Last week I had the honor of photographing my friend’s newborn baby girl.  I had a lot of fun and learned so much!  I’m excited that in a couple of weeks I’ll be photographing another brand new baby girl.  I am liking this new turn my life has taken and so happy to be around babies again .  I’m contemplating setting up a separate photography site and maybe turning this into an after retirement career.  Humm?  Sounds scary and fun!

This week I finished off another roll of B/W film (Illford Delta Pro 400) in my Rolleiflex TLR.   I had fun shooting using some new filters I got last week at a camera show.  The birdhouse in the tree of my front yard was a good subject for trying out the yellow filter.  I got several good negatives that I scanned at a high resolution which I then printed on hot pressed watercolor paper.  The blue was tinted after printing where as the pink/yellow one was painted first and then printed.  I haven’t decided if I want to spray them with fixative or not yet.  Today was just a fun day to play for a few hours

Painted Birdhouses: mixed media

My focus has changed once again.  I have started the new semester at school and am now very busy with class assignments and projects.  This term I’m taking a Studio/Portrait class where I hope to become friends with my on & off camera flashes as well as their cousins: the studio lights and strobes…ah..so much to learn!  The other class is Color Photography where I’ll not only learn some color theory but how to calibrate my computer monitor for best color printing.  Also will be getting lots of lessons on Lightroom and Photoshop.  This photo is one of three required that I might turn in tomorrow for the perception of color assignment.  Pink.  Doesn’t it just scream pink but in a sort of subtle way?  I think so.  I just love my Epiphanie camera bag.  Can you tell?  hahaha  Comments and critique greatly appreciated!

SOOC

Scanned 'negative'

Photoshop scan

How did I get a negative????  The wonderful people at Freestyle Photo clued me in on how to get a negative from the film.  After taking the shot, waiting a couple minutes for it to develop I then peeled the print from the backing paper.  I let the paper/emulsion dry and then I taped  it emulsion side down on glass and sealed all edges.  Next I soaked a paper towel in chlorine bleach (Clorox) and wrung it out (wearing gloves) and laid it flat on the paperbacked  ’negative.’  I waited 10 to 15 minutes before carefully wiping the bleached soaked paper.  The black paper came up easily.  I let the whole thing dry and when I removed it from the glass I had a color negative from the Fuji print.  Next I scanned it and finally did some editing in PS.  Of course the negative isn’t high quality and I’m sure there are blemishes on the negative.  For artistic and creative purpose I think it may find it’s way into my bag of tricks.

I had been waiting to be inspired before cutting up my Dia de los Muertos fabric.  I waited a year.  Inspiration hit this week and I made this cute and quirky reversible apron.  PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE.  All seams are finished, two lined pockets on front and one on reverse, button closure at neckline, fabric is pre washed and  shrunk, hand sewn details like fabric yo-yo’s and buttons.  Fits small to medium frame.  Perfect for celebrating Mexican holidays!  To see all the photos check out my flicker set   Thanks for looking…..:)

We had the little boy over for a couple of days.  We had so much fun with his antics and playfulness.  He’s into dinosaurs right now so a trip to the San Bernardino County Museum was in order.  Although not much in the way of dinosaurs he had fun just running around.  And he was not very happy when we left!

These are taken with my Canon 60D DSLR and kit lens.  I love this camera and it’s ease of use.  My favorite is the articulating screen which I didn’t think I’d ever use but do so often.  I always shoot in RAW and edit with Lightroom 3 and sometimes Photoshop CS5.  These are edited with some free Lightroom presets which I am learning to use.  I am still very new to LR and still learning the software and photography.  But I call these shots a success!

Woke up to a beautiful sunny southern California Saturday with no real plans for the day.  So, we had our morning coffee and then headed out to Los Angeles for the day.  Our first stop was Freestyle Photo to pick up some supplies.  Last month I bought a Polaroid 220 Land Camera off ebay for $24, free shipping.  I’ve been wanting to test it out but film for it is not so easy to find.  Freestyle had the battery I needed and Fuji instant film.  This is the first photo from the film pack taken just outside the store on Sunset Blvd.  I can’t wait to plan a photo day with my ‘new’ vintage camera!

From there we headed to the Fashion Garment District where I had a shopping spree at Michael Levine Fabrics.  Oh, I’m going to make lots more aprons!  Our last stop was for drinks to help wind down our day.  Great fun today!

As a laid back tree hugger I really do try to re-use and recycle paper and plastic.  I find myself in a crunch when having to wrap a gift because I don’t buy wrapping paper.  Today was one of those days.  I went through our paper bin using tissue and newspaper for the wrapping, fashioning a rosette from newspaper to adorn a paint chip gift tag.  Pretty!

Yesterday I went to visit my friends at the college photo department.  The darkroom was busy with students enrolled in the winter session learning analog photography and printing.  I took my negatives from the roll of Kodak Ektar 100 that I shot in Albuquerque, NM last month.  The TA for the department is always so helpful and taught me how to scan my negatives using the high end scanners at the college.  I came home to play with the files and was quickly dismayed at how they looked…..a very ‘blue’ cast to the scans.  I tried to ‘fix’ it but was not happy with my results.  I then did a little searching/researching on the internet and found a Photoshop tutorial that explained why they looked like this and where to start my editing of the scans.  So much to learn!!! But I ended up happy with both of these photographs.  I hope you like them too.

In November 2011 my Rolleiflex 3.5 TLR and I found each other.  Since then my love for her has been slowly evolving.  After shooting my first roll of black and white film I knew that I had found a treasure in her.  In December I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico and I decided to put a roll of Kodak Ektar 100 color film in her.  A new love was born!  When my 28 year old son saw the prints come out of the processing envelope he was in awe of the color.  All color prints he has ever seen made from film negatives are now old and ‘vintage’.   “Mom, I’ve never seen ‘new’ pictures before, these are awesome!”  I think so too.

Albuquerque Plaza, New Mexico