Ik ben bezig met het afdrukken van deze serie zwart-witfoto’s en eindelijk gaat nu goed. De afdrukken op Canson Infinity Baryta Photographique II (bedenk eens zo’n naam voor een papiersoort) zien er erg mooi uit.
Nu wil ik de resultaten van dit werk delen, dus moet ik een goede foto van de afdruk maken. Dat is niet zo eenvoudig als het lijkt. Ondanks de glans van het papier reflecteert de afdruk licht, waardoor er donkere vlekken op de foto ontstaan. Niet zo mooi.
I am massively enjoying making these prints of my black-and-white Polder project. I also like printing in the darkroom but never got to do it.
Before the black-and-white project, I have always photographed in color for no other reason than to limit my options. For more than ten years, I shot with little direction. Consequently, my work is all over the place. I have always liked this, and still do. I do not like to put any boundaries on my work a priori, but at the same time, I wanted to create a more consistent piece of work.
Looking for a more intentional, focused project, I began to analyze the pictures from the past decade and stumbled on my polder landscape pictures. I like a couple of them, but I found for a larger work, the dominating green color became problematic. So, I tried to convert a couple to black-and-white, and I liked the result. So I crawled through my archive and surfaced about 200 acceptable images, which I further edited down to some 40 pictures.
When converting to black and white, you find that some pictures do not work in black and white. B&W needs more rest. Where color may divide a picture into spaces, after converting it into black and white, the result may be a headache of grey tones and forms.
Color pictures, I think, have a closer relation to reality, opening a broader palette to distort that reality and create an interesting image. On the other hand, Black and white pictures can have a more poetic, sometimes dreamy effect. Black and white pictures, I think, need more space and benefit more from careful design-like composition (though I am not a fan of the word composition in photography). That is probably also why snapshot-type pictures work best in color.
Anyway, I searched for some nice papers (a rabbit hole in itself), and a friend advised me to use Canson Baryta Photographique II or RAG Photograpique Matte. Never mind the name. The first is a fine art luster-type paper, and the second is a high-grade matte paper. I started with the Baryta and liked it so much I have not even tried the RAG/Matte. By the way, I am printing on an Epson p600, a good entry-level pro photo printer with good ink.
Here are some results. Needless to say, taking (iPhone) pictures of photo prints does not serve them as it should.
I (re)started making picture movies from my photo projects. I publish them on my YouTube channel. It’s a kind of slide show, but I’m trying to make a bit more of it and augment pictures with some video I made during the photo shoots.
I started this before with low success but now decided to take this more systematically. Nobody seems to exhibit his photography products like this, at least not so systematically. The first new set I created during the Scotland trip. Created a separate playlist for this trip.
This weekend, I created a video using pictures I took during a business trip to New York City and upstate New York.
And I have a large backlog of similar trips. Having fun with this.
Subscribe to the channel if you like it with this buttonhere.
Kronkeling has the most fun blog about photography.
Kronkeling has a hard time photographing on vacation. I don’t share this struggle. I always takes pictures. Sometimes it’s for the image, the beautiful picture, sometimes for the subject, so just the snapshot. I decide the goals afterward, but then I am different from Kronkeling.
Tips for your holiday pictures from Kronkeling are here.
Sometimes, there are miniseries, like when our car broke down, and we had to wait until a mechanic came to help us. I photographed all the trash in the parking lot.
There, the locals walk with mosquito nets covering their faces. We soon notice the reason: very small mosquitoes—fortunately not much trouble. We make a small journey along the coast over not very well-trodden paths.
To Torrin pools. Here, a river flows from the steep slope into Loch Slapin. The walk along the cascades of fast-flowing water is very pleasant. Some try to bathe in the small pools below the falls. The icy water almost hurts from shrinkage.
Back to Broadford. Walked to the pier. There is not much more to see than breathtaking views and fishermen—enough to do it for.
In the bar, Gabbro, we have a beer. Make plans for tomorrow.
Yesterday made two videos of the images I took at gigs of punk bands, in July and September. I hope the videos make you feel the energy released at these concerts.
Urgent Kill, Dying for it, Tomar Control @ Manifesto, Hoorn:
The website that photographer Elsa Dorfman (famous for her large scale Polaroid portraits) created is still such a lovely piece of work. I love Elsa’s writings. Some parts are thrilling. Like the NoHairDay project No Hair Day. Other parts are so casual about her acquaintance with famous people. Like Ginsberg and Dylan.
