Mushroom Pilgrimage

Eight By Ten

I noticed a few years back as the market for cameras that used film started to wan, a resurgence in the manufacturing of large format equipment was occurring, though. Some really fine stuff was being made. I am thinking of the folding field camera. I've always had a 4X5 camera, nothing special, a Calumet monorail. And I've gone through spells where it was what I used mostly to take pictures at the time.

Shooting with a large camera is about as deliberate an activity as one can imagine. The size, the weight, the tripod, they all add up to a kind of slow motion contemplation. And of course the results seem worth it. Holding up a sheet-film negative to window light just can't get any better. It's all there.

I remember reading about a meeting back in the early 1930's between Ansel Adams and Paul Strand in Taos. Strand, about twelve years older, had already an established reputation. He'd been photographing in the area. However, he was unable to make prints where he was staying but did have negatives to look at. Adams remarked later that it was from that meeting and looking at Strand's stunning negatives that he decided on a life in photography. We should all have such an epiphany.

I worked at it though. Along the way I acquired a 5X7 field camera, an Ansco, battleship grey with double extension bellows. This I carried into the forest and turned toward close-ups of mushrooms. My website has a couple of images from those times. At some point I thought of refinishing the camera. I had heard there was beautiful hardwood under the grey paint. It's still all apart, refinished though and sitting in a box waiting know some ten years like Humpty Dumpty. At least I figured a way to scan those negatives on my 4X5 flat bed; half the negative at a time, then blend them in Photoshop.

I didn't spend a lot. It was another Ansco with a dark natural finish. But this time it was an 8X10. Finally. Here it was, what all my heroes had used. It was what important pictures were taken with. The normal lens I used on the 5X7 became a wide angle on the 8X10. The only thing I had to figure out next was how to carry it around. For a while I was considering one of those jogging baby strollers with the large all-terrain tires. I didn't though. Instead I struggled with a small makeshift bag for the camera, a surplus canvas sack for the film holders and the other hand carried the twelve pound tripod. I didn't take all that many exposures with the 8X10. Carrying the large camera for any length of time bothered my neck.

Ironically, I had purchased the 8X10 on that fateful trip to Oregon (mentioned in the previous post). It is heartening though to see an organization like APUG (Analog Photography Users Group) thriving with over 32k's members.

Photoshop

I came to digital photography with an uneasiness. As the new technology continued to make inroads into my world, I reminded myself that the tradition I was following would become even more special, more rare and at least psychologically more valuable. My change started on a trip to Oregon and connecting with some old friends. They were part of a photography project that met regularly in members' homes to share their recent work. I was invited. And I was surprised at what I saw. It was not so much the content but the print quality that struck me. Laid out on a long table was a proof that was unexpected. And even though this was back when 5 megapixel cameras were a big deal. I remember saying that some of the prints looked like they had been taken with a 4 by 5 camera. They were smooth and very sharp.

It still took awhile. My curiosity was there but not enough for a commitment. It was during a print competition at the state fair that I saw some large black and white digital prints. They were superb. That pushed me over. Ironically the prints I had entered were the last large prints I would make in my darkroom and I took first place in the fine art category.

The commitment took the form of a loan. I knew if I was going to do this digital thing it needed to be a large gesture; a new computer, a scanner and a photo quality printer at the least. And this other thing called Photoshop, Photoshop 7 to be exact.

All my work was on film and needed to be scanned. It wasn't long before reality set in. There was no way I was going to scan thousands of negatives and slides in my lifetime. And just as I had done in my darkroom days I edited. I struggled for months with Photoshop. All I was looking for at the time was a computerized version of my darkroom; something I could use to lighten and darken prints, do some spotting and cropping. Of course this is only about two percent of what Photoshop is capable of.

About six months into this new venture I acquired a nice digital point and shoot camera. It also had a 5 megapixel sensor. Another surprise. It and Photoshop were made for one another. With some modest up-sampling (add pixels) I was making very sharp prints. And not long after getting the camera the manufacturer offered a RAW firmware upgrade. This was rare then and it still is today for a point and shoot.

Today I use Photoshop CS4. If Adobe had kept the original numbering system it would be called Photoshop 11. I still use it for those original reasons but also for so much more. When I look back at the quality of my darkroom prints I can see the difference. I am not sure if it had to do with standing for 8 or 10 hours at a time in near darkness inhaling marginal air or what. I did make some really nice prints back then but not as often as I do today.

I know there are still people that miss horse travel.

Space and Time and Love

If atoms never

turned into stars;

then your ears

would never hear

my words,

your lips never

feel my kiss,

and your heart

never know

my love.

Copyright © 2009 C. Richard Trottier

No Rewind Knob

There was probably a time back in the beginning of the digital era when all the mechanical mathematical calculations performed say in a day was still more than what those large room size computers could compute. I imagine armies of one armed Burroughs' office calculators all across the planet unaware of what was coming. Sometime during the early seventies things started to change. It's hard to imagine something like the airline industry running today on pencil and paper or for that matter the airline reservation system running like that. It almost seems that one begot the other. The shear size, volume and immediacy of such an industry co-evolved with the digital revolution.

When I used film, loading a camera was an important moment; I should say loaded 35mm type film. Sheet film had its own special concerns and I never had a problem with roll film. Anyway, early in my photographic training I learned to pay attention to the rewind knob as the first frames were advanced. One time I had loaded a 35mm camera and it failed to catch on the take up sprocket. Needless to say I had no pictures. That was a long time ago though. After that incident I paid attention religiously to the loading process. Actually, I would always pretension the film, back wind it, taking up the slack inside the film cassette before closing the camera back. So on the very first stroke with the back closed the rewind knob would turn and I would know the film was engaged.

Just like the chemical fumes and aroma of my darkroom past, the rewind knob is a fading memory. I have 2 DSLR's now. There's a small smooth spot where a rewind knob might have been . . .a healing of sorts. The new concern is electric power. Where as my old semi-auto Nikon would still fire if the battery failed, these new cameras won't. That's nothing new though, everything runs on batteries today. That's why I have an extra one for both cameras. They've saved my butt a few times.

Watching the New President

May

I can't remember when I came by the negatives but my mother gave them to me. "These are from your Uncle Elmer, he said you should be the one to get them." It was an odd assortment; roll film of different sizes and some glass plates, sitting in a cigar box. The people in the pictures were dressed in styles from the early twentieth century. Scattered through the collection though were negatives of my uncle's wife, Florence. They stood out. There were 17 individual portraits of her and several with other people.

I knew my aunt and uncle when we were growing up. They had a farm in Manchaug, Massachusetts. It was a treat to visit. My uncle had two tractors parked in the barn. He'd bring them out. I'd ride with my uncle and my brother would ride with our dad. We'd go down to the river. It was better than an amusement park ride.

The pictures of my aunt, though were of someone I didn't know. She was much younger. My uncle called her "May."

They seemed carefree, posed in different locations. Probably taken on a Sunday, they were an early record of a relationship that endured a lifetime.

I do wonder about my uncle's gift. That somehow he wanted these pictures to survive and say something. Today everything is stored in digital. And even though May's likeness started on 116 and 620 film, they too are now in digital. Hopefully the technology will be around 80 years hence to view these images. At least the negatives are resting in archival sleaves now. Maybe one of my children will look after my cigar box.