm really VERY new to digitizing negatives. Its my first 'go' at digitizing negs ... since I just got my Epson scanner up and running a couple of days ago, so you can understand that I'm REALLY lacking any digital expertise... but... I wanted to see 'what it would 'do'....but I guess I could resize and forward to you 'off forum'.

[It is a good job I didn't do it on my 8x10 'woodie' with the 480 Apo-Ronar... :cool:]

Ken
 
OldDoorKknobBW.jpg

This is another image from within my "Portals" series. I became somewhat intrigued after making photographs of the windows and the door and decided that a close-up of the doorknob and the obvious texture on the 100+ year-old weathered wood on the south side of the 100+ year-old bunkhouse was well worth the extra sheet of FP4 with my old Linhof monorail and 240mm Sironar. Developed in Pyrocat-HD in BTZS tubes... since my 'primary' decision was for a contact size VDB print.

Ken
 
Thank you Keith.
I 'almost' always carry a Kodak grey card with me when 'out' in the field. It has a rectangle cut out of the center in the 4x5/8x10 ratio that I use for 'framing'... or... 'seeing the crop' of what might think might make a good photograph. I have a 'string' with knots that allowed me to 'see the framing (from the same 'position') with my 75mm, 150mm and 240mm lenses with the 'knot' against my chin... thus allowing me the ability to move back and forth or side to side to find the 'right spot' from where I might best set up the camera. It saves a LOT of time and effort since my somewhat heavy wooden tripod supporting my either of my large format cameras is usually a real PITA to move small distances... but made so much 'easier' when I drop-place my hat over the spot where the card was held... then go and get the camera and set the lens as close to 'above the 'spot' as possible. It 'IS' easier using the monorail.... rather than the 'drop-bed' of the B&J... to be within but a few inches of the 'final' cropping distance with the chosen F/L lens. More 'accurate' than the casual 'two hands held out with thumbs extended for a framing area that 'some' (thanks to cinema) seem to believe is the way of the "professionals".

Ken
 
Ken, I started out with a viewing frame made out of baling wire all those years ago, now I have one made out of a wire coat hanger with a cheap piece of cloth metric tape measure fixed to it - see, I've gone high tec :). Worth its weight in gold and as you say, it saves an awful lot of to'ing and fro'ing with the camera and tripod and it makes it a doddle choose the right lens, in my case it's a choice of 90, 150 or 210mm.
 
Keith,

When the needs must... the Devil drives ... or so the 'They' used to say... :cool:

I have however, just got to find me a bowler hat... [(preferably one that has seen only 'light use').. no pun intended] and line the inside with some black velvet for use as a manual 'shutter' for my 480mm Rodenstock Apo-Ronar... which is currently mounted into a 'thin' plywood lens-board for use on my well-experienced Burke and James 8x10. That was the way I started making exposures on my mentor's 8x10 back in Glasgow in the early '50's There's no way I want to 'have' to spend so much of my meager 'retirement pennies' on a shutter and have it mounted into a Linhof lens-board... but I may just 'have to'. I have the somewhat 'rare' extension rail that provides me with around 650mm between the film plane and the lens-board when the extension rail is screwed on. I might even be forced into leaving my Tilley hat at home and wear the bowler when I take the camera out.

However.... 'She Who Must Be Obeyed' has indicated that she will "NOT accompany me 'into the field'... " Since she'd be more than embarrassed to be seen in the company of an old , long-and grey- haired bearded guy wearing a black bowler hat. (How do you spell 'freedom') :cool:

Ken
 
However.... 'She Who Must Be Obeyed' has indicated that she will "NOT accompany me 'into the field'... " Since she'd be more than embarrassed to be seen in the company of an old , long-and grey- haired bearded guy wearing a black bowler hat. (How do you spell 'freedom') :cool:

Ken

:):):)
 
LockedDoor.jpg

One more 100+ year old farm building. I think someone had been 'inside' not that long before I happened by to make this photograph. They 'remembered' to put the padlock back in place but not the way it had been... the white 'paint' has been 'sandblasted' off the planking over the years by the westerly "Chinook winds" coming over the Rockies. Looks like someone has taken a shotgun to the building sometime in the past ... these are NOT worm holes

