"Annual" Northern Michigan Gathering 2007

smieglitz

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I have a question for y'all. At the shindig in June it was obvious many were using thiocarbamide toning to get a subtle sepia effect on their prints. I found that curious since so many of the images I thought would lend themselves to even cold or neutral tones.

I've never used the stuff on silver gelatin but I realized it is thiourea by another name and that's a chemical I use in Clerc's Gold Toner when doing VDBs or salt prints. In those processes, I like the purplish color the toner produces.

I'm wondering if anyone using this stuff has either experimented with Clerc's on silver gel, or just how purple the non-gold thiocarbamide toner can get on silver gelatin papers (using what is it, a small amount of thiocarbamide relative to the sodium hydroxide component)? Can someone post some image examples of extreme toning where the thiocarbamide prints have gone purplish? Or is that just wishful thinking on my part?

Joe

p.s., Bill et.al, I appreciate the continuing reports on the UP wildfire. I'm thinking of heading that way a couple weekends from now (if they can put it out). It should be a very eeirie landscape for several years as the Jack Pines reclaim it.
 
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bill schwab

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smieglitz said:
It should be a very eeirie landscape for several years as the Jack Pines reclaim it.
Click to expand...
Hey Joe!

I'm heading up there to have a look at whatever I can see later this week and will report back. I too have been imagining an interesting landscape to make use of. I do hear that they are getting it under control today which is very good news.

Bill


PS. Let me know when you come up as I will be around much of the next couple of months.
 

jp80874

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Bill,

That sounds pretty interesting. When did you say you were going to have the Fall Quarterly Northern Michigan Gathering?

By the way the Ansel Adams exhibit at the Cleveland Institute of Art closes August 19, if you or any of the others in the group feel like traveling to Cleveland. The “Icons of American Photography” exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art, across the street, continues to Sept. 16th. The Akron Museum of Art has just opened after its renovation with a new photography wing filled with very contemporary work. Always a bed at the Powers' house for members of NMAG group.

John Powers
 

jamie young

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I'm curious to hear what the landscape looks like as well. It's a different thing, but the prairie burns done around here rejuvinate really fast (in the spring) and don't look like much after a few days. The thin poor soil in the up might be a lot different.
Best, Jamie
 

Gim

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Bill and anybody, keep us posted on the burn. I plan on going to Pictured Rock later in Sep. and will certainly check out the burn area. It should be interesting to see how it heals.
Best,
Jim
 

Dan Henderson

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Hey Bill, be careful snooping around up there. They might give you a shovel and make a fire line builder out of you!

As far as Jamie's comment, I recall in my early years fighting small grass fires in the spring, then going back a week or so later to see the grass sprouting the most vivid, beautiful green. They used to say the fire liberated nitrogen into the soil which caused the growth. And, it has been known for years that fire is a natural and needed phenomenon in the ecosystem. When allowed to burn on a regular basis it cleans out the undergrowth and plant debris that litters the forest floor. But when we continually fight the fires (usually to protect man made encroachments) all that stuff builds up and results in more destructive fires. I'll get off my soapbox now before someone sets it on fire!
 

Lopaka

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After major fires raked through Yellowstone a few years back, National Geographic went in and did a piece a year or two later showing the re-emergence of life in the burned out area. Most interesting. The burned landscape will certainly be much different than the forest that burned. Given the very shallow topsoil and short growing season, it will likely take a couple of centuries to reach climax forest again.

Bob
 

smieglitz

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About a decade ago I went to the Keeweenaw partway via the southern US 2 route. Somewhere just outside of Manistique along the shore was an old burned forest. All crunchy white lichen and charred trees on old dunes. Really a creepy cool landscape.

I returned a couple years later to photograph it and it was gone. Green Jack Pines saturating the area...

Either that or I got lost, but I don't think so.
 
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bill schwab

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Hey All,

Just got back in from a tour of the fire area and it was pretty interesting. Watched big National Guard helicopters filling the big bucket bladders in the marshes and taking off toward the smoke. Apparently they are only 20% contained at this point. The winds were blowing pretty stiff and new spots had sprung up on the east side of 123, but only in small pockets. Lots of signs of support for the firefighters on people's lawns. I was able to travel the newly opened 123 and found they had pretty much contained it to the west and it was now traveling north. From the looks of the smoke on the horizon, it is a BIG one. Along 123 (pictured) you can see how they held the line at the road. One side black and charred, the other green. From what I could see, few trees had been destroyed and it looked as if it was a rapidly spreading ground fire. All brush, grass and bush gone, but trees still intact and green at the top. I'm guessing it will recover very fast as others have said. Check out the stitched pano below or click HERE for a large version. Scroll all the way to the right to see how the fire was held at the road.

Bill
 
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bill schwab

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Short fire update. Was up touring the fire area the other day and the black, charred areas I saw a little more than a month ago had already started healing. There was a nice, lush green cast of brand new growth starting. By next year it will be hard to tell there was a fire... at least in the areas I traveled.

Amazing..
 
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