It's good to be busy and I've been busy lately. You wouldn't know it by my blog but this thing is the last of my worries! :) So BatGirl encouraged me to post what I've been up to and here it is:

I finally finished the birthday painting for Alexander. His 5th birthday was in April but I didn't get the painting finished before the move and it languished for several months. We put it in the frame last night and hung it on his wall. He looks pretty happy about it all and I swear I'm not this surly all the time. There was another picture that had a wicked glare on the painting but I was kinda smiling in that one. I'd rather show the painting.

In case anyone wondered that green thing is a Teranadon and was an addition requested by Alexander. He also asked for the robot to have a mustache but I gotta draw the line somewhere.



What better way to celebrate getting a new painting hung on your wall than jumping on your bed. I don't feel so special because he jumps on his bed all the time.

Marina wanted to see drawings so here's a couple I recently did that I kinda like. The first one is just a pretty girl with cool hair and the second one is for a freind's birthday. He's turning the super old age of 50 and I thought he'd enjoy a robot. You can also get a good idea of what my desk looks like at any given time.

Here's a close up of these two drawings. You can see that I don't just crank out a sketch. Lots of revisions going on. That 50 on the robot was done about 50 times I swear. I probably did it about 3 or 4 more times after this. I painted the outlines for both of these as well as on another 12 that I may show later.

I've even found some time for photography. These are 8x10 paper negatives I made while trying to get a good print for a print exchange. The paper negs tend to be a bit contrasty but are a lot cheaper than film and at the 8x10 size you're talking about .25 cents verses $2 a shot. It make screwing up a lot easier to deal with and I seem to be doing that quite well.

Managed to get a decent print off of one of these (I think the second from the left) but it required a pre flash of .2 seconds before contact printing for 6 seconds. That sky was burned in pretty hot. If I had a scanner I could post the print but I don't so I won't.

Greetings from 3am. I just finished up some work and while the client is looking it over I thought I'd update my blog. Yes, my client has the same terrible sense of "normal working hours" as I do.

In my ongoing attempt to get a "look" down for my photography I thought I'd try some very sloooooow Efke 25 film with the smallest sheet film camera known to man. The camera isn't as important as the film in this case but I absolutely LOVE using this camera so it's a win anyway you look at it.

The film is known for wonderful flesh tones as well as that "look" of older times. It can be a bit contrasty as you can see below, but with some tweaking on development times I should be able to tame it.

The camera is a generic plate camera made in the 1920's by ICA. The sheet film goes in a metal plate with one side that slides up to allow for exposure once it's put in place on the back of the camera. I have about 10 of these plates so I can shoot a fair bit of film before reloading. The camera has a bellows that slides out on a track about 10" or more. When you're done shooting it folds up into a hard box. Pretty handy actually. The lens is an uncoated 105mm schneider that can be sharp and buttery. The size of the sheet film is 6.5cm x 9cm and can be purchased at www.jandcphoto.com. I buy most of my film (120 roll film up to 5x7 sheets) from them and am always happy with what I get.

So I did about a half dozen test shots with this new film and here are my three favorites:

My freaking adorable daughter reading a Miss Spyder book. A bit blown out in the highlights but I can adjust on the next round. These were developed in Rollo Pyro using a Jobo expert drum and contact printed onto Ilford warmtome multigrade RC paper and developed in Dektol. I print in a half bathroom under a 7 watt bare bulb. Just like old Edward Weston only his photos tend to be better.

Found a light leak in this one. Now if I had kept better notes I could take it out of circulation or maybe just use some gaffers tape. Yeah, I really like that gaffers tape.
Candace rarely lets me take her picture so maybe this one will help me to convince her more often :)

I have a bunch of eager models in the several kids that live by us. They all want thier picture taken and when I'm testing film this is a perfect combination. If the neg turns out I take them a print. I found that it's a lot easier to get good negs of children using my little sheet camera with its actual adjustable shutter than with the 5x7 and packard. The kids all take turns looking through the ground glass and parents dig the old cameras and always ask lots of questions about them. My favorite question was if I can I still get film for that camera? Duh, I'm using some right now... :)

So I bought this Eastman 2D 5x7 on eBay. I got a super good price in on it but once you factor in the new bellows it needs the price is just ok. The cool thing is it's a lot more ridgid than my Century 5x7 and it also has the extra track to extend the bellows all the way. Now I can do close ups as well. It came with a better than average lens as well as a Packard shutter that needs a little tlc.



