What are you all doing photographically while not "out and about"?

removed account4 · Mar 25, 2020

It seems that many people are probably marooned someplace for a little while trying to stay busy, sane and productive. Knowing that our photographic routines, studio practice, or whatever one wants to call it, might have changed abruptly ( or maybe not ) ... what sorts of things are you all doing to stay well photographically speaking?

•• Are you going through your inventory and taking stock in the cameras and lenses you mightn't use as often to donate or sell or segregate / put someplace safe?

•• Are you going through your darkroom and figuring out what paper and chemicals you might need to order for the immediate future?

•• Are you reading photo-books, photographic related literature, art history books. critical theory books and deciphering what your work for the last 2 weeks 2 years or 40 years has all been about ?

•• Are you learning a new skill by finally reading all the posts PE might have written about to better yourself in the darkroom, behind a camera, cooking up something, or learn how to use affinity or PS or "photo edit" or ?

•• Are you going to going to teach yourself how to do an alternative process, or something experimental that requires no darkroom ( like lumen printing ) or get a classic cyanotype kit from B+S or Artcraft or the Formulary or Freestyle or order "Sunprint Paper" from sun print.org or michaels art store and have it delivered so you don't have to mix or coat anything yourself?

•• Are going to photograph all your cookware, fruits and vegetables and cutlery or plants or floor, or furniture or light bulbs, spouse, kids, grandkids, pets, car, bike, scooter, cameras, lenses, or ?

or ?

Renato Tonelli · Mar 25, 2020

I am working from home and, since I don’t have to commute and am home for lunch, it gives me a couple of ‘found’ hours to work on my Darkroom. By early next week I should be finished setting up the enlarger(s). After that: a deep clean to get rid of all dust, label the trays and chemical tanks, etc.
I hope to be printing by Passover/Easter.

gordrob · Mar 25, 2020

I have been spending a lot of time in the darkroom printing a stack of negatives that have been sitting there for some time. I spent the better part of a day going through a lot of slides I have shot over the last 50 years and thinned them out. A lot of the slide ended up in the garbage. I have scanned a bunch of the better ones which takes time. I have selected some equipment that I will be selling. A nice Plaubel 4x5 that I will run a couple of sheets of film through to make sure the regular and wide angle bellows are tight and then pack it up in it's case and then test a Durst RCP 20.and get it ready to sell since I don't do RA 4 anymore. Right now I am going out to shovel the sidewalks and then it is off to the darkroom for the day.

peter k. · Mar 25, 2020

Well wife an I been doing more local walks, around the block, whatever,and found myself falling in love with the 35mm again. Smaller lighter and less bulk than RB67 or the 4x5.
Loaded up the second F2 with some stored slide film, which we haven't in years,.. as its been imprisoned in the freezer and needs to become free. Also finally decided on ordering some blix style developer to do the do with, and see if we fall in love with this positive aspect of film again.
One reason we have rarely shot 35mm is the necessity of shooting a whole roll at once, and needing to have all the same ASA, developing time and sequences for all the shots. Love sheet film for its more instant gratification. So were going to go the route of taking some shots and then cutting the roll at that point and develop just those, taping the leader back on again and finishing the rest of the roll at a later date. Learned how to do this when P30, B&W first came out, and was in a very limited supply, so as to experiment and test development time, and it worked out great.

Haahha /// got to go now, as my wife is giving me the look... its time for our walk..

Andrew O'Neill · Mar 25, 2020

When I'm not self isolating with my camera in the hills, or printing in the darkroom, I'm practicing the scales on my new McCallum chanter. Waiting for some freshly sensitised paper for the Kallitype process to dry. Got to make sure tissue as well for carbon printing.
Just been informed by my wife that we have to paint the entrance hallway. Ffffffff...

Billy Axeman · Mar 25, 2020

I finally decided to get a 3D-printer kit which I am going to assemble shortly, and to learn OpenSCAD for making the CAD models. The first prints I want to make are a grip for one of my cameras to improve the ergonomics, and also a film holder for a DSLR MF film copier I want to make. In the past I machined all parts for home-built projects, but with a 3D-printer it would be a quicker and cleaner process with also a possibility to make more complicated parts. This will keep me busy for some time, and I am looking forward to realise projects that were not possible before.

W_Taylor76 · Mar 25, 2020

I’m still getting “out and about” but to more remote and secluded areas I normally wouldn’t visit or have never visited. I am seeing and photographing new and different thing, which has been fun and creative.

Luckless · Mar 25, 2020

I have been looking at my backlog of undeveloped film, and considering developing it.

But that's about as far as I've managed to get still.

BMbikerider · Mar 25, 2020

The regulations in UK which take legal force tomorrow are, that apart from medical necessities and buying food the only reason we can go out is for a walk/run or a cycle ride under guise of exercise. We are only allowed to go out once per day, but there is no stipulation for how long. I have looked at the maps of the area around where I live and within a 3 mile radius it is cris-crossed with old footpaths and a number of old railway track-beds which were operation during the coal mining era. It will be a toss-up which camera I will use, but almost certainly it will be with B&W film either 120 or 35mm. There will be a lot less people about than usual so I should have the place to myself

If the weather is wet or otherwise unpleasant, I have masses of negatives that need putting in order, scanning and the thumbnails laying out in an A4 format to be printed as a reference sheet. All my slides, I have not counted how many can be put into order and scanned ready to be changed into images suitable for projection.

Oh yes, I can spend a lot of time paying 'catch up' because I have never had the time before.

