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Bill Pierce

Bill Pierce

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Sep 26, 2007
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I wonder what everybody is doing during the pandemic when association with others or just being in a people rich environment is dangerous. It certainly eliminates a lot of photography and photography related activities. If you’re like me and others who live on the west coast of the United States, the obvious out, landscape photography, is equally off limits because of the heavy smoke. I was going to work on printing more portfolios, but somehow that fell by the wayside, and I seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time photographing my dog. He’s an old dog and spends a lot of time sleeping (and laying down when he’s awake); so, the shots are getting somewhat repetitive. Any suggestions for photographic activities during a pandemic are much appreciated. What are you doing?
 
I’m photographing family.

Do you have any grand children?

One of our grand children is a 4 1/2 year old boy and his friend Titus said to him the other day, “I don’t trust girls!” Titus has a 6 year old sister.
 
My house is across the street from a fairly photogenic stream, so since I haven't been doing much commercial work in my studio I have been getting out pretty often with my Contax RF, Zeiss lenses and 35 mm film. I tend to develop in batches of 4 rolls at a time and I have never been a "spray and pray" photographer so it takes a while to accumulate a batch of film but I have been enjoying being outside and not being constantly reminded of the current unpleasantness. Fortunately, in my area of upstate NY we haven't faced drought, forest fires or that much of the pandemic. I doubt that I have shot that many keepers (still working on using my DSLR as a scanner for 35 mm film) but it is a joy to shoot with film and a vintage camera.
 
Being mostly stuck at home with a lack of photographic opportunities pushed me experiment with trichromy, a 3-color separation process to create color images from black and white film. Here's an example, but there's more in this thread here on RFF.

Nikon FM2n, AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8S, Ultrafine eXtreme 400, developed in LegacyPro L110 at 1:31 for 5.5 minutes. Three individual black and white frames shot through Tiffen #25 Red, #58 Green, and #47 Blue filters, respectively, then combined using GIMP to create a trichrome color image.


2020.05.09 Roll #244-04734-positive-trichrome.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr
 
Being in a risky age group I prefer to avoid crowded places. And I have cancelled my trips.

In the lasr weeks I have been working on a couple of print on demand books, than to prepare portfolios for reviews when these will be possible again. And I work on a body of work about my surroundings, my street, my neighborhood, my town.

And I print, love printing...
 
"And I print, love printing" R.B.
I haven't been travelling. staying home. I have been biking & hiking & photographing mtns closer to home, as well as printing and mounting photos more. Here's one from last week before the smoke from the west coast and more local fires moved in and early in the morning way up the head of the valley.
A 16"x20" printed from a 35mm negative on Agfapan 25. Ilford Warmtone FB... just to see if it would hold up in a big print. Usually i'm using MF or LF and limit the print size from small negs... but this one works (& the lens was a '33 35mm f3.5 Elmar.)
50353909517_4bfa2c42c9_c.jpg

Flickr

the print is sharp, apologies...it's the shaky iPhone...
 
i wear a mask, practice social distancing, wash my hands a lot, and have been taking a lot of pictures since our lockdown was lifted. I primarily photograph people and everybody I've photographed the past few months is conscious of the risk involved, and takes the necessary precautions. So far, no problems.

Jim B.
 
I tinker with cameras, ‘experiment’ (code for messing about) with old lenses used on formats they were never intended for. Build cameras out of plywood, foam core, and odd bits in my project boxes of odd bits. No artistic talent but have always been fascinated by lenses and mechanical what nots so naturally gravitate toward old mechanical cameras.

Spend time on forums like this one, pretending to know what I’m talking about.
 
I went out for the first time to try a landscape (I figured that would be safe). The smoke had lifted and the sky was somewhat blue. By the time I arrived at my landscape spot the smoke was back. It is starting to upset me.
 
Tough call.
The obvious one for photography these days is to print and re-print in DR.
But with what is going on, I'm appreciating the weather and work from home. Running on fixie, walking with dog, taking pictures around and in the house.

How about sharing some stories?
 
Show me your dog and I'll show you mine.

I'm really just tryin' to keep my sanity long enough to get through this. Single malt whisky helps. Maybe.
 
I’ve been spending way too much time online... shopping. Most of the film I’ve used this year has been for camera testing, but I also started a project. I’ll do some printing when the weather cools off. Family portraits are in the works.
 
Even after vaccines become widely available it maybe well into next year for follow-on results to reach critical mass... maybe longer for seniors and high risk individuals. So we're talking another 9-12 months of dog photos... I need a medium term solution ; )

This week I searched for an interesting bell pepper and tried variations on № 30. The first problem was that the markets here tend to prefer well formed & identically shaped vegetables...
 
I'm fortunate to live on a couple acres, there's lots of "stuff", the trick is to make all the fallen branches and leaves look like something attractive. Also big granite outcrops have been fun. "It's easy to take pretty pictures of pretty things, try to make pretty pictures of ugly things" quote from an article in OP. So far I'm not very successful, but it's keeping me busy.
 
shimokita said:
Even after vaccines become widely available it maybe well into next year for follow-on results to reach critical mass... maybe longer for seniors and high risk individuals. So we're talking another 9-12 months of dog photos... I need a medium term solution ; )

This week I searched for an interesting bell pepper and tried variations on № 30. The first problem was that the markets here tend to prefer well formed & identically shaped vegetables...
Click to expand...

Adopt a cat ? Grow some flowers and do indoor still life.
Redecorate the house.
Woodworking.
Gardening.
Oil,watercolor, painting.
Polish the car, change oil, change transmission fluid, change brake brake fluid.
Learn to cook and or grill. Careful you will like the food better than anything and tend to get fat.


This is my list. Never run out of stuff.
 
If I can stay out of the hospital long enough I've been working on doing some major downsizing around here, including the camera collection. But every time I get started something gets in the way.


PF
 
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