HP4, 240mm Sironar on Linhof, D76 1:1 (in BTZS tubes)

Ken
 
Don't think so..... the only 'worms' we usually see around here are considerably 'longer'... and 'fatter'... two to four feet long.... have sharp fangs and 'forked' tongues... and a funny 'rattle' at their rear end. They are 'hunters. Not quite as 'quiet, do not feel quite as 'slippery' and...are as not quite as 'beneficial'...(other than swallowing vermin 'whole'), as the the worms so common in the UK....

Ken
 
The old/dirty and now rarely-used weather-beaten farm shed... with its accumulation of discarded 'junk'. Most of this farmer's land was expropriated for a new housing development a couple of years ago.. but he managed to 'hold on' to about 5 well-treed acres that will soon be surrounded by 'townies'... a new golf course... and lots of vehicular 'traffic.

4windows.jpg
 
Homebuilt.jpg

The 16 inch-wide door (portal) on the old 'home-built' farm-house garbage incinerator ... where the garbage that cannot be composted is best burned. One more print from my ongoing 'portals' project. 240mm Sironar on my Linhof monorail. T-Max100 in Pyrocat-HD. I had to set-up for this photograph a few times... on different days... and managed to 'hold-off' until the sun (at just the right angle) provided some 'side-lighting shadows' to increase both the contrast range.. and visual 'depth'. The wait was, I think, worth both the time.... and the effort.

Ken
 
Both very nice images Ken, the side lighting gives the required effect
 
Nice images Ken and I especially like the texture in the second picture thanks to the lighting.
 
Having "had" to record (over so many years) that which was considered to be 'important', I now believe I should thank my mentor who 'drilled into me' the importance of looking carefully at the subject. If that which you 'think' you observe does not (as he put it) 'tickle your fancy', walk away... but be willing come back for a 'second look' from a slightly different direction.

I was somewhat 'intrigued' by the incinerator on first seeing it... but felt somewhat dubious about it becoming worth while until about an hour later when the cloud cover had cleared.... but was not quite convinced that it 'might be an interesting 'composition' until a third visit about 'another' half-hour later... when the sun was providing a 'better' three-dimensional view with a greater visual 'depth'... thanks to the shadows provided by the 'cross-lighting".

When going 'out' with my mentor (those many years ago) with only ONE glass-plate holder 'loaded' for the whole afternoon, it put some 'severe restrictions' or... the discipline of one's decision-making process'.. is 'this' the one exposure that is really going to be worth the 'effort'.

I have (a few times since) given some thought of re-doing this 'composition' with my 8x10" just for the H**l of it' once I get my 480mm Apo-Ronar properly mounted in a decent lensboard.

Ken
 
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NinePanes.jpg
I had to 'duck-down' to prevent... or at least decrease... the possibility of my reflection being recorded in the dirty glass and 'disturbing/interrupting' the reflection of the fence behind me. The 55 kph Chinook wind made working under the dark-cloth both uncomfortable and 'awkward'. I had to try and grab the tripod legs to add some 'mass' to reduce vibration... while trying to 'operate' the shutter release. This is THE one time it would have been more than 'beneficial' to have an assistant. I think that cross-wind helped create some slight 'vibration'. So... I'm going to go back and try for the 'one more' next year.

Ken
 
Uni'sPatio.jpg

As Part of my 'Portals' series for my 'studies', I included some non-silver print images of both the 'contemporary' and 'old' portals that provide similar access of both light and the 'physical' to the interior of the buildings.

This is of the patio on the southern exposure of the Fine Arts building at the local University of Lethbridge.... a somewhat stark concrete and glass structure designed by Arthur Erickson and opened in 1971, It sits 'low' on the upper bank of the Grand River coulee that somewhat 'splits' the city. It is the 'home' of the longest unimpeded 'hall-way' in any North American Continent at around 400 yards.

Ken
 
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