I really love shooting with my Diana camera and it's sister clone Pioneer. There's just something special about those crappy plastic pieces of crap that I find adorable. Dreamy out of focus areas with a mysterious sweet spot that sometimes works out to give you a pretty decent image. I also think that it's a great change of gears from the very deliberate and time consuming large format I usually use. They each have their place and seem to compliment each other in a strange sort of way. If I ever get an enlarger I may post some images. For now I'll just make little drawings...




This is for Duane and Duane alone. He finds BirdBaby very creepy and I just can't figure out why. C'mon Duane! He's a fat little cherub with a cute birds head. What's not to love?

So now he has a snakes body and you probably aren't as creeped out. I don't understand you Duane. Not at all.
Title from a Rilo Kiley song. I really like those kids.

Sometimes I sketch while waiting for trains...

This is not the ONLY things I love. Just some of them. So don't go thinking I don't love my wife/kids/mother. In case you're wondering the things I hate are thistle and litter. Again, not exclusive which is obvious because George Bush isn't down there.

Really it comes down to one or the other doesn't it...

Pioneer day is a big deal in Utah but the rest of the the country could care less. I have fond memories of this stately holiday. Even still, I'm not drawing some bonnet wearing polygamist...Unless she had three eyes.

I really hate how blogspot is set up. It's hard to figure out how to customize and a huge pain to download photos and make them work with text. My days here may be numbered since I have a low threshold for lame User Interface Design.

While I was spending time alone waiting for Candace and the kids to move in with me I painted some robots. This one is super small.

This is how I've always thought of my favorite founding father.

Film is fun.

What more proof do you need? I mean, if a naked woman can use a twin lens reflex that shoots butterflies out of it then it's good enough for me.

Actually I'm just really glad to be getting my Yashica12 back from being repaired.

So I have this 5x7 camera that I bought on that auction site for $40. It even came with a lens and shutter. This shot of Alexander is using the original lens and was done in my studio in Utah. I kind of miss that studio...

Contact printed on Ilford MGRC warmtone paper

I have always been a fan of the effects of barrel lenses, especially the Petzval design. This is the first test shot I made with one of these lenses. I had to make a shutter box to house the Packard shutter. The shutter box fits in where the lensboard goes and the lens attatches to the front of the box.

This is also the first LF photo I've made in New Jersey.

When I pull that giant wooden camera out all the neighborhood kids just sort of flock around. I decided to put them to work and used them as models while I tested the Peztval lens.

My serious son.

My equally serious daughter.

More neighbor kids. This time it's three sisters. I have no idea how I managed to get them all in focus at the same time.

Really crappy exposure but captures the dynamic of these twins perfectly.

I always love starting a new sketchbook and this one is the beginning of my first New Jersey
sketchbook.



I don't really need to comment on each and every dumb sketch do I?



Trying out some new hair...



This was done on the exact day of my 10th wedding anniversary. That's right, I've been married for TEN YEARS!!!
Luckily it only seems like three :)



"The best hearts are those which are given away"



What sketchbook would be complete without BirdBaby? I really love that this innocent little thing creeps out so many people.




Oh, yeah. My sketchbooks contain nudity. Please get you parents permission to view my dirty pictures...



Scribbles provided by my two year old daughter Hadley.



The ink just works so much better for scanning don't you think?









Here is the end of tonights sketch post.

May Contain Traces of Robots...

At this point I was still living in Utah but looking for work and had been contacted by a recruiter in New Jersey.


Trying to decide if I wanted to move out of Utah...Not much of a choice really :)


I made this one in the airport after meeting with my future employer.


Feeling pretty good after accepting the offer.


Drawing on the train is a little funny because that thing bumps and shakes a lot. I found that using an ink pen was better because I could be fast and loose. This forced me to approach ideas in a different way. I like it.


I was in NJ for a whole month before Candace and the kids could come out. I missed them a lot.


There are geese EVERYWHERE out here. They're like locusts and they think they're better than us.



This was a train sketch that I did on a co workers birthday. I made a copy on the copy machine and gave it to him as a present. I think it kind of creeped him out a little bit. Heh-heh.


Ideas for photography...




This was the last page in the sketchbook. I've since started a new one and will post those next time and get up to date.