Apart from that, I have two motorcycles that need a really deep clean and a certain amount of mechanical work to get them ready for when normality returns.

NedL · Mar 25, 2020

working more than usual ( and I normally work at home ). They closed all the parks where I usually hike after work ( alone, rarely see anyone -- but they are closed now ), so now I walk down the street we live on and look at the weeds and think about which ones I might print.

Lachlan Young · Mar 25, 2020

Variously: designing a light source, pin reg neg carrier and a few other parts for a modified bench mount De Vere 5108, more neg carriers for the MPP Micromatic (think Omega E-3/ E-4, but made for decades longer) & then probably some lith printing.

Andrew O'Neill said:
I'm practicing the scales on my new McCallum chanter

Bagpipes being practiced indoors are not generally conducive to peaceful social environments...

Andrew O'Neill · Mar 25, 2020

Lachlan Young said:
Variously: designing a light source, pin reg neg carrier and a few other parts for a modified bench mount De Vere 5108, more neg carriers for the MPP Micromatic (think Omega E-3/ E-4, but made for decades longer) & then probably some lith printing.

Bagpipes being practiced indoors are not generally conducive to peaceful social environments...

Just the pipe and not the bag!

winger · Mar 26, 2020

Well, I'm getting less done than normal. :/ I'm a stay at home mom who usually gets to go hiking/shooting while the munchkin is in school. But he's been home since getting out the 13th. He'll finally be starting google classroom on Monday (our district didn't have their plan together because things happened faster than they thought they would) and maybe I'll be able to do some stuff then. We'll see. I've been trying to get him to try some shooting, but it's been raining too much. We did make ukuleles, though.

My favorite place to hike is open, but with no bathrooms. And others have said that they thought too many people were there. So I guess I'll avoid Ohiopyle for now. Since I'm not encouraged by some news from NYC, I'm glad I'm out in the country where I can avoid people a little easier.

I kinda wish I knew how to play a bagpipe, actually. This would be the time to use one - great way to get distance. Maybe I'll take my French Horn outside...

KenS · Mar 26, 2020

jnantz said:
It seems that many people are probably marooned someplace for a little while trying to stay busy, sane and productive. Knowing that our photographic routines, studio practice, or whatever one wants to call it, might have changed abruptly ( or maybe not ) ... what sorts of things are you all doing to stay well photographically speaking?

or ?

I'm going back through years worth of negatives to find those that might be 'scanned' then slightly enlarged and printed
onto Pictorico OH film for contact printing using the so-called 'archaic print processes' (under my home built UV light source) which I have found to be LOT slower and more 'work' and 'effort', a little less expensive than 'commercial B/W papers.. but a much more 'self-satisfying' means of getting the "hard copy".

Ken

papagene · Mar 26, 2020

I am trying to get better at both the wet plate collodion process and making paper negs.

Saganich · Mar 26, 2020

Same, walking the streets and shooting whatever catches my eye. There just aren't any pubs to rest in afterwards.

Sirius Glass · Mar 26, 2020

Lachlan Young said:
Bagpipes being practiced indoors are not generally conducive to peaceful social environments...

I am practicing the theremin and the didjeridus [didgeridoos], while learning a lot on both.

removedacct1 · Mar 26, 2020

Tidied and organized the darkroom, sowed some Broccoli, Spinach and Kale, and dusted off the Hasselblad and ran a few rolls through it.

jtk · Mar 26, 2020

Playing more gypsy guitar than usual...still not enough. Studying kitchen waste a little more closely than before. Not a new vision...devil in details. Have been printing big for past couple of years but switching to small, thanks to completion of a bunch of sets, just before the famous plague got me (now in rear view).. Guess I'll be doing a lot of reprinting too: 70s/80s negs in different inkjet light.

NB23 · Mar 26, 2020

I can’t believe what I did.
I have stocked fillms to last me 10 years.
Unlimited dektol.
Unlimited time.
Over 75 boxes of 11x14 ilford FB papers, 20 5x7, 10 20x24 forte... that are all slowly getting expired.

I’ve foreseen it all, you know... for the Zombie days spent in the darkroom.

and I have NO Fixer!

unbelievable. How could I have done this mistake?

Valerie · Mar 26, 2020

Figuring out how to make a college darkroom class into an online photo class.

perkeleellinen · Mar 27, 2020

I am adapting all my teaching to online which is taking all my time currently. This first week of working from home has been very busy with no time for much photo work.

Looking at my diary I had planned to be in the darkroom this week; I've got three projects to print: a test roll photographing a friend who is heavily tattooed, I've used Ektar to exaggerate the tattoos. A roll of CineStill 800T I want to print to see what it looks like hand printed. And a roll of Lomo Metropolis, again to see what it looks like - green negatives for that!

All of that will have to wait a while as my son is also home now and I need to concentrate a lot with those printing jobs.

Andrew O'Neill · Mar 27, 2020

Valerie said:
Figuring out how to make a college darkroom class into an online photo class.

That's me as well, except for high school, and other studio courses such as ceramics...Sadly, darkroom work will be scrapped and remainder of projects shot on their phones...

mark · Mar 27, 2020

Building a UV exposure box.

Sirius Glass · Mar 27, 2020

Sirius Glass said:
I am practicing the theremin and the didjeridus [didgeridoos], while learning a lot on both.

I am even learning beatboxing so I can do it with my grandchildren.

What are you all doing photographically while not "out and about"?

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What are you all doing photographically while not "out and about"?

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